Over the past week my 4-year old son aka Lil’ Ginger has been bugging me about going on a date, the weather looked promising for the weekend so we planned an adventure. If any of you had seen my old geocaching vlogs then you know that I have taken the Lil’ Ginger out with me on some geocaching adventures and even an event. But that was last year, now that he is a whole year older he talks more, understands more and can walk further. So we headed out to the state park. He was so excited he wouldn’t stop talking the entire way there. When we arrived at the trailhead I sprayed him down with some bug spray (I hear the ticks are bad this year) grabbed my geopack and hit the trail. I knew what trail we had to take what I did not know that a good bit of it would be uphill. When I saw the trail ahead winding and climbing up I wasn’t sure that we would be able to find the geocaches we wanted but the Lil’ Ginger took off on up. On our way up a nice group warned us about some large snakes they stumbled upon on another trail (luckily it wasn’t the one we were heading for) but the Lil’ Ginger didn’t like the idea of snakes so he picked up a stick from the ground and started waving it about like a sword saying he would beat up the snakes. So on we went Lil’ Ginger leading the way with his stick sword.
He never asked if we were there yet, I guess he has not reached that stage of impatience (thank goodness) but when we got within 500 ft. of ground zero, I told him we were almost there. What he said next left me dying of laughter. He simply replied, “I know mommy, I can smell the geocache.” Now that is a geosense that I would like to have, I was trying to contain my laughter it was just so unexpected but I could not and he laughed with me but insisted that he could smell the geocache. So on we went ever closer to ground zero. When we arrived there were tons of rocks on the side of a hill, they were not so much rocks as they were boulders. We looked around a bit and were not able to find anything so I decided to check some of the previous logs where I found the clue I needed, “Up the hill, under a rock” We were at the bottom of the hill, I looked up and well you can see in the picture what I saw. We made our way up the hill with me having to pick up Lil’ Ginger from time to time. I let him find the cache when we got close, he loves it. The way back down the hill was interesting. The Lil’ Ginger was holding my hand when he slipped and started to slide down the hill on his behind, as I tried to help him back onto his feet he said “I’m just going to slide down”, so down he went with me ahead of him to make sure he wouldn’t get hurt.
But that was not our only find of the day the next one took us down another nearby trail and was an ammo can! As we approached the cache after climbing over rocks and fallen trees I spotted it, I didn’t say anything except that we were getting closer and once again the Lil’ Ginger said he could smell it. We were about 20 feet from the cache when he spotted it. He excitedly ran to it exclaiming “I told you I could smell it” He was so excited, this was the first ammo can he had found and was also the largest cache, he found some little army men that he liked and traded some of his Happy Meal toys for them.
Even though there were some rough patches during the 2 hours we spent on the trail, overall it was a day well spent. Without Geocaching I don’t know if I would be able to convince the Lil’ Ginger to go hiking with me. He enjoyed it so much that he now continues to ask when we are going geocaching again. If you have children especially younger ones, I challenge you to take them to find a geocache, preferably a larger one that may have swag. Not only has it given the Lil’ Ginger and me an opportunity to spend time together outside but it has increased his desire to get outside in general, something that I think too few children do. So next time you plan a geocaching adventure bring the kids and just have fun!
Until next time,
Amber, The Ginger Geocacher
He never asked if we were there yet, I guess he has not reached that stage of impatience (thank goodness) but when we got within 500 ft. of ground zero, I told him we were almost there. What he said next left me dying of laughter. He simply replied, “I know mommy, I can smell the geocache.” Now that is a geosense that I would like to have, I was trying to contain my laughter it was just so unexpected but I could not and he laughed with me but insisted that he could smell the geocache. So on we went ever closer to ground zero. When we arrived there were tons of rocks on the side of a hill, they were not so much rocks as they were boulders. We looked around a bit and were not able to find anything so I decided to check some of the previous logs where I found the clue I needed, “Up the hill, under a rock” We were at the bottom of the hill, I looked up and well you can see in the picture what I saw. We made our way up the hill with me having to pick up Lil’ Ginger from time to time. I let him find the cache when we got close, he loves it. The way back down the hill was interesting. The Lil’ Ginger was holding my hand when he slipped and started to slide down the hill on his behind, as I tried to help him back onto his feet he said “I’m just going to slide down”, so down he went with me ahead of him to make sure he wouldn’t get hurt.
But that was not our only find of the day the next one took us down another nearby trail and was an ammo can! As we approached the cache after climbing over rocks and fallen trees I spotted it, I didn’t say anything except that we were getting closer and once again the Lil’ Ginger said he could smell it. We were about 20 feet from the cache when he spotted it. He excitedly ran to it exclaiming “I told you I could smell it” He was so excited, this was the first ammo can he had found and was also the largest cache, he found some little army men that he liked and traded some of his Happy Meal toys for them.
Even though there were some rough patches during the 2 hours we spent on the trail, overall it was a day well spent. Without Geocaching I don’t know if I would be able to convince the Lil’ Ginger to go hiking with me. He enjoyed it so much that he now continues to ask when we are going geocaching again. If you have children especially younger ones, I challenge you to take them to find a geocache, preferably a larger one that may have swag. Not only has it given the Lil’ Ginger and me an opportunity to spend time together outside but it has increased his desire to get outside in general, something that I think too few children do. So next time you plan a geocaching adventure bring the kids and just have fun!
Until next time,
Amber, The Ginger Geocacher