The Hazards of Geocaching (Equipment Terrain)

My first GPS receiver was the Magellan ColorTRAK circa 1998 I bought it for $20 from the classifieds. The press release on the Magellan site bragged the world's first high-resolution, color display in a portable GPS receiver; the new ColorTrak is taking GPS to a whole new level. This pocket-sized unit provides outstanding lock-on tracking… And it goes on and on. If you had a big pocket you could fit it in. The truth is the unit was the size of a small brick, but the batteries lasted forever. I was working with the varsity scouts at the time and we were on our 100 mile bike ride this was a great opportunity to go Geocaching. The first one on my list was Hells Backbone.

Hells backbone GCQWKZ  A cache by moquicacher and GS&gs  hidden 10/8/2005 N 37° 58.172 W 111° 35.733

Cache is located near Hells Backbone Bridge, which was constructed by C.C.C. men in 1933 to cross a deep gorge to connect Escalante and boulder. The cache is an ammo box with original contents of log book pencils and sharpener, light stick, mini flashlight, sunglasses, disposable camera, nail clippers, multi-tool and insect repellent wipes. Hint Look in a crack in the rock out cropping near small twin trees.

At the time my GPS about 9 years old and technology has come a long way since then. This GPS was a great way to develop finding skills because the accuracy was terrible. I got close to the location, I was holding on to a tree and leaning over a cliff looking straight down my GPS said I was .02 miles away. I remembered the terrain was a 2 so I must be missing something. Then I remembered the hint about the twin trees and realized that I was holding on to one of them, I was just about standing on it. If it were a snake… well you get the idea.

This was the first time I found a cache large enough that something larger than a piece of paper could be in it so I was unprepared for this phenomenon actual stuff in a Geocache I took my wife’s Betty Boop key ring off and traded for a 4 Queens Hotel key ring. I thought it was a Good Trade but Vi later informed me that it wasn’t.

Moral of the story:

1. It’s nice to have accurate equipment.

2. Have stuff to trade because you may run into a cache that has good stuff in it.

3. Don’t trade other peoples stuff.