The first attempt at geocaching for me was in August 2003. I still enjoy the sport and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in hiking and the outdoors. The basic idea is that individuals or organizations set up “hidden treasures” (caches) in various places around the world and record the locations (latitude and longitude) of the caches on a web site like geocaching.com. An interested adventurer or hiker can then visit the web site, read some hints about the cache, download the latitude and longitude into their handheld GPS receiver, and head out on their search for the cache. The cache may be contained in a tupperware container or ammo can with some gifts and a logbook.The visitor makes an entry in the logbook and if they take something from the cache, they should replace it with something new. The visitor can also go back to geocaching.com and record their success and upload some pictures.
The weather on Sunday could not have been more perfect for an afternoon of hiking. The sky was blue and there were no clouds. Ballard Park is in historic Ridgefield, Connecticut.The temperature was 45 degrees but the kids on skateboards were in tee shirts. The cache was not hidden really well but it made for a nice walk in the park. The second hike — in the woods — would be more ambitious.
Florida Refuge sounds like an escape to the state of Florida but it is actually also in Ridgefield. The trail head is not easy to find and there is extremely limited parking — room for one car to pull off to the side of the road. The yellow trail got us to the top where wooden steps and a bridge signaled that others had been there before. The abundant trees caused the GPS signal to be a bit erratic but after it quieted down we were able to find the cache. The ammo can was a bit battered but the contents were dry. By this time we were sweating in the cold air. There was not enough daylight left to go after the “Good Things Come in Small Parcels” multi-cache. Next time — hopefully before the snow comes. Todays finds made it Geocaches found: 79 and Benchmarks found: 90.

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