Why We Will Never be on The Amazing Race

For weeks Alex has wanted to climb the hill.  The hill is a little dirt path that Keith and Alex found last year near the Ogden River Parkway path.

Alex has never forgotten the hill.

We decided that Saturday would be the perfect day for a little family outing...breakfast, a walk along the river, climb the hill and as a bonus...we'd try to find our first (and last) geocache!  We started with one that was located at the MTC Ogden Botanical Gardens and was rated easy.

We looked and checked the GPS and sat on a bench and looked.  We looked from the backside and we looked up and we looked down.  iKeith dismantled a stone bench and we still didn't find the cache so we gave up.

The next thing I wanted to look for was a letterbox.  It was called The Arboretum and our clue was

The park entrance is at1750 Monroe Blvd. Park in the lot and find the paved asphalt trail which parallels the Ogden River. Walk toward the east. Leave the trail at the definite bend to the left at the 1/4 mile sign (about 0.4 mile from the parking lot). Walk through the large cottonwood trees on the south side of the trail and find A.A. Bennett’s tree. Then find W.L. Bennett’s tree. Then find SSgt Williams’ three small pines (two bristlecones and one Ponderosa).

The Arboretum letterbox is hiding in the branches of the Ponderosa pine. There are benches in the vicinity to sit on while stamping in.

After having trouble finding the Geocache...iKeith wasn't in the best mood to find the Letterbox and made me trapse around every single cottonwood tree that we came across. I knew where I thought the bend in the trail was but he wouldn't listen to me.

He commented that we should just walk and enjoy the scenery but I explained to him that I'm a Type A person and I need a goal and things to do while I'm hiking so that I feel like I'm accomplishing something.  This is why I thought these treasure hunting activities would be great for me. He rolled his eyes.

The boys hiked the hill while Mallory did this.  She wanted to go home.

Finally...we were able to search for the letterbox.  Here is a vlog of our adventure.  This is also proof that Keith and I should never attempt to go on The Amazing Race together.  We can barely survive looking for treasure and I'm pretty sure he was ready to throttle me when we were done.

Drinking Game while watching my vlog:

Take a sip of your drink each time I say:

• 3 pine trees
• Ponderosa
• Spider

Geocaching is a lot of fun and a good way to sharpen your GPS navigation skills. It's actually modern treasure hunting, except you don't get to keep what you find. With geocaching, you find the "treasure" and replace it with something else. Then you take what you find and place it in another cache. The item is usually some sort of collectible of minor actual value. Very helpful (or not) iPhone App.

Letterboxing is growing hobby that combines elements of hiking, treasure hunting and creative expression into an activity that the whole family can enjoy. Participants seek out hidden letterboxes by following clues that are posted on the Internet , and then record their discovery in their personal journal with the help of a rubber stamp that's part of the letterbox. In addition, letterboxers have their own personal stamps which they use to stamp into the letterbox's log book.