Palmetto Pocket Pickers

Today was not a great day of geocaching. I had planned on getting about six caches in the area, and also to move one of our hides so we can get it published. My nephew, Joel and his wife, Coral, new geocachers named SaMJaC, have been wanting to go geocaching with me to see how it is supposed to be done. They have just started geocaching, and were having troubles with their GPS, and finding caches, so once I decided to go here and cache, I chatted with Coral on Facebook, and we planned to meet up at the entrance to the Florida Trail on Lockwood, in Oveido at 8 am. Coral said that she had loaded in the caches in the area onto her GPS, so I only loaded the caches that I have not found.

We met up this morning at 8, and while chatting, They told me they did not load their GPS, and in fact, they hated it so bad, they did not even bring it. No problem, I say, I got some loaded in my Colorado, and I know where a few others are, so I will try to get them close so they can find the caches. Off we trekked, down the trail entrance, Coral was taking pictures, so I didn't. I can get them from her later. I stopped on the bridge and they found one cache, and as we headed down, I could not remember where the next cache was, so I did not stop until we got to the trail turn, and they quickly found the cache there, and off we headed north on the trail. To my pleasant surprise, the trail has dried considerably since we were last here, and even though I tested the new boots in the water, they were able to stay dry all the way to the two north caches, Sputnik, and King Kong's Ball and Chain. My plan was to find the KK cache, and then do the Sputnik multi.

This is when things start to get a tad strange, OK, a lot strange!!Did I mention that Coral has been taking pictures of our hike the whole time, so I still have not taken any pictures, I will get them from her later. Oh, never mind, here's one of mine, I can't wait any more!! Here's the happy couple on the trail.

I let Coral lead us with my GPS as we head down the trail, and when we get to within 120 feet or so, I convince her that we need to go a different direction, and off I go across the creek, towards GZ, only as I got closer and closer, it kept showing 84 feet over a barbwire fence, into the thickest palmettos we have seen in quite some time. We backtracked a little bit, and found the fence ends, so off into the palmettos we go. It is NASTY! The Colorado is seeming to settle in, and I head towards GZ and finally we get within 12 feet! Whoo hoo!! I do the logical thing, and put down the GPS and start looking for the huge cache. Only we all roam through the brush for about 15 minutes, and there is no cache to be found. I pull out the GPS, and look at it and it is now showing .13 miles away. WHAT???

After a thorough look at our track, we decide to just head back toward the trail by the fence, which should be pretty close, the key word here being "should". As I dragged them through the thickest palmettos yet, I look at my GPS and see that the black wheel that controls it is now missing. GREAT! We all start looking for the wheel, but we all know it is futile, so after a few minutes, I tell them the heck with the wheel, lets just go for the cache. I head towards the cache, or at least where the Garmin says the cache is, until we get to the creek again, and I walk in the creek for a bit, and now I can see the Trail, I get out of the creek, and Joel and Coral find a dry way across, (they do not have the nice waterproof boots like I do), and we get back to the Florida Trail, walk down it a bit, and get to within 40 feet or so. We see a geotrail, head in a ways, and instantly spot the cache. We sure made this easy cache tough! But we happily sign our names on the log, and I head back to the trail to get my GPS to show the next cache. About this time, Coral wants to take a picture, but guess what... her camera has been picked from her pocket by those thick Palmettos who also stole my Garmin wheel. We backtracked back to the creek to see if we could find the camera, but no luck, and there was no way we were going to try to see if we could find it in the thick palmettos!

I could not get the Garmin to change fields so I can load another cache, so I do the next thing and restart it. Not good, because now all I can do is look at the map... We are done, we cannot geocache without coordinates and a GPS to get us there. I get out my Droid for some pictures now that I realize that the camera is now MIA. Coral found a flower and put it in her hair for a picture.

We head back to the geovan, and then we went across the street for Magnetix, another cache I had found a long time ago, chatted awhile, and took this group shot before heading on our way.

I had a great time visiting with them, and I was especially happy to be able to show them how an experienced geocacher handles himself in the forest. The bad part of all this is that they are planning a move soon, and I will not be able to go caching with them to show them that I really do know how to find a cache! LOL!! Here's the group after the fiasco. I love you guys! Good luck in PA! This day has been quite costly for you, I just hope I can fix the Garmin!