Geocaching at it's best

For those of you who haven't heard of Geocaching, it's a hobby where people hide containers (some as small as a hide-a-key, some as large as a military ammo can) with little trinkets in them and a log book, then record the longitude/latitude coordinates with a GPS unit. The coordinates are posted on the Geocaching web site and anyone with a GPS and a little treasure hunting in their blood can go try to find it. Monday I took a friend's family with me out to the old Camp Beale training area (now the Spenceville Wildlife area) where several of these are hidden in and around pill boxes used during WWII to train the troops.

This is the view from outside one of the pill boxes looking in. We had a great time hiking from bunker to bunker and looking around these fortifications. The kids got a big kick out of finding the trinkets the cacher had hidden.

This is the same bunker as the one above, looking out the machine-gun hole to where I was standing when I took the first photo. One of the added pleasures for me was to chase the cows that are grazing on this public land. (I really think I ought to buy a ranch, I like moving cattle so much.)

In both of these photos you can get a feel for how pretty it is this time of year. The day was gorgeous! Of course, in the Summer it will be dry, brown and full of stickers - oh, and the rattle snakes will be out - so this is the best time of year to go.

This is maybe the most interesting view of one of the bunkers. You see how they were designed with an interior wall to protect others form ricocheting bullets and grenade blasts. The roof being caved in makes it real easy to get in and out of them. There are doorways too for the unadventurous. The walls are about 7' high.

It was a fun day. We had a blast and found all of the caches we were looking for. Remind me to take you guys out there some time.