Operation Geocaching: FAIL
In June, I went geocaching with a group of members from the Golden Horseshoe Monthly Geocaching Club at Kortright.
I had a blast. We found numerous well-hidden geocaches around the forest. The group made the modern-day treasure hunting look like a piece of cake.
Ever since that experience, I’ve been eager to try geocaching again. I figured since I’d already gotten guidance from (what I consider to be) geocaching experts, I was ready to go at it alone.
So I purchased the Geocaching App, eager to find my first treasure solo.
The Geocaching app is straight-forward. It shows you geocaches in the area, and from there, you can choose which one you’d like to seek out.
When you choose which geocache suits your fancy, you press “Navigate to Geocache,” and a GPS map shows you where you are located, and the location of the geocache.
I decided I’d try for a cache that showed up in Boyd Conservation Area.
“Easy” I thought. “You just wander towards the geocache until your blue dot is RIGHT beside the green end-point. I’ll find this thing in minutes!”
Talk about overestimating my abilities.
My first issue arose when I realized that I have the worse sense of direction EVER. I wandered around Boyd in confusion for quite some time, unsure of which way was West, North, East or South, just hoping the blue dot would move closer to the endpoint.
I felt like the map was playing tricks on me. “I swore this was the right way!” I’d exclaim at my iPhone, as the blue dot started slowly drifting away from the geocache.
And after every wrong turn, I’d try to understand my surroundings, and head off in a different direction, desperate to find the cache.
Soon, I had made it to the back of the conservation area, where the Humber River flows and a picnic shelter sits.
It’s in this area of the park that my blue dot started to FINALLY inch closer to the green mark. I was going in THE RIGHT DIRECTION!
A chorus of hallelujah played in my head. Excitement overtook my feelings of confusion. I made it!
So I walked along the riverside, in hopes that maybe the cache was hidden by the water. I noticed a bridge not far in the distance and thought – duh! – the cache is called “K&J’s Old Bridge Cache,” so it must be over there!
Eagerly, I made my way towards the trail that set off in the direction of the bridge, hopped over a large log from a fallen tree, and determinedly headed towards the bridge.
I was filled with a mild adrenaline-rush, as I was finally coming out of my direction-less slump and into success.
The blue dot kept edging closer and closer to the geocache! “I’m almost there!” I thought.
Until…
I hit a dead end.
The path was no longer. The bridge was still in the distance. The river was below me.
“Are you KIDDING me?” I said to myself.
I had no choice but to turn around, feeling a little bit disappointed in my compassing capabilities.
But on my way back through the trail, I realized that I don’t need to give up on geocaching, I just need somebody more direction-oriented to go with me.
In light of my realization (that one person cannot be good at everything) I decided to enjoy Boyd despite my disappointment. So I took out my camera, and snapped some shots of the beautiful outdoors.
I may not know direction – but I know how to work a camera.
