Cache Report: A Sporting Time

Bad weather marked the whole week. Then, on Thursday night the clouds parted and the sun sparkled on a wet world. Both Mo and I felt an urge to BE OUTSIDE, but it would be dark in less than two hours. What to do?

I pulled up the Groundspeak app and checked out nearby parks. We have a sports complex with some hiking trails behind it a few blocks away. There's a collection of urban micros in the sport complex area, and a few smalls along the trails. Why not?

I had made up a car caching kit earlier in the week for impromptu urban excursions, so this seemed like a good time to use it!

Trip Report

The breeze was a bit stiffer than we had thought. We had originally considered going back onto the trails, but between the breeze and the mud we decided to stay within the complex.

Cache #1: We almost gave up on the first find! GZ was in a row of pines near a baseball field. The hint only told us to look in pine needles. There were some recent DNFs, but the CO had also verified that the cache was still there. (A bit snarkily, though. They wrote a note complaining about cachers using phones to cache and that they aren't allowed to post a DNF, more or less....). For some reason I was hooked on looking in the pine needles on the ground. Just as we were about to give up, Mo glanced up and saw the camouflaged pill bottle hanging right in front of her!

Cache #2: This one was near the hiking trails, so we made a beeline towards in in hopes the trees would break the wind a bit. They did! We knew this was a nano of some sort but the only hint was "sticky." Along the fence line there was a large branch along with smaller branches from the pines overhanging the fence. Mo made this find as well. Very well hidden -- a small vial stuck into the end of a stick lying near the fence.

Cache #3: The next set of coordinates led us to a bench on the edge of the jogging trail that surrounds the soccer fields. Fortunately, no one was practicing on the field right by the bench and few joggers were out. I followed the clue on where to set and craftily felt under the bench while Mo pretended to tie her shoe and look under. I felt a slightly different texture on a support beam so I investigated. A flat black magnet peeled off, with the log accordion-folded in the center. Signed and carefully replaced.

Cache #4: The wind and setting sun became too much. There were two caches hidden in the parking lot, so we decided to look for those then call it a night. This first one challenged us a for a bit, since the only thing magnetic (the clue) was a lamp post but the description made it relatively clear it wouldn't be a lamp post. I then glanced down at a grate on the ground and some something that didn't quite look right. Clever hide!

Cache #5: The final one in the lot said that an experienced cacher would see it from their car, so imagine my delight when I spotted it before the car even stopped! This was a simple electrical cover magnet painted to match the pole. Looked like it belonged there but I hadn't seen one on the other poles. Someone had replaced it upside down and the log had filled with water and torn the ziplock. We dried it out as best we could. The CO is very active on checking the caches, so I left a note in my log instead of filing a NM.

Wrap-Up

Since Planetary Pursuit was extended, this little weekday trip did give us a new souvenir.  Other than getting outside, the best part of urban caching is seeing the creative little containers and hides. There isn't the thrill of swag, sig items, or trackables. Even the locations aren't always that beautiful. I'd say urban hides are more about the game than getting outdoors, but we still enjoyed a little bit of geocaching on a weekday so I am glad there are urban hides.

Another thing we noticed is we are starting to get the "cacher's eye." It's getting easier to spot when something isn't quite right and might be a cache. That's a little thrill in itself!