First Hide...Attu Island, Alaska

I wonder how long it will be before this Cache is found. It's such a remote area with nothing but mountain terrain. It's a WWII historical spot, but there are no residents. There was a USCG Loran Station there, but with new technology, loran isn't needed anymore, so they're packing out.

Anyway, Jeremy is one of the people disconnecting all the technology.

He and the rest of his station here in Kodiak helped put together this cache. It's mostly CG themed with a few gaming and office supplies. It's a pretty cool box...worth going to find for those die hard geocachers out there.

It's not officially posted on geocaching.com yet, but in the next week or two it will be.

The cache is an ammo box filled with all sorts of goodies.

Amongst the small items - super glue, stamp, expired ID card, razor, batteries, Allen wrench, and paperclips - there are some cool collectibles - special PS2 controller, Mario energy drink can, and a Donkey Kong energy drink can - and of course some coast guard memorabilia. With the USCG items, this is a big deal. Besides the USCG mini rubber life tube, the ESU Kodiak COIN is a high honor to receive. Normally given to an active duty CG who does something outstanding, the Chief at the ESU decided it was worthy to be put inside a geocache box. Whoever finds this box must consider themselves very honored if they decide to take that coin. Also, there are two Chief Stripe Patches in the box previously belonging to a USCG Chief. These are also USCG special treasures to not be taken lightly if removed from the box.

If you are a die hard geocacher, this is a MUST to go find this box. It's worth your boat or plane ride to this deserted island. Be the first person to find a geocache in the farthest Westward point on the map. Take something very cool to leave as there are many great treasures to be found in this cache.

I'll leave the rest up to your imagination...

HAPPY CACHING!!!

Springy Moss

You guessed it...the next cache on our list is titled "Springy Moss."

Right after we couldn't find "Tripple 7," we drove to the next location NEAR Ft. Abercrombie on Parkside Dr.
 

The hike was easy, but a bit lengthier than the last two. Again, I never knew this hiking trail existed. It's more in a residential area it seems, but it is a public trail.
 

Anyway, we came to a beautiful viewpoint where the GPS told us to stop. Only a few paces off the trail, and at the right angle, it's EASY to spot this geocache, but if you're a muggle, you probably won't find it. ;p

SPOILER PICTURE AHEAD:

Inside we found many little matchbox/hot wheel cars, some pins...nothing spectacular. We took a little toy tractor and a little rubber snake and left a fortune cookie fortune from lunch earlier in the day, a few stickers from my scrapping supplies, and the 62 'Vette Tracking Bug.

So ended our first day of geocaching. Two found, one not found, about 64 more to find...on Kodiak that is.

Fail

Once we realized how much we LOVE this activity, we went back home and recorded the coordinates of the next two places we wanted to find a cache.

This one is called "Tripple 7"

 

Not very far off the main road is where the GPS told us to go, however, after searching for several minutes, we found nothing but the remains of a vagabond's campsite. It's possible that we just didn't see it, but our guess is that since it was so close to the main trail and there were several camping remnants, a non geocacher found the box and took it.

There is a word that I know which I have heard other geocachers use to describe non-geocachers. Since I am a HP fan, I will adopt the word and also use it to describe non-geocachers...AKA: Muggles.

So...it is very possible that a muggle found the cache and took it, not knowing that it was part of a worldwide game.

Our Very First Find

     On the geocaching website, you can input your location and it will tell you the coordinates of all of the geocaches in your area. Today is day one of our geocaching adventures and we started out by looking for one.

     The person who originally hid the box created a name for the geocache. It's called "Around We Go."

     The website gives you a general area of where to go to look for it, but once you get to the street or area, the GPS is your guide. All we knew when we left our house was the coordinates and that we needed to go to Near Island. Once there, we found a place to park and embarked on our journey. The GPS took us on a winding path. We came to certain spots where it looked like we'd have to venture off into the brush, but then took us to another side road.

     Eventually we ended up at a picnic area sponsored by the local rotary club - a quaint little spot with a beautiful view that we NEVER would have known existed.

     From there we took a hiking trail which was quite refreshing. Anyone who can walk a mile could do this easy. After winding through the trail a little ways, the GPS led us off the path a little ways where we began our search for a little object that looked out of place.

SPOILER AHEAD:

On the backside of a large tree, buried under a few rocks in the root of a tree there was a zip lock bag with a Tupperware container inside. Our first Geocache: FOUND.

END SPOILER.

     It's almost like Christmas. We found all sorts of little goodies inside including a little iron man figurine, a smoky the bear pin, a wooden geocaching coin, and a 1962 Corvette Travel Bug, among some other small items.

     Of course we HAD to take the travel bug. We have to send it on it's way; it's on a race to see who can travel the farthest between a guy, his son, and his brother. The bug originated in Florida in June, 2008, and from there, traveled to Georgia, Oregon, California, back to Oregon, and is now doing a stint in Kodiak, Alaska as of August, 2010. 

     Besides the 'Vette, we took the Smoky the bear pin. In their places, we left an Oregon pine cone from the Willamette National Forest, and a USCG pin.

     During our venture back to the car, we discussed the rush we felt after finding the treasure...we decided we're hooked and would love to try and find all or most of the 67 in Kodiak, besides hiding a few of them ourselves.

     It was a wonderful first Geocache and a great start to exploring the island...even though we've been here over a year now.

Geocaching...What an Awesome Idea!

WARNING: BLOG MAY CONTAIN TYPED AND VISUAL SPOILERS TO GEOCACHE LOCATIONS.

Bold info retrieved from www.Geocaching.com:

Getting Started with Geocaching

Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache's existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS device can then try to locate the geocache.

     What a fun idea...I think I had heard of it before, but never really felt interest in pursuing it until the other day when my husband, Jeremy, told me he was placing a cache box in Attu, Alaska - the little island at the end of the Aleutian Chain. He said it will be the first geocache Box on the island, and the farthest West you can go in the North American Continent.


      Then he told me that there are 67+ caches on the island of Kodiak alone and that we should go try and find some. So what we did yesterday was went out in search of a couple. Out of the three we were looking for, we found two, and now we're hooked. What a perfect opportunity to get out and see parts of the island that we never thought to explore before. And with the help of GPS, we won't have to worry about getting lost...just eaten by a bear. And with the Coast Guard giving us the opportunity to live in exciting new places every few years, who knows how many locations we can find these little treasure boxes in?

     How it works is you find boxes (usually a Tupperware container or other leak proof container) hidden in places that the geocacher would think to look, but the common hiker, passerby, or cleanup crew wouldn't. Inside the box, there are a bunch of little treasures (like a novelty coin, a matchbox car, key chain, stickers, etc.) There's also a log book where you write your name and a few comments and what you took from and left in the box. You want to leave something of equal or greater value than what you took. Then you place the box back in it's hidden home and leave it of the next geocacher to find. You can choose to keep a treasure you found, our you can move it to the next box. Then you can log your find on the internet just like you wrote in the log book to let people all over the world that you found a cache. Occasionally, you'll find what's called a travel bug or geocoin. These are little individual key chains or coins with a tracking number on them and it asks you to log that you found it and also log when you put it in a new cache box. These treasures are not for keeping as the original owner(s) of the tracker usually has a goal for the item to travel great distances and see many places and possibly make it back to them in the future.

     This blog will be all about our adventures geocaching together...In addition to logging our findings on www.geocaching.com, I'd love to blog about it in hopes to get more people involved in this awesome adventurous activity! And please take note if you already are a geocacher, this blog may contain spoilers and pictures showing the hiding spot of certain caches. If you find one of these little treasures and you don't geocache, please don't take, alter, or hide it somewhere else. Keep this a fun family activity.

     Enjoy our blog and happy hiking!!!