night cache!!!

Well, I did my first night time cache tonight. This brings a whole different aspect to this game. Let me explain; for a cache to be a good night time cache, there has to be some way of identifying the area when you get to it. Some people use different types of markers; I tiny strobe, powered by a solar cell, that only goes off at a certain time; a pressure-sensitive light, that, when hit, turns on; or these, which marked the way to the cache I did tonight;firetacks. These things are near impossible to see during the daytime, as they are bark-colored. But, at night, they reflect light like a stop sign! So, I follow the trail in, about .3 miles. The hint states that there will be an arrow point offtrail to where the cache is. at .29 miles, I see the arrow. I turn off the trail, walk in a straight line about 100', and, viola! The cache! I didnt take anything, as all I took to find the cache was a flashlight & a pencil. Tonight, the hunt was enough. 7 more to go!

Last note for the night; tomorrow, I'll post up pics of the gear I typically take with me, and some of the uses for each piece.

Ok, here is the latest; I am currently 8 caches away from hitting my first 100. I currently plan on hitting it this weekend. I originally picked up a GPS in 2002, and promptly joined www.geocaching.com. My first few attempts were failures at finding caches. The first one I tried, I have the power, was a failure. I had looked for the better part of an hour. As this was quite a few years ago, was it was cold, snowing, & getting dark. My DNF log was originally on 5 january 2003. I was shortly thereafter re-deployed, courtesy of the US Army. Thus ended my brief attempt at geocaching.
My first find was at this cache; keys to the forest. I was in the area, searching for another cache that I didnt find, and attempted this one, as it was fairly close to my hunting area. I bushwhacked the whole way in, which, apparently, has become quite common for me. I found the trail that led right to it, as soon as I found the cache.
From there, over the course of roughly the next year, I went periodically. Then, beginning in roughly May of this year, I pretty much went berserk. I started going almost every weekend I could. I made my 50th find on this cache; sheeps rock cache, on 2 september this year. Since that day to this, I found an additional 42. I made my first FTF on august 15th of this year at this cache; north central pathway, where I also found my first green jeep. My largest run of caches in one day is 16, completed on 2 september. We hit the Athol area, and cleaned it out.
My most recent exploit was while looking for rebels treat. I was out in the middle of Leominster state forest, and, no sooner had I discovered this cache, that the thunder clouds rolled in. I was almost 2 miles from my jeep, and didnt really feel like getting rained on. So, I ran. Now, mind you, I havent run in a couple of years; also, I had my backpack on. So, off I trotted, desperately racing against mother nature. I alternated jogging & walking, catching my breath. No sooner did I make it to my jeep, that the rain started in earnest. Talk about the nick of time!
Well, thats about all I have for tonight. I plan on doing a couple of night caches, maybe tomorrow night. I'll post those, should I do them. Until then, stay safe!

Well, I decided that I wanted to start blogging. Mainly, to keep track of my currently favorite pasttime, geocaching. I keep an actual journal of my exploits, so I figurted I'd share it online. I will add more over the next few days, as I update it from my journal. Stay tuned!