Hide and Seek in the Touchet Valley

Fun, frugal family activ­ities that require mini­mal advance prepara­tion are difficult to come by. Geocaching meets those requirements and more. My son received a GPS for Christmas two years ago and we've been hooked ever since.

The Touchet Valley is filled with hundreds of cach­es requiring nothing more than a GPS to find, though a GPS enabled smart phone will get you by in a pinch. Not only will geocaching get you off the couch and into the great outdoors, it's gratifying and educational as well.

Geocaching is basically an outdoor treasure hunt, with greater emphasis placed on the hunt than on the trea­sure. The best caches (in my opinion) are placed in sites of historical significance, offer an exceptional view or boast some other interesting or distinguishing feature.

Our first find introduced us to Izzy the camel, while a cache hidden along the dike in Dayton provided us with a historical tidbit about the area that we were unaware of.

I questioned my sanity several times while hiking Bowman Hill in search of a series of caches, but the view from the top remains one of my favorites. Upon reflection, making the hike in the scorching mid-August heat may not have been the most intelligent of decisions. Using a bit of common sense is always a good idea.

Getting started with geo­caching is easy. Simply visit www.geocaching.com and enter your location to find a list of caches hidden near you. The list, sorted by prox­imity, will include the size of the cache, difficulty to find and the difficulty of the terrain. A click on a specific cache may provide you with additional information such as parking suggestions or fun tidbits about the hide or placement.

Caches vary widely in size and type. Most are plas­tic containers or ammo cans. Some are cleverly disguised as rocks, logs or even water meters. A micro cache may be a tiny, magnetic contain­er, smaller than your thumb. All caches contain a log, and the larger caches include trading items. We generally sign the log and ignore the trinkets. Finds are logged back on the geocaching.com website.

Some caches contain what they call "trackables". These are items with an ID number that allows the owner to follow along on the journey. If you find a track­able, you must log it online and can look up its profile. Some include goals such as reaching a specific destina­tion or visiting specific sites.

Our first trackable find was "Rat in the Cache 10" whose goal is to "burrow into as many caches as we can around the world". We moved him from Waitsburg to Dayton in April, 2011 and, according to geocach­ing.com, he's currently en­joying the good life in Al­sace, France.

Hiding caches can be as much fun as finding them. Ray Brown, known as Bluesman63 to geocach­ers, has hidden a number of caches in the area. "I think it's a great family activity," said Brown. "Kids spend too much time indoors around the TV or computer. Geo­caching is a good way to get them outside." Brown, who owns much of the property he places caches on, says, "I had the land and I enjoy showing off the country," when asked what prompted him to begin planting his own caches.

One of Brown's favorite caches is the Blue Mountain Hike/Airplane Crash, which takes geocachers past the remains of a Navy Hellcat fighter plane that crashed during training in WWII. Be sure and read the instruc­tions on this one before heading out. There's even a link to a video with informa­tion about the crash.

Charlie Schorner of Prescott and his wife Mae Schrey, former owner of the Weinhardt Café in Dayton, have hidden many caches in the area as well. Schorner says he and his wife, known as tiger_ lily online, are less active than in years past, due to the poorer quality of new hides. "The older caches were larger and placed in areas with a good view or other interesting feature. Many of the newer caches are micro-caches that are time consuming to find, or poorly maintained plastic caches that require tramping through muck and nettles to access."

Schorner recalls, as a lo­cal favorite, a particularly clever hide, where the owner had hollowed out the in­side of a log and attached a hinged door, in which they placed the cache. Another fa­vorite includes a mechanical puzzle where geocachers are required to pour water into a pipe to retrieve the cache.

"There are several nice hikes along Bennington Lake," said Schorner. "And I still want to do one of the night hunts where you use a flashlight to shine on reflec­tors that lead to a cache."

Spring break and fine weather make this an ideal time of year to get outdoors with the family and do some geocaching. I can almost guarantee you'll learn some­thing new if you do.