We got a chance to get out today for a great walk in the fall sunshine. It was surprisingly warm for the middle of October and we were not complaining!

We had a bit of trouble finding the Geocache we were seeking today. Since it was a clear day and we were tracking within 3 meters but we could not find it. There really was nothing in the area that would offer a hiding place. After fifteen minutes of searching we gave up and proceeded to bring another cache up on the GPSr. The strange thing is that the nearest one had the same name as the one we were just looking for except it had a space and ’1′ after it. Punching in this one told us that we were about 90 meters from it. We continued on our way and made a quick find and dropped off a Travel Bug that we picked up on the weekend.

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As a whole, Geocachers are quite environmentally active. When we are out Geocaching, we collect litter along the trails and paths and then dispose of it properly. We ‘take out what we take in’ and strive to leave a place better that it was. On certain days, we also participate in international clean-up events that involve and benefit the larger community. CITO (Cache In, Trash Out) is one of several great programs that help us with this initiative.

CITO is an opportunity for Geocachers to help clean up the parks, trails and other cache-friendly places throughout the world. Through our volunteer efforts, we help preserve the natural beauty of our outdoor resources.

CITO began in 2003, when Geocachers from around the world organized 67 cleanup events in 5 countries. There were almost 1200 unique logs posted showing participation in these events, and hundreds more acted locally in recognition of this important day. The events were such a huge success that Groundspeak, parent of Geocaching.com, committed to carry on the tradition.

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We had a great day logging four EarthCaches!

We started the day early along our nearby coastline learning of striations, which are the gouges and grooves on the surface of sedimentary rock. These gouges were created by ice-borne debris collected at the base of a glacier about 25,000 to 14,000 years ago. Apparently the glacier acted like a giant bulldozer tearing and scraping anything in its path.

Next we learned about Karst topography which is a landscape feature that is characteristic of highly soluble bedrocks like limestone and evaporite deposits like gypsum and anhydrite. We found that the ground, though rocky, is quite crumbly. Not a scientific description but it was pretty cool!

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An early morning dawned crisp and clear as we stepped out of our home. It was a great day to snag those elusive local caches that we had avoided for so long. It is not that they are hard, at least we never expect them to be, it’s that we often leave the ones closer to home for a day like today, a day to saunter, a day to ‘smell the roses’. As we walked towards the park trail a startled deer took off across our path without a backward glance. A good sign for what the day would bring.

We turned on our GPSr and because of the clear sky it quickly locked on to the orbiting satellites. Once again we were connected.

As we walked we talked of how Geocaching had changed our lives. In the short time that we have been involved we have been to places we didn’t know existed, seen breath taking views, now share a new camaraderie with nature and have met countless of new friends.

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