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Our family began geocaching in April 2006 when Garrett got a GPS
for his birthday.
We first heard about geocaching about 3 years ago at a Bible
Retreat at Camp Hope in BC. A family went out Sabbath afternoon to look for a cache and we enjoyed hearing about
their adventure when they returned.
Then later that year, we went back to Camp Hope, this
time for the NAARA retreat, and a group of friends decided to go to the Othello Tunnels and look for a cache.
We joined them on the hike and laughed at the crazy things they would do to try and locate the cache.
Then last year, we met some families while on Pathfinder
outings who were into geocaching big-time. They also told of all the adventures they have while geocaching. So we decided
to try it. We have had a lot of fun meeting many interesting people and enjoy the many unusual places
geocaching takes us.
To read more about our Geocaching adventures and see more photos; visit our website dedicated
just to geocaching:
Curious Cardinals Geocaching Family Website
Below are some of our favorite caches . . .
In July, we went kayaking on Hosmer and Sparks Lakes near Bend Oregon and of course, there are several caches in that
area (there are caches everywhere!). These caches can only be reached by boat. The one on Hosmer was at the far
end of the lake and then also upstream about 1 mile. We ended up at a small waterfall, found the cache and enjoyed the
easy float back down stream to the lake. To get to the one on Sparks Lake, we had to beach our kayaks in a cove and
then hike about 1/2 mile through a rock canyon. It was really neat--just like a maze.
These two caches are close to our home. The one above is our first micro which was very hard to find. It
is a magnet and was attached underneath the picnic table. The one below is an old mine near Cranberry Lake on Fidalgo
Island. We enjoyed this one because we had been to Cranberry Lake numerous times and never known about the mine until
we read about it on geocaching.com.
The above cache was a multi-step cache. You find the first waypoint, which leads to another, and then the final.
We were with our homeschool group and the kids had a lot of fun working together trying to locate all the waypoints and
the cache. We actually never found the first waypoint but had enough hints/clues to find the final cache anyway.
The above cache was hidden near this "Kicking Machine." Bet you won't find one of these anywhere else in
the world!
The picture below was taken near the Park Butte Cache. We had to hike 8 miles round trip to this cache and the
trail took us near the base camp for climbing Mount Baker. It was a beautiful hike with gorgeous views of Mount Baker.
The above picture was taken near the Coleman Glacier on Mount Baker. The cache is hidden in the rocks just before
you get to the Glacier. This cache required a 6 mile hike round trip, included 4 river crossings, and an elevation
gain of 1500 feet. It was well worth the effort though because of the outstanding panoramic views, the cascading waterfalls,
and the many wildflowers.
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