Geocaching Adventures - Page 1

Geocaching is a sport for GPS owners. It was born in May 2000, and it has grown quickly. I only heard about it a few weeks ago (September 2001) myself. The object of the game, if you will, is to seek out a hidden cache of "treasures" using a GPS receiver and the geographic coordinates of the cache itself.

It's a great excuse to get out and enjoy the countryside. The sport offers a good way for GPS owners to learn to use their receivers with "pinpoint" accuracy. Most of the caches seem to be hidden on public land. Many are located in parks. One can usually expect to hike a mile, round trip, to reach a cache. So it is a good way to get a little exercise.

Each cache is supposed to contain a log book that each visitor should sign. Most of us leave some kind of note explaining what we left in the cache and what we might have taken. I try to put useful things into the caches that I visit. It's also fun to log your visit on the Geocaching.com web site, and its a good way to keep track of the caches you've bagged.

Caches don't usually contain real treasure in the material sense of the word. As one fellow geocacher put it, "People put their junk in these things." While that may be true in some cases, one should remember that one man's junk is another man's treasure. But one can usually be assured that the experience of finding a cache and the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors are worth every bit of the effort.