Geocaching: It’s a family thing

Regular readers will know that I am “into” geocaching. My first geocaching outing was in 2001 not long after the “sport” began, and I enjoyed finding a few caches with my late husband before he died. Although he wasn’t that excited about geocaching, so I didn’t do much caching when he was alive*.

Many years ago, after I started getting into it again, I had Daddy download the app to his phone (with my login details) because (1) his phone signal is generally better than mine** and (2) it made it easier for him to help me find caches when I was in The Homeland. Eventually, it just became normal for him to help me find 1-2 caches when I was home visiting.

Then when I was home in winter 2021/2022 for my first post-COVID visit to the Homeland, my youngest sister, Royann, and my Godson, Cameron came out to play a bit. And they enjoyed it. So, we grabbed a random cache here and there anytime I was home.

But this summer’s holiday really saw us ramping up the fun because Daddy was really getting into it this summer. Not as a cacher in his own right, but he was keen to help me get as many as possible – as evidenced by the sheer number we got on our road trip. We even planned a very ambitious 40-cache (and more) trail along the Canyon Road between Ellensburg and Yakima. However, wildfires meant delaying those plans.

As my summer holidays progressed, I got Cameron out for a couple of short caching adventures – just one or two caches at a time when we were otherwise enjoying other activities. But having found some cool caches, like one hidden in a fake fire hydrant, he was a little more willing to play the game.

After our camping trip, Royann and Cameron returned to Cle Elum with us for a week and that’s where we really started getting into it. The wildfires in the canyon were no longer hampering our adventures, so we decided to attempt the 40-cache trail along the canyon road. Most of them were “cache-and-dash” hides in the guardrail, so it should have been do-able.

The problem with that was that it was extremely hot in the canyon and Cameron was just not having it. But we did manage 15 caches before he was done. By this time, however, we had put together a little cache bag for Cameron so that he could leave little trinkets each time he found a cache, so that did help keep him going.

In the end, I managed a whopping 69 caches during my 2024 summer holidays – including a couple I found after “dragging” my sister, Celeste, out at the start of my road trip with Daddy. And, most importantly, Cameron, Royann, Dad, and I found one we’d been searching for since January 2022. It was a tricky little one, but we got it in the end.

I’m not sure that anyone will head out in search of geocaches whilst I’m away back in Scotland, but I am hopeful I’ll get some of my family out in search of treasures again when I am home for my winter holidays.

(And yes, I know this is another boring and pointless post. But I wanted to share photos and my “photo dumps” for July and August were already getting out of control.)

* This is not because he “wouldn’t let me” but rather because I prioritised the many, many activities that we both enjoyed. I still found caches, just not as the primary focus of our adventures.
** I have international roaming on my Scottish phone, but I get “secondary signals” so a slightly weaker and slower signal. But a free signal, so that’s OK by me!