Geocaching // The Old Cemetery

I've always loved a good adventure. And believe it or not, the best adventures are right around the corner, in my small, cozy town of Southampton, Ontario. There's so much history and beauty to this town and I am so proud to call it my own. I've always wanted to talk on my blog, and interesting facts about it. I guess I have a little (or a lot) of my Dad in my heart when it comes to this town and the history behind it. He loves to tell stories. But, I could never find a way to introduce it without boring people to death.
One of my favourite places in Southampton is the old cemetery. I won't go into details about the families and first settlers to our town (although, this is a great one!) but, I will tell you a neat story. Our first cemetery was placed next to the Saugeen River, and the embankment had eroded over time, forcing most of the cemetery into the river. The town managed to salvage some of the headstones, which now reside in a little area of our new cemetery, with a plaque explaining the incident and some history of the matter. The new cemetery is beautiful but there's just something about this little area that gets me. 
(Before you continue, I will admit, this post is a little photo and text heavy, but assure you that not all posts in this series will be this long.)
There's a trail along the embankment now that leads to the grounds where the old cemetery used to be, or at least, what's left of it. Every so often, you'll pass old stones that remain along the trail and eventually you'll end up at the resting place. It's actually a pretty nice, short, trail if you're into hiking and nature. This is the first spot we went to in search of a Geocache.
By now, if you don't know already, you're probably wondering - what the heck is a Geocache? Well, in shortest terms, Geocaching is a real life game of treasure hunting using GPS. There's over 2 million Geocaches spread across the entire world! I almost can't believe it's taken me this long to find out about it, (Thanks Jessica for that one!). If you're interested in finding out more, visit the Geocaching website and read their FAQs, and watch the cute little video that describes the game way better than I ever could.

There's an app that goes with it, it's free to try out but if you really get into Geocaching, I'd suggest buying the app so that you can plan your geocaches out before you get to your destination. Once you've found your geocaches, it leaves a happy face there to keep track. The one highlighted on my phone is the one by the old cemetery, called "Pushing Up The Daisies".
This time of year the trail to the old cemetery is lush with greenery so I must admit, it was a bit tricky to find. Some of them are difficult to find, some are actually in hiding in plain sight, which this one was. But, it had been awhile since I actually looked for anything green in a field of green, so I was a little rusty. Luckily, Carrie and Clementine came for the hike so I had some help!

Your Geocaching App will coordinate the whereabouts of the Geocache you wish to find, and even though it warns you it might be about 30 ft out, it's pretty darn accurate. It will also give you hints and describe the terrain, difficulty and size of your hunt. This geocache was said to be medium sized, so we set out to look for something we considered medium. 
My App sent me about 10 ft. away from the Geocache I was looking for and had us looking in the wrong place for a couple of minutes. We used the hints from the app and navigated our way to the spot ourselves, and as luck would have it - there it was! Our first Geocache! 

I'll be honest, the size of this box was a lot bigger than my idea of medium, however, it was really cool for our first Geocache because it was filled with a lot of trinkets that you can trade, or "take one, leave one". We only brought a pen and a camera with us this time so we didn't end up trading anything. Most of it was toys or small keychains and a log book. Inside the bag with a log book was a cigarette, which I presume was placed there to contain the moisture and prevent the log book from getting soggy, but it had since gone moldy and was quite disgusting when we opened the bag. The log book was in great shape though! 
We signed and dated the log book, put everything back into the box and placed the Geocache back into its hiding place. Once completed, you can log your find on the App, sort of a virtual guest book, and it will then leave a smiley face on your map. 
Having left fully satisfied with our victory, we decided to track a few more along the Saugeen River, but I'll get to those another day. 

Interested in Geocaching? In this new series, I would like to provide some tips and info about Geocaching that I will learn along the way. Today I have made up a list of things you should consider bringing if you're going to hunt a few geocaches in your area, especially if you're hiking.
♥ Geocaching App Your phone with the Geocaching App installed, and an account registered and ready to go. A hand held GPS helps if you have one.
♥ Boots or a good pair of walking shoes, especially if you're about to trek into the wilderness. We tried looking for this first geocache in sandals on a whim and we had to come back better equipped.
♥ Pen or Pencil most Geocaches won't be big enough to hold anything but a log book, so be sure to bring along a writing utensil to sign your name!
♥ Small items If you're into trading or leaving behind something neat, make sure to bring a few small trinkets and add them to the bigger sized boxes. Don't take anything unless you're willing to add something!
♥ Bug Repellent If you're going into the bush, this should be your main concern. I have about 20 mosquito bites to prove it.
♥ Water goes without saying that if you're going to hike, you should bring water.
♥ A Buddy, And Your A-Game You could go alone, but I found it was much more of an adventure with my best buddy! Also, bring someone who's up for the challenge, otherwise it'll be a major bummer for the both of you. You're here to have fun, but you also want someone who is willing to put on their thinking caps and don't mind getting a little dirty!
♥ Camera this is obviously optional, but I carry my camera every where with me! Geocaching is such a good excuse to take nature photos. At the dam, trying to find another geocache, we spotted a Blue Heron on the river bank, as well as some really neat spores and other woodsy wonders.


Happy Hunting everyone! xo