Geocaching Is For The Dogs
While spending time on the water is always our preference, the dogs would often prefer to go for a walk. Today we decided to give the dogs what they wanted, but incorporated a bit of geocaching to keep it interesting for us.
Darrell and I decided to grab a few geocaches we had missed in the past along the Guelph-Elora Trail, or “GET”. There are approximately 40 caches along this trail and we grab a few each time we go to this area for a walk or a bike ride. We had several of the caches for two concessions of the trail, but were missing nine.
Molly, Darrell, and Jack.
The trail travels along a hydro corridor and the first thing we noticed was that it had recently been cleared. The brush had been knocked back along the trail and around each tower. While making for a nice walk, I wondered if any of the caches may have been impacted.
Only two minutes into the trek, we both realized that wearing gloves and toques would have been a good idea. It was chilly! The dogs didn’t seem to notice the chill as they raced from one side of the path to the other, following scent trails and pulling at the ends of their leashes. Jake usually travels in a straight path, but Molly is all over the place. The setter in her comes out loud and clear on a walk.
Generally speaking, Darrell is a better geocache finder, and he found our first couple quite quickly. Despite wet feet, clinging branches, and slippery slopes, he seemed quite happy to grab each cache. We signed the logbooks, traded some items, and logged our finds online from the trail.
A larger geocache container. Caches of this size usually have items that you can trade for. One of the caches today actually had a fishing lure in it (a spoon). I would have loved to take it, but I didn’t have anything to leave in its place.
Time to sign the logbook.
The smaller the geocache, the trickier it is to find. This one was hidden in a pretty neat place. I only found it because I thought it was weird for a wire to be sticking out of that spot.
On my old phone, I had paid for and downloaded the Geocaching app. The app worked well and I was planning to download it on my new LG G3, but I found a free app, c:geo, that looked just as good. This was my first test of the new app and I have to say that I loved it. It was easy to use and navigated well. For what I need in a geocaching app, this one fits the bill. I highly recommend this app for Android users (I do not know if it’s available for iOS).
Two of the geocaches stumped us for more minutes than I care to admit. We looked around in quite a broad area before I was able to find them. I’ll admit that I was proud to be the one to find them, not Darrell. What stumped us was that both of these caches were hidden in slightly different locales than the other ones. The dogs seemed to think we were crazy for walking back and forth in one area so many times, but they enjoyed gathering new smells.
A couple of geocaches had narrow misses from the recent clear-cutting of the trail. Both were hidden in trees that had lost several branches. We didn’t stop to check on the caches we had found previously, but it wouldn’t surprise me if one was missing.
Bridge out! It’s hard to tell in this picture, but there used to be a bridge connecting the trail. If you want to cross now, you’re best to wait for the summer when it’s dry.
The colours make autumn so enjoyable.
Jack enjoyed watching the birds that we flushed from the shrubs. He notices every little noise and stops to have a look. The gobbling turkeys at a farm near one geocache location were almost too much for him. I enjoyed looking at the reds, oranges, and yellows of the surrounding vegetation.
We called it a day after collecting the nine missing caches. The dogs were happy to jump back in the car and head home after all that fresh air and exploration. Geocaching is an excellent way for all of us to get outside and have some fun.
argosgirl
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Sounds like a fun time. I forgot about your blog for a while! Glad you commented on mine!
It really is. Geocaching is oddly addictive, I keep trying to find time to go get more caches 🙂