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On our geocaching podcast today, we have a discussion about geocaching on a LONG hiking trail. We also share a tip and trick for tracking counties, a special geocaching situation that needs a name and much more.
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Hi Sonny and Sandy:
We were just listening to Show 594 in the car yesterday on the way home from a Memorial Day geocache outing. (We were out with our caching friend Réd helping him fill his Jasmer grid by visiting one of the oldest caches in the state, Santa Barbara One, but I digress…) In the show, you asked for comments from listeners about caching on LONG hiking trips. During the summer of 2013 my son and I did a through-hike of the John Muir Trail. (That is the 210-mile-long section of the PCT that traverses the Sierra Nevada range from Yosemite National Park to Mt. Whitney.
I was wondering how I would combine geocaching with that trip, but the problem was limited in scope because of the very small number of caches along the trail. Since most of the JMT is within the boundaries of national parks, the opportunities for placement are few. I did however pre-plan to find two traditional caches that were hidden near lakes about a third of the way through our 18-day journey. I was able to use my smart phone (without service) and saved cache data find the caches, one near one of our campsites and the other near a spot that we stopped hiking for a lunch break. Although every ounce of weight is at a premium on a trip like this, I did bring along a few travel bugs to commemorate the journey.
Although I had few caching opportunities on most days of the trip, as luck would have it, our hike coincided with the August 2013 “31 Days of Geocaching” souvenir event. But never fear, my faithful wife went out every day of the trip while we were gone and found a cache! <3 Then she reported her find to me each evening over our Delorme satellite communicator, so even though I was far from civilization, I was able to keep daily tabs on my geocaching life! (Do I sound crazy?!)
The final day of our JMT hike was really special, as the trip ends at the 14,496 ft. summit of Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the 48 contiguous states. And as it turns out, it also has the highest elevation geocache in the lower 48! Even though it is technically in a national park, the park superintendent personally allowed the cache placement there, so that find to end our epic journey is a treasured memory. So yes, I guess it is possible to combine geocaching and long-distance hiking, at least to some degree!
– Greg Lyzenga (geocaching handle: Kelsoboom)
P.S. Here’s a picture from our find on the summit of Mt. Whitney:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/gs-geo-images/b9d800a1-7134-414c-8453-74451f8bd89a.jpg
Thanks for the great feedback, Greg, and sharing the awesome photo!