"Log your Dog" ... Yep! You can!

Meet Max. My GeoPup!  He's still a baby, and he has a lot to learn in regards to geocaching and helping me find all the caches we can.  I've only had him a month or so, therefore he hasn't really been on any adventures with me yet, only because I haven't had any time to go play.  

focused on that puppachino

Work.  It really interferes with the fun part of life.  So Max hasn't really been introduced to the geocaching concept at this point.  But come warm weather (yeah, I really don't cache much in the winter),  trust me, he'll be a professional in no time.  So far, he's been learning to not play bite, walk on his leash without tripping me up, and the big one, remembering I am not an animal that needs to be herded!  I never realized how tender the back of your heels can get by those little love nips!  No wonder the cows go where the cattle dogs want them to go.....sheesh!  On this day --> he was lucky enough to get his very first Puppachino at Dutch Bros.  He was in heaven, with a whipped cream overload.   But the reason for my post.... did you know you can turn your 4 legged geopup into your very own trackable?  WHAAAAAAT??? Yep, you can!   I was browsing the geocaching website a couple of months ago, looking for the trackable hoodie (watch for my blog post about my trackables), and, imagine my surprise when I saw this "Log your Dog" trackable tag!!! How stinking cute is this!?  I had to have 

cutest tag ever!!!

it, naturally, and one for Squinch:) as well.  I put it on his leash, so that when ever we go caching, he'll have it on.  If we go to an Event, he'll have it on.  I can't wait to take him to a CITO event, and let everyone discover him.  It's funny, how just buying this tag has made me want to get out there more.  Is it because I have a puppy to take along?  Or because my puppy is now an actual game piece in this world wide game we call geocaching?  Or simply because now I have ONE MORE reason to go?  Whatever the reason, I just want to go.  Everyday.  With Max. Just as soon as he gets a little better about riding in the car.  He really has to realize, that is a huge part of geocaching.  I mean, I bought him this tag so he could go with me, after all. And since we live in the middle of wheat field country, we have to DRIVE!  I've already found all the close ones ... now they are all at least 50 miles away.  That requires getting in the big red thing with wheels.  Which so far he isn't too keen on.  But, he'll get there. He will. I hope. 

Ok, time to fess up.  I actually bought the tag about 2 months before we got the dog.  But, I knew I was GONNA get a dog! I thought she'd be a female named Annie.  I had it all planned out.  I didn't really want a puppy, with work, no time to train one.  Then we saw this fella at the rescue center, and well, the dog turned into a puppy.  The male turned into a female, and Annie became Max.  It's all good tho because he is such a sweet thing.  And I can already tell, he is gonna be one heck of a geocaching partner! SO now, you know.  If you have a pup that goes caching with you, or you're thinking of getting one even, rush over to the geocaching website, and get yourself a new trackable!  Put it on your 4 legged caching partner and get out there and let him/her be discovered!

               

                           and now feel free..... to LOG MY DOG!!!!!

GSMQPW feel free to discover

  

Life ... with my muggle!

 Muggle. Noun. A person who is not familiar with a certain subject.  A word I had never paid attention to. Being a non "Harry Potter" folk, I guess I WAS one?? I mean, my girls have all watched the movies.  I just never have (no judgement please).  And even though I must have heard the word, it was never important, until I learned that's what a "non-geocacher" was called.  That's when the 'A-HA' moment hit me.  My husband and I found our first one together, thanks to our daughter, Cassie. (Read my previous post about my first cache and our Blair Witch experience!).  I'll admit it was exciting to think about us loving this hobby together.  Just imagine the fun we could have, and places we could go!

But, back at camp, when us gals were looking on the laptop for more, and all the fellas were like "Oh NO!" ... and my fella just looked at the other fellas and jokingly said "I'm just wondering how much this is gonna cost me?".  Yeah.  I knew I was in it by myself lol.  And that's ok!  He takes me to find them. And he walks up mountains and hikes trails with me, too.  Heck, he's even found a few before I did! But mostly, he'll be waving from the front seat, or like in this particular instance, reading his book.  When we pulled into this rest area, I remember saying I was going to check to see if there was a cache here. Duh.  Of course there was, almost every rest area has one.  BUT, what was exciting to me was the fact that a trackable had just been dropped here earlier in the day!  I don't think he shared in my enthusiasm, but that's ok, because I was

I found it!

excited enough for the both of us.  I start my search following the arrow on my phone app, and it takes me to the end of the rest area where all the scrub brush is.  As excited as I am, thinking of the TB, I'm evenly nervous about rattle snakes.  It's hot and this is their territory.  As I follow the trail, and get closer to ground zero, I look around, and spot my treasure!  And it's an ammo box, which means it could have trade items in it.  Now remember, I'm alone, and my muggle is way back at the table, engrossed in his book.  It doesn't matter.  Even when I'm all by myself, I still whoop and make noise when I find a cache.  Then glance around to see if anyone saw me.  Sheesh, I'm in the middle of NOWHERE!  Who could possible see?  As I peek inside, I spy the 

The trackable was still there!

familiar chain and dog-tag associated with a trackable, and squeal yet once more!  And can you believe it?  I again looked to make sure no one was looking.  At this point, I am absolutely giddy!  Because for one, I found the cache, AND all by myself.  I've only started caching by myself just recently.  And for two, I FOUND A TRACKABLE!!!!  I look through the rest of the trade items, make a swap, and sign the log.  I tuck everything back as I found it, making sure the cache is hidden, and start making my way back.  And even though I am still on the lookout for snakes, I have a spring in my step.  Nothing beats that feeling of accomplishment you get when you search, find, sign and replace.  Well, maybe somethings do.  But not today!  As I walk up to Jim, he  

Treasures inside the trackable

asks if I found it.  I proudly shout "yes" and show him my prize. I'm not sure if I expected him to jump up and shout, or give me a high five or what, but I now know how excited a (my) muggle can really get.  On a scale of 1 - 10, he was maybe a 5?  Doesn't he realize that you don't just find these things willy nilly?  I mean, they are hard to come by!  He watches me giggle and looks on with interest as I examined the trackable.  It's a pill case with a hole drilled through the center and there's a chain threaded through it. After looking through the contents, I can't help but feel that there's a reason for these items, so I make a mental note to look it up when I get home (see below). I can't wipe the smile off of my face, and for the duration of the drive home, all I can think about is telling DDCA and Clairum that I found a trackable!  THEY'LL get it!  So.  That's how it is when I'm caching with my muggle.  

On our waterfall hike

He rides along.  Gets a few pages read in his book, or waves at me out the drivers side window.  Sometimes when I seriously can't find one,  and I just keep looking, he patiently just sits and waits.  He really is pretty cool about it lol.  I'm also patient with his 'lack' of geocaching enthusiasm, because he does lots of OTHER stuff with me.  Road trips, shopping weekly for work, watching my reality TV shows,  hiking a 3 mile waterfall loop, he even got on a bike to see if he might want to buy one!  I'm pretty sure he knows that if he does get one, we'll be caching while riding!  So all in all, life with my muggle's not too bad.  He trudges along with me, smiles at my giddiness and takes it all in stride.   At the end of the day, I think I'll keep him!!💓

*July 28, 2014

*When I logged this Travel Bug, and read the description, my heart smiled.  It did indeed brighten my day!  Also, since this is not my trackable, I have blacked out the tracking number.  

"This has a hitchhiker with a Lego and a marble in it. These were two of my son's favorite things, collecting marbles and playing Legos. While he can no longer enjoy them hopefully they can brighten someone else's day as they travel. Please don't pick it up unless you can keep it moving, Thanks."
  

A cache for Squinch:)

Just two gals and a cache

 When I started Geocaching it was with my daughters and grandkids.  One daughter showed me my first one.  (Read past posts to learn about our Blair Witch cache).  Then I quickly got my other daughters interested, and it went from there. We would cache all the time. But we all have that thing called life.  And it gets in the way of the fun stuff sometimes.  For me, that life is our business.  We bought a bar in 2011, and for the past 3 years we have had zero employees.  So it's just my muggle and I, 6 days a week from open till close.  And on that seventh day?  Well, we shop for the bar, we clean the bar, and maybe have time at home to wash the underwear and pet the new puppy (who already has his own "log-the-dog" tag).  The point is, those fun afternoons caching with daughters and grandkids are few and far between these days. Enter Squinch:).  Don't get me wrong, I still love

"I got it!"  "No I got it!"

 grabbing an afternoon with a 'DDCA', 'Clairum and the bean', 'MammaMissa', "han~geo", well you get the picture. Those afternoons take some planning now.   But for those impromptu quick "let's go grab a cache?" days? Squinch:) is the one I call.  We've done day trips.  We've just ran and grabbed one.  We work on challenges together. Just last month we took a road trip to N. Bonneville, Washington to do the "Bonneville Bigfoots Geotour" (blog post coming soon.) We cached on the way, and we cached on the way back! She is my geo-buddy for sure.  We've had some DNF's, and we've also, while looking for a cache that was part of a series on Mullan Road in the Idaho mountains, called out "Got it!" at the same time.  Yep, two caches at that location.  We LOOK  for chances to grab a cache!   So, imagine our frustration when we discovered that we were both going to be vacationing in Lincoln Beach, Oregon, but a week apart!  Yep, I was going first, and I'd be able to wave at her when we passed each other while I was on my way home and she was on her way there.  I mean, c'mon.  It's not like I wasn't going to be able to geocache while I was there.  That's not it at all.  I wasn't sure SHE would be able to geocache while She was there.  Her muggle at the time, yeah, different than my muggle.  So, that's when I came up with a plan.

The perfect place to put this....

I took a plastic chocolate covered almond jug from Costco (everyone has thought of using one of those for a cache container, right?), and every time I saw something that I thought she would like, I stuck it in there.  Just little mementos to make her smile.  A keychain.  Some candy.  A magnet I think.  I don't know,  Just stuff.  And then I waited.  One of the parks we were caching at was proving difficult.  The cache was supposed to be by an old picnic table all overgrown in the weeds.  We looked and looked,  and then decided we had to log a DNF.  Discouraged, as we started to leave, I was like, no WAIT!!  This is perfect!  So, I wrote a note. 

...right here!

"If you're not Becky, then this isn't the cache!  Keep

looking!  Please put this one back, it's for Becky!"  I tucked it nice and snug down in the thick bushes, covered it with some branches and pinecones, and hoped for the best. I got out my phone, and checked the coordinates, and then I checked them twice.  That all done, I sent my friend a text, told her I hid a surprise for her and to go HERE!  I did give her the name of the Park, I mean she needed a clue at least. I also warned her about the other side of the park, and knew she'd be thankful that I didn't decide to hide this cache for her over there.  We also logged that one as a DNF because of the bees.  We did not know it was well guarded until it was too late, and they sent us running for cover.   Decided the little buggers could just have it. The rest of our vacation week flew by fast, because that's what vacations do.   So, we pack up.  Make the drive home, and even though I did look for their car, to wave, yeah, that didn't happen lol.  I remember hoping that if someone DID find it, they would be honest and put it back for her.  I also hoped that the coordinates were right, because we both know what a wild goose chase that could have been.  We been there before!

Mission accomplished!

I got a text from her a few days later.  It took a couple days for her to make it to the park.  She found it, and LOVED it.  I was so happy that I could make this lady smile like that!    And I learned something.  You don't have to physically be with your geo-buddy to cache with them.  All you have to do is use your imagination. Well, and eat all those chocolate covered almonds, buy silly little trinket crap that doesn't cost much, trek through some bees and bushes, check your latitude and longitude, write a sappy note, send a quick text and then let nature take it's course.   Easy Peasy!

*July 2018*