How it all began....

by RadioAngel

DAY 1

How did it all start? I blame my friend Megan A.K.A firefightergroupie . A simple FB post of "I need to go Geocaching". A simple question of "What in the world is Geocaching?" WHAM!!!  There you have it hook line and sinker!!

Hello my name is Tiffany A.K.A RadioAngel, and I am a Geocahcing Addict.

The Geocaching experience started with a planned trip to Capitan NM and a visit to the Smokey the Bear Museum. Megan is.... well no easy way to put it, a Smokey the Bear fanatic.



Tiffany and Megan at Smokey Bear Museum



Megan and Smokey

 



Alot of pictures followed, playing with puzzles, Smokey the Bear trivia... than a "Hey there is a Geocache here!" Oh really........................

It was a puzzle cache (GC1TMP9).
(To date, not my most favorite type of cache.) Anyways on with the story............

So we proceed to answer all the questions pertaining to Smokey the Bear. It didn't take very long thank God! What I soon learned about puzzle caches is that you have to answer the questions to get the correct coordinates to the Geocache location......... We pretty much  assumed that the cache would be close by.... You know what they say about assumming?? It makes an ass... okay okay.. So I guess we didn't read the whole description of the cache before we started solving it... So the cache wasn't there but instead in the old forest fire burn scar where Smokey the Bear was found.

Due to time (and the fact we were in a Official Government Vehicle) we decided it wouldn't be beneficial to our careers to go chasing down a cache ... which led to some of this

which then led to some of this

Okay, so it wasn't THAT bad.. but I was pretty disappointed. However, the most amazing thing in the world did happen that day!!!

We saw the worlds most amazing mullet



Thank you Tera for posing for this picture so we could
get a picture without getting our butts kicked!!


As Day 1 of my introduction to Geocaching concluded, you would think that my fascination with Geocaching would have ended with my first DNF. But it didn't, much to the dismay of my husband!


DAY 2

The next day we went to Cloudcroft, NM to the Mexican Canyon Trestle for a little hiking (or death march depending on who you ask)

Megan informed us there were two caches!!!! The first at the END of the Mexican Trestle hiking trail... hence the death march..in my defense the "Sky was angry" as Megan said

and I didn't feel like killing visiting dispatchers!! So I maybe hiked a little fast...... okay so I hiked really fast!

But Alas we made it the end of the trail AND Megan even let me have the reins.. or at least her GPS

Tiffany Looking for treasure

And after turning over some rocks and looking under the tressel and thinking about hiking down the ravine......

MY 1st GEOCACHE

Tera, Connie, and Tiffany
Mexican Canyon Trestle
GC1ZAWG

 

Connie is actually the one who spotted it (also her first cache, also Tera's first cache) Hell we were all Geocaching Virgins until Megan came along!!!! It was still so cool to find something that you would have never even know was there if you weren't looking for it. How many times have I walked right by a Geocache and not even known it. How many Geocache finds had I missed over the years of hiking around the forest!!

 Now I was HOOKED!!!

Of course more caching quicly followed! The second one was at the trail head, and took a little bit of bushwacking, and to be quite honest I was a little hesitant. But my fearless leader Megan showed me the way.Victory and happiness followed...

 

Tiffany at Cloud Climbing Rest Area Geocache
GCQ532



And so the adventure continued and we drove up to Sunspot so we could see White Sands and Alamogordo from the Overlook....

Sunspot

 What we really saw was this....

Lack of a Scenic View

I think they need to do a little tree trimming!!!


But on a happier note... Guess what??? There was a Geocache there, and yes we found it!!!

Connie and Tiffany at Sunspot Cache
GCG4NK

There you have it! The day four people lost their Geocaching Virginity, all because of Megan!! Who could have know that this day would cause the forming of a cult.

A Geocaching Cult!!!



Tonya, A.K.A BluBogs, Connie, Tiffany, Megan, Tera, and Juan