A geocaching road trip can be a great way to spend a weekend (or longer) exploring new areas. Geocaching and road-tripping go together like PB and J, like beer and Pizza, like…well you get the picture. There are however several things you can do to ensure that you have the best road trip experience possible. Here are a few tips and ideas for you would be road-trippers.

• Find the right buddy – Sometimes hitting the open road on your own can be a good thing, you get to clear your head and spend a few hours in blissful solitude. Chances are though that if you’re looking at a “road trip” we’re talking about something a tad longer than a 2-4 hour drive. If this is the case, bringing the right friend can have a number of advantages; you’ll have someone to talk to, joke with, split the driving with etc. But also keep in mind that you’ll be spending a lot of time in a small area with this person, so you need to choose wisely. Have a friend that loves to complain, always seems to lose their wallet and loves to drink milk despite being lactose intolerant? Yep; you’re going to want to pass on bringing them along.
• Plan, but not too much – Unless you have unlimited time and are completely foot loose and fancy free, you’ll need to have some form of plan as you start out on your road trip. This could be as simple as, “we need to be back by 7pm on Sunday” or even “we’re driving to Washington D.C. because that’s where my favorite cheeseburger place is”. A geocacher needs to take this a step further if they plan on going “off the beaten path”. With the advent of smart phone use in geocaching this has become less important than it used to be, but if you’re going into remote places, make sure you load geocaches along the way into your GPSr device.
• Snacks – Beef jerky, fruit, a cooler with your favorite “adult soda”, whatever you think you’ll need, it is far likelier to be cheaper and more readily available if you pack and bring it yourself. Speaking from my own experience, some people can get quite grumpy if they haven’t eaten in a while and having some snacks handy my help to avoid Mr. Pissy Pants from ruining your geocaching adventure.
• Car/Motorcycle/Bike – Duh.
• Epic Mix Tape – I know, I know – no one makes “mix tapes” anymore, call me retro. But whether it’s on your iPod, through a satellite service, a burned CD or maybe even a cassette, make sure you’ve got the right tunes to cruise down the road. Though not noted above, this may also be a qualifier for the first point on selecting a travel buddy. If you’re into 80’s hair band rock and he’s into Britney Spears, you both may go a tad crazy.
• Cache Containers / Maintenance Items – All caches fall onto hard times and if we all help take care of the caches out there they will last longer for all to enjoy. You can get free logbooks here on this website (just sign up for our newsletter for the free printable book). Also having these items will allow you to hide a geocache should you find that perfect spot that you want to share with your fellow cachers.
• Clothing/Toiletries – The good news is that unless you’re driving a Delorean you should have plenty of room to bring a wide variety of clothing to fit almost any need. Even if it’s summer, plan on bringing jeans and a jacket – you never know where your adventure is going to take you. Ditto for the winter; you don’t want to have to pass on that hot tub offer from those random Swedes you met along the way because you failed to pack a swimsuit. (Wait, that might work out ok… you get the idea)
• 101 Devil Caches – Ok; probably not 100% needed, but it makes for good reading, and this is our blog, so a shameless plug for the book we wrote to help cachers build their own tricky caches was in order.
• Dry Erase Board – Sometimes you want / need to communicate with other cars while hurdling down the freeway at 70 miles an hour. Writing a message on a dry erase board and holding it up to the window is one way to communicate. (You do so at your own risk, we’re not saying it’s safe)

Going on a road trip is a time honored rite of passage for many young people and families alike. We hope that these tips will help you on your next adventure. Have you ever been on a geocaching road trip? Have any photos that you’d like to share? If so, we want to hear about it! You can reach us through our contact page or via facebook!

I hate ticks – plain and simple. Ticks are blood sucking parasites that can carry disease and make life for you and your pets miserable. Ticks are arachnids. They have eight legs, feed entirely on the blood of their hosts and give me the heebie-jeebies. Ticks and bloodsuckers are hands down the most feared items for me in the woods, well that and poison ivy, there is NOTHING I hate more than poison ivy. Give me bears, mountain lions, the occasional rabid squirrel or even meeting the creepy guy named Steve who lives down the street on a geocaching excursion and I’m good – bring it on. Throw down some bloodsuckers and I’m sitting in the corner rocking back and forth babbling to myself like an idiot. There is nothing I hate more than coming home from a geocaching adventure and finding a tick harboring on my neck, ankle or in the most uncomfortable of situations, one that has traveled up a pant leg. Some people hate clowns – don’t judge me.

OK, maybe that is a bit much, but the point is I don’t like ticks and for good reason.
Ticks can carry diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, relapsing fever, tularemia, several diseases that end in “osis” and what I am most familiar with, Lyme Disease.

Lyme Disease can affect humans and pets and is often associated with a bulls-eye shaped rash at the infection site. If left untreated, Lyme Disease can cause a host of serious issues involving:

Shooting pains, numbness, and tingling in the hands or feet. A neurological syndrome called Lyme encephalopathy is associated with subtle cognitive problems, such as difficulties with concentration and short-term memory. These patients may also experience profound fatigue. – Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticks

All in all not a good day at Ridgemont High. The aptly named “Deer Tick”, common here in Maine and New Hampshire, is largely responsible for the spread of Lyme Disease. Areas with heavy deer populations will also see a large increase in the tick population. Although deer are tasty, the answer to preventing ticks is not to remove ALL of the deer. A study conducted from 1996 – 2004 found that a controlled population of ten deer per square mile was enough to reduce the tick population by 92%.

Like poison ivy, there are ways to prevent most of the nefarious plants and critters that can hamper the enjoyment of geocaching. As much as I like to rant, a tick is not going to stop me from seeking out a FTF in a remote location or getting on my hands and knees in tall grass to find a particularly tricky cache – I just need to be smart about it.

Here are some tick prevention tips I use and we certainly welcome your thoughts on the subject.

1. Know the environment – ticks prefer long grass and moist humid areas. If there is a well defined trail, stay near the center
2. Common bug sprays work well as a tic repellent
3. Where light colored clothing so you can see the tick and remove it
4. Tuck your pants into your socks to prevent ticks from biting your ankles or climbing to your nether regions.
5. When you get home shower, you and your family will appreciate it
6. Wash your clothes as they can become attached to the clothing and hit you up for a meal later on.
7. Inspect yourself and your pets, common areas are under the arms, around the ears, behind the knees, waist and even inside the belly button
8. Have your pets on a monthly treatment: I use Frontline on my geo-pup

There are several tools on the market to remove ticks, but simple tweezers will work just fine in most cases. Removing ticks from yourself and your pets is essential and the sooner you act the better. Below are some great tips from the ASPCA on how to remove ticks from your fur friends. Most of these tips work for humans as well. My geo-pup makes another Madcacher cameo!

Step-by-Step Tick Removal Instructions for Your Pet

 

1. Prepare its Final Resting Place Throwing a tick in the trash or flushing it down the toilet will not kill it, and it’s actually best to hold on to it for awhile for veterinary testing in case your pet falls ill from the bite. Be ready with somewhere to put the tick after you’ve removed it—the best option is a screw-top jar containing some rubbing alcohol.
2. Don’t Bare-Hand It Put on latex or rubber gloves so you’ll never have direct contact with the tick or your pet’s bite area. Ticks can carry infective agents that may enter your bloodstream through breaks in your skin or through mucous membranes (if you touch your eyes, nostrils or mouth).
3. Grab a Partner You don’t want your pet squirming away before you’re finished, so if possible, have a helper on hand to distract, soothe or hold her still.
4. The Removal Treat the bite area with rubbing alcohol and, using a pair of tweezers, grasp the tick as close to the animal’s skin as possible. Pull straight upwards with steady, even pressure. Place the tick in your jar. Do not twist or jerk the tick! This may leave the mouth-parts embedded in your pet, or cause the tick to regurgitate infective fluids. Do not squeeze or crush the body of the tick, because its fluids (saliva and gut contents) may contain infective organisms.
5. All that Remains Sometimes, in spite of doing everything right, a tick’s mouth-parts will get left behind in your pet’s skin. If the area doesn't appear red or inflamed, the best thing to do is to disinfect it and not to try to take the mouth-parts out. A warm compress to the area might help the body expel them, but do not go at it with tweezers.
6. Clean Up Thoroughly disinfect the bite site and wash your hands with soap and water (even though you were wearing gloves). Sterilize your tweezers with alcohol or by carefully running them over a flame.
7. Keep Watch Over the next few weeks, closely monitor the bite area for any signs of localized infection. If the area is already red and inflamed, or becomes so later, please bring your pet—and your jarred tick—to your veterinarian for evaluation. – ASPCAhttp://www.aspca.org/pet-care/pet-care-tips/how-to-remove-a-tick-from-your-pet.aspx

Some Tick Prevention Products

We talk a lot about safety here at Madcacher. That’s because we want everyone to be able to enjoy and continuing geocaching for a long time. In fact; anyone who read our post about what to carry in your geocaching kit may have noticed that several of the items are safety focused. One of the things in that kit is a “space blanket”.

Such blankets have been in first aid kits for decades, but they seem to be more and more widespread in today’s world at popular events such as tough mudder or marathons.

These sheets may seem like the foil used for cooking or wrapping food; but they are a completely different animal indeed! As the name implies these wraps were invented by NASA for the space program. Turns out that in 1973 due to a broken heat shield that the Space Lab was overheating. This caused concern for a number or reasons; the equipment began to malfunction, there was the potential for toxic gas build up and of course the pesky problem of astronaut death (NASA tends to frown on that sort of thing). Engineers scrambled to work with an outside company (National Metallizing) to develop an emergency heat shield for the ailing station.

The material is not that much different than what is found in Christmas tinsel, and using an adjusted manufacturing process to make a parasol that the crew placed over the space station. And it worked! It kept the heat from the sun out. And it works the exact same way whether it’s after a race or because you need to find shelter in the woods because you got lot while looking for that 5/5 up a ravine.

The blanket works by reflecting heat in either direction, so it works to keep the heat coming off your body near you.

Though developed by NASA, the blankets are mass-produced today and are available cheaply online from a number of sources. Given the low cost there is no reason to not have a space blanket for geocaching.

Related Products:

EJ and I got to thinking, “Is it entirely necessary for every post to be about geocaching?” After some deliberation we decided that our ever-growing fan base might be interested in some of the other adventures we constantly find ourselves involved in. Today’s post is about organic mushroom farming… and a little geocaching.

In October of 2012, my brother Eric Milligan, fulfilled a dream of owning his own business and officially began producing organic mushrooms under the name New Hampshire Mushroom Company. After years of planning, hard work and the support of friends and family, he was finally able to make his dream a reality.

Located in Tamworth, New Hampshire, The New Hampshire Mushroom Company cultivates a variety of fungi, from basic oyster mushrooms to the more exotic varieties of Bear’s Head and Maitake. The mushrooms are grown from blocks of sawdust that have been mixed with a variety of “foods” depending on the species. All of NHMC mushrooms are USDA organic and are prized additions to the menu’s of up-scale restaurants in the Northeast.

Since production began, the small business has seen a dramatic increase in orders and is already looking to expand the operation to meet the growing demand. An increase in production is one of the reasons you have not seen a post from me in recent months. Since moving back to Maine/New Hampshire my weekends are generally spent assisting my brother in the production process. EJ even made the trip North from Portland, ME to assist in the process and what was to be a short visit turned into a 7 hr shift of stacking bags. Thanks dude!

But you might be thinking, “Great Kurt, plug your brothers business some more – what does this have to do with geocaching?” Well, I’ll tell yah!

When I think of Geocaching, I think of community involvement. I enjoy sharing my geocaching stories with others and speaking with people from all over the world about the difficult finds they’ve had or exotic locations they’ve been to. The mushroom farm is sort of the same thing, except they talk about mushrooms.

The outpouring of community support since the doors opened has been amazing with several people popping in just to get a tour of the facility and learn a bit more about the process. NHMC attends the local farmers markets and also participates in mushroom forays to help educate the public on what is, and what is not safe to ingest. The passion people have shown towards this industry reminds me a lot of die-hard cacher’s.

For me though, learning about mushrooms has added a whole new element to my geocaching adventures. At present, I can confidently identify up to ten edible species and find myself constantly looking for snacks as well as geocaches. The amount of mushroom variations in the forest are staggering and there is always something to learn – as I hit the trail with friends and family I find myself constantly picking up mushrooms to bring home to eat or the odd type I want my brother to identify. Mycology has certainly made my treks in the woods for cache’s more exciting. There is also the added bonus that some of the edible species in the Northeast can be sold for a hefty price, so a well hidden geocache in a mushroom patch could earn you some dough as well as geocaching treasure.

If you are interested in organic mushrooms, foraging for fungi or just want to stop in and see what this operation is all about, stop by the NHMC Facebook page or visit the website at www.nhmushrooms.com.

And the winner is……. Colleen Stewart Francis! Congrats Colleen!

So how did we decide? We reviewed everyone who entered, and saw what they wrote when they shared our book. Colleen shared something about the book being perfect for “Mr Sexy Pants”. Far be it from us disappoint someone with such a nickname.

The response to this contest was so good that we’re already considering another give away for the book!

Colleen please send us your address and we’ll send the book out to you soon!

For those of you who don’t follow us on Facebook, you’re missing out. Head over to our Facebook wall where we’re giving away a free, signed copy of our new book. Simply follow the instructions of the post that is pinned to the top of our timeline and you’re in!

http://www.facebook.com/TheMadCacher

Good luck!

Ej and Kurt – The Madcachers

Here at Madcacher we love meeting other geocachers whether it’s in person or through the internet. Kim is a fellow geocaching blogger and we wanted to introduce you to both her and her well written blog. If any one else out there is interested in being a “guest” blog poster here on madcacher, just ask!

Geocaching with Bugleann

Hi everyone – my name is Kim.  The guys here at Madcacher have asked me to do a guest post to introduce myself and my blog.

My caching name is Bugleann and I’ve been caching for almost 4 years.  So far we have 2370 finds.  We’re from the Chicago area and when we cache, it’s generally a family affair.  My husband and I are a caching team and our daughter often joins us.  My parents, who are both in their late 70’s, tag along whenever possible and go by the caching name “PapaNonny.”  Then there’s my sister, “2catchick” and her husband who also cache with us a lot.  In our neck of the woods, we’ve been nicknamed “The PapaNonny Clan.”

I love history so I really prefer any cache that takes me to a historic location, especially if it has something to do with the Civil War.   I like caches in old cemeteries and any excursions that will take us hiking in the woods.  But my absolute favorite cache is one that requires climbing a tree.  I loved to climb trees when I was a kid and like Peter Pan, I never grew up!

One of my best days ever was when I visited my youngest sister in Colorado 2 years ago.  We spent the day geocaching in the mountains and finished the day with a hike to the top of St. Mary’s Glacier.  At 11,000 feet, it was the highest I’ve ever climbed.  Once we reached the top, the view was spectacular.  We played in the snow, splashed in the ice cold lake, and scrambled around on the rocks.  On the way down, we stopped and found a geocache.  That day was one of the highlights of my life – hiking, geocaching and time spent with my family.  It was an amazing day and one I will always treasure.

So far we’ve hidden 29 caches, but the one I’m the most proud of is called “Back Atcha Bat, Louisville Slugger”  GC2GJRP.  So far it has 43 favorite points.  It’s not really a devil hide, but it’s got a nice twist to it.  In fact, another geocacher liked it so much that he asked if he could copy it and when he went back home to California, he hid one similar to it. GC2P06A has 27 favorite points to date.  I was flattered that he liked our hide enough to copy it.  That’s the ultimate compliment, don’t you think?

My blog is called Snug Harbor Bay, which is named after our summer home on the lake.  http://snugharborbay.blogspot.com   Snug Harbor Bay has lots of posts about geocaching, but I also write about hiking, fishing and kayaking because those are the hobbies I enjoy.  But I particularly like to do stories about other geocachers or anything geocaching related.  For example, I did a review on Madcachers book “101 Devil Caches,” which was a really interesting book by the way.  I also recently did a 2 part post on a geocacher who makes milestone maps.  They are awesome and if you want to find out more about them, please go visit my blog.  Both posts were published in February 2013.

I contribute a lot of posts to another great geocaching blog called CacheCrazy.  http://www.cachecrazy.com/    We have a great community of writers over there and we all take turns writing stories from different locations around the globe.  If you have time, please stop over there as well.

I’d like to thank Madcacher for having me over here.  Please visit my blog sometime.  Be sure to say hello when you do!  I hope you stick around.