If you are going to do some geocaching when your traveling you have to go prepared. By prepared we mean to actually know what type of caches are in the area you are traveling to and visiting. You have to do some Geocaching research to make your trip enjoyable. Here is what we do.

CACHES ALONG THE WAY

If you are driving you can plan caches along a route. A Premium Member has the ability to see what caches you will pass along the way to your destination. I know it looks complicated but after playing around with it for a bit you will figure out just what you need to do to grab some caches along your route. When you finish you are sent a gpx file via email from your account. Drop that in the GPSr and your ready to roll.

CACHES AT YOUR DESTINATION

Setting up a list of caches you want to look for at your destination is a good idea as well. I know there are a lot of geocachers out there using the Geocaching IPhone Application and grabbing caches on the fly. Even if there was an app like that for Android I don’t believe we would use it while traveling, and here’s why. I don’t like to spend my day just grabbing micros all day long with my nose stuck in my phone. It just isn’t enjoyable for the family or myself. I like to weed through the caches online first and find just the right ones. This way we aren’t caching all day but enjoying family time as well. I then make a gpx file of the caches I want, and load it in the GPSr or create a bookmark list which I can then view in the hotel room or during nap time. That way I am spending time with my family and not obsessed about my geocaching.

We prefer to hit Virtual, Earthcaches, and an occasional Puzzle cache when we arrive at our destination. Puzzles are cool as you can start to get excited before your trip and they usually take you to unique places in the towns you visit. Virtuals have the ability to teach a little history of the area you visit and we love history. We love Earthcaches so we try to grab them where ever we travel as they tend to have a little bit of walking and some beautiful country involved.

If the area has a geocaching club or forum ask before you go what would be some of their favorite caches to grab. Most places are more than willing to help and are quick to give their favorites. It will give you a much more local feel to the caching area. Each place tends to have their own style of hides so you can learn something new as you go.

It is also nice to check out Waymarks in the area as well. This can sometimes lead you to some interesting places to visit. Yes they aren’t geocaches but they are fun at times to visit and they generally have some historical significance.

ENTERTAINMENT

When you travel with children entertainment is a good idea, it keeps the kids sane and the parents as well. We see families with LCD’s strapped to the back of a front seat and the kids watching DVD’s on their journey. This is fine but we like to talk and listen to modern radio shows. Johnny’s favorite is one on the Decoder Ring Theatre and is the Red Panda. I like to listen to their Black Jack Justice Series.  If you do a search for old time radio shows in google you will come up with a large list from which to choose. All you need to do is load it on your phone, IPod, or burn a CD and you have the entertainment covered.

FOOD

Food is always something to have on the trip. We like to try and bring healthy snacks along like fruits and popcorn. It is good to bring stuff to eat that isn’t going to leave a big mess in the car, as we all know kids are pretty messy. We usually don’t grab drinks as we like to stop every so often to stretch the legs for a potty break and something other than a Geocache.

LODGING

Lodging is a personal preference for sure. Over the years we have been swayed by Best Westerns. I think we like them the most as they generally have a breakfast included. Before Best Westerns we felt hurried to leave the hotel to eat. Staying at this hotels allows us to lazily get up in the morning and go grab some food and then go back to the room and prep for the day. It generally adds $10 to the stay per night, as opposed to other hotel chains, but we would spend much more than that visiting a Denny’s or IHop.

Schedule

Plan much more time than you figure for traveling. If you are jumping out and grabbing caches your trip will be much longer than it says when you Google directions. We have found that not having a schedule is the best. Get there when you do and just enjoy the time together. Caching is secondary to the family time. It is nice to keep things in perspective.

Well those are our tips for a successful roadtrip. Just have fun out there and enjoy yourselves and your families.

Until next time,

Mark & Johnny
The Flag_Mtn_Hkrs

The road trip begins from Flagstaff at 5:00 AM on Sept 19, 2009. We knew it was going to be a long day. It is not often we are on the road before the sun comes up. We motored East at legal speeds and then headed south on AZ 191. We went down this a little ways until we hit AZ 61 East which turns into NM 53 at the border.We arrived at the border and documented our crossing at 8:09 AM.

Here is Johnny at the NM Border.

We were starting to get hungry and thought we would stop for some pancakes in Zuni Pueblo and get some gas as well. When we arrived there was only one restaurant in town. No one knew quite when it would open. We had to opt for some boxed donuts instead and continued on our journey.

We continued on until we hit El Morro National Monument. This place rocked, no pun intended. It is a sandstone bluff that had reliable water.

Johnny with the pose of the El Morro Bluffs

Water is everything in an arid environment. Just ask anyone that has gone thirsty on a hike. They don’t make that mistake again.

This is Johnny @ the El Morro Tank

This means many people traveled over time to this place on their journeys to other areas. The cool thing is that many inscribed names or pictures into the sandstone.

Johnny in front of inscriptions

There were three Earthcaches here and one Virtual. We spent well over an hour walking around and snapping pictures and taking down information.

The Woodpecker of El Morro

It was getting warmer and clouds were beginning to build about. In Flagstaff we had been getting some afternoon storms again, was NM the same?

We left El Morro and continued on NM 53 towards our next objective. This was the one that convinced Johnny to come along. He heard the name and being a huge Batman fan was mesmerized. The Earthcache here was “The Bat Cave of El Calderone“. It is in an area of cinder cones and lava tubes. We pulled up in the sprinkling rain and were going for it when a big flash of ligntening and the boom of thunder shook the car. Looking out on the proposed hike in the open wasn’t very promising now. We started up the car again and were beginning to get a little hungry. So off to Grants, NM we headed.

In Grants we asked around for a good place to eat. The gentlmen said the best in town was El Cafecito on Rt 66. So off we headed to grab a bite to eat. The food was excellent.

Johnny enjoying his Sopapilla a little to much.

Wonderful Mexican food NM style. They served it with sopapillas instead of tortillas. We spent a good hour sucking down iced tea and enjoying our food. I was trying to figure out if we should just head back or grab a few more Earthcaches. We figured that since we were already here we should continue. Back in the car and South we headed.

I had loaded up a pocket query of the area and a cache was on the GPSr. We weren’t here for geocaches but thought we would get one anyway. We hopped out of the car and Johnny led the way. We were getting close and we heard something we had never heard while Geocaching before. We both froze and then Johnny jumped back. He had almost stepped on a very upset Rattlesnake. After we gained our composure, checked our undies,  we watched it. It was the perfect learning opportunity. We watched it rattle at us for a good five minutes. The closer we came the more it rattled. The farther away we went the less it buzzed.  Now the question. To get the cache that was behind it? I sidestepped around as Johnny watched, I got close and grabbed the cache and signed the log and put it back. A very close call for sure, but a great experience for both of us.

The Guardian of the Cache!!

Back in the car and south we headed to El Malpais National Monument. Here the first stop was atop some sandstone bluffs that overlooked a rather large lava flow.

Johnny getting the smiley while wearing a smiley

The cool part about this location was not only the Earthcache, but a Virtual and Benchmark as well. We like benchmarking but don’t ever get to as many as we would like. We are usually to pooped to climb up the hills they are on. We grabbed these and off we ran back into the car.

Next we were headed to a natural arch. We have run across a few of these and they always fascinate us. They look so strong but we know that over time they will fall. This arch was no exception.

Sometimes Johnny looks so small. This pic is one of those. Can you see the Arch?

Back in the car and now heading back North this time.

The last stop @ El Malpais was on a trail that crossed the lava flow. It linked the pueblos of Zuni with Acoma. It had been used for hundreds of years. Out of the car and towards the lava flow we headed. We have lava flows around home but none with a trail across them. Up hills, jumping cracks, dodging this and then that. It was pretty cool. Johnny just loves the jumping climbing stuff and he was in heaven here.

Johnny on the Lava Flow next to a Cairn

We followed the cairns till we were about a half mile into the flow. We fulfilled the requirements and back we went to the car. We had done a lot of this today and it was time to head back home.

Back on I-40 we headed West. Johnny was getting tired and nodding off. We stopped off and grabbed some fireworks and then picked up our last Earthcache of the day. This was on the Continental Divide of the US. Divides are an interesting concept and we gathered the information for this and continued on. I could hear Johnny snoring in the back seat. He was pooped out.

He woke up just before Holebrook, AZ and Johnny woke up hungry. I have to say I was hungry too. We hit McDonalds. While there I remembered that there was a couple of Waymarks at a certain motel. Of course we stopped just before dark and snapped a pic.

Johnny at the Wigwam Motel

We arrived home after dark after 550 miles of travel during the day. Our butts were tired but we had made it without injury or harm. After Johnny went to bed I sent in the information needed to become Platinum Eartcachers. Two weeks later our pin arrived in the mail.

Until next time,

Mark & Johnny
The Flag_Mtn_Hkrs

Anyway, we enjoy Earthcaches. Shortly after they were created we started hunting them and learning even more about the Planet. We grabbed all in our area, then created three of our own. It is always nice to see the logs of the people visiting our Earthcaches as they are always thoughtful, no TNLNSL.

We try to grab Earthcaches everywhere we visit. In California we visited a cache south of Joshua Tree NP, and the dunes of Glamis. In Nevada we saw the Valley of Fire, and some Earthcaches West of Las Vegas. Utah saw us visiting some dinosaur tracks and skin prints. In Arizona we have visited lava tubes, ripples in rock, and volcanoes. This left us with one more state to log an Earthcache in to gain our Earthcaches Master Platinum pin, we chose New Mexico since it was the closest state we hadn’t visited. All of these visits put us closer to Platinum Earthcache Master.

I searched for something close to us with a few Earthcaches to experience. Outside of Grants, NM there were nine Earthcaches within a 50 mile radius. This sounded like a great opportunity to grab a few in one day.

We had our location and I had figured out our route and when we would go. Now for the excitement.

Follow our journey in our next blog post. It has many interesting happenings which make for an exciting story.

Until next time,

Mark & Johnny
The Flag_Mtn_Hkrs

So what are these cachers to do? Well with the tougher outdoor activity we have a couple of options we can do to keep us active in the caching community.

Listen to Podcasts about Geocaching
Yes it is a good time to catch up on all of the podcast you have been putting off because you have been busy caching. We do lead some busy lives and find it hard to even watch television. Listening to our favorite Podcast is just as difficult. The cooler weather drives some inside. If so catch up on your favorites.

Work on Puzzles
Now is a good time to work on some of those puzzles you have been putting off. Some of the ones you worked on last year may make sense this year. We also like to see what type of  “challenge caches” have come around that we may be interested in or meet the qualifications. We have a couple we have been working on. We will keep you posted on which ones they are in a future post.

Travel to Warmer Places
This is the time of year the Hkrs tend to travel to the deserts of Arizona. This includes hikes in Sedona and the Verde Valley where the temps are generally 15 to 20 degrees warmer than Flagstaff.

We also plan trips to Yuma in February for the S.W.A.G event and a Spring trip to Central Arizona for the A.J.A.C.S event. This is our chance to see and meet old and new Geocaching friends. We are able to swap some stories (true or fiction) and just get in some laughs.

Prepare Caches
This is the time of year that we like to get caches ready as for our future placements. You can find some sweet deals on swag this time of year. You get bags of swag and sit with the family around the table and fill them up. You then have caches ready to go in case one of your caches becomes muggled or you find a just the right spot when out.

Suck it up and cache
We have been known to be knee-deep in snow for a FTF or just because we have cabin fever. You get pretty antsy and just need to get out. If the sun is shining and the wind is calm it generally isn’t so bad to go and hunt in the snow. You would be surprised what you can find walking through the white stuff.

These are just a few of the things we do in our off-season for Geocaching. We hope that this post helps to give you some ideas to beat the off-season blues.

Until next time,

Mark & Johnny
The Flag_Mtn_Hkrs

I have been busy lately with all that life has to offer me. Therefore this blog has been put on the back burner the past few months, for that we apologize.

We will try to start posting more often again. This is posted via the Hkrs_Mobile, one of the many things keeping us busy. We will share that and a few others shortly.

Happy Thanksgiving

Until next time,

Mark & Johnny
The Flag_Mtn_Hkrs