The feeling of failure is one I am all
too familiar with. It is a feeling I hate. Most of my life I have
strived to be perfect: the perfect girlfriend, the perfect daughter,
the perfect employee. Failure is not an option.
Which is why yesterday's geocaching
adventures frustrated me to tours. I had a plan. Finish work early,
go home, find my daily geocache, run 8 miles to train for my marathon
on Oct. 18, do laundry and go to bed.
Instead I spent 3 hours geocaching.
This was not a "I'm on a roll and want to keep going"
expedition. This was a "I cannot believe I have logged 4 DNFs, I
need a gosh darn geocache or my more than 6 month streak will come to
an end" expedition.
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| Up a tree, searching for my cache of the day |
Cache 1: GZ took me to a creek bed with
a metal tube. Since I knew it was a magnetic one, that left only one
place it could be. I braved the creek bed with my hiking boots, even
though the water soaked through. I went through the tunnel TWICE,
braving the spider webs, and found nothing. I eventually gave up.
Cache 2: This was a previous failed
find. It involved climbing across a fallen tree trunk, approximately
10 feet in the air. I made my way to the likely place, and after
rooting around with a stick through the gunk, found nothing. No other
place made sense, so I had to log my second DNF on this cache.
Cache 3: This one was nearby and of far
easier terrain and difficulty. However, I approached from the wrong
direction and soon found my dress and tights COVERED with those tiny
cockleburrs. And I do mean covered...with hundreds of them. If anyone
has an ideas on how to remove those guys from clothing, I am all
ears. No cache in sight, and by now the daylight hours had retreated
and it was the twilight before the darkness.
Cache 4: I make my way through a wooded
path, and it is now dark outside. I make my way down a steep hill to
the base of a very large tree. I am looking for a regular size cache.
Despite searching all around GZ by my flashlight app, I spot nothing.
Nada. Zilch. This is about a 2 for both terrain and difficulty, so
nothing too bad.
 |
| The likely spot, but nothing to be found |
Cache 5: Finally, at about 8:30 at
night, I found my cache of the day. A very quick and easy one in a
high traffic area, I was flooded with relief to keep my caching
streak alive, although still very irritated and frustrated to log 4
DNFs in one afternoon.
I found out today that caches 1 and 2
were gone, the first one completely gone and number 2 had fallen out
somewhere. Apparently both have been restored, so I will have to
return to at least one of them today. The owner said I was spot on
for cache 2, so maybe I will go for that one today and get in a run
with my caching buddy, Artemis.
Sheer dedication would not allow me to
go home empty-handed. I celebrated 6 months with a geocache every day
this past Sunday, and I was determined to keep it going, even if I
had to make a trek to a nearby city. Luckily, there are a few easy
ones still in the area.
Geocaching can be a lot of fun, but
make no mistake, it can also be frustrating. There are a couple of
other caches in the area that have plagued me for months, caches that
I have made multiple trips and spent hours searching, to no avail.
Life is not easy, and neither is geocaching with a goal, but you must
soldier on.
