Geocaching Milestone
In June of 2005, I posted about a new sport I was getting involved in: geocaching. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to find 46 caches across four states - Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee. That’s only a small drop in the bucket of geocaches around the world. According to geocaching.com, the primary site of the sport, there are 248925 active caches in 221 countries. I’ve got a lot of work to do!
When I reach the milestone of finding my 50th cache, I’m going to “celebrate” by hiding my first cache. I have three places in mind. One is at Boone County Cliffs State Nature Preserve. There are a couple of caches hidden right down the road at Middle Creek Park but none at Boone County Cliffs. The Cliffs aren’t too far away from me, and it’s a really nice place to hike, so it would be fitting to hide a cache there.
A second place that I have in mind is Pioneer Park. It’s a small park off of KY 17 in Independence, KY. I’m surprised that there are no caches there yet, though three are located at Doe Run Lake, which isn’t far away.
The third place I have in mind is at a spot that many people associate with Florence, KY and is often the first thing a person mentions when I tell them I’m from this area. It’s a landmark that’s recognizable to just about anyone who has driven through this area. Yes, that’s right - the Florence Ya’ll Water Tower. (Read the history behind the water tower) One of the objectives of geocaching is to draw people to landmarks, and this is certainly one of them. Hiding a cache here would be a bit difficult, though, considering it’s a high traffic area and not many trees, bushes, etc.
So, while I’m deciding where to hide my first cache, I’m taking some suggestions on a theme for the cache. Caches don’t necessarily need to have a theme, but I think it’s more fun if it at least starts out that way. By theme, I’m simply referring to the name of the cache and the types of items that I will initially leave inside. As people find the cache, they have the option to take an item and leave an item, hopefully based on the theme, though it’s not necessary. Some of the themes I have in mind are right now are: UK sports, technology and books. Any other suggestions?
While shopping for supplies for my cache, I ran across this shirt and couldn’t pass it up. Lol, how true it is!
Follow my progress of finding and hiding caches with my stat bar, courtesy of geocaching.com. (You’ll need to sign up for a free account if you want to view my profile). This used to be in my sidebar, and I’m thinking of putting it back there eventually.
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Mar 28th, 2006 at 22:57:39
hey now, you leave the water tower alone you creep! heh…
well what the heck though, where are you gonna hide it around there anyway? it’s all open and people are always walking around it anyway.
see that’s the thing i don’t get about geocaching… i would imagine that it wouldn’t ever work out because the caches would be found by people/workers/law enforcement who didn’t know better and would pitch them…
and i wouldn’t think people would refill the caches or whatever…
so yea…
i think i’ll do a report or portfolio piece on geocaching sometime… wanna be interviewed, Chirs?
haha…
well i’m done now…
Mar 28th, 2006 at 23:21:46
You’re not getting an interview out of me by calling me a creep or Chirs
Since when are people walking around “always” walking around the tower? I’ve rarely seen anyone around it, since it’s closed off by a fence. I wouldn’t hide the cache on the water tower, anyway, just close to it. Imagine a magnetic hide-a-key around there
See, it’s people like you that would ruin the sport. Almost everyone who participates “plays” fair and refills the caches, rehides them appropriately, etc. I haven’t personally encountered any problems yet.
You should read more about geocaching on geocaching.com, since that will answer your questions. All caches are marked with an official label that is put on the outside and there’s a printout that goes inside explaining what it is if someone finds it by accident.
Mar 29th, 2006 at 11:44:46
You are also into swing dancing, oragami, paintball, christian music, star wars, and other hobbies that could be associated with the cache.
Mar 29th, 2006 at 19:31:44
i vote for the water tower.
Mar 30th, 2006 at 10:17:33
Going off of Paul’s comments, you could place a paintball in the cache.
Mar 30th, 2006 at 10:18:57
Another thought for technology, if you have an old DIMM of memory lying around somewhere place that in the cache.
Mar 30th, 2006 at 13:46:50
I have some 32 pin memory for that Chris, maybe even some 72 pin….
Mar 30th, 2006 at 22:16:12
Thanks for the comments, all. I’m going to do a computer/tech cache, an origami cache and I think a quote cache. I’m waiting for my stuff to get here, so I’ll let you know what I hide and where I hide it. Well, general area, of course
The themes provide different options for different size caches at the different locations, so I should be good to go.
Mar 31st, 2006 at 23:48:56
That’s a nice picture of the water tower. Did you take that yourself, or did you find it on the web?
Apr 1st, 2006 at 00:26:33
Found it on the web. I’ll probably take a full tower shot when I go hide the cache, though.
Apr 1st, 2006 at 01:57:53
My brother is a civil engineer and one of his current projects is a water tower. They recently did the paint job and forgot to dot the ‘i’ on it.
It’s a little Florence Y’all-esque.
I was curious as to how much it cost them to get back up there with the painting equipment. He said that they had to go back up again anyway, so it was not very significant after all.
Apr 1st, 2006 at 10:33:57
the quote idea is dumb, Chris… i’d be upset if i found a cache with just some stupid quotes in it… i think i’d have to track down the owner of the cache and fart on him or something :-)…
now i’m off to find where you got the picture of that water tower from..
later…
May 7th, 2006 at 22:18:37
[...] As I wrote previously, I wanted to hide a cache since I reached the milestone of finding 50 caches. At that time, I had several ideas for themes and locations to hide this cache. Well, this cache was neither in a location that I initially anticipated nor was it’s theme one that I had previously decided on. [...]