Converted Muggles

The term Muggles may be known to Harry Potter fans, but it is also a term used in geocaching to refer to people who are not geocachers; who might or might not know anything about geocaching. Our winter neighbors knew a little about geocaching and wanted to go along on one of our excursions to have a better understanding of what consumes our time and understand what we actually do when we go looking for things in the desert. Hubby created a list of different cache types by some of our favorite cache hiders. Some were in the desert and required a walk and some were in town or urban caches requiring stealth. Saturday was the perfect day for geocaching: comfortable temperatures with some sunshine, long sleeves and long pants were NOT too hot until late in the afternoon.

 

the first find under a pile of rocks, easy

does something look out of place?

creative

rat & cheese on a large mouse trap wired to the tree limb

the wooden block of cheese was removable

and held in place with magnets

the cache container was inside the cheese

do you see it?

sometimes it takes more than 1 pair of hands

I bet you can see this one!

Hubby made the find after we all looked for about 15 minutes

our view to the east most of the day

I don't have a name for this one

HELP Terry!

baby globe mallow

usually when I see this plant it is about 24 inches tall

these were 6 inch plants hugging the desert floor

another small desert floor plant

spiderwort

taking photos of a rarity...

African daisy

we have seen many of these orange & yellow flowers in

peoples' yards (not flower beds) in Globe in late March

we walked on these little white-tipped tufts of grass

all day in the desert

I was surprised at the flowers on those grass tufts

don't know the name of this one either

Let me just say I am impressed with the camera on my new iPhone. The above photo was not a "touch the screen & spread" photo. That is the photo from about 6-8 inches above the plant. It takes very clear close-ups IF the photographer takes the time to allow the camera to focus. The photographer needs more practice & patience!

taking photos of each other

a mighty saguaro bites the dust

rather sad to see

We were on the hunt for our last geocache of the afternoon. It was what is known as a field puzzle. You can't do the work ahead of time or use Google for help; you have to be at the physical locations to get the required information. We had an idea of what we were to be looking for and a vague idea of where we should be. I did the math and I confess, I certainly did something wrong...3 times...because this is where my math took us...

unexpected geological feature

limestone?

A natural watering hole in the desert. No water right now, but I bet there is some after a rainfall! We crossed over the rock to the other side and I just knew what we really needed was not there. This is what we were looking for...

Sometimes, you need a little help from a friend! Thanks T2D. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to miss this one! A perfect ending to a fun day of sharing the passion of geocaching with muggles. We have been told they are now official geocachers. Converted muggles!