Life Lessons from Geocaching: Solo Adventuring

The other half and I have been geocaching now since 2019. If you don’t know what geocaching is, well, there is a blog post I wrote about that. But this is a post in what I will hope will be a series of posts about the lessons of life that I have learned while doing this hobby.

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Adventure (noun): a. an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks; b. the encountering of risks; c. an exciting or remarkable experience

Solo (adjective): alone, single, or unaccompanied by other people

There is something to be said about taking solo adventures. It is also something I often do even though it makes others cringe.

The way I can blare music while traveling down the county highways without someone judging me for my choice of tunes. The way I can just stop and admire a landscape or the way a river flows and not get an annoyed comment about dawdling. The way I can sometimes just go wherever the muse takes me. 

Lunch is eaten in the car, a mix of lunch meat and cheese, oranges easily peeled, trail mix, chips that promote protein or fiber, and copious amounts of sugar free colas, cans of sparkling waters, and water from the trusty old water bottle that leaks when it’s not threaded right. Sometimes it is peppered with copious mounts of gravel dust from country roads or eaten at picnic tables or park benches.  Sometimes it is supplemented with gas station pizza (Casey’s veggie pizza is ALWAYS a favorite) or snacks bought on the road.  Sometimes, lunch is even forgotten altogether or is an afterthought in the adventure.

I get told I need to be careful. I am.  Usually one or two (or a handful) of people know where I am aside from my other half.  My bestie always asks me what I have planned…. and I let her know.  I get texts from friends stating “I know where you are and I will come find you if you need help” when I log caches they are watching.  I let people know where I am and what I am doing because I am female (though no longer young) and there is nefariousness out there.  Yes, there are risks involved. But I cannot and will not live my life in fear of those risks. The rewards I reap on these kinds of adventures far outweigh the “what ifs.” I won’t let the worries dictate the adventures. I have villages that will help in times of crisis. Then there is the fact that I often do not try to push my luck too far when I am by myself. The tree climbing and the sketchy cache finding wait for friends to accompany me. If I don’t feel right or my gut says no, I leave. I pay attention and watch for danger. So far, because I take these precautions, I have been able to do what I love.

I am independent and have been since I was a child.  I am stubborn and set in certain ways whilst being flexible in others.  I like my quiet contemplative alone time when I don’t have to cater to the whims of others or people or lean into their inclinations instead of my own. While I do enjoy the longer adventures with friends, there are those hikes that just cry for time alone.  Most of them are trails I revisit every month while doing a local county conservation board’s geocaching adventures.  But then there are the new trails that just seem to come to life better as solo treks.  There are moments I can spend just breathing and being, letting my mind create the stories I seem to write on paper.

Stay magical, friends.

Write your own story.

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