Armchair Geocaching

First, some background. A virtual cache is a cache that doesn't contain a physical container with log, the purpose of a virtual cache is to bring you to an interesting location and may not necessarily be a conducive location for placing a physical cache. Usually there is a requirement to go to the location and answer some questions to prove that you were there before you can log it as a find; you email the cache owner the answers to the questions they ask. Virtual caches are no longer allowed on geocaching.com, I guess there was some big controversy awhile back and they are now banned. The existing ones were "grandfathered" in (ie, remain active) so you are still allowed to log them if you "find" them.

So that's the background and here's a new one I would never imagined - armchair geocaching! I guess it was appropriate for the day since it was raining cats and dogs out today and I had to work.

My good friend, Laurie (aka waterlassie), emailed me about "finding" a virtual cache in Maine. This one had a different twist, you didn't actually have to go to the physical location to log the cache, if you could figure out what was at the coordinates and emailed the cache owner, you could log it as a "find". It took me about 10 minutes of searching on the Internet, but I figured it out, emailed the cache owner, and logged the find. It was called "What the in World Cache" (GC6D43). I won't give it away, but it would be cool to see what is here in person someday.

I now have two East Coast cache finds. The other one I got earlier this year was actually a physical cache and yes, my name is actually logged in a Rhode Island cache even though I wasn't physically there. One cache was hidden here called "Rhode Island Exchange" (GC10AKW), this cache contained coordinates for the "California Exchange" cache (GC10ARB) hidden in Rhode Island. After I found the "Rhode Island Exchange" cache, I had to find a geocacher in Rhode Island who had found the "California Exchange" cache in Rhode Island. We then exchanged the coordinates we found in our respective geocaches. The coordinates I received from the Rhode Island geocacher was for a physical cache located here that I logged. I logged not only my name, but the Rhode Island geocacher as well. They did the same on their end. So that was two for one. It was fun to meet another cacher from out East.

And, who says geocachers aren't creative?