Geocaching: A Great Reason To Get Outdoors Again

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Geocaching is a treasure hunt game using a hand-held GPS (Global Positioning System) unit. Hiders hide a geocache (small waterproof containers) anywhere in the world, make a note of the GPS coordinates, and list the geocache on a website for hunters to seek. Once the site has been listed, hunters can use a hand-held GPS unit to direct them to the cache. They will usually get close, then they might have to be clever to find a well-hidden cache. A typical cache can be just about any size, from really small to large, and it will probably be camouflaged to make the hunt more challenging. The cache usually contains a notebook, for logging the find, and some small trade items (usually of little monetary value).

Gecaching had its start in May 2000 after the US government decided to make an improved GPS signal available to the public. This made the public use of GPS systems far more accurate and much more useful than it had been to that point.

Soon after this government announcement David Ulmer of Oregon placed his first geocache. His concept of the game, then called The Great GPS Stash Hunt, was very simple: the hider would hide a container and note the GPS coordinates. The seeker would use those coordinates to locate the container, make a note in the log, and trade items.

It didn't take long for that cache to be found, and a new outdoor sport was formed.

The game has grown dramatically in the last few years. There are now more than ¼ million geocaches hidden around the world. There is probably a cache somewhere close to you. The first cache I found was less than ¼ mile from my back door. We go geocaching as a family and we have found many since then and even hidden a few.

It's really not too hard:

1. We use Geocaching.com or Terracaching.com to pull up a list of caches where we want to go hunting.

2. We can either print out the pages or load them up into my Palm PDA.

3. We load up the coordinates into our GPS unit.

4. We pack up our trading trinkets and some cold drinks (don't want to get dehydrated).

5. We use the GPS unit to help us navigate to the geocache site and start hunting. The listings usually give a good indication of what we should be looking for.

6. Once we find the cache we make a note in the logbook and trade items (usually small toys for us since we hunt with a 3-year old).

7. When we're done, we make sure to go back to the listing website to log the find.

8. I usually like to write a blog entry on my geocaching blog at Caching Adventures. This is a good place to tell the stories that don't quite fit into the log entry.

Geocaching has taken us to several local parks that we knew about but had never explored. Our family usually takes in 3 to 5 caches in a single outing. Others will take on many more.

One positive thing that geocaching has done for us is that it has gotten us out of the house and back out into the great outdoors again.

Kevin Harris owns Caching Adventures which is a free community for geocachers. Each user has their own blog and can submit articles and participate in forums.

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