It’s Not About the Containers
Several years ago a local geocacher wrote about how the game could help preserve our collective memories. I have always believed that and it has influenced who I am in the game and logs I have written — photos, streams of consciousness, high strangeness, social change, and more. The Caching Diaries are the memories that are important to me. With bonus content on BlueSky.
Nano Banana Meets Wyatt Earp
AI and geocaching allows Nano Banana to meet Wyatt Earp in Tombstone Territory. That may or may not be for the best, but it’s here. Geocaching has decisions to make. Wyatt just needs to defeat the Clantons at OK Corral. Again.
Santa Within
On a cold rainy day we stopped at the North Pole, Alaska. We encountered memories of Santa Claus Lane, wondered about the Naughty List, and recalled a special story, The Santa Within Me. Our inner Santa is more important than ever. Watch for the Diaries to return in the New Year.
Salvation Mountain
Salvation Mountain - the outsider art of Leonard Knight - illustrated his message that God Is Love. It was constructed near Slab City in the California desert. Where else could it have been built? It remains a symbol of what Knight believed, as well as a powerful piece of folk art.
Simon Rodia’s Dream
Simon Rodia single-handedly built the Watts Towers. It was the work of a lifetime, except Rodia was able to finish his art and walk away. In many ways his story personifies the legend of Fisher King who was compelled to fish, until Parsifal asked a question that healed the king. Rodia demonstrated both the powers of his art and an archetype of personal transformation.
Poetry in Motion
Poetry in Motion. The cache owner requested poetry, I’m not sure this rises to the occasion, but on an autumn day in Portland, I needed to find paper to write my user name. And then I began thinking about poetry and memories of a memory.
The Mojave Phone Booth
The Mojave Phone Booth is about more than a booth that is no longer there. It is about a Booth that is no longer there. There is a difference. The virtual geocache here keeps the experience real. It cannot simply be removed.
Down at the Station
On our way to the Iceland Noir writing festival we first stopped in Portland. There was a geocache at the train station. An old woman in the waiting room seemed to have had no schedule to meet. Street people in the park were going through their day. Our collective memory filled the air, down at the station on a windy day.
Hoosegow
We came for a virtual geocache at an old jail, a true hoosegow in every sense of the world. But we started to walk around to look at the town and soon were invited to see the old union hall and a beautiful mural depicting the 1983 strike. Of course there was also a collection of African art. Somehow it all fit together.
The Machado Postpiles
The Machado Postpiles were once a secret in the western Sierra. Even after the postpiles were revealed, they remained hidden for a long time. Today, the route is known, but the Sierra does not give up its secrets easily, requiring acts of faith on a trail loosely defined by cairns. The reward is to walk past the granite expanse, to stand on postpiles that are 13 million years old. It is to experience wonder.
Wounded Knee Creek
Wounded Knee. Very few places have both profound sorrow and a spirit of resistance. The massacre here changed things forever, but after the 1971 occupation things would never be the same. Its words continue to evoke struggle. Trump’s refusal to revoke the Medals of Honor awarded here shows the power of its place, and just how far we have to go as a nation to begin to understand what it means.