A couple of years ago, Mr. Watt took up geocaching as a hobby. The great thing about it is that it has led us to explore new places and see things we might not have discovered otherwise.
The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Snails, fish, insects, weather, meteorites, climate, birds and/or flowers. All are worthy additions to the bucket. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located.
Look underneath this slab of cedar bark to find some hidden treasure.
Mr. Watt has a sweatshirt that explains geocaching.
Geocaching.com gives a much fuller explanation, of course. Geocachers use Global Positioning System (GPS) devices to navigate to the coordinates specified for a cache and, once there, try to find a hidden container. The container contains a logbook to sign and possibly toys or trinkets that participants can trade (take one, leave one). Some of those items can be trackables that one can watch travel from cache to cache as participants pick them up and leave them elsewhere. Those are the simple caches.
There are also caches that require you to solve a puzzle to derive the coordinates, multi-stage caches that involve multiple steps on the way to the final cache that contains the logbook, and EarthCaches that involve learning about geological features at the specified location and logging it by answering questions about your observations there (I'll talk about those in another bucket some day).
The containers can range from tiny (a nano cache may hold 10ml) to quite large (a lidded bucket). I have to admit that, initially, the idea of plastic boxes littering up the woods bothered me. However, most geocachers that place caches seem to care about their impact on the environment and follow the rules.
As I said, the benefits have been really worthwhile. Before we started geocaching, our outings took us to the same local state parks (Fort Townsend, Fort Worden, and Fort Flagler) where we would walk our same favorite trails. I guess you could say we were in a rut. Because of geocaching, we've discovered all sorts of neat places in our state that we just needed an excuse to find.
In particular, we've now visited over 50 state parks by participating in the WA State Parks Centennial GeoTour. The WA state park system teamed up with the WA Geocaching Association to place special caches in over 100 state parks to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the parks. Here are some of the places we went and the nature we encountered along the way.
Flowers and Trees
On the outer coast from Westport to Long Beach, WA, there are a string of beach parks. Grayland Beach State Park was our favorite. I was particularly fascinated by the sandy beach wildflowers.
Yellow Sand Verbena (Abronia latifolia) at Grayland Beach State Park
This "nurse stump" in Rasar State Park along the Skagit River hosts several mature Western Redcedar trees growing out of it. It is one of the most impressive nurse stumps I've seen.
Amazing nurse stump in Rasar State Park
Birds
Cape Disappointment State Park offers Lewis & Clark history and views of the dynamic Columbia bar. I also learned about Pelagic cormorants' preference for facing into the rocks.
Pelagic cormorants at Cape Disappointment State Park, at the mouth of the Columbia River
The Hood Canal is a fjord which dead-ends near Belfair State Park. I think this photo captures a Willet and a Bonaparte gull in the shallows.
Shorebirds at Belfair State Park on Hood Canal
Geology and History
Beacon Rock is the basalt core of a volcano that has eroded away on the banks of the Columbia River. It marked the place on Lewis and Clark's expedition where they first noticed tidal effects and believed they were getting close to the Pacific Ocean (still over 100 river miles to go).
Beacon Rock State Park, on the WA side of the Columbia River
Battle Ground Lake State Park was named for a battle with Klickitat Indians that was expected but never happened. The lake is a mini-Crater Lake in the bowl of a volcanic caldera. The rim of the caldera is very obvious around the lake.
Battle Ground Lake State Park
Historic Constructions
Many of the parks we visited had benefitted from depression-era jobs programs. They left behind some gorgeous and long-lasting infrastructure that visitors can appreciate to this day.
Native stonework in a shelter fireplace in Schafer State Park
CCC-built Observation Tower in Moran State Park
Many of the geocaching volunteers who have created and maintained the official State Park Geotour caches have gone to elaborate lengths to make their caches interesting.
Mr. Watt trying to find the cache at Potholes State Park in Eastern WA
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Your turn! What are you hiding and how do you find what's hidden?