“We always carry a few trinkets for geocaching,” Andy said. He pulled a little wind-up frog out of his inside jacket pocket. “If you want to take something, you could leave this in its place.”
“That’s nice of you,” Violet said.
“Go on,” Mr. Robertson urged. “Pick something. You have to take something to remember your first find.”
“Hmm. What should we take?” Henry asked the others.
“Take the coins! Take the coins!” Benny cried, jumping up and down.
Henry pulled out the bag with the coins and handed it to Benny. Then he wrote: took coins, left frog.
“You should sign the log, too,” Henry said, handing the notebook to Mr. Robertson. “You would’ve found the box if we hadn’t. Plus you gave us the frog.”
“Okay,” Mr. Robertson said. “I’ll say that the Trailblazers were here with the Boxcar Kids.” He smiled as he jotted a few lines in the notebook. When he finished writing, he sealed the notebook back up in the plastic bag, put it in the box, and closed it. Then the Aldens and the Robertsons buried the box back in the brush between the two trees just the way they’d found it.
“There’s supposed to be another cache not too far from here,” Andy said. “It’s called ‘Edge of the Forest.’ Do you want to come with us and see if we can find it?”
“Sure,” the Aldens replied eagerly.
“Let me tell the GPS we’re looking for a different cache now,” Mr. Robertson said, pressing the button on the side of the gadget a few times. “Okay, now we’re set up to find the ‘Edge of the Forest’ cache.”
Mr. Robertson handed the GPS to Benny, then said, “Which way do we want to go?”
Benny peered at the arrow on the screen. “That way,” he said, pointing deeper into the woods.
“I wonder if it’s over by the nature center?” Violet said. “If we stay on this trail, we’ll come out over there.”
“Could be,” Mr. Robertson said. “I think we’re probably about half a mile from the nature center.”
The group walked single file in a line behind Benny. Jessie held Watch’s leash. Watch sniffed the ground as they walked.
After a little while, Benny said, “It’s 52 feet over this way!” He pointed to the right. The path curved to the left.
They were almost through the woods at this point. They could see the nature center building just ahead.
“We must be close then,” Andy said. “Start looking, everyone. Check tree stumps, holes in trees, piles of brush, anything that looks like it could hold a medium-sized container.”
“The GPS is going crazy!” Benny cried. “The arrow is turning round and round. And the number keeps changing from 13 to 20 to 15 to 17—”
“That means it’s right around here,” Mr. Robertson said.
The Aldens and the Robertsons lifted small logs and peered in hollows of trees.
Finally, Jessie said, “I think I found it!” She pulled a plastic storage container out from between two logs. This one was smaller than the first cache. It contained a yo-yo, a plastic watch, two keychains, and another notebook and pencil.
“Hooray!” Benny jumped up and down. “This is fun!”
“You know, there’s a geocaching club here in Greenfield,” Mr. Robertson said. “We meet at the nature center. Maybe you’d like to check out one of our meetings? You might even be able to borrow a GPS from the club if you want to do some more geocaching on your own.”
“Can we?” Benny asked his brother and sisters.
“Sure,” Henry said. “Do you know when the next meeting is?”
“I think we’re meeting this Friday at noon,” Mr. Robertson replied. “But check the website to be sure.”
“We will,” Jessie said. “Thanks for teaching us about geocaching!”
“It was our pleasure,” Mr. Robertson said.
“See you on Friday!” Henry said.
“I wonder what we’ll find the next time we go geocaching,” Violet said.
“Maybe we’ll find a mystery!” Benny said.
“Oh, Benny,” Jessie laughed. “We don’t find mysteries everywhere we go.”
“No, but a lot of times they find us,” Benny said.
Chapter 3
Treasure Found and Lost
“All you have to do is enter a zip code and the website will show you all the caches that are nearby,” Violet told Grandfather and their housekeeper, Mrs. MacGregor, that evening.
The children had spent some time exploring www.geocaching.com. They had tried to tell Grandfather and Mrs. MacGregor what geocaching was during dinner, but everyone agreed it would be easier if the children could show them. So after dinner they all gathered around the computer. Jessie sat at the keyboard and Watch curled up at her feet.
Mrs. MacGregor squinted at the screen. “All of those are names of … what did you call them? Caches?”
“Yes,” Jessie said. “A cache is a sort of treasure box. And look.” She pointed at a number on the screen. “This tells us how far away each cache is from our house.”
“These two, ‘Walk in the Woods’ and ‘Edge of the Forest’ are the ones we found today,” Henry said. “You can read what we wrote here.”
“But if you wrote in the notebook that you found the box, why do you need to go to the website and write it again?” Grandfather asked.
“You don’t have to,” Jessie said. “But it’s fun to read about the cache before you try to find it.”
“And if there’s something wrong with the cache, if it’s missing or damaged in some way, you can let people know that by leaving a comment on the website,” Henry said.
“This is all very interesting,” Mrs. Mac-Gregor said, peering over Jessie’s shoulder.
“All we need is a GPS unit and we can go geocaching on our own,” Henry said. “Mr. Robertson told us the local geocaching club has a few to lend to new members.”
“Hmm,” Grandfather said. “I believe I have a little handheld GPS.”
“You do?” Benny asked.
“Yes. I bought it a couple of months ago,” Grandfather said. “I thought it would be useful for hiking.”
“Could we see your GPS, Grandfather?” Henry asked.
“I’ll go get it.” Grandfather got up and went to the closet. He came back with a small canvas case that looked like a camera bag. Grandfather unzipped the case and pulled out a rectangular object with buttons and a screen.
“Hey, that looks just like the Robertsons’ GPS!” Benny cried.
“Do you have a cable to hook it up to the computer?” Jessie asked.
Grandfather reached inside the case and pulled out a black cord. “I’ll bet that’s what this is,” he said, holding it up. “I think there are some instructions in here, too.” He looked inside the case again and pulled out a sheet of paper.
“Looks easy enough to set up,” Henry said, looking over the instructions.
“Can we borrow your GPS for geocaching?” Violet asked.
“Sure,” Grandfather said.
“Can we go geocaching tomorrow?” Benny asked.
“I don’t see why not,” Grandfather said.
So the children got everything set up. Then they decided which caches they wanted to try and find next.
“ ‘Squires Point,’ ” Jessie read the name of one of the caches in the list. “Isn’t that the name of one of the hiking trails in the Pine Ridge Recreation Area?”
“I think it is,” Henry said.
“Then I’ll bet the cache is hidden somewhere around that trail,” Violet said.
“I wonder if there are other caches hidden in the same area,” Jessie said. “If we go out to Pine Ridge, maybe we can find several caches at the same time.” She glanced up at the computer screen, then clicked on “find other caches nearby.”
The Aldens downloaded the information into Grandfather’s GPS. And the next day, after a good hearty breakfast, the children loaded up their pockets with small trinkets for trading and set out for the Pine Ridge Recreation Area
on their bikes.
They locked their bikes to the bike rack in the gravel parking lot, then Henry got out the GPS. He turned it on and set it to find the Squires Point cache.
“It says the cache is four-tenths of a mile north of here,” Henry said.
The Aldens turned toward the north. They saw a dirt trail at the edge of the parking lot. A brown sign read, Squires Point Trail.
“That’s it!” Benny cried. “Come on, everybody. It’s down that trail!”
The Aldens started down the Squires Point Trail. Benny carried the GPS.
“I don’t know if we want to stay on the trail,” Benny said when the path curved to the left. “The arrow is pointing straight into those trees.”
“How far are we from the cache?” Jessie asked.
“It says .14 miles,” Violet read over Benny’s shoulder.
“Then let’s stay on the trail for now,” Jessie said. “This trail curves a lot. I’ll bet in a little while the GPS will be pointing straight ahead again.”
So they stayed on the trail. And sure enough, after a little while the trail curved back the opposite direction.
“How far are we now?” Henry asked.
“We’re 133 feet away,” Benny said. “And it’s straight ahead.”
The Aldens kept walking. The path curved again toward the lake, but this time the Aldens followed the GPS and walked off the path.
“The GPS says it’s 82 feet straight ahead,” Benny said as they made their way through the brush. Dried leaves crunched beneath their feet. “Now it’s 67 feet … 42 feet … 30 feet.”
They could see the lake through the trees.
“It’s got to be around here somewhere,” Henry said, looking around.
They checked logs, tree hollows, piles of brush, the same sorts of places they’d found the Walk in the Woods and Edge of the Forest caches.
But they weren’t able to find the Squires Point cache.
“It’s not here,” Benny said sadly as he sat down on a log. They’d been searching for fifteen minutes.
“Maybe this one is harder to find,” Violet said.
“Why don’t we look for another one nearby,” Jessie suggested.
“There’s supposed to be one called ‘Muffy’s Hideaway’ right around here, too. It’s over that way.” Henry pointed back the way they’d come. “Let’s see if we have better luck finding that one.”
So the Aldens set the GPS to find Muffy’s Hideaway. Then they turned around and headed back to the path. As they walked, they watched the numbers on the GPS get smaller and smaller.
“It’s probably over here,” Jessie said, leading the way to a stand of trees.
The children searched every tree and rock in the area. But once again they came up empty.
“It’s not as much fun when we don’t find the caches,” Benny grumbled.
“There’s one more we can look for,” Henry said. “I think the ‘Chipmunk Challenge’ cache is going to be down that other trail across the parking lot from where we parked our bikes.”
The children tromped back to the parking lot, then crossed over to another dirt trail.
Henry peered down at the GPS. “It looks like this one is about a quarter mile straight ahead.”
The Aldens followed the trail up and down a hill, over a small wooden bridge, and into a thicker part of the woods.
“It should be right around here now,” Henry said.
The children split up and checked various trees. While they were searching, a boy and a girl came charging down the trail. They wore matching denim jackets and looked a lot alike. They were the same height, same weight, and they had the same shade of brown hair. The girl wore hers in a long braid down her back. They looked around Jessie’s age.
The boy held something in his hand that looked a lot like a GPS. Were they geocachers, too? Henry wondered.
“This way!” The boy stared at the gadget in his hand. The two veered off the path and headed straight for Benny.
“Hello,” Benny said to them.
They ignored Benny, their eyes fixed on the gadget in the boy’s hand. Then the girl walked around behind Benny. She bent down and pulled a metal container out of the hollow in the bottom of the tree.
“Oh, you found it,” Benny said.
“Looks like we were looking for the same thing,” Henry said cheerfully as he, Jessie, and Violet joined them.
“We’re the Aldens,” Jessie said. “I’m Jessie. This is Henry, Violet, and Benny.”
“That’s nice,” the boy said absently. He and the girl knelt down on the ground pried the lid off the container together.
“Is it in there?” the girl asked once the lid was off.
“Yes!” the boy exclaimed. He pulled out a stuffed armadillo and the girl squealed in delight as she took it from him.
“Hey, that looks a lot like the armadillo we found in another cache yesterday,” Violet said.
The girl looked up at Violet. “Was it the ‘Walk in the Park’ cache?”
“Yes, I think so,” Violet said.
The girl rolled her eyes. “Then of course it’s the same armadillo. It’s a travel bug!”
“What’s a travel bug?” Jessie asked.
But the mysterious boy and girl didn’t answer. They stood up and the girl put the armadillo in her pocket.
“We got what we came for,” the girl told the Aldens. “You guys can put the cache back.”
Then they left as quickly as they’d arrived.
“That was odd,” Jessie said.
“They sure weren’t very friendly,” Henry said.
“They didn’t even put anything in the box when they took the armadillo,” Benny said.
“I wonder why they wanted the armadillo so badly,” Violet said.
“They said it was a travel bug,” Jessie said. “What’s a travel bug?”
“I don’t know,” Henry said. “But I think I know where we can find out.”
Chapter 4
The Club Meeting
On Friday morning, Grandfather drove the children to the nature center so they could go to the Greenfield Geocachers club meeting. When Grandfather dropped them off, they saw a crowd of people milling around the patio and picnic area in front of the nature center. There were families, college students, and retired couples. Many of the people had dogs with them.
“We should’ve brought Watch,” Benny said.
“Maybe next time,” Henry said.
“Hey, Boxcar Kids!” Andy Robertson waved at the Aldens.
“Hi, Andy,” Jessie said as the Aldens made their way over to him. The Aldens were glad to see someone they knew.
“I’m glad you came to the meeting,” Andy said. “We’re just waiting for Cal Edwards to come and unlock the nature center for us. Then we’ll get started.”
“Cal Edwards is in this club?” Violet asked.
“He sure is,” Andy replied. “In fact, he’s our club secretary. Why? Do you know him?”
“Yes,” Jessie said. “He’s a friend of our grandfather’s.”
“That’s wonderful,” Andy said. “Cal was one of the people who started this club.”
“How did geocaching start?” Violet wanted to know.
“It’s a neat story,” Andy said. “One person started the whole thing. He was a computer consultant and he wanted to see how well his GPS worked. So he hid a container out in the woods. Then he posted the coordinates online. Sure enough, someone else was able to find the container using a GPS! From there, the idea grew.”
“And now people all over the world do this?” Jessie asked. “Wow!”
“Let me introduce you to some of the club members while we wait,” Andy offered.
He turned to the brown-haired man and woman who were seated at the picnic table behind him. “This is Mr. and Mrs. Zeller,” Andy said. “And these are the Aldens: Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. The Aldens are new to geocaching, but they want to join our group.”
“That’s good,” Mrs
. Zeller said, smiling at the children.
“You know, we have a boy and a girl about your age,” Mr. Zeller said. “Zack and Zoe. They’re twins.” He glanced around. “I’m not sure where they are right now.”
“They’re probably giving our son a hard time,” said a tall man who came up behind them. He had dark hair and dark eyes. His wife stood a head shorter, but she also had dark hair and dark eyes. Neither one of them smiled.
The Zellers exchanged looks. They did not look happy to see this other couple.
“Perhaps your son is giving Zack and Zoe a hard time,” Mrs. Zeller said stiffly.
Andy stepped in between the adults. “Mr. and Mrs. Greene, have you met the Aldens?”
The tall man nodded at the children.
“Nice to meet you,” his wife said coolly.
“The Greenes have a son around your age, Jessie,” Andy said. “His name is David.”
“Oh, maybe we can meet him?” Jessie said.
“I’m not sure where he is right now,” Mr. Greene said.
“Let’s see if we can find him,” Mrs. Greene said. Then they walked away.
“We should find out where Zack and Zoe went, too,” Mrs. Zeller said, getting up from the picnic table.
“It was nice meeting you all,” Mr. Zeller said. Then he and his wife went off in the opposite direction from the Greenes.
“Those people don’t seem to like each other very much,” Benny said.
“There’s a little rivalry between those two families,” Andy said as he checked his watch.
“What kind of rivalry?” Jessie asked.
“Well, right now our club has a contest going on. Whoever finds the most caches this month wins a new GPS.”
“Wow!” Violet said. “That’s a good prize.”
“Yes, it is,” Andy said. “The Zellers and the Greenes do a lot of geocaching. Probably more than anyone else in the club. And I know they both want to win that prize.”
“Well, there are only a few days left in the month, so I don’t think we’ll win the prize,” Henry said. “But we did do a little more geocaching the other day.”
“You did?” Andy smiled. “Did you find any caches.”
“Well, we couldn’t find the first two we looked for,” Jessie said. “But we found the third one. It was called ‘Chipmunk Challenge.’ ”