Geocaching is a great way to learn — about yourself, where you live and about your partner. My husband and I have been geocaching since 2007. We are over 500 geocaches and counting. Through our finds, we have stumbled upon some amazing places and have enjoyed the sense of humor of many geocachers. We have also learned a lot.

It’s all about teamwork.

My husband and I have a system. His phone has the better GPS coverage than mine for some reason though we have the same crappy carrier with Sprint. So, he is the navigator, and I am the finder. When the geo-sense is working, I feel as if I am wearing 3D glasses and can spot the geocache no matter how well hidden.

Pay attention to hunting season.

It’s happened not once. We get to a place we’ve scouted out only to find it is closed because of hunting. Usually, it is shotgun deer season. That’s fine though: I’d rather not be prey no matter what the season. We have also found parks closed during bow season though. If you do any fall hunting, check the park’s website. Hopefully, they choose to inform people, but it’s not always the case.

Support the activity.

When we geocache, we bring along a stash of plastic bags. If a cache’s log is damp or the bag messed up, we replace it. If the cache has water in it, we dump it out and give it a wipe. It takes no time at all and helps everyone.

Explore the caches close to home.

We have found the best treasures while caching close to home. You really don’t need to travel far to find something cool. We’ve found parks, great bars and restaurants just by exploring a place we haven’t explored. Relish the adventure: it’s there.

Carry a flashlight and bear spray.

Even if it’s a bright sunny day, you can’t always see in those downed logs. Don’t go poking around without taking a good look. My husband almost found out the hard way. We were geocaching along the Mississippi River in a park that was known to have rattlesnakes. He spotted the beacon and starting looking for the cache — that is until he heard the rattle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him run that fast. Fortunately, the snake believed its warning was sufficient and didn’t strike. 

The second part of the warning is about bears. We live in the country, but bears have been seen not far from the metro area. We’ve geocached a few times at a park about an hour from us. It’s a beautiful place, with a magnificent waterfalls. Just the other day, I was reading about a hunter who took what appeared to have been a record bear. The bear weighed over 600 pounds. The photograph of him with the bear was astonding. Even more astounding was finding out where he got the bear — the very same park we have hiked and geocached.

I have a fear of bears. I’ve never seen one in the wild, but I have enormous respect for an animal that could take me out in an instant. In an odd way, I am glad this part of Nature exists. We don’t own it all. Nature just likes to remind us of that detail now and again. I appreciate the warning.

Image: Bear Country USA by mvipond

It’s not like we live way out in the boondocks. We still have paved roads, gas stations and the neighborhood bar. Yet, judging by our cellphone coverage, you’d think we lived on the moon. That’s what you get when you use Sprint, I guess.

We also love caches that are not stealth only. I prefer a cache that we can take time to explore. For us, that means a drive in the country and off the beaten path–or within cell coverage. We found this out the hard way when we geocached in Door County, Wisconsin. You simply can’t rely on coverage. That’s why I like Backcountry Navigator Pro so much. With a little preplanning, we have coverage no matter what our smartphones say.

With BCNavigator, simply by selecting the topos I need, I have them available for offline use. I find this especially helpful if we decide to hike and gulp, not geocache. I can also upload a pocket query (with a premium membership to Geocaching.com) that has all the cache info, including previous logs. Topos have helped guide us more than once on the correct approach to the cache. It can mean the difference between scaling a hillside to an easy stroll.

In Door County, we cached on an island off of the peninsula. Coverage was doomed from the get-go. Despite that, we still had a great time geocaching. I was amazed at the accuracy of the locations, a credit to the geocachers who placed them. I was able to zoom in on the cache location and get a good idea of its terrain. I can’t recommend BC Navigator more highly, especially if you have Sprint. ; )

I’ve embraced the barefooting lifestyle because the logic behind it makes sense. The concept is that our bodies are still hardwired as if we were living a more hand-to-mouth existence, i.e., as if we didn’t have fancy running shoes. Vibram has taken on this idea with its line of Vibram Five Finger shoes.

I recently bought a pari of Vibram Five Fingers Sprint shoes. These shoes feature an extra strap across the top of your feet for added security for running or trekking across the landscape. I bought black shoes for their versatility.

My first experience took me a bit to put them on. With one of my feet, I cannot splay my toes, so I have to guide my toes into the right places. Once on, they felt surprisingly comfortable for how different them are from regular shoes. I quickly got used to walking in them. Then, it was the big test. I traveled to visit family, bringing only these shoes. Trial by fire, as it were.

The weather was hot, yet my feet were comfortable despite being black. It felt exhilarating honestly to walk “barefoot” everywhere. The promo materials mention a feeling of being closer to the Earth. I felt it. I lived it. Yest, it was true.

Today, they have their first long-distance field test. I’ll admit that my feet got tired after four miles of walking. I’m simply using my feet differently, hence the feeling. Once I learned to trust them to keep me safe, I did a lot better. My feet moved freely as if I were totally barefooted. It was a great feeling. Walking on sedges felt incredibly soft and comfortable. Yes, I did have to keep an eye on my feet while walking on gravel, but I quickly adapted. Since I’m constantly on the lookout for wildflowers and animal sign, my eyes are often on the ground anyway.

The only downer is that I’ll have to give up my barefooting lifestyle come winter. They sell a pair for cooler weather, but not for trekking through two feet of snow. Have to bust out the Sorels for that. Another thing may be a bit of TMI, but worth noting if you are seriously considering them. You need to keep the toenails nice and trim to comfortably wear these shoes. Not a huge problem, just something to bear in mind.

All in all, I am totally pleased. I love the feeling. I feel my legs getting stronger with the new challenge. Highly recommended for those wanting a new and different experience when outdoors.

The other day, I received a call from a friend recovering from a state of panic over a wild encounter she had with her dog in a nearby woods. We’ve geocached at this site several times, so we were well acquainted with the area.

Back in the day, it used to be a raceway. Today, Nature has reclaimed the land, but you still see remnants of the old track and other features. From that perspective, it is kind of an eerie place.

My friend was walking her dog about dusk on a path that wound through a remnant prairie. Three deer came running out of the nearby woods, obviously startled by something. My friend spun to look to see a coyote standing in front of her about 15 to 20 feet away. It was howling something fierce, of course, getting her dog upset.

Then, three other coyotes joined the loner one by one, all howling. My friend started backing up, keeping her eyes on the four. Her dog drove them back a couple of times because they were following her as she backed up.

At this point, she panicked. She called 911 because the coyotes were stalking her, blocking her path to the car. The 911 operator all but laughed at her. She must have envisioned her as some dumb housewife who had never seen a coyote before. Meanwhile, the coyotes are howling still in the background.

She insisted that the operator do something. So, she called the conservation police officer. He told the operator to hold on as he contacted an authority on coyotes. When he got back on the line, he told the operator to get a squad out there at once. The behavior of the coyotes was very unusual and potentially aggressive.

My friend got off the phone with the 911 operator and called her husband. He pulled in just as two squads entered the parking lot. He knew where my friend was walking and led the cops to her. The coyotes had since scattered. They walked back to the squads, with the cops acting a bit incredulous of the account.

As they talked, my friend pointed to the coyotes that were now behind the squad cars. The conservation police officer arrived then. He asked my friend if she would take him back to where it happened. As they did, the scene repeated itself. The deer spooked again, but the coyotes weren’t in sight.

The officer told my friend that there had been two anonymous calls about the incident. As they walked back, a woman with a dog was in the parking lot. She told them of her own encounter with the coyotes a month back. She mentioned also that a friend of hers also had an encounter.

Since then, they have closed the trail until the coyotes could be trapped. The behavior they displayed was discerning. They showed no fear of humans. Their stalking behavior was aggressive. Coyote-people incidents are not unknown. There have been attacks. Coyotes have learned to live with humans, but they still hold on to instinctive behavior like defending young or a den.

What makes this account so frightening is that it occurred during the same period when the grizzly attacked the seven boys in Alaska, a black bear attacked two boys in New Jersey, the polar bear encounter in Norway and the woman skier fighting off the black bear in Montana. It’s a stark reminder to respect wildlife and to fight the urge to run if you should encounter an animal.

I don’t know about you, but I have added bear spray to my geo-bag.

Photo by xandert

When we travel, geocaching is automatically a part of our vacation. It’s an opportunity to find new caches and be surprised by new hiders. Let’s admit it; we get to know the MO of the hiders. To shake it up a bit is fun.

We geocached more in Door County this year than we ever had. We made it a mission to find a lot of caches to bring us to our 500th find. Unfortunately, DC provided its own challenges with lack of coverage. It’s good if you want to get away, but bad if you need cache info and maps for the next find.

My husband and I tested two mobile apps to cope with our dilemma. My husband used the download feature of c:geo. I used Back Country Navigator. Both apps performed well. We were able to geocache despite the coverage issues. C:geo had all the cache info stored. Back Country Navigator had the geocaches as waypoints, but no cache info.

The disadvantage with both is that you have to remember to download your data prior to going out, something you may not realize until you are in the field. G:geo had the advantage of the cache info, but you have to do some planning here as well to pick the caches you want. With Back Country Navigator, I created a pocket query for an entire area that I uploaded to my phone. I was also able to get topo maps for the entire area. This is nice if you want to have a lot of info handy for a wider area. C:geo is free. BC Navigator is not.

Navigation was a piece of cake with either app. I was surprised by the accuracy. With one particular cache, BC Navigator identified the cache in front of a private home. Silly me, I tried to decipher clues out of the cache description and ignored what was right in front of my face. Maybe that is why comments on the cache repeated, “Trust your GPS.”

BC Navigator, though spendy, has the advantage in that you can use it for other applications. Why you would be hiking in the woods without trying to score a cache is beyond the scope of this post. 

As if we geocachers needed a reminder. We all know the thrill of scavenger hunting, tech style. Celebrate National Scavenger Hunt Day with your favorite form of scavenger hunting!

The point of a scavenger hunt, of course, is to find a treasure. We’ve accumulated a number of great finds including:

• New bird sightings
• Money
• Great swag including pens, a Swiss army knife and foreign coins
• A new restaurant/bar
• New find for a wildflower
• Morels
• Fellow geocachers

Geocaching has given my husband and me a new hobby and recreational activity. It has helped us grow closer and get in better shape. Those finds are priceless.

(FYI: the plants around the geocache are poison ivy. Take note and beware. This is not a “treasure.”

Photo by penywise

I used to use AllSport GPS on my Blackberry. I now have an Android and was anxious to test a program. I’ve gotten into creating routes with pictures. I’d like to use them for this blog and others. So, I wanted a program that was easy to use. I didn’t mind paying; I just wanted simple.

I participated in the beta testing for AllSport GPS. With the awful winter we had, I didn’t get out as much as I wanted to test it. Instead, I tried the free version and made the leap to get the media additions.

I took it on its first trip last week. Talk about simple! Wow! The GPS hooked up quickly. Since we were geocaching, bird watching and morel hunting, I had to have a program that could pause/resume easily. AllsSport worked well.

The interface with pictures and videos was absolutely seamless. No glitches. No problems. Take my picture, save and we’re back on the trail. Uploading the trip was just as easy. All my pics nicely geo-coded were on my uploaded trip, with lots of other fun goodies like calorie burn, elevation and other stats.

Highly recommended!

Photo by Pawel Kryj