This post focuses on The Sprinkler. Yes, those little black sprinklers that you see all over lawns and parks and fields can actually be geocaches. So you have to build up that geosense to know when to go and twizzle that sprinkler and when to leave it alone.

When a sprinkler is in the middle of nowhere, like the example shown below, you might want to have you geosense get triggered. Would there even be any need for irrigation in a wildlife preserve?

As you get closer to the sprinkler, take a look and see if it has any puddles of water from leaks, or maybe a sign it has been handled by people on a regular basis liek this one.

Then go ahead and try and open up the sprinkler. The head may screw off for some geocache types or others you might need to pull up from the ground and the geocache will be on the inside. One thing you need with a sprinkler system is some way to keep the geocache dry…

If you want to read about some unusual or unique geocache hides, you might be interested in the Saguaro Cactus or the Lamp Post or the Tucson Rock.

One of the classic geocache hides is in a pile of rocks. We are fortunate enough that there are many piles of rocks from little stones to large boulders out there, and if you know what a rock looks like then you are off to a good start.

The container that is used in these rock piles differ based on the size of the rock pile, the amount of swag the geocacher has to hide, and what container they actually have. A common container in larger hiding areas is the ammo box (a 0.5 Gallon metal container used by the military)

The ammo box is filled with stuff and a log book that allows people to write they found the geocache. Then it is hidden in the pile of rocks. Here is a photo of a local geocache hide GC226Q9 The Lost Element. that you will need to solve a puzzle to find….

If you are really excited and and want to hide your own ammo box hide, here is a link to buying an ammo box from Amazon.

I just completed the latest update to my geocaching statistics using a new geocaching tool called “My Geocaching Profile”. At this point I saw that I have a big gap in the hard terrain and hard difficulty area….this is the highlighted section below.

So what does it take to get a difficult geocache? I recently got a 1.5 Difficulty & 4 Terrain geocache at Sunset Cliffs Beach and thought I’d share the adventure….

We arrived at the site and were met with lots of Danger signs like this one? Does this mean you can’t go down there? The geocache logs state that kids are here all the time with their families…surely if a kid can do it, so can I? (I’m thinking I am terrible at peer pressure and this is just a really good example why!)

We decide to go down and boy is it tough. We have the GeoPuppy, Watson, with us which of course makes it more difficult. But if a kid can do this, so can I. That’s my mantra for this whole experience….Eventually we make it down and have to take a photo to show how great (or crazy?!) we are.

Then we have to find the geocache. The log stated that the GPS unit is not going to do very well and that you should expect it to bounce around a bit so if you get within 50 feet that is as good as it gets. Right then, so we are only left with this whole area here then?

The iPhone geocache app saves us as it includes photos from others and my Oregon 550t GPS unit only has the text. Without that we were going for a blind cache search (something you do find many cachers adamant about) but we take the hints and steer towards the wet, damp cave. Really, in there? Would they expect us to climb in all the way there? Of course they would….And I send in Bangers to save the day.

Hooray we found it and can add a find to the Terrain 4. Now we just have to combine with a Difficulty of 4 and we can get one of those quadrants marked off. There is another Terrain 4 further up from Sunset Cliffs Beach….but we’ll leave that for another day.

In case you want to go get this geocache, the GC Code is GC22A6Y Surf Rock. Have Fun!

When you first enter the main website of geocaching, there are photos from users adventures posted right there. And every time you refresh the screen, you get a different set of photos. It’s very cool to know you will see what people around the world are doing in thier geocaching adventures…and that your photo could show up to someone else.

 I chose a random selection on photos shown….mainly the first one cracked me up with the random Japanese group. Could you imagine walking down the street and then seeing a bunch like this suddenly geocaching. The Geoacache muggles would look very confused…

Love to showcase some of the common geocache hides that are used by geocachers but that a geocache muggle would never think that there is a secret treasure to be found.

This is called a fence pole hide…

On a hike and often those fence poles have a cap that twists off. If you do it, you might just find a geocache hide there….

If you want to read about some unusual or unique geocache hides, you might be interested in the Saguaro Cactus or the Lamp Post or the Tucson Rock.

There is a geocache at this photo location – but the unusual aspect is the reason for the hide – this large Saguaro cactus is actually a cell phone tower. I had never realized that the phone companies are becoming more respectful of their locations and blending into the environment. I have also seen a Palm Tree version in San Diego as well….and another geocache is located there to signify that unusual tower.

Links for more information:

Geocache that uses this theme: GC1T0ZJ and Series GC8785

Article in Arizona Star about Tucson’s ‘Talking Trees’

If you want to read about some unusual or unique geocache hides, you might be interested in the  Lamp Post or the Tucson Rock or Sea Monkey Central.

And when you find it, the joy of looking in a geocache hide is not there. It takes forever to get out the log (if you can get it out) and even longer to get it back in.
I have just stopped trying to write the log anymore and save my update for the online file at www.Geocaching.com

well that is the rant for the day. please do not hide these nano geocaches out in the field, there are so many more types that are more enjoyable to hide and find!

So I would often walk by somewhere and go “it’s not here!” and then find that it really was. After I started getting my “geosense” I could start to think how these things are hidden…and that’s when I became a true geocacher!

This geocache blog post is here to show an example of a typical geocache hide that I call “The Post”. You’ll be walking up to the coordinates and you’ll see a post….but where is the cache?

This picture is a close up….does it give it away? Can you see the fishing wire? That is a clue that something is IN the Post!

And if you pull at the fishing wire, you won’t find a fish (like I did in my previous blog write up!!!!) but you will find a geocache! Hooray!

Other common geocache hides include the lamp post geocache hide and the Ammo Box.

So I picked up the money and it was in a plastic bag…..and had a red stamp on the side with a web link on it….

I went home and went to Where’s George and sure enough this funny little website comes up….apparently you can track money and where it goes.

Here’s an example report, the bill I had was dedicated to geocaching….does that mean I can’t spend it? It’s still in my pocket now….what should I do?

If you want to read about some unusual or unique geocache hides, you might be interested in the Saguaro Cactus or the Lamp Post or the Tucson Rock.

When I tell people about geocaching, many ask “what’s hidden in a geocache” so I thought I’d share a picture of an example or two in this geocache blog post. These are caches that I’ve just hidden (my first hides – exciting!).

Usually you find:

• The geocache container (might seem obvious, but some are very clever!)
• A log book or log sheet where people can write their names that they found the geocache
• Small trade items – you take one and leave something different

Small trade items could be:

• coins
• stamps
• toys
• a travel bug (a portable item to carry to a different geocache)
• batteries (to keep you out geocaching on your GPS unit!)
• NOT food or perishable items
• NOT anything un-family-friendly
• NOT anything marketing or selling something

The scariest thing I found was a lizard on top of a geocache – was not sure it was worth getting the cache – but I did it!