Geocacher or Muggle – Which are You?

Muggle~ A non-geocacher.  Based on “Muggle” from the Harry Potter series, which is a non-magical person.  Usually this term is used after a non-geocacher looks puzzled after befriending a geocacher searching for a cache, or when a non-geocacher accidentally finds a cache.

So which are you?  A geocacher or a muggle?

I’ve written here before about the outdoor activity of geocaching where participants hunt down treasure with their GPS.  People from around the world participate in this game and in doing so have lots of fun. Geocaches are hidden everywhere imaginable and often lead the geocacher to a nifty out of the way place they wouldn’t have discovered otherwise.  Ever since we started playing this game of hide and seek about a year ago, we’ve been doing the looking.  E has been wanting to do the hiding for awhile and we finally got around to that a couple of weekends ago.  Here’s her account of hiding the cache called “Magic Treehouse”.

Last spring, I was shown the ruins of an old tree house in Lawrence Park, one of Kalispell‘s 20+ city parks. It was decided that the ruins of the treehouse would be a good place to hide a geocache and that the ideal name for the cache should be “Magic Treehouse.”

A view of Lawrence Park

Now that I had a place and a name, I figured there should be no more excuses…..except for the one Mom came up with about families not wanting to go to our cache since it was up a steep hill. I really wasn’t concerned about that, so, when we were out doing a little shopping, it was suggested that we check out the site for our geocache.

We drove to the park, and my sister and I led the way toward the hill. My memory was not very clear about the exact place of the treehouse, but I knew the general direction. The slope was slippery, and I had to make my way up in flats. My sister began to complain, saying that it was too hard. I have always found the climb much easier than she, as I like steep inclines. She also became fussy because she was holding onto thorny branches. Just grab something else!


We came across a lean to which apparently had been a  hobo camp.  Because it was abandoned, we considered hiding the geocache there, but it was too easy to get to. Anyway, I wanted to go to the real place. I was sure that I would be able to find it.

An abandoned hobo camp.

This tree is humongous!

I had never seen a nesting hummingbird before, have you?

Geocache loot from the Dollar Store

It was time to return, and place the geocache. We found out the coordinates, and placed the cache, hiding it with a little bark. When we were hiding it, a golf ball flew over the fence that could have hit us. This inspired the hint to searchers “Watch out for flying golf balls!”

E before heading into the woods to hide the cache.

   

We reported the geocache and waited for the official approval. Geocachers are now finding it and it’s a lot of fun to hear about it when they do!”

You never know what you will find even when you are the one doing the hiding.  The nesting hummingbird was the little treasure of the day.

Till next time,
Marlene

Evelyn, thanks for reminding us about the movie Tombstone!  It was great!