My Facebook friends know that geocaching is a new (to me) hobby with which I’m a little obsessed. On the weekends, the kids and I head out to one of Chicago’s 570 city parks or 200+ neighborhoods that might have remained unknown to us were it not for geocaching. We crunch through the woods, on a mission to find a peanut-butter jar camouflaged to look like a tree branch. There usually are a few interesting trinkets inside, as well as a log where we sign “Team O’Hagan”. Last weekend, collateral finds included a beautiful deer who wandered within 15 feet of us, a flock of geese, and a compost bin that fascinated Ruairi and Liam.
Often, I’ll go looking for a cache during the week at lunchtime. Most of the caches I find downtown are small, metal containers–such as key boxes or Altoids tins–that are magnetized and attached to guard rails and newspaper boxes, on fence posts, lamp posts, EL supports and electrical boxes. It’s usually a quick interaction: Use stealth to locate and grab the cache unnoticed by a few hundred of my fellow city-dwellers; take it somewhere so I can unroll and sign the log sheet; replace the cache in exactly the same location and position in which I found it. But there are not as many interesting collateral finds downtown.
But there was a downtown cache that really wowed me. A couple of weeks ago, I set out to find a cache located a few blocks from my office: south of Randolph Street, between Green and Peoria. I surveilled the location on Google Maps, read and re-read the description, hint, and previous log entries on Geocaching.com. I was apprehensive, because this particular cache is located in a small, out-of-the-way alley. Even in broad daylight, I avoid secluded downtown alleys. However, previous GCers indicated it was quite an interesting alley, and they weren’t kidding.
The alley is home to several loading docks and the fire escape of a residential building. The doors on the loading docks have been painted to look like European travel posters.
- Loading Dock #1
- Loading Dock #2
- Loading Dock #3
- Loading Dock #4
Even the cache itself was super interesting: not the usual tiny box, this was a larger container that contained a trackable geocoin.
- The Cache: Grizzly Snuff Box
- Wykenwizard: Trackable Geocoin
It is the first and only geocoin I’ve found, and I almost took it with me, determined to help it move along on its journey. Until I noticed it had a spooky guy in a pointy hat (it was a Wykenwizard coin from Coventry, England). Kinda creepy, so I put it back in the cache and went on my way.
An awesome lunch hour. Even if it is in a secluded downtown alley. :-)
