Undercover Cache

Seriously???  And what does D3Y mean?

July 30, 2012 -- With the success of finding Happy we decided to take a chance on one of our most devious DNFs.  The cache behind the shopping center.  We knew it was an "imposter cache" but it was listed as 1 for terrain (very true) and 1 for difficulty.  Very NOT true.  I suppose if you were used to seeing these types of caches, maybe it would've been easier, but for the neo-geo, this kind of thing is not an ordinary cache.  AND we'd already done two of the other imposters in the series.  There is a fourth, but we really haven't tried for that one yet.  The other two were as tough as this one but had a difficulty of 2.5.  I think this one should've been at least that difficulty as well.  So back to the same site we'd already been to two other times.  Luckily we had no muggles nearby, but unluckily, the dumpsters REALLY needed to be emptied.  There was a total sickly rotted smell coming from them.  Like rotting fish.  Ugh!  It was hard to stay focused when that smell was wafting around the area.  Could it be a rock, a stick, a leaf, a switch box, a lock, a branch??  We were all being driven crazy.  I circled the area several times, then finally for some reason I started to pull at the stickers on the electrical box.  One seemed to pull off very easily.  Lo and behold UNDERNEATH the magnetic sticker that had the letters DY3 on it was the cache which consisted of a very tiny plastic bag and a strip of paper for a log.  Why did I mess with the sticker?  I don't know.  But there you go, it was indeed "in plain sight" as the hint said, but who would think to look under a series of nonsensical letters and numbers on a piece of equipment.  It just looked like a code for the big box.  Imposter, indeed!

Happy to have Happy

Our new recruit was the eagle eye that found it.

 July 30, 2012 - This one was a long time coming.  We were attempting to finish up the Snow White cache.  We still had Happy, Doc, and Sleepy to go.  Happy was very elusive for us.  We'd tried for Happy once before and spent close to an hour looking for him to no avail.  There were five sets of eyes, but no one could find him.  Needless to say, none of us were very---happy----about not finding Happy.  When two of your party of five start whining about going home and not looking any more you need to cut your losses and move on.  So we did.  Fast forward about two weeks.  I had this cache on my watchlist.  I had tried to email the owner about the cache to make sure that the big storm at the end of June didn't mess up the cache.  I never heard back from the CO so I put it on the watchlist.  FINALLY, yesterday, someone found it!  Of course, as with most cachers, the findee was lazy about his log.  He wrote Good hike, nice trail,

The hidden cache

Where we THOUGHT it probably was (or underneath all that)

TFTC.  No info whatsoever.  Thanks.   I like when people write something that helps me out just a little bit, like -- tricky hide or not exactly where the GZ coords are, something like that.  Oh well.  At least someone had finally found it.  I called my geocaching buddies to coordinate a new rescue mission.  They were up for it and so was I.  One of our group declined to go, but he's a teenager so I'm so not surprised.  Back to the same spot.  The GPS was still consistent in where it was leading us. The thing that threw us off the most was the fact that it was sending us to an area nearby that was just devastated by the storm.  Lots of trees down, leaves, branches, sticks, etc.  We thought that maybe the cache was in the tree and was now underneath all that mess.  The find by the fellow geocacher yesterday gave us the renewed hope we needed to give it another shot.  In the midst of us once again discussing where it could be--arguing about whether or not it could be up a tree, our eagle eyed friend was saying, "Excuse me, excuse me.  I think I may have found it."  Finally we all turned around and there he was, cache in hand, with Happy smiling like a Cheshire cat, and so was our buddy!  GREAT FIND!  So we can check that off our list of "can't find but we'll be back - CFBWBB"  Still have a couple more on that list, but Happy is not one of them!

The Lorax Gang and our new recruit celebrating the find.

Johns Stash Cache - Not a Cache and Dash

Dear sister with her web whacking wand

THAT'S A STUMP?

July 29, 2012 -- Yowzah!  Okay, first of all, again, I did NOT read the car coordinates at first.  So we drove and parked to where I thought we should start.  But there was no entry spot into the woods and you can't just go tromping through somebody's yard (although I have done that, but ONLY as a last resort when The Lorax Gang and I were hopelessly lost and it was getting dark) but I digress.  Anyway, we came back to the car, reread the coordinates for parking, put the coordinates into our car GPS and went there. Again, not a good place as far as I'm concerned.  We got as far as a horse trail and turned around since there was no way to get INTO the woods unless we had had hacksaws and axes.  We didn't.  Finally we went to a deadend road and it showed us as being about 800 ft. away.  Perfect.  So we went into the woods and started walking.  Okay, we ended up in someone's yard and then came back and followed the GPS.  It did tend to bounce quite a bit due to the tree cover, but FINALLY we got to within about 20 ft.  A BIG thanks for the hints, fellow geocachers, otherwise I know this would have been a DNF for me and my sister!   But we did find it and swapped out an Avenger bouncy ball for a soccer ball.  Of course, the inevitable happened afterwards--once again I couldn't find our way back to the car. We ended up having to use my iPhone Google maps to find our way back. So basically we needed three different GPS units to accomplish this cache! God I love technology!!!

Victoria Sprung

Sister dear with her very first find

July 29, 2012 -- Since my dear husband and son went to an Orioles game today and the Lorax Gang was busy I was going to be on my own--unless I could convince my dear sister to accompany me.  Since she's been retired for all of one month, she jumped at the chance to go.  She's up for any kind of adventure as long as it doesn't include any type of WORK -- fun only for her -- at least for awhile.  So we started slow with a cache one street over from where she lives.  She was surprised, as most new geocachers are, to find that there are caches right in your own backyard--so to speak.  Once you start, you find that they are just about everywhere these days (well, in highly populated areas, that is).  As usual, though, I got myself and my sister lost while trying to track it down. We went through one set of woods before coming out and realizing it was in another set of woods. In the second set of woods it was really easy to find. I have to agree with the recent logger who says this one needs maintenance. There was water in the container. No holes, but the top really doesn't fit well. Sister dear was excited at the adventure of it all.  We left an Avenger bouncy ball and took a monkey toy. TFTC!!! k back to the car because, of course, I parked much farther away than I had to.  THIS is how I end up getting so much exercise from geocaching.  The cache is in need of some maintenance because it was wet in the cache.  The top didn't really fit very well on the cache.  A new container is probably in order for this one.

Easy Cache -- Easy Money

Signing the log

Cache among the rocks

Rocks, rocks, and more rocks is right!

July 28, 2012 -- This was the second cache that we found on this day.  I had originally gone for a completely different cache, but no matter where we went on the path, we didn't seem to be gettinjg any closer.  So we decided to give up our initial cache and just go for the two closer ones.  The first cache was relatively simple to find (see previous log). This was more of a challenge but after awhile you get a sixth sense about where geocachers are going to hide their caches.  The hint was about rocks and it was a good hint! We  left a basketball squishy ball and took a Cars notebook. We liked the log book.  The title of the cache makes sense now.  Of course, our hardest cache of the day was still ahead of us -- finding our way back to our car.  I really, REALLY have to figure out how to use waypoints on my GPS.   It would certainly help in times like these.  We did find our car without HUGE problems.  Knowing that both dear husband and I both have no sense of direction, the waypoints would be a huge help.  That's my next challenge in my geocaching career.

Looking West from Sugarloaf

Searching for the cache

Could it be???

AH HA!

What to choose -- the doorknob, the business card or the rock? 

July 28, 2012 - Sugarloaf Mountain - West Overlook -- Here's the typical way we cache: Don't read the description of where to park. Use the GPS to figure out the closest place to park near the cache. Am usually WRONG. Head for the cache you intend to grab but find that as you travel you are getting no closer. Obviously you are circling your prey. Okay, now look at your GPS and realize there is actually ANOTHER cache in the area that's closer than the original cache you were looking for. So you decide to find that one instead. Now you realize that you have to leave the path and go straight up the side of the hill. Full bushwhacking ensues including a terrifying moment as your trampling sounds flush out a herd of deer that you are convinced is a grizzly bear. Finally you are close to your prey and your GPS tells you that you are mere feet away. HUZZAH! You FOUND IT!! Smile! Take a photo of your with the cache. Open the cache only to find out that all the good stuff has been taken and no is keeping with the geocaching motto of putting back as good or better than you take. Put the cache back as it was, climb down, turn the corner, and find out you are right next to a parking lot that you could've parked in rather than hiked for 3/4 of a mile through the bramble infested, spider-webbed, rock strewn, thorny woods. Sound familiar to anyone else???

We left a Bride and Groom TB since this cache has people coming to it pretty regularly. Please move it along and PLEASE only take as good as you put in to the cache! It makes it more fun for everyone. Plastic army men just are not cutting it, neither are girls pony tail holders or a....DOORKNOB???  Come on, people, can we try a little harder?  And a rock, a rock??? A ROCK???  We are SURROUNDED BY A BAJILLION ROCKS.  Wow.  The irony.

Walking the Path of History

Okay, who's going to stick their hand in there?

Pony TB poses by the Woodlawn Manor horsies

July 22, 2012 - The second cache of our day was on the Slave Trail of the Underground Railroad in Silver Spring near Woodlawn Manor.  We have been here SO MANY times for caches!  We even have an appointed place to put the bamboo stick we use as a "magic wand" for getting rid of spider webs as we geocache.  This one we found without too much trouble and without any snakes. I call that a WIN-WIN!  It was a really nice path and a good hike although it was probably a lot longer than it had to be due to our navigation errors on where to park. We had major trouble actually figuring out where to begin this and it took us three tries driving, parking, and walking before we ended up at Woodlawn Manor. We first parked at Sandy Spring Friends School and even got on the right trail but we were afraid we were on the Adventure Park "no trespassing" area so we left and went to Woodlawn Manor where we were positive that the Slave Trail is.  It turns out that 3/4 of the way through our hike we ended up RIGHT at the same place we started when we parked at the Sandy Spring Friends School so obviously we were on the "right track" with that trail and it would've ended up being a much easier hike! No matter though, it was a nice day, not too hot, and the trail was great. We found the cache without any problems. The Lorax Gang took the Pony tracker bug and I took Waldo. Now I know where he is! We left a Gnome tracker bug and a cool bouncy ball that lights up.  Of course taking so long on the trail meant that we all were going to be late for our next event which was a cook-out at the pool, but as you know, geocaching ALWAYS takes precedence!