Geocaching with "thepaytons"

Yesterday, on January 9th, we decided to try a new hunting ground.  Nearby, there is a group of ballparks paid for by a local Lion’s Club.  The first cache we sought was quite properly named "Entrance to the Lion’s Den, II"  We did some searching around, but didn’t find it.  Part of the problem was, again, I didn’t make a note of what we were trying to find; this time, another micro. 

There are two other caches near the park, so we moved on.

The next we tried looking for is called "Take Me Out to the Ball Park", and it’s in the woods at the back of the park.  We ventured down a small embankment, got our bearings, and started searching.  We did this for about 10 minutes in the light-snow-dusted woods.

At one point, my older daughter stepped on something that didn’t seem to be the ground or a branch.  She bent down, and realized she’d found it.

We now knew what an "ammo box" looks like; another common storage for caches (durable and rather weather-proof).  We opened it up and sifted through the contents. 

In keeping with the name of the cache, there were a number of balls in it (tennis, baseball, wiffle ball), as well as some other items.  Generally speaking, you’re not going to find incredibly valuable items in a cache.  It’s more the thrill of the hunt, and seeing what is actually in it.  You typically bring something to put in and take something out.

We noticed a wooded coin that said "Semper Gumby / See You Down The Trail" with an image of the old Gumby cartoon character on it.  On the coin was written a number and a date, likely a unique number and when it started circulating.  We thought at the time that this could be one of those trackable items that can be moved from cache to cache, and it’s progress can be tracked on the geocaching web site.  (I found out later that this particular one was not actually trackable, and was likely a special signature item that one particular geocacher places in caches they find.  I also found out that "Semper Gumby" is intended to mean "Always flexible".)

One interesting thing that we almost took was a film canister that held a plastic garbage bag, and a label on the outside saying that this was to support the "Cache In Trash Out" project.  The point was that you would take the bag out of the canister, clean up the area around the cache with it, then take the canister home, put a bag back in it, and put it in some other cache.  Of course, the CITO initiative suggests cleaning up around any cache, film canister or not, but it was an interesting way of keeping it fun.

But we took the coin and left a Christmas wreath ornament that includes two nails in the shape of a cross.  We then signed the log and posed for a picture at our first find that included stuff to trade.

Fresh from this, we decided to take on one more, the Lilburn Liar’s Cache.  The description of the environment around the cache and how to retrieve it is rather funny.

This cache is hidden in a completely inaccessible portion of the park. You will need to bring climbing gear, spelunking gear, rappelling gear, a submarine, and some extreme cold weather gear.

Even during the winter, you should bring a rocket launcher
to shoot down mosquitoes that are the size of small dogs and come in swarms capable of sucking all blood from a cow in less two minutes. You may wish to wear a full chemical/
radiological/biological contamination suit (MOPP 4) and approach this cache via air with an Apache helicopter.

This cache is also guarded by a giant serpent, for REAL!

Good luck and I hope you come back alive.

Well, we used the GPS to get us to the general location and started rooting around.  At one point, however, my older son decided that that the line "This cache is also guarded by a giant serpent, for REAL!" probably meant something, so (without giving any spoilers) he returned to a spot in the area that looked like it fit the description (a spot we’d previously passed by) and instantly found it.

In this we found another "Semper Gumby" coin, so we just traded the one we found with this one, and thought we’d be able to add entries for two coins.  (Though, as I said, not really.)  We again signed the log (I did, with my frozen hands), put it back, and enjoyed the fact that we’d found two caches in one day.

Lots of fun for the whole crew.  Yeah, most of the stuff is dollar-store-type things, but it really is mostly the hunt.