This Month:

• Dear Diary... By Tee King, aka Pyewacket
• The Proposal By Shawn McGough, aka Team Zher0

A geocacher's world is high-tech. Let's face it; we rely on satellites circling the earth to lead us to hidden caches, and GPS receivers employing cutting-edge technology to ensure that our paths to those caches are true. We log onto a web site to glean coordinates and plug them into our receivers using computer programs and cables. We run generated pocket queries to load cache pages into our PDAs, or print them using state-of-the-art laser printers. When we come home from a day of treasure hunting, we log onto a web page and enter our results.

Remember those little diaries with a lock and key that many of us used to capture our thoughts and memories of a particular day or experience? Or the paper journals we may have hidden underneath our pillows or under a loose floorboard? Many cachers write about their experiences, but they do so in yet another high-tech fashion; they create a blog (web+log) or a web site dedicated to geocaching. Gone are the days, however, of a tiny metal key to unlock a diary...these days, an encrypted password will open a journal. Gone are the days of hiding these memories away... many cachers welcome the world to read about their misadventures and journeys.

Among the cachers who "blog" or create caching-dedicated web sites is the three-member team of MoonHerb, from the UK, who has kept The Moonherb's Diary since August, 2003. The journal includes links to the caches the team has found, along with their memories of finding them. Summing up one of their memorable days of caching, they wrote, "Six caches, one picnic, a naughty dog, a travel bug and two ancient monuments - what more could you ask for?"

DomHeKnows, another cacher from the UK, lists his cache finds at AbsoCachinlutely, along with the details of his hunts.

The pages of zengunner8's web site, The Geocache Hunter, can be navigated by clicking on the buttons of a Magellan GPSr. His first receiver, however, belonged to the Army and was as large as an 80's cell phone. His web site recants his stories of caching in Colorado.

fosterbass occasionally uses the services of LiveJournal to relate, among other things, his personal account of geocaching. One entry compares a LiveJournal Meetup (a face-to-face meeting of like-minded individuals) to a geocaching event, as there are many other cachers who keep a LiveJournal blog.

Sox Fan's blog, appropriately titled Sox Fan's Geocaching, is his online journal of cache conquests. The fairly new diary describes his not-so-secret animosity for stinging nettles and hummingbird-sized, blood-sucking mosquitoes, and his obvious enthusiasm for autumn caching. "Getting up early on a crisp fall morning and walking along a path to a cache...That's livin'!"

Blogging for years, dampeoples has recently switched to a new journal service, and regrets not keeping the old content. The newly created site, SterlingPeoples, contains beautiful photography, a weekly theme, and news of travel bugs and geocoins.

AuntieWeasel uses her web site, Auntie Weasel's Field Notebook, to describe her passion for collecting coins, including their fascinating history and esoteric qualities. When she receives a coin that she already owns; one that is "chock full of weasel", she places the "time traveller and a world adventurer" in a cache for the next finder to enjoy.

A compendium of caching experiences is maintained by Lazyboy & Mitey Mite. Their web site, entitled Lazyboy's Cache Life, details their caching adventures. If, for some odd reason, you're looking for a "lame" cache, you'll find a link to them here, as well as links to their caching friends' profiles and stats and some of the more interesting caches they've found.

According to artbegotti, there are 25 reasons for making lists of 25. Included in his blog is a list of 25 reasons to go geocaching. Though his blog is "all about the numbers", it's obvious that caching means more to him than that. Case in point: his number 12 reason to go geocaching is "getting stuck in the mud in sandals is quite possibly the greatest feeling your feet will ever experience".

AmazingRacer, a young cacher from Georgia, has his own corner of cyberspace at Geocaching in Macon. Though his site is "in limbo", it offers valuable resources to local cachers, including links and how-to information.

stayfloopy writes almost daily in Morton Fox/StayFloopy's Journal. Many of his entries detail his caching saga. What isn't clear, however, is whether his frequent cache runs revolve around his trips to replenish his victual supplies from WaWa, or vice versa.