The Year 2006 in Pictures

The end of my first year of geocaching is rapidly arriving. To the Geocaching world I am know as Geo-Sarge. Since I first started geocaching in April 2006 I have seen many places I did not know existed and made many new friends along the way. During the year I have found over 418 hidden caches, hidden three caches of my own, and attended three group-caching events. To help keep track of the distance traveled I turned my Army Dog Tags into a travel bug. A travel bug allows the geocaching.com website to track the mileage between each cache as the travel bug moves from cache to cache. Since I first started in April I have traveled over 1,409 miles going from cache to cache using over 50 gallons of gas. Since the year has been filled with many great memories I thought I would share some of the pictures of those memories collected during my journey. Remember, it’s not about the number of caches found or hidden, it’s about the journey.

Last Day of Vacation

I took vacation to spend a week doing what I enjoy most, geocaching with O-Dis. Since today is the last day of my vacation O-Dis and I decided to find a cache we have been having problems finding. We headed out to find "Red Wanted It This Way", located at 41 degrees 24.706 minutes North and 81 degrees 41.069 minutes West. When we started into the park area where the cache is located we noticed a stream running deep and fast. We came prepared with my 12-inch high waterproof gore-tex combat boots that I used on active duty in the Army. We followed the path along the stream as long as possible. Then it was time to head into the water and work our way up the stream against the current. After an hour of picking our way around the deep holes in the stream we arrived at the cache area. At this point O-Dis said the cache was 40 feet up the hill. I asked him if he was sure. He looked at me and said those two famous words, “trust me”. After we climbed to the cache O-Dis and I gave a well deserved Hoorah yell to celebrate our find. We logged our visit in the cache log book and left one of our “eyes” to help keep an “eye” on the cache. We stopped to enjoy the view of the area from the cache. The temperature was dropping and the water was rising, so we decided it was time to head back to the car and call it a day. We climbed back down the 40 feet to the stream, stepped into the water and headed back down the stream to the car.

A Trip Around the World

Since Maggie moved out and went to live with the Army-Brats (Joni & Dave) it had been a while since I had gone geocaching. O-Dis, Maggie’s big brother had heard that Maggie had moved out and called to say he was looking for a place to stay. When O-Dis asked if he could move in I said sure thing! As I was waited for O-Dis to arrive from the East Coast I called the Army-Brats and asked if they and Maggie would like to join Grandma, O-Dis and me for a day of geocaching. As everyone was eager to make this a special day of caching Joni picked the cache to hunt. Joni had heard about a Puzzle Cache located in the Cleveland Zoo that was placed by the Cleveland Metropark Rangers. This one sounded like fun, so off we went to find treasure, gold, (well maybe not real gold) and good times. The cache we were seeking is named “Take a Journey Around the World at the Zoo”. The Geocaching.com GC number for the cache is GCT22E. The Zoo is located at 41 degrees 26.820 minutes North and 81 degrees 42.703 minutes West. The park Rangers have hidden six laminated tags inside the Zoo each marked with a different letter and a single digit number. We were given the coordinates for each of the six laminated tags before we started. We also received a briefing about special requirements while hunting this cache by the Metropark Rangers. Always a good idea to get a safety briefing by the Rangers before departing on a trip around the world. The numbers and letters on the tags are needed to substitute into the final coordinates to arrive with the correct location for the cache that is located at 41 degrees 26.ABC minutes North and 81 degrees 42.DEF minutes West. Well as we progressed thru the Park Rangers puzzle finding tags we saw areas of the Zoo that we never really took the time to visit before. We got to visit Australia, South America, North America, the Polar Artic, Africa and Asia. Well we were in each country we learned about the animals from each country. We had a really great time and made the entire trip around the world in about three hours. We had lunch at one of the local eateries and took some souvenir pictures as we went to help us remember the great time we all had on our trip. The Cleveland Metropark Rangers have done a great job with this cache. May the Geo-Gods always smile on them in all that they do.

Workmen's Circle Cemetary

I was sitting around the house trying to decide if I should do the dishes and clean up a little. It had been awhile, and as I grabbed my dust rag and started the dreaded task of cleaning I saw Maggie, my trusty GPSr sitting on the window seat. As I passed by I swear I heard Maggie calling to me and asking to go out geocaching. I swear I heard voices as I walked up to it. Well, it sounded good to me, and as they say "That's my story and I'm sticking to it!" Anything to avoid cleaning, after all, the dust will still be there when I get back home. So I gave into Maggie and off we went in search of another hidden geocache. This time Maggie and I headed out to find "The Deadly Grapes", located at 41 degrees 24.793 minutes North and 81 degrees 43.233 minutes West. Maggie was doing her usual great job of getting us to the correct area and as usual she left the rest to me to figure out the exact location of the cache. When we arrived I found the cache was located in the "Workmen's Circle Cemetery". This is a Jewish Cemetery in Parma Ohio. All of the people buried here are Jewish Veterans and their families. As I walked around looking at the graves I noticed that in front of all the head stone markers the grave had a two foot by five foot planter with flowers growing in it. Of all the cemeteries that Maggie has taken me to this is the most unique one to date. After I located the cache I spent the afternoon sitting in this wonderfully peacefully place.

A Chance to Reflect

Joni, Dave, Maggie and me decided that we wanted to find another hidden treasure before it got to late in the day. We asked Maggie to help us find the cache named "Above the Valley" located at 41 degrees 28.042 minutes North and 81 degrees 48.942 minutes West. As we followed Maggie's directions we realized that we would not be able to park close to the cache. It was located at a memorial to the local Police and Firefighters from the cities of West Park and Cleveland Ohio that had died in the line of duty. The memorial is located right off the side walk on a busy street in a really nice area over looking the valley. The cache was cleverly hidden out of site. Once we found it we stayed to enjoy the view and reflect on the these fallen heroes.