CU+Climbers

==** We (Kara, Annah and Kendra) were excited to begin our wonderful adventure of geocaching in The Creek to see what we could discover. With our minds set to conquer this task in one day, we quickly found out that there was much more to do on this adventure. Who knew geocaching would be so difficult? **==
 * The Great Geocaching Adventure ** ** By: Kara Kivett, Kendra Smith, Annah Baker **

==** It was a hot, sunny, fall day when we decided to go on a geocaching hunt. The first thing we did was look up all the caches that are located at Campbell University and saw that there was an “easy” find in Saylor Park. So our bright idea was to march there dressed in our practicum clothes, which were entirely too hot for the weather. We first put the coordinates into the GPS for the cache that was located in Saylor Park. When we finally reached Saylor Park we looked high and low - in the trees, on the ground, in the bushes near the pharmacy school, but we were not having any luck. In fact, we were about to give up. At one point we were standing in the middle of the road as cars were passing surely thinking, “Those girls are crazy”. Our GPS kept losing the location of the cache. Until Kendra said, “Hey I bet that it is in that tiny box on the power pole”, so we all walked over there scared to death to touch it with fear that we may get electrocuted. But never to fear, the brave Kendra kicks the box open and there it was – a microcache. We shouted with joy as we were thrilled that we were not complete failures. We had found 1 of the 3 caches that we were searching for. We took the microcache out of the bag, signed our names, and took a picture. “Chezzz!” **==



==** From the exhaustion that was caused by the search for the Saylor Park microcache, we decided to take a breather and return to our adventure at a later date. As we gathered enough courage to begin this journey again, we decided to take on “The Camel”. As we slowly trudged out of Taylor Hall we quickly realized that we were going geocaching on another dreadfully, hot day. On the way to “The Camel” we were anxious to figure out the location of our next cache. With Dr. Roukema’s experience burning in our memory of how difficult it was, we were a little nervous to even attempt the journey. We knew it was a magnet of some sort from the clues we had decrypted on the Geocaching website. Following the GPS, we looked for places that a magnet would stick to. The GPS led us past the camel. Annah said “I am confused of why the cache is named ‘The Camel’ when the cache isn’t even on the camel”. We looked above and below just about everything around that area. Knowing that we were looking for a microcache made us look more intentionally. Looking around the trash cans and climbing over benches, we finally found the small black magnet on the back of the arm rest on a bench. A sense of accomplishment outweighed our embarrassment over people watching us look for this tiny cache. We felt very proud of ourselves for making this awesome discovery. **==



==** With only one more geocache to find we started the last part of our journey. As a group of three, we set out with our yellow and black GPS as our guide to our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We weren’t on our journey long before a screen popped up on our GPS that read “BATTERY LOW”. As we grew discouraged and aggravated we came to a consensus that in order to continue our journey we needed a new GPS. We went to the CMMC to see Mrs. Darden who saved the day by having another GPS available! After our short delay we continued on our journey. We followed the GPS towards the woods that are located behind the walking track we all began to question our sanity for picking this geocache. As we reached the woods the GPS was pointing straight but the woods were creating a solid wall of trees and brush, Annah said “Which way do we go now?”. Kendra and Kara said “Let’s go this way. This looks like a path”. We then followed this path, and our GPS, deeper and deeper into the woods. While walking through the woods we kept a careful eye on the GPS because we did not want to get lost by ourselves in the woods. After walking for what seemed like decades we were only a few hundred feet away from it. Since we had looked up hints on the website we had a general idea of what the location of the cache looked like and what kind of container the cache was in. We walked through briars and many other prickly things that stuck in us as we made our way closer to our destination. We finally made it and discovered that it was the ruins of an old Gristmill. The ruins looked very unstable and unsafe to be around. We were a little nervous of having to explore this area. But have no fear, our fearless leader Kendra led the way by saying “I’ll climb down there and see what I can find”. **==



==** After she got down to the bottom, which was beside the creek, she explored all the different areas that we could think of where the cache would be hidden. Annah said “I’ll come down and help you look” while Kara said “I’ll look up here around these old bricks”. Annah and Kendra looked high and low down by the creek-on the water wheel and in the trees. With frustration and irritation dampening our spirits, hope was restored when we all of a sudden heard Kendra say “Wait, I think I see something in here”. She had discovered a rusty old pipe in one of the old brick walls that had something sitting in it. Annah slowly reached her hand into the pipe and pulled out an old medicine bottle that had been colored with a black Sharpie. “This is it!” Annah exclaimed. We were all so relieved and excited that we had finally found our last cache for our adventure. Once our names had been signed, we gathered our things and headed out of the woods soaked in sweat and covered in mosquito bites. **==



==** After two long days of geocaching, we realized that we were not the most adventurous individuals but could work together to accomplish our desired tasks. We learned that geocaching could be difficult but was possible when you had an idea of what you were looking for. With a sense of pride and accomplishment we headed back to the library to return our lovely adventure guide, the GPS. **==