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.