Geocaching

Geocaching, Found It!

Geocaching is a fun sport, or activity, or lifestyle.  Did you know there are about one million hidden signature logs or little treasure boxes all over the world, which you can find using a Global Positioning Satellite receiver?  When you find one, you log your visit and sometimes (if the container is big enough) you take a trinket and leave a trinket.  Here I'm showing that geocaching will melt your hair if you do it at noon in the Summer in the woods.   Its good exercise and uses your creative sense, because these are often hidden in very good camoflaouge.    (Camo, as I like to say since it is hard to spell.  )  

Children especially love it.  Last week, we took a friend's daughter who is about 8, geocaching in downtown Tahlequah.  Several people wanted to know what we were looking for as we circled around and around a park bench downtown.  We were looking on the underneath side of the bench for a magnetic little micro-sized keyholder-type container.  But we guessed wrong about the size.  It turned out to be just a teensey lil bolt-sized magnetic log to sign, and we were off about the location too.

Some of the best geocaches are big hefty ammo boxes hidden deep in the woods, where you have to hike and there are no trails.  We call it bushwhacking.  We lunge thru the greenbriars, startle the deer, watch for the snakes, roll over the big rocks, climb the cliffs, and whatever else it takes to navigate the terrain.  We like the woods, and this gives a purpose to our trek.  We lap up the exercise and the activity away from our desks.  And as we go, we have a sense of adventure and accomplishment.  We've found about 175 geocaches and we have hidden about 15 geocaches in different places for others to find.  We've helped about a dozen people go geocaching for the very first time:  Gail Ross, Sara Cordle, Ed & Terri Fite, Ray Goldman, Katy & Josh Brinkley, Terra Bellamy & Family, and others.

About the treasure:  Sometimes the best geocaches are only published to premium members at geocaching.com because those are the more serious geocachers and they don't want "muggles" to stray upon their boxes and loot the treatures for trade.  When you take something from a box, you have a duty to put in something for trade which is of equal or greater value.  Some of our best trades have been for a picture from the grave of Jack Kerouac, gold coins, pretty feathers, and gear like caribiners, insect repellent wipes, coozies, bungee cords, etc.

Read some of our adventures by searching for "Fluffy & Friedrick" at http://www.geocaching.com/ .  We encounter snake dens, rock climbing tasks and more. 

Come To Earth Day Songwriter's Jam 2010

Almost every year, Dennis & I have thrown a big Earth Day Jam for local songwriters, so they can premier songs they have arranged about the Illinois River.  We think it is important to preserve the culture of the Illinois River, and besides it is a fun get-together which raises money for the bigger project of producing Illinois River music.  Our last album was the brainchild of Rickey Ray, who did a super job of recording, editing and mixing the songs.  Our part in it was to be the financial backer for everything that we couldn't raise with the Jam door receipts, plus do anything necessary to help Rickey Ray in his creative endeavor.  Nancy Garber has been our teamie on making financial decisions and promoting the project.  She comes to us with years of experience at NSU and is a fun pal for the musical project.

3 years ago at Kooter Brown's we held a 3-day marathon running 2 stages day and night with scads of sets by boucoups of bands and musicians.  It included a poker run and bikers helped a lot.  Last year it was a one-day event running all day Saturday and all night Saturday night.  During the day, childrens events included a geocahcing treasure hunt and Artist Dana Tiger of Legacy Cultural Learning Community who facilitated childrens Environmental Art Show and Sale.

This year, the forum is Scooter's Music Tavern situated at State Highway 51 West and Tahlequah Bypass.  Entry thru the body shop parking lot, because Scooter's is easy to see but hard to figure out how to get to.  Rick Holderbee and Friends will be performing, along with Oklahoma Wildlife, Dena Coleman, Joel Sherrill, Rickey Ray, Dennis Tibbits and others.  If you are a musician and would like to perform, call me at 918 797 5016 to schedule a slot... or just show up and sign up at the door for a time slot.  We do *try* to stay on time but.... hey!  These are musicians and it *never* stays on time. 

Proceeds from the $5 admission donation will be used to help with production costs for the next CD or donated to STIR.  (And the profits from the CDs are donated to STIR... over $1,000 has already been donated to date).  A fun new event this year will be an auction of a select few of the very weirdest things you could imagine.  (And some needful things also). 

Its hard when Earth Day is on a week day.  And every year Earth Day is on the birthday of  my beautiful daughter, Katy Winbray Brinkley.  This event will kick off at 6 so come early and bring potluck (and perhaps a designated driver).  Thanks to Scooter's for hosting the 2010 Earth Day Songwriter's Jam for Musicians for STIR.

A Geocaching Adventure

Geocaching is secret, so the uninitiated will not find and destroy the cache.  That is why is it always best to have a good excuse for wandering around with a GPS device, usually on public property.

One day, we discovered that a bunch of brand new geocaches had been announced over the state line in Arkansas, so we quickly grabbed our gear and went to find them, hoping to be first and get the honor of "First To Find."  We found a couple of them, but one was kind of hard to find.  It was some place along the fence row of a rural community center called, I think, Illinois Valley.  This little building also doubled as a place for church meetings.  It was a hot summer afternoon with plenty of sunshine left but a storm was moving in, and the cloud cover was interfering without GPS satellite reception.

I was scouting the back yard of the community center and Friedrick was working along the fence row, looking for some clue of the hidden treasure.  I heard him talking and came around the corner.  An elderly lady was holding a box of Ritz crackers like a book in her arms, and asking what he was up to.  "Oh, we are just having a look at this fence."  She must have thought we were surveying for an insurance claim, because she said, "That farmer who owns the fence... his tree is down across the property line."  She was tattling on him for not cleaning up after the winter ice storm of January 2009.  She told us his name and so I dutifully wrote it down.  And she sort of confessed, "Our church uses this community building for Vacation Bible School.  It starts in just a few minutes."  That was when Friedrick said, "Are you ready to call it a day?  We can come back and finish up some other time."  I nodded, then inquired about a good restaurant nearby.

We headed to the truck and loaded up.  That was when I was stung by a wasp and squealed in a most undignified way.  As this particular wasp was now down the armhole of my blouse, Friedrick was helping me retrieve it.  And we realized we looked more like a married couple than two insurance surveyors or engineers working together.  By then, the parking cone and reflective safety vests that made up a part of our "cover story" didn't jibe with the fact that we were both sitting in the truck groping after this wasp that was crawling on me.

We quickly solved the problem, buckled up and pulled away, just as a man was walking up to the car for a visit, as if we didn't see him just about 20 feet away.  When we got home  and logged our "Did Not Find" we discovered that we were not the first ones there who had been scared off by VBS volunteers that day.  Those poor VBS volunteers must have wondered why all the suspicious strangers were showing up with GPS units in hand!

Geocaching

Here I am, spilling the beans.  See, there's a secret hobby.  It is called "geocaching."  Here's how you do it:
1.  Get a GPS receiver.  (That's a global positioning satellite receiver.)  Best is a Garmin.  But you could use the Tom-Tom in your vehicle that you use for finding addresses, if it is portable.  Check your cellphone.  If it is like my Droid Eris, it has GPS built-in and you can download a cool little application used to input latitude and longitude coordinates.
2.  Visit www.geocaching.com and register.  Answer some questions (such as your address), and you can search for geocaches in your town, or some place you plan to visit on vacation.  There you will find that on Earth, there are over 800,000 hidden geocaches.  Some will be tiny little microcapsules hidden in hollowed-out tree-knots, and others will be huge geological features, such as a certain geological uplift around Tahlequah.

Voila!  Usually, a geocache will be a hidden ammo box containing a jumble of fun souvenirs ranging from carabiners to compasses, Happy Meal toys to school supplies.  Always, (except, ie geological uplifts) you'll find a log to sign, proving you found it.  Put it back exactly as you found it, and make note of what you take-- always leaving something of equal or greater value in the cache for the next adventurer.

Why do we like to geocache?  Its an adenturous way to get exercise, visit some place interesting, and log a "smiley".  At geocaching. com you can log your find and it will keep track of your game.  Some people program their phone or computer to alert them at the first posting of a new cache, and make it a game to speed around being the first person to visit the cache.  That way, they get the best "first to find" prize.  Just different people create and hide the caches.  Friedrick and I have hidden a few.

That's the background for this cartoon which Friedrick made for me.  To get it, let me add that our Tom-Tom has a feature where the driver can set different voices, such as Homer Simpson or Mr. T, for giving the verbal directions to a location.  Ours happens to be Wardley, a Jamaican voice.  And when you pass up your turn, he alerts you by saying, "What kind of idiot business is this?  Jah no say he want me to tell you again.  Turn round the vehicle."

What's secret about it?
The reason you have probably never heard of geocaching is that it is a secret hobby.  It is secret, so "muggles" or those who don't know about geocaching, won't pilfer the caches and take the treasures.  Occasionally a muggle will happen upon a cache and take it or just the contents.  There are caretakers for each cache, and sometimes trusted muggles are clued-in about a cache so as to help protect it.