March 29, 2014

• Looking For Swag

  There were some questions about geocaching generated by my posts about my geocaching vacation. I forget that many of my current readers weren't subscribers on the old xanga. So I thought it would be nice to do a little retrospective on geocaching. There are many descriptions but the one I like best describes it as "using multimillion dollar satellites to find tupperware hidden in the woods." Basically it is a treasure hunt. Sometimes the reward is the search which takes you to beautiful or hidden areas that you would have otherwise by-passed. It can be a search that culminates in a sense of accomplishment. And on occasion it rewards you with swag. Swag is the term for the trinkets and treasures in the cache container. Some containers are smaller than the tip of your pinky finger and hold only a coiled strip of paper to write you initials and date. Other containers are tupperware sandwich squares or ammo boxes or 5 gallon buckets or even 50 gallon drums. These will all contain a log where you record the date and your name. They also have swag. If you take swag you need to leave swag - usually of equal or greater value. Here is some of the swag I've collected:

  

  I was introduced to geocaching through a fellow Xangan, saintvi. She took me around and conducted a Geocaching 101 course. We went to lots of different caches and I learned about skirt lifters, fake sprinkler heads, micro and nano caches, magnetic caches and some caches that were so tricky that they were very, um, evil. We have gone on geocaching expeditions together and had great adventures. On a trip to Traverse City we were nearly exsanguinated by a cloud of mosquitoes. On a trek through the woods we slid down a leaf covered hill - not on purpose! I've walked across fallen log bridges looking for a cache (while she video taped what could have been my death) hehe! I lived but we didn't find the cache. We've waded through swamps, lunched in cemeteries, braved spiders, thistles and burrs, and seen beautiful places in nature.

  
  

  
  

  One thing saintvi does that impresses me and makes me want to help her accomplish is her Caching for Change. Every year she collects all the coinage from caches that she finds and donates it to a worthy cause. This last year it was the Alzheimer Foundation. I'm not sure what this year's cause will be but I've already started collecting. On our last jaunt through Indiana (14 counties) I collected $2.48 toward this years Caching for Change.

  

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