Geocaching Outing

The Queen Mother called me this morning, early, and asked if I would like to go geocaching for the day. Hello! Like I ever need to be asked twice for an Outdoor Adventure. It was decided that we’d head to Sedona from Chino Valley, along the Interstate instead of over Jerome, caching along the way.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that my family isn’t really the biggest on doing a bunch of Park-and-Grab geocaches along a route. Oh, sure, we PLAN it, but we usually find something interesting along the way and get sidetracked. So, this was a new record for us: 10 finds in one day and 2 more that we attempted with no luck.

We started out along highway 169 going after a series of jeananjoe caches. jeananjoe are some local Prescott cachers that hide some NASTY micros and some very kind not-micros.

In one of the first caches of the day I found this AMAZING ring that just screamed my name:

123109-ring

Perfect ring for The Outdoor Princess!

It was also at this cache that we finally met a police officer while out caching. I’ve heard that 99.9% of law enforcement are totally cool when you explain what you were doing. This gentleman didn’t even seem to care WHAT we were doing poking around in the bushes as long as we hadn’t heard any gun shots. Apparently, he had been called out by a report from the locals about gun shots.

I was just glad that it wasn’t a report of suspicious characters poking around in the bushes!

The next cache of the day netted another wicked-cool ring, this time in yellow. You can see The Outdoor Princess & family “striking a pose” near the cache site. Another jeananjoe but not too hard a find.

The Outdoor Princess and Family.

The Outdoor Princess and Family.

Although, this being yet ANOTHER nut jar from jeananjoe, I did have to wonder just how many nuts they consume in a year!

I took this photo as an illustration of the term: UPR – Unnatural Pile of Rocks. Refers to common practice of stack rocks on top of the cache to hide its location. The resulting pile often stands out to natural formations. You can find out all about terms at the post: Log Abbreviations: Decoded!

UPR hiding a Pez Cache.

UPR hiding a Pez Cache.

This was the hiding place for a “theme cache”. This is the type where all trades are asked to have a common theme. In this case, trading pez dispensers. I was excited to see that there were 3 in the cache. Of course, I didn’t have time to actually hunt any of my old pez dispensers down so I couldn’t trade for one. I know I have one (or 5) in a box in my garage somewhere, but I just didn’t know WHERE. I’ll have to remember this cache and come back to trade one someday.

Pez dispensers.

Pez dispensers.

Unfortunately, a lot of these caches required the crossing of cattle guards. On foot. Neither The Queen Mother nor myself really likes crossing these things. I think it has something to do with my wonky depth perception alá my astigmatism. Still, The Queen Mother and The Outdoor Princess bravely crossed them. My dad, on the other hand, just trotted happily across. None of the hang-on, pigeon walking of us ladies!

The Queen Mother crossing a cattle guard.

The Queen Mother crossing a cattle guard.

Here’s a closeup of feet. Firmly planted on the slat, if at all possible, walk across on the concrete!

Evil cattle guards!

Evil cattle guards!

Now, my father, aka ESP Boss, really is NOT a fan of micros. Maybe that’s because the very first one we went after was another jeananjoe cache and we spent nearly an HOUR searching a “zebra” looking for it. To no avail. So, I did convince him to look for one.

jeananjoe tend to call these caches "zebras".

jeananjoe tend to call these caches "zebras".

I KNEW it had to be in the end of the guardrail. And it was a painted Altoids tin so it wasn’t TOO tiny. Thankfully, my mom, aka, The Queen Mother, found it easily.

Hiding magnetic tin.

Hiding magnetic tin.

This container was actually large enough for a few trade items so I left a pair of EatStayPlay geotokens and then signed the log.

What tale of caching adventures is complete without a "SL" photo shoot?

What tale of caching adventures is complete without a "SL" photo shoot?

From there, it was onto a series of not really hard to find, but great camo. Even though they were kinda out in the open, so to speak, we still had to hunt for them.

Camo duct tape makes ALL the difference!

Camo duct tape makes ALL the difference!

The hint said under a PINE tree. There were no pine trees ANYWHERE. But lots of grey sticks!

The hint said under a PINE tree. There were no pine trees ANYWHERE. But lots of grey sticks!

Note the paint job!

Note the paint job!

This last cache impressed me just because someone had taken the time to paint the tin the same colors as the dirt. Even though this LOOKS obvious from the photo, it was really well hid under a bush.

And, our favorite hide of the day was a travel bug hotel with a difficulty rating of 3. Even though we didn’t have any bugs to trade, I really wanted to find it since it was a FULL SIZE ammo can. I mean, who can hide something that big? (As usual, I am not going to post the GC code so as not to spoil anything. Just  the photos!)

THIS is the cache.

THIS is the cache.

Now, that doesn’t look like anything, right? Just a root sticking up? Well, scroll down!

See it now?

See it now?

The only thing about this cache was that the sticky-up root just invited a kick. I don’t know how long it’ll last with people kicking it all the time!

Getting warmer!

Getting warmer!

Holy cow! We didn’t have to dig for it, just lift a lid.

The cache in the open.

The cache in the open.

From here, we just had a few more we wanted to find, racing the coming darkness. And, since it WAS New Years Eve, we wanted to get home before the crazies came out!

This was as close as we got to Sedona.

This was as close as we got to Sedona.

We got close enough to SEE the red rocks of Sedona, but didn’t actually make it to town.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Since you can see from the FIRST family photo, we’ve started piling on the layers. Next time I go caching, I need a princess tee from CafePress!

Geocaching Princess Tee Shirt

Geocaching Princess Tee Shirt

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One Response to “Geocaching Outing”

  • that one in the ground was awesome! I enjoyed your geocaching adventures! I blog about caching to, there is a tab at the top of my blog. I’m adding you to my blogroll!

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