Styled Bits » geocaching

My Vacation So Far, Part II

Michael Gorsuch — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 15:46:00 +0000

It’s been great. Brandon and I went geocaching yesterday for several hours. We located seven different spots, and I took two travel bugs that I’ll relocate to NYC. One of the bugs was attached to a giant Intel Man doll, the other to a journal of random acts of kindness. Guess I’ll have to do something nice before dropping that one off.

All of these caches were hidden within Mitch Park, a rather small wood land. There was lots of crawling under brush and jumping over streams.

Brooke has been out and about visiting old friends and exploring old hangouts. She’s really missing this place, as am I. Last night we went out briefly to a local bar with my sister and her boyfriend. We watched the boyfriend sing karaoke, and he was the only non-jackass up there. Cheers, Ryan.

Today is our last full day here. We’ll exchange gifts tonight, share a meal, and leave in the morning for Brooke’s mom’s house.

My Second Geocache

Michael Gorsuch — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 21:44:25 +0000

I found my second geocache today in the Narrows Botanical Gardens here in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It was a neat find, but can’t give things away. Don’t want to spoil the hunt. I picked up a pet sling today and took Sassey (my dog) with me for the four mile (round trip) walk. We stopped at a few parks, and she ran free until the sun began to set. I think she liked it.

McKinley Park Cache Found!

Michael Gorsuch — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:37:29 +0000

Regarding yesterday’s failure, I went back out and found the item this time. It turns out that I must’ve moved the waypoint on my gpsr when I first got the unit. It doesn’t surprise me, as I was fumbling with the interface my first day. After deleting the waypoint and redownloading from Geocaching.com, it was much easier to find. It was cold and rainy out there, but well worth the thrill.

Another Geocaching Flop

Michael Gorsuch — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 21:54:14 +0000

I’ll be returning tomorrow to search again. I went out to find a small cache in McKinley Park, but became confused when my GPSr was telling me that the coordinates were in the middle of the interstate. I almost talked myself into jumping the fence to try and get closer, but reason won me over. I’m pretty sure that either my coordinates are wrong, my GPSr is wrong, or the signal was just jumpy.

Someday…

Either way, it’s still nice to get out and enjoy the air.

My First Geocache Hunt

Michael Gorsuch — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 18:26:27 +0000

Went on my first hunt this morning without success. This particular spot was noted to be a difficult one, but since we were going to be in the Brooklyn Heights area, we thought it would be worth looking for.

From my log:

Well, my wife and I came here for our first hunt. No such luck. There were a lot of people around giving us strange looks, and my GPS seemed to be getting poor reception.

I will be back, though.

There are some easier finds in my neighborhood. We’ll try and find one tomorrow.

Geocaching

Michael Gorsuch — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:36:25 +0000

Brandon explained Geocaching to me, and I was hooked before even trying it. We’re talking about a cultural scavenger hunt in which you trek across your locale with little to go on outside of a GPS way point. I purchased a Garmin ETrex Venture HC via Amazon, pretty much blowing my self-imposed monthly allowance. I should have it next week, and am ready to head out on my first adventure.

I have a tendency to be a bit of a hermit, and it won’t get much better with the approaching cold weather. This will give me a really good reason to explore parts of New York City that I’d probably visit otherwise. Perhaps I can interest the wife?