Wendy Almeida, her husband Fino and two daughters, G. and L., spend a lot of time outdoors. There's never a dull moment when the Almeida crew heads out for an adventure. Follow the antics in the Kidtracks blog.
The Travel Bug race is on!
The kids' 4-H club is participating in a national 4-H activity, the CYFERnet Travel Bug Race.
The race was designed to encourage kids to learn more about technology through 4-H. Since my family has done some geocaching, we were put in charge of getting the supplies together to launch the club's travel bug.
The 4-H Walker
If you don't understand what a Travel Bug is, here's the low-down.
Yesterday several members of the club hiked to our geocache at Kiwanis Beach to launch it. A few in the club had never geocached so we let them lead the way with the GPS unit and everyone exchanged trinkets.
L. was put in charge of tracking the Travel Bug online and reporting its progress to the club each month. Earning points for the race involves quite a bit of math (points for miles traveled as well as each cache, state and country it visits) so it will be a good practical math project for her.
We're hoping to get lucky with the 4-H Walker like some others the kids have launched in the past.
Hiking Doggie saw a lot of action in New Zealand for a couple of years but he hasn't moved since March. We're hoping with the southern hemisphere's start of spring that he'll be moving along again soon. But some of our other TBs have been MIA for a while so things don't always work out.
But Wee Scotty has been busy in Europe recently and the geocachers there have been great with sharing photos of his adventures. He's in the Wildkirchli caves in Switzerland right now.
But he started off in the US before he made the leap to Europe.
You can download a Google Earth file from geocaching.com that plots all the geocaches a Travel Bug has visited for you. It's pretty cool.
The kids understand anything can happen with this TB race. They're hoping the geocachers of the world take good care of the 4-H Walker and keep it moving -- at least until May 2008 (when the official part of the race ends).
Diana's Bath in New Hampshire
A rainy afternoon yesterday did not stop us from exploring a new hiking trail. We really wanted to check out Diana's Bath in the White Mountains National Forest that several friends have told us about over the years. They also warned us about the crowds that the area attracts so we thought a rainy day was just the time to explore the trails and waterfall and find some geocaches.
Since we had never been to Diana's Bath before, I wasn't sure how to get there. But thanks to my geocaching friends, locating the trail head was easy. [From North Conway take Route 302 through the downtown area. Take a Left onto River Road and then bear Right onto West Side Road.]
Diana's Bath is in the White Mountains National Forest so there is a $3 fee to park at the trail head.
Under the tree cover the rain wasn't so bad. I thought the real bonus of the day was the fact that neither of the girls complained about the rain. They really wanted to see a waterfall and find some new geocaches.
We found three caches in the area (but there were actually a lot more!) and each was a different shape and size.
G. spotted this one first and loved the hiding spot.
The trail to Diana's Bath was an easy .6 miles and after getting sidetracked with looking for geocache's that by the time we got to the bath area, the rain had stopped for a while which was great.
Not only was it a rainy afternoon, it was pretty chilly so the kids opted to climb around the rocks to explore the area rather than jump in for a swim (which I was grateful for as I thought the current was too strong for them that day anyway).
Then the girls and Fino found some interesting puddle shapes and I was directed to take pictures of them.
A heart with an arrow going through it.
A chocolate bunny.
Then there was a dispute in the ranks because L. thought that if you turned sideways the bunny turned into a skeleton mouth. Yeah, I could see it.
A ghost.
Then as we made our way back to the trail head we spotted a bunch of pink lady slippers and that was a nice bonus.
The pink lady slipper we later discovered, is New Hampshire's state wildflower.
During the warm summer months I'm told Diana's Bath is crazy busy. But if you don't mind that (or you go on a rainy day like we did), it's a beautiful place to explore with the kids. And the geocaches are aplenty and easy to find for novice players.
The only flaw with our afternoon plans was that although we were prepared for the rain, we didn't pack a change of clothes for shopping. We were quite soggy at the outlet stores afterwards.
Video of Diana's Bath
Lots of ways to enjoy the weather
You could sit outside and read a book to your blind cat.
You could hit golf balls in the yard with your dad.
You could hide a new letterbox geocache hybrid.
We hid the 4H Trail Blazers geocache that has a letterbox stamp in it. The listing just went live so if you head to the trails today, you could be the first one to find it! If you don't have a GPS, just go to the "Additional Hints" section of the listing page and "decrypt" the message (the system does it for you - no hard thinking here ;-) to get directions to the box.
Robotbunnies Back in Action
Or you could make your own trail in the backyard using Girl Scout trail signs for your mom to follow.
End of trail sign with a ball 'prize' at the end.
This was a great activity suggestion from the Junior Girl Scouts Badge Book that the Webkinz bunny enjoyed too.
Wee Scottie's fun rest stop in Germany
I mentioned back in September that our geocaching travel bug Wee Scottie was in Germany.
He's still in sprechen sie Deutsch-land and yesterday we received a new photo update of his adventures. Apparently he visited the Illertal-Ost rest stop in the southern part of the country.
His traveling partner posted this message for us:
- The motorway service area of Illertal Ost in Bavaria/Germany has been designed by Herbert Maierhofer in the End 1990s an is highly imaginative from the outside as well as from the inside. Wee Scotty will enjoy himself.
The ice cream-like buildings sort of reminded us of Storyland ... without the entrance fee.
(Travel bugs are geocaching game pieces with a dog tag that travels from geocache to geocache. We have several and track them through geocaching.com).
Making new letterbox stamp, spring hiking
We haven't been letterboxing since November but the girls were inspired to create a new box for Wolfe's Neck Farm with some of their 4-H friends. L. was put in charge of designing and carving the stamp and just finished it.
Keeping the design simple helped L. when it came time to carve out the stamp. She also had to remember to write the letters/numbers backwards so the impression came out correctly. She decided to make a second stamp because she enjoys carving them so much.
We're headed back to the farm in a few weeks to hide the letterbox (and a geocache) and we'll let you know the details when that's done. But this weekend we're plan to go hiking in the mid-coast region (still working out the details today).
In preparation for our first hike of the season, the kids just went through our backpacks to restock the first aid kit and inventory our various supplies (binoculars, GPS, candy/gum, etc.). They also included an extra pair of socks in their packs so we don't run into the same trouble we did last spring (L.'s not interested in wearing gloves for socks again).
Spring hiking in Maine requires a sturdy pair of boots and the acceptance that you're going to get a little muddy. But the best part of hiking at this time of year is --- there are not that many bugs!
I'll take mud over bugs anyday.
Look for kid-friendly trails with the little pink bunny icon
Cache maintenance
Over the past couple of weeks we haven't had much time to really get out and hike and geocache so we've been doing some maintenance on our own caches.
A couple of our hybrids (geocaches that have letterbox stamps) don't really have room for the traditional geocache trading items and travel bugs/coins but some people have left in those in our caches recently.
Actually it was OK that not everyone follows directions (there's a note on each of our hybrids not to leave traditional trades in them) because we picked up our first geocoins.
Basically the coins are like Travel Bugs only they are specially made - like signature items. The girls thought the two we picked up were really cool.
The kids thought we should post our 'found' message in this coin's native language. I gave it a try and also included an English translation in case I made any big mistakes with my limited knowledge of French.
Another day L. and I hiked out to our Lowell Preserve cache in Windham while G. was at a class.
L. was quite pleased with trades in the cache and wondered if someone knew we were Pirates' fans and left the hockey stick pen for us. I think if they read this blog it'd be hard not to know that...
What goes where
G. wanted to introduce her friend to letterboxing so I took the girls out on Wednesday - the only dry day this entire week - to find some boxes.
I have been hoping that this game might teach my 10-year-old better organizational skills but I'm not sure that's working out as well as I'd hoped.
The game seems so simple -- stamp your log book with the box's stamp then stamp your stamp into the box's log book. But man, when a couple of kids get together, one of which is a bit organizationally-challenged, extra time is needed to do the stamp exchange. And more often than not, I have to take charge afterwards to help re-organize everyone's stuff again. Yesterday was no exception.
Ever since our first find I've made sure we take the box a distance away from its hiding spot in case a muggle (non-player) walks by while we're exchanging stamp impressions. It usually takes us 10-15 minutes to do the exchange and then re-hide the box.
At least with the boxes we hid at the library, the kids can sit down at a table and spread everything out. G. likes those boxes a lot (which probably has something to do with the fact that she helped make them) and usually suggests her friends new to the game try them first.
Muggles are less of a problem at the library since the librarians monitor our boxes (a few of them are letterboxers themselves) so they aren't pilfered.
Kids are teachers too
Yesterday the kids and I spent the afternoon and evening at the Cumberland Fair. The kids' 4-H club sponsored a geocaching booth and we introduced a few new families to the game. I had several little-helpers at the fairgrounds and I have a few new "learnings/re-learnings" to report.
Make all the kids in your group wear matching bright orange shirts to keep track of everyone (thanks for the tip - and the shirts - Meg!)
Using someone else's GPS units doesn't always work as planned, especially when the unit's settings aren't the same as yours and it interprets your waypoints differently (i.e., end up a totally wrong location).
5-year-olds get tired a lot faster than 8-year-olds so snack breaks are all-important.
Do one thing at a time. Realize that you can't manage to take photos with 4 kids walking the fairgrounds while 2 of them, in addition to you, have GPS units and are trying to find geocaches (even though it's a bummer you don't have any pics of the fun you had).
Kids love glitter pens (thanks MaineToday) and pins (thanks County Extension Office).
Plan to visit the bunny barn at least twice - and plan to deflect the multiple requests for one because daddy said no.
Kids love stickers (especially bright orange ones)
Let the kids be silly, you might think it's funny too
Kids love to dance (btw, the band never said who they were last night but my crew liked them alot).
Don't be surprised when the kids linger to chat with the vendors in the Exhibition Hall.
You never know who you'll meet at the fair (her photos from Iraq were great)
No matter what you say about what you will - or will not - buy at the fairgrounds, Grandma will always get the kids what they want anyway. Thanks Grandma!
View all our photos from the fairgrounds yesterday in Seen.
Geocache at the Cumberland County Fair
My family will be spending several days next week at the fair for various 4-H activities but the one we're really excited about this year is the geocaching. On Tuesday the kid's club is hiding several geocaches around the fairgrounds. Mark your calendars for this one:
Geocaching
Tuesday, Sept. 26
4-6 p.m.
Cumberland County Fairgrounds
Pick up coordinates at the 4-H Hall
Anyone can pick up coordinates at the 4-H Exhibit Hall from 4-6 p.m. (but, the caches will only be available during that time on Tuesday).
For those who don't have a GPS unit, a 4-Her will be available to take you on a "tour" (with one of several GPS units loaned to us for the day by the Cumberland County Extension Office) to find the caches and show you how geocaching is done.
This is a good opportunity for kids - and their parents - to give the high-tech treasure hunting game a try. It's a lot of fun.
See you at the fair.
Sprechen Sie Deutsch at the Almeida's
Tonight I checked my email and received an update about one of our geocaching travel bugs, Hiking Doggie. Although still in New Zealand, Hiking Doggie has some non-Englsih speaking hosts at the moment. The log entry is in German.
(Travel bugs are geocaching game pieces with a dog tag that travels from geocache to geocache. We have 6 and track them through geocaching.com).
This is what is so great about the game - you never know where your travel bug will end up or how another geocacher in the world will surprise you. After a quick web search - and a guess what language the entry was in - I was able to translate the log entry. If I understand correctly - big IF there - we might see a new photo of Hiking Doggie soon.
This is one more reason why I love my kids. I can be the big geek that I am and enjoy this stuff all in the name of international education for them.
Combining games is a win-win
My new monthly column about letterboxing is out and in the process of writing it, my family decided to hide some of our own letterboxes.
"Library Books"
(The box is also listed on Atlasquest.com, another letterboxing site)
And then after some research and a query for advice on geocachingmaine.org, we also hid some geocache letterbox "Hybrids," something I hadn't realized was an option in that game until recently.
Hybrids don't have the usual trinkets to trade like other hidden caches. Instead there's a stamp and logbook inside like a letterbox. I was pleased to find a way to combine the parts of each game that we liked -- easy to follow directions (GPS coordinates - I love that gadget) with the kids' desire to collect stamp impressions for our letterboxing logbook. We're hoping hybrids catch on in Maine (there are only a few right now) because the kids really want to find some that we didn't hide.
"Ski Away" is listed on both games' websites.
Hybrid: Ski Away
Letterbox: Ski Away
(Also listed on Atlasquest.com)
Hybrid: Baxter's Treasure
(I'm working out the clue for the letterboxing site today...)
The hybrid/box creations were a group effort. The kids carved most of the stamps, Fino made the "boxes" and I found places to hide them. And I'm sure it comes as no surprise that Fino was in his glory in the Clubhouse (i.e., the shed) with his power tools making these crafty little (and one not so little) boxes.
What I have always enjoyed about geocaching is that the players are plugged-in. They log visits to our caches and upload photos to the website. I LOVE that. [Acutally within a few HOURS of our "Ski Away" hybrid going live on geocaching.com, someone had already found it, logged it and uploaded a couple of photos they took with it. Thanks TeamTrout!]
The letterboxing websites aren't designed with the same features (public logs or photo uploads) and although I've received two emails from letterboxers about our boxes, it seems the game's players aren't as keen on tracking their visits online - or emailing box owners.
So it works out that the geocachers keep us informed with their log entries between routine maintenance visits - which we do periodically with all our geocaches.
And when we do check on our boxes, the kids' anticipation of seeing a new stamp (or drawing like a creative geocacher added last week) is kinda like a birthday present waiting to be unwrapped each time.
Happy hunting!
Geocaching, space weather and an astronomy event
I just read a short story about satellites and geocaching. The satellites orbiting the earth - and used by geocachers to locate their hidden treasures - can be affected by solar storms. This isn't big news, it's happened before, but the US government now has an idea to protect them. But it would affect communications from space so there's some disagreement from the rest of the world about the idea.
Although the protection idea is clever, I don't think it will happen. Not that geocachers will have the influence to stop it, but cell-phone and satellite tv-users will likely put up a much bigger fight.
The whole notion of solar storms and space weather had me doing a quick web search this morning. I discovered that you can find out - on a daily basis - what the weather is like in space. They even forecast solar flares.
My sleepy-eyed kids were not nearly as enthusiastic or interested as I was with this information when I dragged them over to the computer at 7 a.m. this morning. Although the abstract forecasts were too much for them so early in the day, they thought the sun spot photos were "really cool."
At least they humored me for a few minutes. And now I know where to check if my GPS unit or cell phone connections are wacky. Although that's really just an excuse to indulge my inner geek.
The other day I received an email about an event in September sponsored by the Astronomical Association of Northern New England. Since my kids have always been interested in space, especially G, we hope to attend part of the weekend-long event in Kennebunk.
It sounds like a great way for families to learn more about astronomy.
I couldn't find specific information about this event on the association's website yet, so I thought I'd post an image of the flier.
3 letterboxes launched
We just hid our first 3 letterboxes and they're at Baxter Memorial Library in Gorham. The kids carved the stamps (that means not to expect anything elaborate) themselves after Fino made the "boxes" (which required a creative touch and his favorite power tool). The clues are very kid-friendly but if you have trouble cracking the code to any of the clues, just ask one of the Children's Room librarians for assistance. They are eager to help kids learn to letterbox.
Since letterboxing.org went down last week and is still offline, we can't register our letterboxes there yet. So, if you have any questions and/or comments about our letterboxes, post a comment here. We'd love to hear from families that find them. And my kids can't wait to see some new stamps in their box logbooks.
A new appreciation this weekend
I solve a mystery clue (no town location given) for a letterbox in Cumberland County
We drive to the location and follow the rest of the clues to find the box
Search and search
And search some more
Knowingly walk through poison ivy because it is in area we think box is hidden based on clue directions
Tell L. not to follow me while I investigate
L. follows anyway
Her and I wash our legs and shoes in nearby bathroom to avoid rash
We find box in a different patch of trees nearby
We re-read the clue directions to the box
Family votes unanimously that letterboxers write clues that are not clever so much as simply poor directions (this was our experience with other boxes we have found as well)
Kids tell parents in the car that "geocaching is more fun" even though "the letterbox stamps are cool."
Parents agree
Later try to go to letterboxing.org to log our box find
Find the letterboxing website is not operational
I pull out my GPS unit and admire it lovingly
No one breaks out with poison ivy the next day
I've got more learning to do
After finding a few letterboxes this past week, I realize that I really need to work on my stamp-making technique before I make another stamp to hide in our own letterbox (which we hope to do next week). Some of the stamps we have found in letterboxes have been downright impressive.
The first stamp in our letterboxing log book from the Art Guru.
Our second find at a coffee shop had a very detailed stamp as well. The kids loved this box because the shop also sold ice cream and they managed to talk me into a cone for each of them before we left.
We found a stamp in a box on the top of Douglas Mountain yesterday. It had a lot of detail even though L. didn't do such a great ink job. The stamp said, "non sibi sed omnibus, douglas mountain". That's a lot of letters to carve. Me, I gave up after carving "R.B." on our stamp last week.
Actually, one of the things the kids like most about letterboxing is looking at all the stamps in the log books we find inside the boxes. These were a couple of their favorites from a box we found at USM.
And our logbook, even with only 5 stamps in it at the moment, is already really interesting. L. pulled it out of my backpack to show her friend yesterday.
I guess scrolling through our geocache finds on my GPS unit is a little less interesting to a couple of 8-year-olds...
Marketing to geocachers
A press release caught my eye today about a new poison ivy protection lotion being marketed to geocachers.
buji TM is a lotion that offers protection against urushiol, the oil found in poison ivy/oak. The company makes two products, one is a pre-contact lotion, the other is a wash to use if you've already been exposed. Oh, and the pre-contact stuff has an SPF 20 sunscreen too.
Now what I found really amusing is that they didn't use the usual "outdoor enthusiasts" in the press release or say... "hikers." Nope. It "protects geocachers."
My family had a run in with poison ivy while geocaching last summer so I guess maybe there really is something to the marketing spin.
What I don't know is if I should be insulted that the buji TM people know I don't always pay careful attention to where I'm going while looking for a geocache and need their product. Or maybe I should be happy that they do and have something to help me?
It's a toss up.
Injured before I even found a box
I have been doing some research for my next column on Letterboxing this weekend. Ever since my first column about geocaching, I've had letterboxers emailing me to write about their game. I thought it about time I figured out how to play.
I had a great chat with Jeremy at the Art Guru in Gorham yesterday because he also happens to be a letterboxing guru too.
To oversimplify things, letterboxing is a lot like geocaching without the GPS unit. To find letterboxes, players have to solve puzzles/riddles instead of using coordinates. And to be honest, the reason I've waited so long to try the game is because downloading coordinates to a traditional cache is easier. (Yes geocachers, I know there are other kinds of caches that use riddles/puzzles too, I just haven't done those yet.) Plus, I love using my high tech gadget.
Another difference (and apparently a common mistake for geocachers finding a letter box by mistake) is that you don't TAKE anything away from the box. You stamp your personal log book with the stamp provided in the letterbox and then you stamp the box's log book with your stamp.
Jeremy gave me some suggestions on how to make a stamp, which we needed before we set out to find our first box. I found from looking through his logbook that letterboxers take great pride in making their own stamps and really are beautiful works of art.
I knew the stamp I was going to make would be less than impressive but I bought the eraser, flexible tip markers (to ink the stamp once I made it) and a new blank notebook and took it all home to show the kids.
Fino was busy in his clubhouse, oh I mean his newly completed shed, in the backyard so the task of using the sharp carving tools to make the family stamp was left to me.
I traced a picture of Bunny - of course! - onto the eraser and then started cutting away the shape. But I had a little trouble.
It took a few minutes but even though I was really, really careful, I managed to cut myself with the carving tool. It was one of those times when I was so focused on NOT doing something, that I couldn't help but do it.
My carving skills have a lot to be desired but I managed to get something that sort of resembled Bunny on the eraser. And then I totally got lazy with our log name (RobotBunny) because initials was all I could manage.
This week we're going back to visit Jeremy to find the letterbox hidden inside the Art Guru store then venture out to find some other boxes. We'll let you know how things go.
If you letterbox and have some tips for us, please post a comment.
A poison ivy re-education
I was sifting through my email this morning and a headline from a weekly health newsletter caught my eye, "Study: Global warming means itchier poison ivy." Curious, I read the full story.
But I had a Huh? moment when I looked at the photo of poison ivy posted with the story because it didn't look right to me. With my curiosity peaked -- and the fact that I obviously needed to refresh my memory about the plant -- I did a quick Google image search.
The images varied quite a bit and made it clear that there's more to identifying the plant than the simple rhyme I learned years ago, "Leaves of 3, let it be."
The shiny, pointy leaves are what I usually look out for on the trail, although the 3-leave bunches are less clear in this photo.
These look more like birch tree leaves to me because of their roundness. I would not have likely recognized these leaves as poison ivy on the trail.
These don't look so shiny but have the leave shape to watch out for so I might have identified them correctly.
My most recent run-in with poison ivy was last summer while geocaching with the kids. We were in the thick of it before I identified the plant. And luckily (after breaking out the baby wipes and washing our lower bodies) none of the kids came down with a rash. As for me, the itchy ankles (because I forgot to wash off my sandals) didn't last long.
So after looking through the various images of poison ivy, I went to the FDA's website to brush up on preventive measures I can take if we run into the pesky plant again - which is likely with all the hiking and geocaching we do.
And the CNN story that inspired this rambling gave me yet another reason why I want to see Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth when it opens in Maine movie theaters at the end of the month.
A new family geocache at the beach
The geocache our family hid last year in Windham is as active as ever. But the kids have been wanting to find a new place to hide another geocache and over the holiday weekend, they found just the spot.
"We love to swim and this is such a good place!" said G. of the hiking trail near Kiwanis Beach in Standish (we had never noticed the trailhead sign previously).
"Yeah, and we'll have to check our geocache all the time to make sure people don't mess it up." said L. "This is perfect mom!"
L. being the creative thinker in the family was clearly vying for reasons that we should visit the beach more often this summer.
And after hiking the short trail (only about .2 miles), we did find a good spot for the geocache. So we marked the coordinates with the GPS unit and left our box of treasures. When we got home I registered the coordinates on geocaching.com. Within 12 hours of doing that, someone had already logged a visit. Those geocachers, they're right on top of things...
Our new family geocache is small but the kids packed it with lots of fun little toys along with our log book.
The "Nature Trail" at Kiwanis Beach is short, easy and perfect for little ones. We found lots of wildflowers in bloom this past weekend but they didn't hold nearly the appeal that the beach at the end of the trail did.
Memorial Day was a great beach weather day and the kids were so excited to be swimming in Watchic Lake that they didn't seem to care about the cold water.
More geocaching fun
We track our geocaching Travel Bugs (TB) online and even have an email "watch" (we're emailed every time someone posts a note on the TB's page) on TBs that aren't ours that we previously hosted (Dora and Goddard were the kids' favorites). A while back, when I wrote my first column about geocaching, a geocacher emailed me and suggested I pick up the Boothbay Register TB. A reporter had launched that TB and hoped other reporters would pick it up and write a follow-up story about it.
At the time the TB was too far away for me to grab so I signed up to "watch" it and thought when it moved closer to southern Maine, I'd pick it up.
It went MIA before I could get it but yesterday someone posted a note on the TB's page about a radio interview with geocachers in the Lewiston/Auburn area. They didn't have the TB but they wanted others to know about the radio program. It was a fun piece.
As for our family TBs, they all still seem to be active and moving. Recently we even released a couple of new ones.
Reading Dog was released at the Mt. A event last month after the family sat down and brainstormed "mission" ideas (most TBs have a mission - something they want to do during their travels). I thought the kids' mission was great for this TB, "...want other kids to read and share their favorite books with him." So far we've had one geocacher give us book recommendations and even took a photo of their favorite children's books.
Photo from "Team Moxiepup"
The two TBs we have in New Zealand are still moving around quite a bit. Annika The Hiker even had a new photo uploaded recently hanging out in some Hydrangea.
Photo from "Samy!" who by the way, has a fun screen photo
Hiking Doggie has the most photos of all our TBs (17) but Annika has traveled the most miles (1,200 - which obviously doesn't include the air post flight to the island nation, just mileage within NZ).
Photo also by "Samy!"
So not only is geocaching a great way to teach kids about mapping and geography, there's a whole bunch of statics we can compile about our six TBs. Nothing like making some traditionally "dry" school subjects a whole lot more interesting for them - well, for me too.
Creative way to warm up
Yesterday was a long day for the kids and I. We had a lot to do but I won't bore you with the mundane details. The highlight of the day for me was the geocaching event at Mt. Agamenticus. I really enjoyed putting some faces to screen names I've chatted with from both the geocaching.com and geocachingmaine.org sites.
The kids didn't want to hang around at the geocaching event; they were a bit on the grouchy side due to lack of sleep. But a side trip to the beach at Cape Neddick perked them up.
We haven't been to the beach since last fall so the novelty of jumping around in freezing cold water was fun for them. Just for curiosity's sake, this morning I looked up how cold the Gulf of Maine waters are right now.
45 degrees
After 15 minutes of running through the water and getting nearly every part of themselves wet, L. came running over to me (yes, I chose the dry sand to enjoy instead). She then started burying her feet with some urgency. I asked her what she was doing.
"I have to get my feet inside the sand. It's so toasty warm and my feet are so cold!"
"Did it work? Are your feet warm?"
"Yup."
Good to know...
Geocaching events all over the world
We've been spending a lot of time lately geocaching - from finding caches on vacation in New York and Massachusetts, to tracking our travel bugs online.
The hike to the geocache in New York we found with my cousins was easy. So tame in fact that if I had owned a pair, I could have done in heels. And the cache in Massachusetts we found was also easy and our first with a baby carriage in tow (we brought my friend and her three young kids along). And in case you're wondering, we are sticking with the easy finds for a while since we had plenty of excitement on the cache we found last month.
Our travel bugs have also had a busy month. Two of our four bugs have been to geocaching parties this spring.
Lilo the Swimmer was the first to attend a geocaching event in Nova Scotia in March. At one point I logged onto the Nova Scotia Spring Kick-off page and saw they had over 100 travel bugs. I didn't realize they were collected for these events.
Then Annika The Hiker was the next to get an invite. She went to the Massive Easter Egg Hunt event in New Zealand. What caught my eye about this event was the organizer's warning about wearing bug spray. Every hemisphere has its bug woes.
What was also pretty cool was that the person who had Annika for that event dropped her off and picked up Hiking Doggie. It's fun to make connections like that on the website.
Ronny didn't get invited to a party this year but his current host is taking him to dinner at McDonalds in the lowest zip code in America (01001 in Agawam, MA).
So with our travel bugs having so much fun, we want to attend a geocaching event ourselves. It turns out that there's one coming up in southern Maine.
Geocachingmaine.org is hosting an event on Mt. Agamenticus on Saturday (April 29) from 12-3 p.m. at the summit. We're hoping we can re-work our schedule that day to attend -- and maybe we'll bring a new travel bug to join the party so its owner can attend a party vicariously like we have this spring.
New York hiking footwear
During our trip to New York, we went to Muscoot Farm in Katonah to see some animals, have a picnic and find a geocache.
Our cousins have just started geocaching so we had some fun sharing our geocaching stories with them. And during the short hike on the trail (about 1/2 mile), Fino and I learned something new. New Yorkers make interesting choices with hiking footwear.
The whole geocaching story...
... from our adventurous day a couple of weeks ago in my monthly column, complete with the kids' review audio clips.
Silly things you find
After finding that not-so-fun geocache last weekend, we chose not to give up. We had set out to find at least three geocaches that day so after a snack break we decided to try again.
We looked through the print-outs of caches I had in the car and chose one we thought looked fairly easy to find. That decision was based on the level of detail about the trail and the "hints." It turned out that the Percheron cache was a great choice for us.
The trail was in fact easy and we found the cache without a problem. And this find had a great suprise -- goofy glasses. They were a big hit with the kids -- and the adults.
The disposable camera was full but that didn't stop us from taking our own photos...
While hiking on the short trail, L. decided to make some hand shadows. She told me what the shadows were but I forgot what she said the last one was.
Any guesses?
A turkey
A bunny
???
On the hunt in Augusta
Yesterday we were back in Augusta at the State House. G. was serving as a page in the House with some other 4-Hers. L. wasn't old enough so she and I decided to do some geocaching in the area while G. was busy.
As we were wondering around inside the State House with more time to spare, we found this really interesting brochure produced by the Secretary of the Senate about fossils. Apparently there are marine invertebrate fossils in the dark stones of the building and the brochure had a map and description of each fossil type.
L. and I couldn't resist looking and we found all of them. L. went a little camera-happy taking photos of the fossils.
Maclurite
We found a bunch of these all over the place.
Prasopora
Yeah, L. took this picture between some man's shoes as he was standing there. I wished she wouldn't have done that (I didn't realize what she was going to do until it was too late) but the guy didn't seem to notice her. Typical L.
Stromatocerium
L. had to show Flat Annie from Scotland the fossils too.
Crinoid Stalk
"Goddard" the Travel Bug we picked up in Brunswick also checked things out.
A not-so-fun geocache find
After some searching on geocaching.com yesterday, I found there were a bunch of geocaches in Brunswick. We had been talking about seeing how many geocaches we could find in an afternoon so I downloaded a bunch of coordinates in that area to find out.
The first geocache we chose to find turned out to be -- well not being able to offer more colorful language I'll say -- not fun.
The directions to park for this geocache said, "woodsy trail near parking lot" which we assumed was on Pleasant Hill Road based on our GPS map. We found a turn-off on the road that indicated the cache was 1/2 mile from that location. We thought we were in the correct place because we saw a trail leading into the woods.
The GPS pointed us to a trail that quickly turned into a bush-wack. That's not so unusual for geocaching but this bushwhacking went on and on and on.
Not a good time.
But we stuck with it because we were only a few tenths of a mile from the cache.
We climbed up hills. We slid down hills.
We ducked under trees. We jumped over trees.
We jumped over the winding stream; leaped over wider parts of the stream. And when we were lucky, walked over fallen logs across other parts.
Of course we could have given up the search. But by the time we realized that trying to find this cache was a mistake, we were already in the thick of the woods and closer to the cache based on our GPS reading than we were to the car.
We finally picked up a small trail again and ended up finding the geocache.
We took a snack break and by a unanimous vote, decided we were NOT going back the way we came.
We followed a small trail with sink holes and erosion (which we still thought better than the way we had come but hardly ideal) from the geocache to an open field and hiked along the edge of the woods for quite a while. We eventually picked up another trail that lead us back to the car.
We have never run across a geocache like this before. I'm careful to choose caches listed with 1, 2 or 3 stars (1 easiest - 5 hardest) for both terrain and difficulty. This cache rating was rated 3 stars for difficulty and 2 stars for terrain.
I think that was misleading.
But, if I had read all the "reviews" for the cache I would have realized that the name of the cache contained a clue as to where to park ("Dragons" was part of the cache's name which apparently is Brunswick High School's mascot, something a non-local wouldn't necessarily know). Other geocachers who knew this parked behind the school and took a trail that lead directly to the cache.
My mistake.
G. summed it up best, "That was the worst hike EVER!"
After a short respite, we did continue on to find two other caches that afternoon. They were both really fun, clever finds but more on those later...
Bunny contest inspiration
Exchanging Flat Stanley with other families wasn't the only inspiration for the Where's Bunny? contest. Our geocaching Travel Bugs also played a part in giving us photo ideas as well.
The kids and I have loved the photos people have taken of our Travel Bugs, particularly the ones in New Zealand. The photo of Hiking Doggie with the blue wedding cake was priceless. Not that I have a lot of experience with weddings (my own being in Vegas with Elvis), but my take on the big day for people who go through all that hoopla is not about some stranger's geocaching Travel Bug...
We have some other favorite pictures as well.
"Hey mom, Hiking Doggie is getting to meet other dogs in New Zealand! That's cool!" (you can just see him in the bottom lip of the dog)
Annika The Hiker doesn't have nearly as many photos as Hiking Doggie, but the beach shot in her gallery cracks me up.
Then there are our domestic Travel Bugs like Lilo the Swimmer. She posed for a photo a tidal pool "with a starfish hat." At the moment, she is hanging out in northern Maine on the Canadian border.
And we can't forget Ronny, who "loves to eat cheeseburgers and french fries" (a kindred spirit with the girls). He's in Vermont right now.
Not that I have to prove the point that my family is a little over-the-top (most know we are), but that there are lots of other people just like us. I mean, it's pretty funny - total strangers all over the world taking our various toys and flat, laminated characters and posing them for photos.
It's great.
GIS/GPS is cool for kids
I was reading this morning's story about a new GIS exhibition at USM'S Osher Map Library. GIS is an acronym for Geographic Information System. To really over-simply things, GIS takes local information in combination with GPS coordinates and/or map to give people a sort of enhanced map view of a particular area.
My kids' 4-H club did a GPS/GIS project last year for a national 4-H website Youth Favorite Places. (It was actually one of the initial reasons I started this blog.)
The kids made a list of their favorite places then took a GPS unit to each location, marked the coordinates and took a photo. Then the kids submitted that information along with a street address and why they chose the particular place as a favorite to the website.
It was a fun project and quite educational. I had heard about USM's Osher Map Library last year and have been meaning to get there to learn more about cartography.
Since we started geocaching, the kids have really enjoyed learning about maps. Nothing like some techy geeks to get this generation of kids interested in something that was quite a dry subject for me in middle school social studies class.
Geocaching muggles - ugh
My friend Jenn emailed me a story from her neck of the woods about a geocaching incident. Apparently someone (a "muggle" not familiar with the game) found a geocache under a tree in a park in Bethlehem, PA, and thought it was a bomb.
He told police he ''got away as fast as possible'' because he thought it could be a bomb. Firefighters, police officers and bomb squad technicians secured the area while investigating the mysterious box with ''This is a game'' written on the front.
They eventually determined that the box was part of a treasure hunt in which players use coordinates and a Global Positioning System receiver, or GPS unit, to determine where hidden objects are.
I understand the concern about terrorists and crazy people but geeze. The box was marked with the geocaching.com website on it and although the story didn't say this - clearly written by someone who was unfamiliar with the game - all geocaches are logged onto geocaching.com. Apparently the bomb squad did end up checking out the website before finally opening the box.
Two technicians from the Bethlehem Fire Department's bomb squad were called to investigate the box Tuesday, said Lt. Joe Chernaskey. As they inspected the box and tried to determine what was inside, a fire official went to the Web site listed on the box: geocaching.com.
The lock was broken and inside were stuffed animals, toys, notebooks and maps, according to police.
As for the hoopla about the old ammo boxes, they make great caches. The goodies don't get wet and hold up well in all kinds of weather. We've certainly found our share of recycled ammo boxes and they were well-marked as the geocaching website suggests. It was also clear that the guy who hid the cache in PA, had received the proper permission to hide it from the Parks and Recreation department who manages the park where the cache was found.
Some of the old ammo box geocaches we have found were well-marked.
What is really sad, even though the geocache box was clearly marked that it was a game, is that police are being coy with the guy who hid it.
Police wouldn't say whether Guth might be charged or with what crime. But they and fire officials fear it could cost thousands of dollars for bomb squad technicians to examine mysterious packages hidden in the city.
I think the more hoopla they make about the cache and the game, the more likely someone WILL actually try to disguise their bomb as a cache. Nothing like the police to give a crazy person a new idea.
And I'm disappointed that some random, alarmist pedestrian could put such a damper on a great game by calling police with the fear of a bomb. This game has been around for nearly 6 years when the GPS signal degradation was removed by the Clinton Administration. That policy allowed GPS users the ability to "pinpoint locations up to ten times more accurately" by making more satellites available to the general public. This policy change allowed the possibility to play games like geocaching.
So geocachers out there beware of Muggles spotting you uncovering a cache. My family wants to keep playing the game...
Geocaching while waiting for snow
Our 4-H cross country ski club has been disappointed for two weeks with the lack of snow. But it looks like some is FINALLY on the way this afternoon. Hopefully it will stick around until next Sunday.
In an attempt to keep our weekly ski club meetings going, yesterday afternoon we decided to do a little geocaching on the Mountain Division Trail. Other than some patches of ice, there wasn't a lick of snow on the trail that we hope to — at some point this winter — ski on.
We found the geocache with a bunch of goodies inside and taught a few of our ski club members about GPS units. And it was good news that the geocache wasn't frozen to the ground, something that happened to a cache we found last winter. But then again, that was when it actually was a winter.....
George vs. geocachers
This morning I went to put my dollar into the candy machine here at the office and noticed a www.wheresgeorge.com stamp on the back of my dollar bill. And in a moment of curiosity (and knowing I really shouldn't eat a candy bar anyway) I decided to keep the dollar and log onto the website to find out where my bill had been.
Well, the bill's history consisted of two entries, one of which was mine. And where was it originally logged in?
Westbrook.
A whole 4.6 miles from my zip code. Not nearly as interesting as the kids' travel bugs in New Zealand.
And it was funny I should compare it to geocaching because there's actually a page on the wheresgeorge.com website about geocachers. Apparently the George people aren't so keen on geocachers using bills as travel bugs.
The general rules of this site specifically prohibit trading
or exchanging bills with friends, family or anyone known to the bill distributor.
This rule is to encourage "natural circulation" of the currency, and to prevent multiple "fake hits" from happening on any bill. Afterall, the purpose of Where's George? is to track the manner in which currency naturally circulates throughout the country and the world. Allowing people to arbitrarily enter multiple hits to track that a bill was traded among a circle of friends and family defeats the entire purpose of this site.
Poor George, feeling threatened by geocachers. Where's this game's sense of fun? Oh I know, it's with their related Where's Willy website....
Re-stocking our geocache
Yesterday we went to re-stock the geocache we hid this past spring at the Lowell Preserve in Windham. It was a little muddy on the trail with all the rain we had the day before but that made the "fun stones" on the trail even more entertaining for the kids.
"Don't fall in the lake," L. yelled to me while she was jumping around the stones.
The geocache was pretty well stocked so we only added a few new items, including a Travel Bug. Over 40 people have visited the cache and wrote in the log book since we hid the cache in June. That's a lot more people than logged their visits online but some first-time geocachers noted in the log book that they used the cache's treasure map instead of a GPS. I'm guessing the newbies weren't familiar with the geocaching.com website yet.
No matter. The kids and I enjoyed reading the cache's log and recognizing some familiar names. The kids thought people had left some "really cool trades" so I have to say thanks to everyone who has visited and taken such good care of our cache!
Living vicariously
We haven't had time this past week to enjoy the outdoors much. The kids have been busy with school work and various other activities and I'm still getting over a cold.
But we have been living vicariously through our geocaching Travel Bugs (TB) in New Zealand, both of which have been quite active since being released last month.
Hiking Doggie looks like he's had the most fun, having gone to a wedding at Tongariro National Park on the northern island in New Zealand.
There are a couple of photos of the wedding at Tongariro and my daughters - being the quintessential girls that they are - were ecstatic with the photos of our TB with the flower girl and wedding cake.
What's really great is that both our New Zealand bugs, Annika and Hiking Doggie have been logged and photographed by geocachers there. The kids like getting the email notifications when one of our TBs has been picked up (or dropped off) to see if there's a new photo or story about their adventures.
My 7-year-old has been a little disappointed with her U.S.-released TB, Lilo The Swimmer. She was released in southern Maine in June and has only changed hands 4 times. Lilo was placed in a remote cache in Northern Maine (in July) and has yet to be picked up again.
Ronny has seen a little more action with stops in New York and Vermont and has changed hands a number of times during his 5 months on the road.
I love the TBs because even when we can't get outdoors, we can still enjoy mapping our travel bugs' adventures around the globe.
Geography lesson
We have two new geocaching Travel Bugs to track now, Hiking Doggie and Annika the Hiker.
Some friends in New Zealand recently started geocaching and agreed to "release" our Travel Bugs on the island nation.
They put Hiking Doggie into the Falstaf cache in Auckland.
How far is he from our home coordinates?
9,041.3 miles
Cool.
A rushing river surprise..
The kids' 4-H group had planned to look for a geocache on Sunday afternoon near the Saco River in Limington. I know there was a lot of weekend rain but I had no idea how flooded the river area would be. It was pretty low when I drove by it on Thursday. The leaves were just starting to change so I actually stopped and took a photo that day.
This is the river on Sunday afternoon. I couldn't even get to the rocks I stood on a couple of days before (where the kayaker is standing) so had to settle for a shot about 50 yards away on the main shore.
I guess this is what 7 inches of rain looks like. And we're still counting.... I guess the only ones happy about that are those crazy kayakers.
Loved your cache trade Anne and Joe
We were checking out a geocache yesterday and found a great trade from Anne and Joe of Durham. Definitely the most clever we've seen in our 8 months of geocaching so far.
The card says "Wandering - losing our marbles along the way."
Thanks "TwoMaineiacs" for giving us a new idea for trades. All geocachers should be so clever....
Highlights from a car trip
We just returned from a few days vacation in Bar Harbor. Hiking in Acadia National Park was awesome but I'll get to that later.
During the 4-hour or so car ride to Mt. Desert Island we made a couple of stops to have lunch and do some geocaching along the way.
According to my 7-year-old L., these were the most interesting pictures from that car trip downeast.
The Paul Bunyan statue in Bangor. G. took a photo looking up at the statue.
"Ewww, that's gross to look up his nose," according to L.
The geocache we found on Thompson Island. L LOVED the rubber chicken she found in the cache.
"It is so silly that it can lay an egg!"
Caught in a downpour wasn't so bad
We've been doing a lot of hiking during the past week or so. The other day we decided on an impromptu stop at Jockey Cap in Fryeburg on our way to North Conway.
Clouds started to move in while we were looking for a geocache on the trail but thought we had plenty of time before the rain started. We were wrong and got caught in the downpour.
The kids decided we should go to a cave we saw earlier on the trail and hang out there. It turned out to be a fun place for a snack to wait out the rain.
The rain only lasted about 10 minutes and then the sky cleared. We made our way back up to the top and enjoyed the view and the interesting map of the mountains (one of the best I've seen on a trail so far).
After braving "welcome signs" Douglas was OK
Last week I lamented Douglas Mountain's sign-age litter. The kids love the stone tower at the top of Douglas so we decided to brave the sign weirdness and find a couple of hours to go during their trail hours (open until 6 p.m.).
New trailhead signs to direct traffic. It costs $3/per car to park at the trailhead now.
The yellow tape stretched around the entire former trailhead, which you can't see completely here.
Lot's of "don't" signs, not many glad you're here ones.
Once we got past all the welcoming signs, the hike was nice. We found a well-stocked geocache and took in a really great view of Sebago Lake and the mountains.
Urban hike was fun
We just returned from our week-long trip to New York City. We spent an entire day in Central Park and only saw half of it. The kids did their homework to decide what parts of the park they wanted to explore. They settled on the area between 59th and 79th streets where the Belvedere Castle and Balto statue were (they wanted to see a "real" castle and they love the Balto story).
We also tried out the "Ramble" hiking trail in the park. It was hard to believe we were in the middle of a major city; it was a nice trail and we saw tons of birds there. We even had a nice picnic lunch near the pond.
And of course we had downloaded the coordinates for a virtual geocache in the park, which we had to find (and did) near 79th Street.
After walking more than 4 hours through the park and back to Grand Central Station, I was glad that the family was in such good shape from all the hiking we do here at home. We just have to get a little better at people-dodging. The kids have a habit of walking into people and/or poles on the sidewalk. At least this time neither of the kids were cussed-out by a semi-crazed, in-need-of-medication guy as L. was last year when we were there.
Now we're back to enjoy the less-traveled and mostly smog-free trails of Maine.
Travel Bug humor
We picked up the Deerwood Loon travel bug earlier this week in Cumberland while geocaching. We're working on getting him closer to N.H. this weekend. He's in a race with another TB to get to Squam Lake in NH by August. He's pretty close to winning; the other TB is in New York at the moment. And the Loon is doing really well given the fact that he's from Florida and has only been traveling since January.
The kids liked the whole race idea but were disappointed with the lack of photos in this TB's gallery (there's only one). So we just added one. We thought Loon would like to spend time with some new feathered friends.
Almeida humor continues....
Oops, we're in trouble
Yesterday I was closely monitoring my GPS to find a geocache at Twin Brooks Trail in Cumberland. And what is usually the case when it comes to my beloved gadget, I was not paying attention to the world around me.
We were off the trail, about 200 feet, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a bunch of green pointy leaves. There were alarm bells going off in the far corners of my mind (and I mean far corners) that I should take a closer look at those plants. But just as a thought was forming, the "arriving at destination" flashed on my GPS screen.
Continue reading "Oops, we're in trouble"Geocache bugs are on the loose
We released our first ever travel bugs in geocaches in the Standish/Steep Falls area.
"Lilo the Swimmer," who likes to swim in all kinds of water, is hanging out in the "Steep Falls" cache near the Saco River.
"Ronny" the Ronald McDonald doll that wants to visit new McDonald's and eat cheeseburgers is hanging out in "The Rips" geocache on another part of the Saco River.
The "Ice Cream Eater" is still in process but we're working on getting that one released next week.
Happy caching!
River geocache "tragedy"
Scenario:
Crossing 30 feet of moving river to get to the island where the geocache was. Not crazy-fast but enough that footing was a little tricky jumping from rock-to-rock.
Agreeing to let G., my 9-year-old, wear flip flops.
Loosing a flip flop while crossing the river.
Crying, lots of crying, about how wonderful those 99 cent flip flops were.
Spending almost an hour looking around th