Who are we? We are two wacky artists from either side of the country who have discovered that we are kindred spirits- in fact, elf sisters. We both like to be outdoors and exploring, so we've created the blog to share our adventures!
Note: Here be spoilers. Well, sometimes, but you may find photos or info about the location or description of a cache. You've been warned!

Hello from the newbie!

I'm a complete newbie here, but I've been doing a lot of research on geocaching and letterboxing. Go figure- I'm becoming so obsessed but the weather has been too rainy and cold to go out adventuring! The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend, so maybe I'll get out then. :)

Anyway, I think I may have heard about geocaching a while ago, but what really piqued my interest was an article in the daily paper a week or so ago talking about geocaching and how it was like a grown-up's version of Easter egg hunting. Since I always loved Easter egg hunts and scavenger hunts as a kid, I figured this would be perfect for me. Plus it means I'll be able to get outside and do some walking. (The only think I'm not looking forward to? Ticks. There are a lot of ticks in my area.)

I currently don't have the best health so to start I'll just be looking for letterboxes and caches that are on easy terrain and are of the "park and grab" variety. As I get healthier, I'll start upping the difficulty level. I'm planning on searching in Pennsylvania and maybe some of Delaware to start, but I'll check New Jersey on my way to (and while I'm at) the shore. Oddly enough, I think I'll be able to find the ones at the shore more easily because I've done a lot more walking and tourist stuff there than in my own backyard.

I'll be out searching with my dad and/or my fiance Josh. I picked "Taurandirath" as our group name because all three of us love Tolkien; the name means "forest wanderers" in Elvish. I don't have a GPS so I'll be borrowing my mom's car GPS system when I go with my dad, or Josh's dad's car GPS when I go with Josh. If I find that I'm able to do a lot of geocaching/letterboxing, I may ask for an outdoor GPS for my birthday this summer. ;)

I also made an account on waymarking.com; I don't think I'm going to actively look for locations (at least not to start), but if I happen to pass near one on my adventures, I'll snap a picture of it. :)

Oh- and my posts are going to have the wrong time on them because this blog is set to Ruthie's Pacific time and I'm in Eastern (so add 3 hours to my post time, if you're curious). (Although at the moment I'm having timestamp issues with this blog...)

2 Comments to "Hello from the newbie!"

Live, Love, Laugh, Write! Says:
March 29, 2010 at 4:55 PM

I was wondering what your name meant!

Meri Greenleaf Says:
March 29, 2010 at 5:06 PM

LOL! Yeah, if it's a weird word and has to do with me, it's either Sindarin Elvish or Old English. ;) I love strange languages, even if I'm nowhere near fluent in them.