Geocaching goes wrong sometimes, when you spend as much time caching as we do.

Last Sunday, I decided to get the family out to enjoy the gorgeous weather we are having.  We headed over to Collegedale for a short walk on the Greenway to grab three geocaches.  After we parked near the Imagination Station, a wonderful little park near the city hall, we got the video camera out and prepared for our hike to the first geocache (GC6EPH7 – Collegedale’s Veterans Park)

Perhaps we should have known how things were going to go when the camera suddenly said it couldn’t read the card and needed to reformat.  But we didn’t!  Luckily, I had downloaded all of the videos on the card to my computer the night before and erased the card.  We had nothing to lose by reformatting, so that is what I did.

I took a moment to introduce the video viewing audience to what we were doing before we started down the trail. (Dave and Shelby made some comments too, but you will have to see that on the video).  We looked around the park for a few minutes, then headed on our way.

The path travels under the road which seemed to fascinate the kids.  Laura said that it felt good to be out of the sun for a minute(whiner!)  Once we were through the tunnel and on the other side of the road, we continued down the path toward ground zero for the geocache.

Welcome to the Greenway

Along the way, we passed several walkers and bicyclist and even a dog going for a jog.  Dave managed to find a way to step in the only mud on the path and I pointed out the random signs along the path.  As we neared our first stop, we came to a large stone map of all of the paths in the area. Nick hid behind it so he wouldn’t be spotted by the camera.

We then crossed the small bridge over the creek. The Veteran’s Memorial Park includes several monuments, military vehicles and lots of different flags flowing in the wind.

Veterans Memorial Park

We turned our attention to finding the geocache which turned out to be pretty easy.  We looked through the contents and I signed the log.  Dave decided to replace the cache in hiding place after for a few muggles to move on. This is when geocaching goes wrong!

When Geocaching Goes Wrong

As Dave reached up to put the geocache back in its hiding place, he was unable to see where he was putting it.  Suddenly, we hear a splash and Dave exclaimed, “You have got to be kidding me!”  He had missed the hole and sent the container sailing into the creek.  On the upside, it did float, but way to slowly down the creek.  It would be an hour or more before it would reach a location where it would be retrievable.

I decided to forgo the rest of our geocaching for the day.  Dave and I headed back to the truck to get a container and log to replace the one we had lost.  Dave was very sad about what had happened, but I told him sometimes geocaching goes wrong, as it did today.  By the time we got back to the truck and started heading home, his spirits seemed to rise(may have had something to do with his Nintendo).

All in all, it was a nice hike with the family and we got to enjoy being in the sun away from electronics for a few minutes.  Dave also learned a few valuable lessons.  1. Slow down and be careful.  2. Sometimes you should ask for help. 3. Accidents happen. 4. Do what you can to correct your mistake.  If he remembers those lessons, it will have all been worth it.