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Adventures in geocaching
By Melissa | October 17, 2008
I swear, some days it’s like my coworkers go looking for my buttons, and then when they find them, they insist upon pushing them over and over and over. And then my day goes from being okay to an exercise in restraint. By the time I get home, I’m exhausted by the sheer effort of NOT choking people ALL DAY LONG.
So to distract myself, how about I recap last weekend?
Josh’s friend Robb invited us to go hiking last weekend with him and his dog Quizz. Zoë and Quizz met while we were on vacation while Robb was dogsitting for us. Quizz is secretly Zoë’s boyfriend. No one knows this but me. I see the way they look at each other when they’re trying to chew through the other’s neck. It’s love–I’m sure of it. ANYway. Robb’s family has land up near Dial, GA, and there’s a trailhead for the BMT just down the road. The hike we planned was 3 miles in, 3 miles back. After the 3 miles in, we planned to hang out at the Toccoa River suspension bridge for awhile, eat lunch, rest our feet, etc.
The hike gave me a chance to indulge in a hobby I’ve been drooling over for awhile: geocaching. Quick summary of geocaching: think world-wide scavenger hunt with a hand-held GPS. Robb is so lucky as to have such a device. I did a search on the geocaching site for caches around the bridge, and sure enough, there was one.
The hike in was a little rough in the beginning. Although I suspect it wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t sit at a desk all day, every day. I personally was pretty sure it was going to be the last hike I’d ever make alive.
The bridge was pretty cool:
We managed to wander around like idiots for about an hour and a half before finding the cache. By the end of it, I think we were all wishing we’d brought a machete because the route to the cache required a bit of bushwacking. It was set farther back in the woods than we expected. Once we found it, we posed for goofy pictures, like the one I’ve already posted. But here’s another:
Shortly after this picture was taken, the dogs completely collapsed. I’m pretty sure they were asleep before their chins hit the ground. Alas, I didn’t get a picture of this. But I’ll tell you who did: the random stranger who came out of nowhere to find the cache at that very moment. This cache hadn’t been found in over a month, so it was pretty random someone else found it at the same time. Dude was kinda weird.
One cool thing about geocaching: caches contain trinkets. When you find a cache, you can take something as long as you put something back of equal or greater value. I’d been hanging on to a cool seashell I found on our recent vacation, and I was planning to put it in the cache. Unfortunately, it got lost somewhere along the trail when we were hiking in–and we didn’t discover this until we found the cache. I was devastated. Ok, not really. But I did give Josh a hard time about losing it (he’d been carrying the backpack). On our way back–O, wondrous miracle–we found it lying beside the path where I’d previously stopped take a picture of a cool fungus. This is the fungus:
Also on the way back: a snake!! That had just had dinner!!
And then we all went back to Robb’s and shot guns. Totally fun, as I’d never shot a gun before. It was a Desert Eagle, and it nearly made me deaf. But check it out, I shot some stuff:
Robb let me keep the empty shells AND he even fished out a bullet from the log I’d hit. And then we all ate bratwursts around the fire.
It was a very good day. The end. Oh, and I was so sore I couldn’t move the next day. Stupid desk job, making me all American.
Topics: General, Geocaching |
My parents recently got into geocaching, and they’ve had a great time doing it. My dad even sent me a small GPS so we could give it a try (which the blazing weather has kept us from thus far).
As far as that last picture goes, Joshes never seem to look comfortable in the wild, as they are domestic creatures.
Posted by: Joe on October 17th, 2008 at 6:04 pmhaha Joe, Mel, the big outdoor(wo)man was far more sore than I the following two days ;)
And let me point out that because Mel needed to take a picture of that fungus and therefore attacked the backpack on my back containing the camera and seashell, THAT is why it was lost on the trail. Not my fault!
Posted by: Ardentfrost on October 17th, 2008 at 9:00 pmPlease don’t say stupid desk job making you all American. Go around the world, and see the out of shape masses. Or, just go to Europe and see it…since they like to talk trash about us the most. :D
The snake picture = win. And who on earth just has a Desert Eagle laying around? Not saying it isn’t cool and doesn’t bring fond CS memories back…but damn, lol.
Posted by: ChaserX on October 20th, 2008 at 8:07 amOh, Josh told me I was supposed to point out that it was a 9mm Desert Eagle? Because that makes a difference somehow?
Posted by: Melissa on October 20th, 2008 at 8:28 amThat makes a huge difference. Deagle .50 would have tossed you into the creek. There’s also a cost difference of about $2k.
And Robb brought his .45 with us on the trail in case of bears. And knowing him, he might have brought up the 9mm just so Mel could shoot it (I have told him we’ve been meaning to go to a shooting range near us to get her used to shooting).
Posted by: Ardentfrost on October 20th, 2008 at 11:03 amYea, a .50 AE would’ve kicked the gun back into your face if you weren’t prepared, lol.
I’ve always thought about owning a pistol and learning to shoot, etc. Expensive and not totally practical though. Maybe one day in the future.
Posted by: ChaserX on October 20th, 2008 at 11:10 amWhich part is expensive? Shooting at a range all the time can get expensive, but if you just want to own a gun, withdraw $200 from the bank and go buy one.
Shooting is fun. I must’ve been a good teacher, though, b/c Mel hit the target on her first time ever shooting a gun ever.
Posted by: Ardentfrost on October 20th, 2008 at 1:21 pmA gun, lessons, ammunition, range shooting…it all adds up if you want to get good. And you tend to not just end up with one gun too. :D
I’ve shot several weapons before…my parents grew up in the country, so whenever we’d go visit relatives in NC, my great grandfathe would let me shoot some of his guns, under supervision of course, lol. Haven’t done it a while. Last time I went shooting was in Denmark like two years ago, I think. Shooting clay pigeons is hard if you’ve never done it before…especially on a cloudy day.
Posted by: ChaserX on October 20th, 2008 at 3:12 pmI’ve never been skeet shooting, though I want to go. Shooting shotguns when I was younger meant “hit that tree!” or “look, I found a soda can… let’s shoot it!”
But if you want to go shooting with us sometime, let me know. I don’t mind giving you a quick run down of shooting a pistol. It’s not hard, just a few things to make sure you don’t get slide rash or hurt an elbow.
Smith and Wesson: The first point and click interface
Posted by: Ardentfrost on October 20th, 2008 at 4:33 pm[...] weekend with Robb and George - a father-son duo that Josh works with. They brought their dog Quizz, Zoë’s boyfriend. We went down to Providence Canyon in west Georgia. I’ve been wanting to check out this park [...]
Posted by: Providence Canyon State Park at Gnomograms on November 9th, 2008 at 8:51 pm