[Trekkin and Birdin]

Did you use a seam sealer on the seams? That can make a big difference in water repellency. Ask at the sporting goods store and they can help you figure out if that’s a good fix. I know some people like to put a plastic tarp over the tent, but that can make it hot in the summer.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Some folks who have a lot of gusto may develop other constraints to give them pause. We have made very intentional efforts the last couple years to remember what we truly enjoy about geocaching and do that stuff. One of us still has moments when there’s a “need” for something, but overall, we’ve been picky and as Becca says, many times we go out and do those things that drew us in the first place….without finding a cache. Gas costs are a concern. For me personally, so is driving all over in search of smileys. That’s a lot of fossil fuel and carbon footprint in pursuit of finds. We’ve been trying to cache closer to home or if there’s another reason to travel, include the ones that look interesting in those plans. Though we’re retired, we’re supporting our sons in their efforts to be single parent dads and that pretty much takes out Monday to Friday for travel.

The main appeal for us has been the sense of discovery. We’ve been discovering other things close to home….winery tours, music venues, local paddling streams, art fairs. We have several areas where we’ve placed caches that don’t get visited very often and love heading to those spots with out-of-town cachers. We get to hike and enjoy watching them discover these spots.

The other thing that’s happened for me is once a person retires, you may find you want to be part of something bigger. Geocaching by and large is an “all about me” thing. With the exception of one CITO where we hauled stoves and stuff like that out of a wildlife area and another event that raised money to help pay a family’s medical bills, it’s a game about whatever self-defined bragging thing a team chooses. Total finds, percent of non-traditionals, etc. Yes, we have our own “thing” we like, but that doesn’t define my life. Participating in the Dragon Boat races yesterday was fun, but watching the survivor heat and then the paddle salute for all those folks, knowing that my participation (and money) helps raise funds to allow so many to survive….well, being a person who does those kind of things is how I want others to think of me, not how many finds we’ve made in the woods.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

I thought poison oak was a western thing. Whatever it was, we were glad we had the Ivarest.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Not sure what he got into today. I had some nettle there, but that goes away pretty quickly. Didn’t really see any poison ivy and it wasn’t the kind of area where it tends to grow. There was sumac. Maybe it was the poisonous type?

He applied the ivarest right away and then after the ridiculous detour we had to endure with all the flooding and road construction, we stopped for ice cream. He washed up in the bathroom there and things seem to be okay now.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

We were glad we had it along today. Big fat DNF on a cache AND Trekkin’ got into something nasty in the process. Ivarest to the rescue. We weren’t really sure what it even was, but it started out ugly and now is gone. Whew!

[Trekkin and Birdin]

We carry Ivarest. If applied closely to the time after contact, you have minimal to no effects. Even if you don’t get to it soon, it is still helpful for soothing the itch, thereby keeping it from spreading.

I used to be immune to poison ivy. I no longer am, so this stuff is great to have handy.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Congratulations!

[Trekkin and Birdin]

I think it depends on the cache owner. There are some in the Twin Cities that allow a person to delete their bookmark after three months. We’ve taken to creating a Word document that can be copied into any challenge cache logs, as I know some people do like to see what others might have used to meet a challenge as they look for their own to qualify.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Just got home from a DNF on a bird and sat down and voted!

[Trekkin and Birdin]

We could never bring ourselves to do anything remotely like this…but now that it’s floating around geocaching sites, how long before a challenge cache based on it?

[Trekkin and Birdin]

It is a great photo, gr. I’ll get my voting game going for you.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Thanks, I can’t believe how many we passed on our way home from our niece’s final recital at Northwestern the other day.

We’ve only done for so far, but in each case, the cache portion was pretty obvious or not right in the library itself. I guess I thought they were in the yards of the cacher or a family member, but from what Deejay says…not always. 🙁

[Trekkin and Birdin]

We’re on some DNR mailings lists and saw this come through today. Nice to see!

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Wow, Mr. G most weren’t on my list, but they are now. Thanks.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Rainy day activity….I’m linking my now public bookmark list of Little Free Library geocaches in Wisconsin. I added several more by doing an attribute search for front yard caches and reading through all of those. I’m sure there are probably others, so keep them coming!

http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=82185a36-5b26-40f4-b274-a9c983cd2a53

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