Geocaching

WHAT IS GEOCACHING?

As described by Geocaching.com, "Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment." It is high-tech hide-and-seek. Anyone who geocaches can hide a geocache, post it on Geocaching.com, and then it is available to be found. Anyone can seek a geocache. Although some caches would be extremely difficult to find without a hand-held GPS unit, a great many caches, particularly in the city, can be found simply by scrutinizing the Google map on any geocache's page, reading the description and hint, and perusing the logs for any additional information. It takes a keen eye, and puzzle-solving wits sometimes to find the caches, as they aren't always easily found.

WHAT DOES A GEOCACHE LOOK LIKE?

There is no typical geocache. The only requirement is that every cache have a log so that each finder can put their name and date of the find on it. The size of caches varies, so each cache you hunt for gives you a size range. Hopefully, the cache description will give you a little additional information. A cache can be as small as a "button" magnet, which is about the size of a pencil eraser, or as large as a 5-gallon bucket or larger. The typical sizes are micro, small, regular and large. A micro is something about the size of a 35 mm film canister or smaller. Frequently, it is exactly a 35 mm canister, but usually camouflaged in some way -- painted, camo tape, glued-on leaves, or even inside something else. These rarely contain anything but a piece of paper to sign to show you found it. A size small is about the size of a sandwich container, and may contain small items. A size regular is about the size of a military ammo can (and frequently is one) -- about the size of two cereal boxes put together. A large is about bucket-sized. Any of these containers may be painted, taped, or items glued upon it to camouflage it, or it may be inside something else. Your job is to find it, despite that.

HOW DO I LOOK FOR A GEOCACHE?

First, you need to sign onto Geocaching.com and set up a free account and user name. You can then click on the menu on the left where it says "hide & seek a cache" and fill in one of the blanks for specific address, city, zip code, or whatever. You can put in your home address and click "go" and it will give you a listing of all the caches beginning with the closest to your home. Near the top of the list, there is a link to search for geocaches using Google maps. If you click on this, it will show you an area map with an icon showing you the location of all the caches around you. You can then zoom in on one you want to look for, click on the satellite view, and get a pretty good idea of where to look. If you click on the icon, you'll get the name of the cache and information on size and difficulty to find it. If you click on the name, it will take you to the cache page where you can read more about it and look at logs that people have posted.

This website, Geocaching.com, is full of all kinds of helpful information to get you started, and to answer questions. The more caches you do, the more you get familiar with particular hiding tricks and where to look for them.

WHEN I FIND ONE, THEN WHAT?

WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT IT?