I like doing interesting things, and I have found that there are many activities I'd be into pursuing if another, genuinely interested friend suggested we give it a try.  I think all of my current hobbies started because I had a good time participating in the activity and discussing the ins and outs with someone else.

Geo-logistics

So my good friend Tony was hanging out recently with a friend of his up in Michigan, who on this occasion introduced him to geocaching.  They had a quite a good time with it, and Tony thought it to be something I'd find interesting.  He brought it up to me as we were working on the goggles he needed for Casey & Steph's wedding (which was also quite a blast, by the way).  

I'd heard of this passtime before, knew the basic concept and thought it sounded neat, but never really looked into it.  When Tony came back a little excited about it, that was really all it took.  I don't do as much outdoor stuff as I used to, and this seemed an interesting pretense for getting out.

Between our usual weekly schedule and needing to prepare for the game I was running on friday (which I think went well), I didn't have time to do much more than register my alias on geocaching.com.  Today, however, was a beautiful day and, after texting back and forth for a bit, Tony & I decided to meet at Sycamore Shoals - where we believed at least one cache was located.

We made this first find after just about 15 minutes - pretty easily, actually.  It's a pretty good hiding spot just a little ways off the main trail.  The GPS app I put on my phone specifically for this seemed to work quite well (I'm not using the "official" app for a couple of reasons).  I signed the log and we left a couple of items before moving on.

There seem to be a few other caches in the area, but no other ones actually within the park itself.  Though we did happen upon a "rare flower".

There seem to be quite a few caches in fairly populous/urban areas but, for now, I think we're mostly into the more remote finds - in parks, trails and the like.  We've got our eyes on Winged Deer and the lower Laurel Falls trail next.  We discussed returning to the one at Sycamore Shoals as well to do the cache a favor: the gladware container it uses is all but breached and we've talked about replacing it with something more durable.

~PS