Stressed+Out+Seniors

 Geocaching with SOS: Stressed Out Seniors Fall 2014 -- Educ. 448 Elizabeth Baker and Jessica Haithcox

On a day that seemed hotter than the Fourth of July, we ventured out across campus on a geocache adventure. Our adventure started in Wiggins Library where we researched the caches on geocache.com that we wanted to find on Campbell’s campus. There were around eight available caches and we chose five that seemed reasonably placed. We entered the coordinates into our GPS unit that we checked out from the library along with into one of our smartphones as an alternate source.

The first cache we chose to search for was the Bell Tower Cache. The clue was “This cache is hidden in a GRATE place.” We followed our GPS units to behind the Bell Tower where we looked for a grate. There we found two grates and looked in the first one with no success. We moved on to the second one and looked for about thirty seconds before we noticed a small plastic tube in a hole above one of the metal bolts. We successfully found our first cache, and we cheered as we tried to pry the paper from the tube. After retrieving the paper, we added our names to the end and cautiously placed the tube back into its hole and entered our next set of coordinates. The next cache we ventured to was the one labeled Kivett Cache on geocache.com, although it wasn’t as close to Kivett as we had anticipated. When we reached the position our GPS units were directing us to we were at a large tree and began searching high and low. At the base of the tree we found a small, black film roll with many treasures inside. There was a slip with names that we added our names to and many other slips of paper such as flyers, notes, and business cards. We were on a roll but anxiously awaiting our next search.

After entering our next set of coordinates into our devices, we found ourselves in front on the convocation center looking for the hard to find Camel Cache. The clue hinted that the cache was magnetic. When we reached our destination we searched what seemed like every inch of metal around the given coordinates. We spent more than ten minutes in the blazing sun searching with no success. With our heads hung low in defeat we entered our next set of coordinates.

As we headed across campus with heavy hearts and book bags we came to a stop at the well. Geocaching gave us the clue of, “Campbell University is a place of HIGHer education.” To the two of us this meant the cache was somewhere in a high spot but once again we searched and searched through the gazebo and surrounding area with no success. Feeling overly defeated and exhausted from the heat we were determined to find a third cache!

With our last coordinates in hand we pushed ahead into Saylor Park. We were slightly thrown off by where the GPS units were taking us as it seemed we were actually leaving the park. When we reached less than .10 miles on our devices we began to look for our last chance at finding treasure and then it was a magical moment when one of us opened a tiny metal box with a plastic tube inside! We were overjoyed to have found yet another cache. After a long afternoon adventure across campus, we were exhausted and feeling a little defeated to have not found two of our mystery caches, but we were delighted to have found three even if it wasn’t what we were shooting for. We were famished for water as we cannot conserve like actual camels do, so with smiles on our faces we headed back to our homes away from home.