Modern Day Treasure Hunt

In a seemingly endless quest to unplug our children, we tried a new activity last weekend.

Geocaching

For those of you unfamiliar with it, geocaching is a sort of treasure hunt based on GPS coordinates.  You can sign up at http://www.geocaching.com/ to find the caches in your particular area.  You plug the coordinates into your GPS device or your phone if it has those capabilities and then follow the directions to the cache.   The cache itself is usually a smallish container filled with a log book and various items left by others who have also found the cache.  You can trade something or just enjoy looking through what is in the box.  Once you have found the cache, you log your find both at the cache and online.  

We thought it would be a fun way to explore this new part of the country.   For our first geocaching outing we chose some caches that were easy to find and had easy terrain for the most part.  We found one by an old fire station here in town.  The next one took us to a beautiful little dam with fishing about 20 minutes away.

The third one took us to the painted canyon overlook.

At that point, we were feeling more confident and set out to find a cache called "Petrified Canyon"  that indicated it had terrain that would be slightly more challenging.  I guess it is all in your perspective.  We drove into the middle of nowhere.  Gravel road.  Red clay.  We passed oil drills up close and personal.   We did not see another soul for miles.  We wondered repeatedly if our trusty GPS had led us astray.  I became convinced that we were trespassing on some sort of government land and that we would probably be shot on sight if discovered.  We finally reached what we determined was the appropriate place to park the van and head out on foot.

We hiked through sagebrush keeping our eyes peeled for rattlesnakes.  We scaled buttes and rocky formations

 watching carefully for mountain lions.   We searched and searched some more.

One of us, who shall remain nameless, chose to ignore my sage motherly advice and climbed to the top of a steep ledge.  Not a problem until it was time to come down and he found himself careening down a hill of rocks and petrified wood.  I watched in horror as he stumbled and fell.  I held my breath as he narrowly missed a boulder with his head.  I squeezed my eyes shut as his shoulder slammed into a huge rock and stopped him cold.  As he lay there for a few seconds, I wondered if he had actually slammed his head into the boulder and visions of how we would get to medical care screamed through my head.

Oh, yeah.

This is fun!

Thankfully, the only serious loss was a pair of American Eagle sunglasses that tumbled into a crevice that was too deep (and scary) to reach into.  Don't forget about the rattlesnakes.

Oh dear.   I may have given you too much information.  Hmmmmm.   I fear that I have given away the identity of the nameless child.  Hint: Which child is wearing sunglasses?

At this point, we had experienced more than enough and made the trek back to the van to enjoy the comforts of air conditioning set on max.  Did I mention that it was at least 95 degrees that day?   Sadly, we left the petrified canyon without finding the cache.

What a disappointment.  To go through all that and not even find the cache.

How could we possibly soothe our bruised egos?  And shoulders, arms and legs for one of us.

Oh, we found a way.   Let me introduce you to heaven on earth for anyone on the Atkin's Diet.

It's called Pitchfork Steak Fondue.   You don't believe such a thing exists, do you?

Yes, those are raw steaks on real pitchforks waiting to be plunged into cauldrons of hot oil.   

For us to eat.

In the fresh air.

With a beautiful view.

And each other.

Heart disease aside, I think we found a treasure.