K and the Geocache

Posted by K  


You may or may not be familiar with the concept of Geocaching.

It's a kind of game/hobby where people use gps co-ordinates to hide and seek caches hidden all over the world. Basically it's a big treasure hunt. People hide a container of some sort (it can be as small as a film canister) and post the co-ordinates on the website. Other people on the site try to find the hidden objects using the co-ordinates. Some of the caches have little tokens you can take and trade. Some of them are hidden up a tree while others are magnetically attached to railings. When you find one you log it on the Geocaching website, and (if you're me) do a victory dance.

I'm on a team with awesome geocachers, and we've searched for caches in the past, some successfully, some not, but always fun.

Since there is no longer 6 feet of snow around here, I decided to try geocaching during my lunch break, as a way to force myself to get some exercise/fresh air that doesn't involve standing at a bus stop.

Armed with my fancy new phone and a gps app, I set out to boldly go where no one has gone before!...

Okay, several people have gone there before, that's kind of the point. But still, it was going to be awesome.

I figured it would take me around 20 minutes to find the cache and get back to work before my break was over, since my phone said the cache was only about 500 meters away.
 **I tried to convert the measurements to 'feet' for people who don't understand metric, but to be honest, I don't understand imperial. So yeah, we're at a measurement impasse. I know a meter is definitely bigger than a foot. Maybe 1 meter=2.5 feet? Don't quote me on that.**


Unfortunately by the time I got outside I was much farther away than anticipated.

Phone~"You are now 1 km (1000 meters) from the spot."

Me~ "Um, you just said I was only 500 meters away."

Phone~"I changed my mind."

Me~"You suck."


What was intended to be a relaxing/amusing lunch activity quickly became a bit of a fiasco.

One problem with looking at your phone and walking at the same time: you miss spotting big puddles.

I wish I was kidding about this.

It was at this point I began to wonder how many geocachers had been mistakenly arrested for lurking.

Needless to say I was less than impressed with myself. And, after three days of searching...


I still haven't found it.


But I will. Oh I will.


Unless I'm actually arrested. Then I'll probably just call it a day.