It’s the Same Old Story: Romancing the Geocacher
It’s the same old story.
Boy meets Girl. Boy takes Girl geocaching. Boy falls in love with Girl. Girl falls in love with geocaching. Eventually also warms up to Boy. Here are the 13 dates that made up this imaginary geocaching love story. This is a fictional account, so, basically steal any tips you find here to make your own moves on your potential geo-crush.
THE FIRST DATE
GC274GK
TamsinTugboat and I found this one on our walk through Discovery Park. I got us to GZ, but she
made the find (her first). Had a really great time, hope she did as well.
(Haven’t read her log yet…here’s crossing my fingers).
THE SECOND DATE
GC24H25
Cheers to making this incredibly tricky D3 cache my fifteenth! RusselltheSpaceman and I
spent the good portion of Sunday afternoon looking for this one. We gave up several times
and decided to re-energize with fresh pears from Pike’s Place Market. He convinced me
to try this really odd looking peanut butter drink. After that feat, finding this cache among all the
red-herrings was a piece of…gum!
THE THIRD DATE
GCPD31
Time to spice things up with some good ‘ole EarthCaches. Thanks for bringing
TamsinTugboat and I to this part of the world. Despite living across the water from it,
neither of us have made it out to Bainbridge Island very often. We had a heck of a time
figuring out whether this was glacial till, outwash, or silts and clays…but
guess who’s taken at least one geology course in college? (Hint, of the
two of us, it’s the prettier one.)
THE FOURTH DATE
GCWTP1
Let’s get one thing straight—I was not the one to suggest this 4am hike up Sun Top Mountain.
RusselltheSpaceman thought it would be “appropriate” to get to the top at sunrise, given
the name of the mountain. I thought it would be appropriate to sleep in.
Guess who thought wrong?
‘Twas a beautiful hike, I’ll admit, and this geocache was a worthy reward. TFTC.
THE FIFTH, SIXTH, AND SEVENTH DATES
GCPWDY (among others)
If a 4am hike to a geocache on top of a mountain to reach a ‘cache didn’t discourage
TamsinTugboat, I think it’s safe to say she’s hooked on geocaching. She came on this
three-day camping trip in the Cascades with me, so things must be going well. This cache
our fourth find of the trip, and the first island cache for both of us. The swim
was frigid, but there was no getting around that. Thanks for the T4 ‘cache!
THE EIGHTH DATE
GCK25B
Geocaching Headquarters on the eighth date?! Smooth move, my friend. Smooth move.
THE NINTH DATE
GC53PD0
I reached GZ with TamsinTugboat. We weren’t sure what to expect from a
Terrain 4 cache in the middle of a residential neighborhood. If we’d known we’d be
climbing this pine, we probably wouldn’t have worn flip-flops. Okay, so shoes off, and
up the tree we went, barefoot as Mowgli. Due to technical restrictions, we each
went up separately, but I caught this shot of TamsinTugboat waiting patiently for me to
get over my vertigo and climb down.
THE TENTH DATE
DNF
It was bound to happen eventually — the dreaded DNF. According to RusselltheSpaceman,
the streak of 45 finds and 0 DNFs we had going was unusual. Even when you know
you’ll have to DNF eventually, it’s hard to accept. But it’s a bit easier to accept when you’re
with a friend.
THE ELEVENTH & TWELFTH DATES
GC4DG0T
First Geocaching Mega event! TamsinTugboat and I took a road trip up to Saskatchewan
to attend this awesome event. Met so many other nice folks and found over twenty geocaches.
She’s almost caught up to me (has someone been geocaching alone on the side?!).
THE THIRTEENTH DATE
GC2WVHP
We came back to the park where we found our first cache to celebrate our 100th find together!
(Actually, this was my 140th find and RusselltheSpaceman’s 132nd find, but who’s
counting? Well, I am of course.) This EarthCache took us to the stunning sea bluffs at the edge
of Discovery Park, and as luck would have it the weather was gorgeous. From GZ we could
see the little lighthouse at West Point. I’d love to someday restore that old lighthouse to
live in. Beautiful buildings like that deserve loving inhabitants. Answers to the required
questions have been sent off to the cache owner. We’re both crossing our fingers on this one.
