I have recently become enthralled with geocaching due largely to @mdhugo’s influence. We’ve never gone hunting together, but after I saw that he was into it, I did some researching and decided to try it out.  My first adventure was with my kids and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  I purchased the Geocaching app from the iTunes store for $10. It was well worth the investment as it allows you to not only view all geocaches near your current location (or search by zip code) but it lets you view all the logs, tips/hints, and even record that you found it. The iPhone GPS is hit or miss but is generally accurate within about 10 feet.  It hasn’t proven to be a problem until today.

My friend @tgrossner and I had talked on Saturday about going out hunting. He too purchased the iPhone app.  We met at the QT in Wentzville near Hwy 61 and Hwy A. He jumped into @vikversa and off we went. Our first 2 caches were relatively easy and kept us within the Wentzville area. The 2nd one, Tim even spotted as we drove up to the site. As we sat and looked for our 3rd cache, we decided on one that was about 2.5 miles away in Lake St. Louis. It was near a park but not close to a road so we figured it might be a little bit harder.

We got to the general vicinity, parked the car, and walked our way toward the marker. As we came to a line of woods, we realized there was still another 200 feet or so before we reached the marker. There was a small clearing that appeared to resemble a trail so we took it. About 100 feet in, we took a trek off the path and began thrashing through the brush. It became quickly apparent that the level of difficulty that the owner of this cache ranked it as (2 on a 1-5 scale) was grossly misjudged. Up until now, neither of us had bothered to look at the logs or description.

A creek creeped up on us and the solution to crossing it wasn’t easily seen. I found a log that went across it. I stepped out on it with one foot to test it’s stability. It bounced and the opposite side barely rest on another tree coming out of the ground. Tim didn’t find it to be safe but I decided to try it anyways. As I put all my weight on my right leg to jump across, the log broke and fell to the water…along with me. There I am soaking wet up my legs from splashing into the creek and Tim’s laughing his butt off…naturally. I would have laughed too. The log was now in a more stable position for him to take a lunging step off of to get to the other side.

According to our iPhones, we were virtually on top of the cache.  After my last geocaching outing, I had decided that since the iPhone 3G I have lacks a fully functional compass, I brought an analog one. This ended up being a worthwhile forethought, but didn’t ultimately help us find it. Tim and I searched for nearly 45 minutes within a 50-60 feet radius. I also brought my 3-bulb LED flashlight, which also was very helpful, but again ultimately didn’t help us find the cache.

We stared into the deep woods and scratched our heads. At one point, we eventually went through the logs and description of the cache and discovered that in the last 3 years, only 2 people had actually found this one. Again, the difficulty was grossly misjudged. The owner did state that he had to rehide the cache because some kids had vandalized it. Our thoughts are that it may have happened again. We’d get to a point where the app said we were 5 feet away…after a few seconds the coordinates would update and suddenly we’re 36 feet away.

Eventually, our patience wore thin and we just gave up. Had I been alone, I may have kept looking but it was getting dark and there was little progress. If I ever spring for an actual handheld GPS unit, then I may go back and try it again. I intend on logging our experience as well with the owner. I’ll feel alot better if the owner goes back to find that it’s not there. At least then our failure would be justified.