Like I said in my previous post about geocaching, each one has a name. This one is named Achluophobia which means fear of the dark. Among other things (like snakes, spiders, bears, coyotes), the dark is not my favorite thing. There is also a list of things we'll need to actually complete the cache and "get a smiley" (that means you sign the log book at the cache and can mark FOUND IT on your profile). The things we would need are the following:
at least 32 ounces of water
socks
a dog collar
gum
thumb tacks. Oh, and a really good flashlight.
I've watched enough psycho movies to know that list sounds like a list a crazed lunatic would make. She is still ruthless about going so the two of us along with my nieces that are 14 and 21 go at 11:00 on a Saturday night to find this thing.
Here's a little of how it goes...
We stop at the store to get the supplies we need then drive to where the GPS takes us. We end up driving down a long narrow gravel road in the middle of a National Forest. Sound crazy yet? We get to the place where the GPS takes us, get out of the car, walk into the woods which is mostly high brush and after several minutes that seemed like an eternity we find an ammo can. Let me just say that I felt like I needed to position the car just right so that the head lights were shining on the area that the GPS showed. They called me a chicken....I called it using the tools we had which in this case were my car headlights. Anyway, while we are looking for the ammo can we notice there are reflectors on several of the trees surrounding us. Curious and confused we open the can. There is a note that says we have found the first step but there is more. We now need to drive about a mile further into the woods, come to a cul-de-sac where we'll have to leave our car-LEAVE OUR CAR!!!!- and WALK about a half mile along a trail where cars are forbidden!
Ya know that scared to death feeling where you have goosebumps on the backs of your legs? Well, that was me...I'm not going to lie. At this point we make it to the walking part. I'm questioning our sanity and my sister just keeps truckin'. We then figure out that the reflectors will guide us while we are walking. Great, that's comforting {insert sarcastic tone here}. So we walk and walk and our imaginations run a little wild. Nervous giggles from all of us except our fearless leader. My sister yells at one point and makes the rest of us nearly mess our pants. Suddenly, we come to a place where there are reflectors in the woods and not on the trail anymore. Meaning we would leave the trail and start walking into the woods. If anything the trail was "safe". I was not looking forward to trekking though the woods off the trail. Oh but we did and we found another ammo can.
This one has another box inside with a lock and another note that says the key to the lock is within 20 feet of that spot. So I stand there and the three of them walk out about 20 feet where they will circle me to look for the key. Not too far out they notice a tube about 5 feet tall attached to a tree. My niece had just watched a video online about a cache where you pour water into a tube and something (log book, key, or whatever) would float to the surface. We thought the key had to be at the bottom of the tube so we'd pour water in the tube, the key would float up and we'd be all done, haul butt to the car and go home! WRONG! As my niece starts to pour the water in the tube she yells SOMETHING BIT ME and grabs her leg. I think $**T! A SNAKE! but it was actually BEES! She was standing on a ground nest of bees. We were all literally standing in a swarm of bees in the middle of the night in the middle of the woods! HOW STUPID ARE WE?!
OK we get the bee situation under control after 3 out of 4 of us were stung multiple times but my crazy sister is dead set on finishing this. She walks over to where the bee nest was and proceeds to carefully pour the rest of the water in the tube. Guess what? We hear the sound of trickling water at the bottom and BINGO! that is what the gum was for! We were supposed to plug the holes at the bottom of the darn tube before pouring the water. So, we run out of water and we run out of mental and physical gas. And we still don't have a clue what the dog collar and tacks are for.
We didn't and still haven't completed the task. The "owner" of the cache did go out there and take care of the bee problem so that nobody else would have to endure being stung. It's not the intention of the people who place them for other cachers to get hurt. I just thank God that nobody with us was allergic to bee stings!
I'll close this post with a few pictures from our more positive caching experiences. The kids are really loving it and to me the best part is actually seeing and exploring places that we wouldn't otherwise. There is often some sort of hidden lesson too. The kids are learning without realizing it :) I'm a fan of that.
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| Taylor has even gotten his friends loving geocaching. Terrisa (my niece) is just slightly addicted :) |
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| He's got his gear that my sister gave him for his birthday...walkie talkies, a fan that blows a mist of water, a compass, pens, hiking boots. He's set. My husband rolled his eyes the first few times we went (including the night cache) but now he's hooked too and even has battle wounds from briers. |
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| This tunnel is actually under the road going to the beach. We never knew it existed and have driven over it a gozillion times. |
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| My boys are caching fools. |
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| This is a little trackable that we left while on a camping trip. I really love it :) |
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| Taylor and Kenly found a cache while camping and this the one we put the "gift trackable" in for the first time. |
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| OK, here is my crazy sister and her daughter. See that paint can? It had about 50 little sheets of paper with numbers on them. One lucky number would open the combination lock of the actual cache. This one was really cool! |
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| Trackables I ordered for each of the kids and my sweetie. Each one has it's own unique number on the back so that they can be tracked. |
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| This cache was hidden near a Chiropractor's office. Clever that it was hidden inside a bone! |
