Phoning It In

Yesterday, I went to get my cache of the day in the parking lot of a nearby park. After a quick search, I spotted it in a tree, farther out of my reach than its T2 would have suggested. It was, of course, little challenge for me. I pulled the pole out of my trunk and used the hook to pull down the tube and wire. It was a standard find in pretty much every way. Except I made a mistake. I left my phone in my car because I didn’t want to break the Bluetooth connection. As a result, I forgot to photograph the cache. That wasn’t a tragic ending, though. I made up for it by finding an old cache I had found long ago, back in the days when I didn’t photograph caches because I didn’t want to spoil them for anyone. But that kicked off a thought that has been recurring for a long time.

There’s a bit of a divide between older and newer cachers over the preferred method of cache finding. Many of the longtime cachers I know prefer GPS units, while the newer of us, present company included, prefer cell phones. For me, it only makes sense. I have my phone with me at all times. Even when I owned a GPS, I only used it a few times. I no longer have one because it was stolen just over a year ago, and I have felt no need to replace it. And yet, there are times when I feel like less of a cacher without one. There’s something that feels right about having a unit, semiarchaic as it might be, in your hand. Pulling up a coordinate and then trekking to it just has a certain romance to it. Being out in the wild, far from the madding crowd, alone with the trees or the plain or the sands, it is as a lantern that illuminates the way. It only has one job: to get you where you seek to go and then get you back home. But if the GPS is a lantern, a phone is a Swiss Army knife. It gets me where I want to go. It allows me to record the wonders I see along the way. It can illuminate my path, both figuratively, by providing maps of my location, and literally with its ability to cast light. It helps me solve puzzles. Heck, there are some caches I couldn’t even attempt without my phone. It’s honestly the second-best TOTT I have (my daughters being numero uno, of course).

Today, I left behind the best tool I had with me, just so I wouldn’t have to wait for it to reconnect to my stereo. And because of that, I had to dredge up a relic from my past. Yes, it’s all silly to think about, but why not take this moment as a reminder of a useful and rarely lauded tool that has made my caching and my entries possible? So, here’s to the miniature supercomputer I keep in my pocket. You’re good for more than just getting into arguments and looking at cat pictures on the internet!