A Geocaching Journey

Today's cache was a dead end!

Five months ago, I departed on a journey.

On March 7, I officially left my keys in my apartment in Edgerton, Wis. and made the 5.5 hour drive to my new home in Chaska, Minn. After 28 years in my beloved Wisconsin, I was moving into Gopher territory.

I had a great job opportunity, a decent apartment, and best of all...undiscovered geocache territory. The only geocaches I had unearthed were the five I logged during the initial job interview.
What better time to attempt the 365 day geocaching challenge?

There were some bumps in the road. I made it a week and a half and then, having a late meeting that had me working 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., missed a day. The clock started over.

Look ma, a triple bagged pill bottle!

There were a couple of other times when I logged my cache of the day between 11:50 and 11:59 p.m. Talk about nail-biting. Seriously, those late night meetings make things challenging. However, when I found one around 11:58 at night, I figured, “there are a couple others in the area. I might as well take advantage.” Sure enough, I found another cache around 12:30 a.m. and was at least satisfied to scratch off that day’s find.

Today, I am celebrating five months with a cache a day. That is right, I have not missed since March 27, despite those close calls. Some caches have been tricky, even more so by flashlight app at 10 p.m.

The cache hound Artemis and I!

I have found pretty much all of the caches in Jordan, where I work, with the exception of a couple that recent logs indicate are probably missing. I have even found most of the caches within a couple mile radius of the city. I have found many in Chaska, where I live. When my work required a trip to Shakopee or Savage, I took advantage and found a quick cash there. I have found caches in nearby Belle Plaine, Chanhassen and Eden Prairie.

There are still many more to find, and I am confident that I will be able to keep my streak going for another 7 months.

It will not be easy, but I will continue to share my journey here.

Feel free to follow along if you will, and remember, “Keep on Cachin’ in the Free World!”

Bountiful beauty

The pond near the Light My Fire cache

Today I was reminded why I not just like but LOVE geocaching. It opens your eyes to the beautiful blessings that surround you. It introduces you to things you might not otherwise see or even notice.

Take yesterday and today for example.

Yesterday I found Light My Fire in Belle Plaine, Minn. When I got there, I was struck by the picturesque scene: the yellow flowers and the tall grass gracing above a calm, smooth pond. I swore to myself to return with my camera in tow to capture the scene.

Happy pollinators

Today, after work I made the trek back to the area and low and behold, bees are busy flitting to and fro among the flowers. What delicate and dedicated pollinators! I found myself trying to zoom in and capture nature's gardeners in action.

Upon finishing, I found myself heading back down the road to capture another beautiful scene. As I turned onto Old Highway 169 Boulevard, a row of bright, vibrant flowers lined the right side of the road. Tall, large sunflowers extended above the eye-popping flora. What beauty!

Beautiful Monarch butterfly

As I exited my car to take some more pictures, my breath was taken away. It was a sight I was used to seeing as a child, but has become more and more scarce over the years. MONARCH BUTTERFLIES! Yes, real and true Monarch butterflies, not the impersonator viceroy butterflies you sometimes see. While they look similar, the Monarch butterfly does not have a black line crossing the postmedian hindwing. That, my friends, is a viceroy.

Oh, but there were Monarch butterflies galore, flitting and flapping from flower to flower, soaring in the wind. I let my gaze travel down the flowers and saw dozens of Monarch butterflies. Capturing them in flight was very tricky, and they did not rest on a flower for very long, but I managed to capture some real beauties.

"How's it going George? Great nectar over here Bud!"

Perhaps my next geocache will be in this area, to hopefully bring more people out to eye the wonderful beauty nature provides for us. And to think, if it was not for the geocache less than a mile away, I would never have known about this beautiful area. That, my dear readers, is why I love geocaching. It will bring you to places unknown, show you sights you may never have discovered, even in your own community, and brings a touch of beauty to an otherwise dreary day.

Life is too short not to notice the wonderful bounties and beauty around you. Open your eyes, live, love and geocache!

The Monarch's eye-popping, beautiful home

You might be a geocacher if...

Those sneaky logs...

You might be a geocacher if...

You use vacation with friends or family as an opportunity to find some geocaches. What better way to explore a new area, right?

You go for a nice leisurely stroll through the woods and find yourself thinking, that is a nice spot for a cache!

You keep your old, washed peanut butter jars to transform into new caches. Let's face it, no one likes those micros anyway.

Cache hound to the rescue!

You rope your dog into geocaching with you. His nose will sniff those tricky ones out!

You have contemplated getting a pet monkey to reach those tall caches.

You have contemplated dating a tall person to reach those tall caches.

You have ever stuck your hand down a hole that you are pretty sure was animal made, on the off chance that some crazy person has hidden a geocache down there.

Screws are also highly suspicious

You have ever gone through a sewer or similar pipe to nab a geocache.

Climbing trees is a skill you perfected, because you never got around to dating a tall person or training a chimp to do your dirty work.

You look at logs with a new eye.

You look at fake rocks with new respect. They are not just for hiding keys, people.

Your phone has a flashlight app in case you find yourself doing some night caching.

Travel bug eyes!

You know that a travel bug is not an illness.

You find that long-time fears, such as spiders, conflict with your desire to log that cache, which you can see, gosh darn it, and I will be damned if I have come this far to turn back now! Watch out, 8-legged freak, the day of reckoning is upon you if you come one step closer!

You find yourself nodding along with all of these.

What makes you a geocacher? Post in the comments!