Item #0007 – Templar Geocoin (2008?)

Before we had kids, we had the freedom to go into the wilderness (or a random creeper office park) to hunt down “caches” using GPS coordinates and clues in order to find treasure boxes full of neat goodies to snatch up AND responsibly drop off new neat goodies as well. What am I talking about? GEOCACHING!

Geocaching.com defines the activity as a “real-world, outdoor treasure hunt using GPS-enabled devices.” Using coordinates and clues, you are looking for containers as small as a camera film cylinder to ones as large as ammo lock boxes.

We were really big on geocaching when I was pregnant with our first back in 2008. With my continually growing belly, we would hike into heavy brush with our handheld Magellan GPS device (no color, mind you!) while complaining about issues like tree cover throwing off a signal. I also got attacked by a whole bunch of baby ticks in addition to the regular occurrence of one of the adult blood-sucking vampire bugs ending up around the nether regions.

Those were the days! (Seriously, we don’t do those deep-in-the-woods ones anymore. Nor nano/micro caches. No bueno. No, thank you.)

Occasionally, caches will contain a trackable such as this Templar Geocoin that you have to help move, so it accomplishes its mission. The general rule is you find it, you then help it get on its way.

We’ve, um, had this geocoin since…maybe…2008.

Eeekers, I know…

Yeah, so I’m going to need a cover sheet on those TPS reports.  (Sorry, I had to change the subject due to guilt.)

Anyways, we’ve had it forever, and that’s a no-no in the geocaching world. What is its mission? Oh, just “hide it eastern from here.” That might not sound hard, but we were living in Savannah, Georgia, at the time. Were we supposed to throw it in the ocean? I know, why did we take it if we couldn’t help it continue its mission? Well, because it was our first geocoin, and it was simply MA-GI-CAL. We were planning on getting it closer to the beach, but life, kid, seminary, another kid, more seminary, another kid (throw in five moves) happened.

So while looking for envelopes earlier today, I found it in our old pathetic geocaching sandwich bag along with a gargantuan USAF Disaster Response patch and a cheesy Savannah keychain.

But, don’t you worry; I will redeem myself and drop it off in a cache when I’m in Raleigh next week. I figure with all of the international students at NC State, Duke, and UNC, it will have a good chance of crossing the pond.

Do you geocache? Any interesting finds or stories?

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Status: Temporarily a personal item – to be dropped off next week.

Random for you:

Some of the other different kinds of caches include a Letterbox Hybrid (think geocaching but with rubber stamps), Cache In Trash Out, and Mega- and Giga-Event caches.

One of the neatest caches is located at the Geocaching Headquarters in Seattle, Washington. You can register for a hosted visit where guests can learn about what new things the team is working on as well as getting a peek at new trackables.

Click here to read about the history of geocaching.