Jeep: The stuff that Legends are made of.
That statement is not a marketing gimmick…it’s an accurate description of how Jeep owners feel about their rigs. Next to Harley Davidson®, the Jeep® brand enjoys the distinction of having some of the most loyal owners of any brand. The most loyal of these are the adventuresome spirits whose heart’s race with excitement when they see a trail leading off into an area that they’ve never explored before. Or those who smile knowingly when they see another Jeep fresh from some adventure in places unknown. Those of us that are Star Trek fans and Jeepers truly know the meaning of the words “Resistance is Futile”. The trails just call out to us.
To resist the urge to explore unknown places for us is tantamount to resisting the urge to breathe. It’s in our blood and always on our minds and we have the perfect vehicle to do just that!
No, this isn’t a Jeep commercial and yes, I know that this is a magazine about geocaching. But, I’ll bet that many of you reading this can identify with the impulses and urges described above. Your pulse quickens when you log onto geocaching.com and find a brand new (to you anyway) cache stashed in an area near or far. You smile knowingly when you happen upon another cacher stealthily going about his business. I know I have, and I’m willing to bet you have too. Which brings me to the sport I’ve affectionately coined Jeeocaching.
Call it Geocaching in Jeeps, call it Jeeping while Geocaching. Simply borrow my name for it and call it Jeeocaching. Whichever you choose, just know that you’ll double your fun by doing it!Jeeocaching would be defined as the blending of the sports of Geocaching and Jeeping. Before you ask, yes, Jeeping is indeed a sport unto it’s own. If you doubt it feel free to search the multitudes of Jeep related sites out there and do a Google search on UROC. It’s not all mud and sun, but it is all fun in the sun!
Blending my love of Geocaching and Jeeping together allows me to include friends and family members that otherwise might never have known the thrill of finding that ‘Tupperware in the wood’. We’ve had great adventures with the entire family including my father, whose health wouldn’t normally allow him to get out and chase the rural and primitive caches that we like to pursue.
If you’ll allow me to wax (maybe not so) eloquent for a moment, I’ll try to paint a picture of why I love to take my Jeep caching.
SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH! I hear my wife’s voice crackle over the radio, she’s calling from her Jeep a half dozen yards behind, “That’s gonna be a REAL nice scratch”. I have to laugh, because neither of us are concerned with scratches in our paint, we’re way beyond such trivial matters by now. My 6’0 tall 210 pound, 14 year old navigator calls out that the coordinates indicate that our target has ‘moved’ to our North. That means we need to somehow bear left.
Suddenly an almost invisible trail appears on my left, I shout out a warning on the radio before slamming on the brakes of my 18 year old Jeep® CJ. I tell everyone that the trail is a “bit tight” and make a hard turn onto it. The navigator let’s me know that we are “headed right for it…only 1.2 miles ahead”. Yeah right. If any of you have ever traveled the trails in any wooded area or National Forest, you know well that this trail will more than likely twist and turn and take you somewhere you weren’t headed. Nearly three miles and seventeen 90° turns in every which direction later…we’re no closer than before. We have picked up enough branches and leaves from the extremely narrow trails to impress a landscape professional. Time for a new approach.
We all pile out of the Jeeps at an intersection of what appear to be horse trails but the map identifies as Jeep trails. Since I didn’t map this out with my Ozi Explorer before we left the homestead, we’re stuck with doing this the old fashioned way. That’s right…we’re guessing which way to go! With a new plan and renewed vigor we pull back onto the trail. My navigator informs me that the plan is working, we’re getting close. Within 50 yards of our prize on a trail that is so far back in the woods that isn’t much more than a pair of grown over tire tracks we begin to move away from our target. Time to lay down some shoe tread.
Ten minutes later my 63-year-old father calls out “Over here…I’ve got it!”. We all run over to him and in his hands is a medium sized Tupperware container filled with treasure! His smile is as big as Texas and that was worth all of the scratches, the sweltering heat and the mosquitoes a hundred times over.
Call it Geocaching in Jeeps, call it Jeeping while Geocaching. Simply borrow my name for it and call it Jeeocaching. Whichever you choose, just know that you’ll double your fun by doing it!