In Search of Giants

It was a lovely day to go treasure hunting last Sunday. We picked up the grandson and headed for Kars. There is a big cache there made especially for kids, but first you have to find a little metal tag so you will know where to go next. We didn’t find that tag, but we saw a trailhead nearby, so we figured we would go down that, and see if we could locate the big trees that were supposed to be at the cache.

Immediately my grandson asked, "Where’s that blue thing? (my GPS). I want the blue thing." After he got his hands on that, he led the way. He even told us we were going the wrong way, and though we didn't have the new waypoints, it turned out he was right about that.

While walking though the woods, we usually make a point of talking, or thumping a cane against trees, or something, to make noise. There are reportedly lots of bears around our general area, so we don’t want to be surprising any. That day my grandson was giving us a running commentary on what he was seeing, and his interpretations of the GPS readings. I didn’t want to mention bears, and maybe scare him, so I just said something about how much noise we were making in the woods that day. He immediately said, "I talk too much." I wondered where he had hear that, and asked if the teacher told him that. "No," he said, "Daddy tells me that. He always tells me I talk too much." I can remember that when Daddy used to come home from school, he would talk for two full hours, just to make up for having to be quiet in school all day. What goes around, comes around, as they say.

We found some big trees, but not the right ones, so we never did find that cache. There were a couple of little board bridges over some muddy areas. I thought my grandson must have heard the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, when he stood in the middle of one and made himself big, and said, "What are you doing on my bridge? Get off of my bridge!" Poor grandpa immediately did as he was told.

I’m disappointed not to have found this particular cache as there are picture on geocaching.com that shows how big the trees we were supposed to be looking for really are. These are giants, and I know the grandson would be really impressed with their size. We’ll have to go try for that cache again someday.

Right now, there is a detour as one of the bridges is out, along the highway, so at first we had great difficulty even getting to the right road. But while we didn’t find the giant trees, we did find the cache at the Hangman’s Tree, which this very trail led us to. Once we got close to where it was, we turned the 4 year old loose to discover it on his own. He didn’t have any trouble. Once a treasure was selected, it was time to head for home.