Weekend Adventure: Geocaches & Snakes

Ever had those days where you have nothing to do yet feel the urge to do something, anything? I have them a lot. I am but a man, yearning to see the world beyond my safe and comfy abode. All too often I feel like a grounded explorer in a world already charted, already mapped, well not anymore. Welcome to my weekend adventure...

I was introduced to the world of geocaching last year by a friend at work. It is a fantastic way to go out and explore the unexplored and see things and places never seen before. Armed with a GPS and a will to get lost, searching for geocaches can be a lot of fun. Using a site that catalogs geocaches, all you do is punch in the latitude and longitude of the cache into your GPS, and go. Call it a modern day treasure hunt. Usually at the point of discovery you'll find a container of sorts filled with mostly garbage: cheap dollar toys, playing cards, broken kid watches, happy meal prizes, etc. But the reward isn't the find as much as the search.

Well this weekend I decided to go out and find a cache or two. I had had enough of the usual entertainments and wanted to get out and do some exploring. One of the great things about the site is that you can search almost anywhere for hidden caches. So I decided to go somewhere I hadn't been before, albeit still in the same valley (I didn't quite feel up to a 4 hour excursion across the desert in June if you catch my drift).

Everyday I see the same mountain range looming over the basin. Aiding in some excellent sunsets, the mountains have been relatively unexplored by myself. Usually when I go off-roading I tend to stay in the valley or just go through the mountains to get to greener pastures. Never have I really wandered the rim just on the edge of our little basin.

So I found my spot, now to get there. The great thing about this place is that there are trails and roads all over the place. You can look at the mountain line and see a vast network of white lines streaking across the landscape. So there are no real limitations as to where you can go (except on the rougher roads, 4-wheel drive is a must).

I had found a cache that I wanted to see based purely on the name of the location. The cache description called it "A Crop Circles View." I thought, "Cool! Aliens." (Sadly there are no green beings from the stars in this tale). The name was enough to peak my interest so off I went, headed toward the mountains.

After a long climb up some partially treacherous dirt pathways, I managed to arrive at the cache. Now the real fun begins. The GPS can only take you so far. It can get you in about 20-30 feet of the actual cache. The rest involves a lot of searching and patience (and the occasional lifting of rocks).

While I was scouring over the rock formations looking for something, anything, I managed to spot (what I later classified as) a Gopher Snake, in a small indent in the stone. Every time I spot a snake in the wild, it gives me a jump, mostly because the majority of snakes out here are of the rattling variety that like to bite and inject venom. After spotting the reptile cooling down in the shade, I quickly identified it as non-poisonous (thank you Steve Irwin) and proceeded to test out my camera on my phone...


He later scurried off into his den to escape the Todhunter paparazzi.

Back to trying to locate this cache, eventually, after almost an hour (this booger was well hid), I finally located the ammo can. Buried under some rocks, I could only see the very corner of the case peeking out of a hole in the pile of stone.

Remember how I said it's the journey not the prize, see what I mean...


A varied assortment of crap. Sometimes you run into some real finds. One time I discovered a Harley Davidson desk clock (I know, nice ain't it). Unfortunately this cache devoid of anything of interest. If there had been something I would like to take, I would have swapped it with something of similar value. I keep an assortment of interesting key chain stuff in my Jeep for just this purpose. But today, nothing looked good.

Oh and remember the name of the cache...


Way down in the basin were a few green crops being watered in a circular pattern by sprinklers: "A Crop Circles View."

After signing the log, resealing the canister, and returning it to it's original hiding spot, I began to make my way back down the hill and head home. It may not sound like a crazy adventure into the heart of darkness but for my life it was good enough to give me a little escape for the weekend.

And that's always a good Adventure.

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