Today Janet and I planned to visit Oak Glen and go to lunch. This trip was also a Geocaching adventure. The first cache was “Nothing to do with Websters Adams Apple,” GCP2T7. This was the first cache of several. We passed it twice while Janet honed her navigation skills. After a couple of caches, she was doing great.
The second find of the day on the Oak Glen trip was “Not Granny Smith Apples,” GCP2WX. We passed the side road where the cache was. Janet had acquired the distance to the cache and it never got lower than 100 feet. It went down and then back up. I walked back to the cache. I learned that Janet had acquired the distance to the cache and did not observe the orange arrow pointing to the right. With that information, she was extremely accurate as a navigator the rest of the day.
The next cache was “Apple Cider,” GCPVQM. It was a quick and easy find. The next one was “Scenic Apple Loop,” GCP72E. It was another quick grab for us. Well, for me. Janet stayed in the car for all the geocaching. For the next one, we actually made it to a parking lot. Janet had navigated us as close as possible. She stayed in the vehicle and I went and retrieved “Eat an Apple a Day or Parrish,” GCPPMY. This one was in a large heart shaped tin and was put out my Highway Hikers for their 25th anniversary. Once I found it I had to show Janet the tin so I held it up so that she could see it.
We parked in the Law’s parking lot right in front of some shops. It was shopping time, not geocaching time. After all, It was time to indulge Janet. We wandered around the store for a few minutes. Janet commented on the men sitting in the benches while the women shopped. I let her know that I would be right back. I walked quickly uphill the 500 feet to “Fishing for an Apple a Day in Oak Glen,” GCP36Z. At the cache location I walked around GZ trying to blend in. I finally decided to go in for the grab. I made it back and we purchased a cookbook and a kitchen item. Moved further from the cache and purchased some Apple Butter. Then further from the cache and purchased a gallon of cold cider. Geocaching is beginning to get expensive.
It was off to “Apple Country,” GCG7BX. This cache was 500 feet up a dirt road. I noted the fall colors or what could also be called a try at fall colors. I quickly found the cache and started back to the car and had another cup of cold cider.
Geocaching in Oak Glen
After a couple more swigs of cider we made our way to “Guarding Apple Country,” GCP2TD. It was the traditional guard rail magnetic cache. It was easier than “Pilgrim’s Treasure,” GC19HR2. This cache took a few more minutes to find than it should have due to the distance from where the cords read and the actual cache. It was around 50 feet.
It was betting time for lunch so we headed to Los Rios Ranchos and had a tri tip sandwich. We did some more shopping and a little more geocaching. On our way back we grabbed “U Pick Apples & Raspberries too,” GCPVQJ and then off to “Good Apples,” GCPPN4. We pulled up within 20 feet of GZ and my BlackBerry was telling me to go here and there, back and forth across the street and around the car a couple of times. Janet rolled her window down and pointed while she uttered the words, “look there.” Behold, there was a benchmark just behind the direction she told me to look. I took a picture of the benchmark and proceeded to look “there.” Well look at that, Janet is getting the hang of this. Silly me.
As for the cost of Geocaching today, the tri-tip at Los Rio Ranchos was good. Add in some Pink Lady apples, honey, a box of hard candy, apple butter, cookbook and a gallon of apple cider and it was a day.
