Geocaching General Patton

We had another educational geocache trip today. We thoroughly enjoy this hobby and for those of you who have never heard of it or experienced the thrill of treasure hunting, check out the website www.geocaching.com. Even if you aren't traveling, there are tons of caches in every area.



Our first cache of the day took us less than 3 miles from where we are parked. Using the latitude and longitude posted on the geocache website, we hiked up a slight hill behind these rocks. The day was cool and perfect for a short hike.


And this is what we found. Geocaching in the desert is totally different than in the northwest. There were many times in Washington that we never found the cache, simply because there are too many hiding places and gps units have trouble finding the satellites in places with very dense foliage above. (lots of trees!) But in the desert, there aren't quite so many hiding spots.


We are also finding that the containers used for caches are different in different places. In Washington and Oregon, the containers were quite often ammo boxes or boxes that are very weatherproof. Today, we found an Ovaltine jar, a Folgers coffee can and a plastic jar.


The contents of the caches vary dramatically. We have found everything from money to paper stickers. Today's treasures were pretty crummy. But, every cache has a log book and when you find it, you need to date and sign it. Then, if you are really into geocaching, you can go back to the website and log into that particular cache and leave a message. It keeps track of how many caches we have found and where. Our goal is to find at least one cache in every state.

Our next stop took us right past the General Patton Museum at Chiriaco Summit. We didn't get a chance to go into the museum but there are quite a few tanks and equipment parked outside and a statue of the general himself. It looks very interesting and I will post some pictures when we go back to visit the museum.


This is the Folgers cache. Again, the treasures were slim pickins' so we just signed the log book and returned it to it's hiding place.


Our final destination was out in the middle of the desert at Camp Young. This is where General Patton trained a million soldiers from 1942 to 1944. Other than this monument to General S.B.M. Young there is nothing but acres of desert and one lonely cache.


It was starting to get very cool and windy as some dark clouds rolled in. We decided that it was a good time to call it a day and head home. The wind blew so hard the coach rocked and creaked all night long. No fun.

found money .00
YTD .13