Chemo Pond

If there's one thing I love better than geocaching, it's geocaching with people who have never been before.  I had a great time introducing my favorite activity to a few coworkers who had never been and some who had never heard of geocaching.  Usually when geocaching, you want to try to avoid muggles.  If you have read the Harry Potter books, you know that muggles are non-magical people.  In geocahing, muggles are non-geocachers.  Luckily, these weren't any old muggles, but good friends who were genuinely interested in knowing more about the art of treasure hunting.

Every summer, a group of educators get together at a camp on Chemo Pond.  We use it as a retreat and a place to unwind after a hard year's work.  We bring our kayaks so that we can see paddle around the lake and see the beaver dams.  We bring our sleeping gear and of course, plenty of food.  This year, my favorite treat was chocolate fudge with nuts and cherries. 

Last year-kayaking by the beaver dam

This year was special because one of our veteran teachers, and my mentor for the past three years, decided to retire.  I've been talking to her about geocaching all year and she has decided not only to start a geocaching account herself, but to also use her newly acquired free time to start writing a murder-mystery novel about geocaching.  She even got a handheld GPS as a retirement present to herself. 

On Saturday afternoon, the group started asking me questions about geocaching and I dug out my bag and box of Pathtags and TravelBugs.  After a few minutes of Q&A, we decided to go out and actually hunt for one.  Not far from where we stayed was Camp Roosevelt, a place where the Boy Scouts of the area come to camp and participate in different activities.  We were fortunate enough to have a Boy Scout leader with us to lead us in the right direction.  She showed us the trails and told stories of snowshoeing and hiking. 

Our first two tries led us down the wrong paths, although we did get to see the lake and a small cabin.  As they say, third time's a charm.  We walked through a mud patch and started down a third trail.  Our friend Patrice was navigating using the handheld GPS.  It was funny listening to the excitement in her voice as the distance to our destination got less.  "Fifty feet...forty feet...TEN FEET!"  Stepping off the path, there were many places where a geocache could have been hidden.  There were enormous rocks the size of sheds and plenty of trees.  Our only real obstacle was the bugs.  Four sets of feet shuffled through the leaves in search of a camo taped container with contents unknown. 

Only moments into the search, Patrice squealed in delight as she reached into a dark crevice to retrieve the plastic jar.  We congratulated Patrice and with great excitement, unscrewed the lid and peered inside.  Reading the log, we discovered that the cache hadn't been found in over eight months.  You would have thought by our reactions that there were valuable gems hidden inside.  We marveled at the magnetic band-aids, which we took, coins, pins, and a Boy Scout coin.  We left a coin as well as a bracelet in return. 

Although we were wet, muddy, and bitten by bugs, everyone agreed that they had a fun time geocaching.  Weather or not they said that to make me feel good, I'm not sure :)