GeoCaching Adventures – Prize Winners

Gizmo and I were so happy that there were some folks out there who went out and geocached!  We hope you enjoyed the game and that you’ll keep playing!

We have two prizes for you today – and you know the drill, everyone got assigned a number and they were put into our randomizer for a chance to win the prizes!

The first is a geocache cap and coin from my buddy Gizmo.   And….drumroll please….the prize goes to #6 Riley the Shih tzu…  Please email Gizmo with your contact info in order to receive the prize!!

The second is a $20 gift card to Petland Discounts (if there isn’t one by you, you can use it on their website).  And…..drumroll please….the prize goes to #11 Murphy & Stanley!!!  Please email us at marianne(dot)d(dot)howard(at)gmail(dot)com with your contact info so we can mail you our prize!

Thank you again Geodogs!!  See you out there in the wild – – feeling, groping, sniffing out some caches!

Finn Says, “It’s GeoDog Day!!”

Hewwwow!! Finnackles here, telling you about the cache I helped Momma find. Check it out GC2N6BV – The Way a Sandwich Should Be (1996-2000). Momma had me out and said she needed my sniffer to find this one. It was actually hidden with a magnet under this random sign in a strip mall.

We looked to the right to make sure there weren’t any muggles around when we grabbed it.

We looked to the left to make sure there weren’t any muggles around when we grabbed it.

Anyone see what’s behind me? A Subway shop. And their slogan was “The Way a Sandwich Should Be” from 1996-2000 (apparently!  We looked it up when we got home). The sign where the cache was hidden was directly across from the shop in the parking lot.

There’s the cache! Our log was rolled up inside there. We signed it and put it back so the next person could find it. Geodog Finn here, hoping you all had a great time looking for your caches!

Over and out!

PS – Make sure to hook up with the linky link over at Gizmo’s if you’re joining us on your geocache adventure today!  And….last but not least…I would like to thank my outdoor partner in crime today for hosting this event!  You rock Gizmo!

Charley Says, “It’s Geodog Day!!”

Hi guys!  We can’t wait to see where you took your peeps for GeoDog Day!  And, have you seen Head Cheerleader Madi today?  She knows how tough it is to sniff out those caches so she is cheering us on!

GeoDog Charley up!  I am back in Patchogue with my friend Maya and we are out looking for virtual cache GC86F8 – Sticky Situation. The map took us just a little bit behind the Main Street in town, and we knew we were looking for something sticky from the description (and name).  Can you see what we found?

How about now?

I think Maya was trying to get a taste! Here it is close-up!

Reminds me of a smaller version of the alley way in Seattle, if you have ever been there. Once we made our find, we had to email the person who set up the cache what we would name it and if we had a contribution. We did not make make a contribution (gross!) and I called it Bubble Gum Alley!

The cache was right next to a church, and since we were there on a Sunday, we had a little listen to some music and said a prayer.  I wanted to go inside and see if Goose’s Mom was there with Goose and Murphy & Stanley, but my Momma told me they weren’t there.  Sorry guys, I tried!

GeoDog Charley reporting here, cache found.  Over and out.

PS – Make sure to hook up with the linky link over at Gizmo’s if you’re joining us on your geocache adventure today!

GeoDog- Cache Up in a Tree?

Dudes, Charley here.  Reporting to you about the time Momma met her friend C and my friend Maya for some cache hunting.  You can find their blog here!  Yep, Momma has real life friends with doggies too!  Click on over and go say hello!  Anyways, Momma and her friend wanted to go for a walk with us, and did not want to have any ticks, so they decided on going for a little walk in a town called Patchogue, on the south shore of Long Island.  It’s undergoing some revitalization, so they are trying to build back up their main street.

Check out the cool murals! We had never been here before, and Momma wanted to see how I would do just the two of us in a new and busy place. She said I did just fine! Duh, like of course.

Okay, so here are our friends.

Ain’t Maya a cutie?? Ok, so we took a little walk to try to find cache GC343KB – Garden of Delights.  Click on the link to follow along.  The cache is in a small garden and the hint says to look up.  Out little app took us to this garden.  So pretty!

We were lead to a nice looking tree, and since the clue said to look up, we did. Do you see what I see?

C found it:

A black canister hanging under the tree. You never know what you are gonna find when you play! So we found the log, but neither of us had a pen with us (doh!) so we submitted a photo of the log as proof we were there.

GeoDog Charley signing off. This is the end of our geocaching examples until you have to post yours on Friday the 16th.  We’ve shown you park and grabs, we’ve shown you nanos, we’ve shown you virtual caches, we’ve taught you to look up and look down, you never know where they are gonna be!  Hope you are now able to play along and we can’t wait to see where you went.  Til next time dudes.

GeoDog Reminder! Virtual Cache Example

Don’t forget – next Friday, August 16th you can post your geocaching adventures and link to our linky link to be in the drawing for some prizes!

I want to tell you about a Virtual Cache I found – #GCE840 – Water, Water Everywhere.  Click on the link to read about the cache.

Since this is a virtual cache, there is not a physical, tangible cache here.  Virtual caches generally require you to navigate yourself to a landmark area and then answer very specific questions that you would only know if you had been there.  For this cache, you have to go to a very pretty area, and then email the person who created the cache  answers to 2 questions that he/she posted.

1. Where are you?

2.  What boat is docked to the south?

My photo is actually of the dock where you are supposed to find the cache – you are at the South Street Seaport and the boat to the south is The Peking. The Ambrose is blocking part of it there.

I emailed the owner the answers (I found her email address in her profile) and within ten minutes I had a response saying I was correct!

There you have it!  Easy as pie!  Or, biscuits dipped in peanut butter, or bully sticks, or as my loooove for Wally!  We have one more example to show you of how to play and then you are on your own!  I have been getting some great comments that you are sending your peeps out to find some caches, so keep it up Geofinders!

Geodog – Nano and Urban Cache

Hewwwow! Finnackles here to tell you about a geocache Momma found WITHOUT ME! But, since it is a good example of a few places to look, I told her she could share it with you all. This is number GC1XFVT – Coenties and Stone.  It brought her down in the cobblestone streets of Manhattan.  This is an urban cache!  Take a look at the link there to read the description.

The last line reads that there are strict penalties for not cleaning up after one’s dog and the hint reads “Pizza Pizza.” So, Momma found the dog walking sign and it was in front of a pizza place.  If you enlarge the picture above, you see the orange sign on the right side of the street, right behind the No Standing Anytime sign.

The picture above is looking underneath the sign, where it joins the pole. And in her hand is the cache, it is a nanocache, so it was really really small. Small enough so that the only thing in it was a rolled up piece of paper for finders to sign.  The end of the cache is magnetic, so it stuck to the pole and the sign.

There you have it folks! GAME ON! Geodog Finnackles here, hope you have fun playing! I am going to show you two more caching examples before you can post your geocache experience on Friday, 8/16 and link to our linky then too.  I hear Murphy & Stanley and Easy and the Fraidy Cats have already made their first finds!!  Awesome!

GeoDog – Park and Grab Example

Reminder – Post your experiences on finding a geocache on August 16th. Linky link. Prizes. All good fun.  And in between now and then I am going to show you some examples of geocache hunts and finds I’ve had recently, so you know what you are looking for.

I want to show you an example of a Park & Grab we found.  We were on our way home and I decided we were going to find a cache together.  There was one pretty close by #GC33DPA – The WB.  Remember on the app, you are the blue dot heading towards the green map pin.

A park & grab is generally a quick find near a place where you can closely park and walk to the cache. The description told me it was magnetic and the hint told me it blended in well.

My map brought me over to this lightpost area and I looked all around the base, at the screws bolting it down.  There was this panel which looks like it was screwed into the pole, but…

Psych! It is held onto the pole with magnets and the paper inside is the log that I had to sign.  I was also told in the description to BYOP – Bring your own pen – since there was no room to hide a pen or pencil in this cache.

Now, you don’t think I did that all alone, did you?

Complete family effort!! Geodogs and Geohubs in tow. It was well over 90 degrees that day, so I didn’t make them get out of the AC.  And no, we didn’t drive with them crawling all over like that.  Rock on Geodogs!

GeoDog Day!

Hewwwow!  Finnackles, your Director of Parks and Recreation here, along with my buddy Gizmo, the Outdoor Woodsman Guide!  Today we are going to tell you about Geodog Day!  Oh yes, you read right.  If all of our talk of geocaches didn’t give you a big enough hint that this was coming, then I dunno what to tell ya!  Geodog Day is officially August 16th!  You have two weeks to go out and find (or give a really good effort to find) a geocache.  And, you know we are flexible…if you aren’t a dog, you can send your peeps out to find one for you. And in between now and then I am going to show you some examples of ones we have found, ok, so don’t fret.

This is a long post, so grab your comfy pillow before you hunker down…

I am going to explain how to find a geocache using the app for your Iphone.  I would imagine the Android app is very similar.  Wanna see how it’s done using your computer and a hand-held GPS?  Then head on over to Gizmo’s Blog.  His post today is for folks who don’t have a smart phone.

Ok, first thing is first dogs.  Get your peeps to turn on the phone.  Hey, just because it is a smart phone DOES NOT MEAN OUR PEEPS ARE SMART.  Let’s admit it.  Go to the Apps page and search for “geocaching.”  There is a free app and there is a $10 app.  I will walk you through the free app.  If you download the $10 app and have a problem using it, let me know and I will email you with some help.

Free app in App Store

Ok, download the free app.  Go get a biscuit.  When you open it up, it will look like this:

You click your way through the introduction and click on the area where it will find you three nearby caches. It will look like this:

You can click on each one, read each description, each hint, see where each one is on a map.  You select one and click on Navigate Me and it will pop up a map showing where you are (the blue dot) to where it is (the green dot).  You can follow a map  or turn your app into a compass and follow along as you get closer.

Now, what are you looking for?  This is the tricky part – you are looking for anything really that can hide a log (a piece of paper which you will sign).  There may also be a takeaway items, but you have to leave something in order to take something.  So, leave a penny, take a rubber bracelet, for example.  The caches can be nano, or they can be larger tupperware bins.  Caches can be magnetic on the side of a lightpost or they can be hidden under logs or in the base of a hollowed out tree.  The point is to go somewhere new and check it all out.  When you find the cache, you sign the log and hide it back in the same spot you found it so the next person can find it.  Then you click on your app that you’ve found it!  (With the free app, you have to go back to the website and log your find under your username manually in order fot it to take).

That was a lot.  Go get a drink of water.

Now head on over to the geocaching website and create a free account and start playing.  I always check out the website before I head out to find a cache.  Some folks post hints and pictures, and it gives me a better idea of what I am looking for, cause I am still a newbie at this too!  And when you download the app, I just suggest that you click around.  It’s very intuitive and easy to follow.

Here I go with finding a cache.

This is me finding the Cache called “Riverhead View.” (#GC1HAY4).  The location is the Peconic Riverwalk, a place I visited in the rain for Park Day 2.0!  Very pretty!  We went for a walk there one summer day with our pups and decided to see if there was a cache around.  Click on the link for the description of the cache – you see at the top it tells me the cache is a small size and the terrain isn’t difficult and overall, the cache is fairly easy to find.

The hint told us to bring our lunch, so I knew I was approaching the location when I saw two picnic tables.  I searched one table, but had to wait to folks to move from the other table before we could search.  We hung out down the walkway.  The idea is not to be seen by muggles, which are non-geocachers.

The hint also said to reach under, so that I did.  There was a small, black box with magnets affixed underneath the table to a pole which holds the table legs to the cement.  We signed the log and went on our merry way.

So, that’s it! I know this was a long post, but it is really really easy. So, you have two weeks geodogs to download the app, or follow along with Gizmo’s instructions today, and find a cache. Or give a good effort to try to find one!  I will be showing you some examples of what to look for, and how to play again, for the next few posts.  On Friday, August 16th, we will have a linky link up and join in on that. And of course, we have prizes. We will randomly draw for some prizes from your pawesome hosts!

So….get hunting!  You can befriend us on the geocaching website; our profile is hobbes706 and Gizmo’s @GizmoGeodog AND Gizmo’s Momma is JerseyGirl & Bruno.  And take the badge at the top of the page if you are going to play!

It’s Coming, Blogville….

Head on over to the geocaching website to get an idea on how to play and come back August 2nd here or on Gizmo’s blog for details…

You’ll want to create a free profile and start clicking around to see where caches near you can be found!  They are everywhere!  We will be giving explanations on how to play with a GPS or with the smartphone app.  If you search in your phone’s App Store, there is a free app if you aren’t ready to commit to the $10 one.

Not sure you are ready to play?  Go back and read Gizmo’s post from last week on why it is so awesome!  Ready to play and have some questions?  Feel free to ask!  You can find our profile on that website as hobbes706 and Gizmo is at JerseyGirl & Bruno.  Go ahead and befriend us there.  Have fun, and remember, come back next Friday!