Finding fun in caching again

It turns out geocaching ain’t so bad after all.

The past few months, geocaching — outside of a few small outings — has been a bit of a drag. I don’t know why, either. It just hasn’t been all that fun.

Maybe it was the cold weather. Maybe it’s the lack of some newer caches in the area. Maybe it’s because of the new ones in the area, many of the people I cache with at times have said caches, so that means going solo.

And, to be honest, going solo isn’t all that fun.

So a week or so ago, I met up with one of the people I used to cache with when I first started caching. We chatted a bit about geocaching, how we hadn’t been in a while and how we missed some of the times we had when we first started.

For those who cache, I’m sure you’ll be able to agree — though the game remains interesting and such, the feelings you had when you started just can’t be matched as you play the game longer and longer.

At that point, I texted another of the “old guard” and we decided to go on a caching outing this weekend.

I even did what I haven’t done in a long time — planned a route we could do. To be fair, it wasn’t nearly as in depth as I have done in the past, but I did at least put us on a path to be able to get a bunch of caches and have some “old-school” fun.

Now, this isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy caching with the people I’ve met since starting the game. That’s far from the truth.

But I had been in a bit of a  downward spiral with this game recently and it’s nobody’s fault but my own. I wasn’t having fun. I just needed that old-school kick to go back to how we once cached.

It didn’t hurt that it was a sunny day, too.

I found 25 caches (the other two got a few more as we nabbed a couple I already had) and we probably walked in excess of 5 miles or so (one of the trails we did was 4 miles round trip, so that was nice). We had the chance to catch up with one another and not worry about anything else that day. It was smiles and finds. Of those finds, we found several different sizes, found some clever ways to hide caches and overall had a “re-education” of the game.

Oh and we had spiedies for lunch, which always makes life grand.

I hope this is a positive to my geocaching world as I enjoy the community of cachers in this area and it’s fun to be around them. I have just been away from it for a while because the game hasn’t been as fun to me. I needed a kick in the pants and I think I got it this weekend.

And with the weather changing, it’s time to get things back in action. Maybe I’ll even start planning an event. That could be some fun and a way to get outside, socialize with area cachers again and have some fun.

I also found another key — photos. I had such a blast taking photos. I’m actually going to do a post about geocaching photography on Foto Friday this week.

The best part, too?

I think I have a few thoughts and ideas for some hides. Though ones hidden in my area don’t get found too often, I think I can have some fun with a few of them. If you hide it, they will come.

Right?

We’ll shall see!