There was a Geocaching class late in the week that I took advantage of since I’ve been curious about it for some time. Dave of “OurEndeavor” (on YouTube) led the class. Prior to meeting up I downloaded the Geocaching App and made an account. We went to a couple locations that were near our rally area. It was pretty cool finding our first cache. We learned about signing the log and recording within the app for each cache. And that it is important to not take a picture that would spoil finding the cache for someone else.
The next day we met Dave at the Hi Jolly Cemetery. We had some app issues. The mystery cache that Dave wanted to do with us was grayed out on our app. It was for the “premium” level, but was available on the Android app that Dave uses. ( C:Geo) C-Geo allowed access to the Hi Jolly Mystery cache, but unfortunately, this particular ghost/mystery app was actually a part of an Adventure Lab for the Hi Jolly Cemetery. I didn’t know what that meant till I was looking at geo cache apps for the iPhone. It looked pretty cool, so I downloaded it to try it the next day.
As a group we started working on standard caches that were within a 0.2 mile from the cemetery, and from each other. Two tenths of a mile is the minimum distance allowed between caches. Our first day the cache finds were standard size that were small coffee can size. Today’s were mini ones which are pill bottle size. There are also micro caches that are only about the size of a pencil tip eraser! I’m not ready to look for micros!
I would like to find a cool cache with neat stuff inside. Dave shared some travel bugs that he had and explained how they work.
A travel bug has a registration number on it. When you find a cache with a travel bug you may chose to take it or leave it for someone else. If you take the token you record in the app that you are taking it, and you record the number when you place it somewhere new, so the original owner can track its travels. Sometimes a specific item or “Travel Bug” has a mission or goal. A person only takes that travel bug if he/she is able to advance the mission or goal. It may be to complete a journey of all the National Parks or to travel down to particular destinations, etc.
Dave was nice enough to further promote this hobby, but allowing each of us to select one of his tokens or travel bugs to place in a cache sometime. I was excited about these and selected this turtle!
ADVENTURE LAB – On Our Own The Next Day
Barry and I went back to the Hi Jolly Monument/Cemetery. I pulled up the Adventure Lab for this location on the app. It tasked us to find five different gravestones and record a specific digit from each one to “unlock” the ghost cache. Done! I look forward to doing more Adventure Labs in Yuma and other places as we travel.
We learned why there are camels on signs and buildings all around Quartzsite. Evidently, the US Army began a special project using a herd of camels near Quartzsite prior to the Civil War. Haiji Ali was the caretaker. He soon became known as “Hi Jolly”. The purpose of the Camel Corps was to open a wagon road across the desert of Arizona from Fort Defiance into California. When the Civil War broke out the camel project was abandoned, and the camels were left in this areas of the Arizona desert to fend for themselves. They actually survived for many years and generated local curiosity and interest in them.
Afterwards Barry and I went to see the “Great Ironwood Tree” of Arizona. It is evidently about 1050 years old! For an ironwood tree it is huge.
As we headed back to camp, we stopped at the official Quartzsite-Camel sign to get an updated picture here. Tomorrow we leave to go back to our home in Yuma.
That afternoon after the last Bingo at the Next Exit Rally and the “raffle” drawings the group presented a beautiful painted rock to Pearl and Bob. The rock was painted by one of the ladies attending the rally using the dot method, and was absolutely beautiful! Everyone signed the back/bottom of the rock. What a cool treasure to remember this gathering in the desert of great people who like to RV!
Looking forward to your next geocaching adventure story. It is a good reason to take a drive and a hike.
Thanks BJ! I’m working on my adventure one here in Yuma. Should be posted in a couple days!
Maybe you can join me next year when I do one in Yuma. Thanks for reading my blog!
Hi Nancy, it was fun Geocaching with you at Quartzsite. I finally put up a video about it today and you are in it quite a bit. Have you done any more Geochashing?
I haven’t done much. Most of the ones I see near me are micros or I need permission to enter the land area. Not interested in that. What I have done is Adventure Labs here in Yuma. I really enjoy those. Check out my Adventure Lab blog. I will check out your YouTube post. Barry was just looking at a couple the other day.