Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure," usually toys or trinkets of little value. Today, well over 440,000 geocaches are registered on various websites devoted to the sport. Geocaches are currently placed in 222 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica. (Thank you, Wikipedia)
I had seen this on another blog, and thought it looked like a cool hobby to get into, family friendly too! We found a good deal on a GPS unit (Art's been wanting one for months anyway, for when he drives up North) and today the kids and I tried it out.
It was a lot of fun! We went into the Westminster Ponds with Shelleen Blokker and Cody and Brett, and hunted down our first Geocache.
There is a website (geochaching.com) where you can search for geocaches near you. You then download the coordinates to your GPS and go treasure hunting! The site also tells you what is in the caches, so you can bring along appropriate items to trade. Some are so small there is only a log to sign, but this one had a bunch of kid-friendly items.
It was a lot of fun, but next time I will definitely leave Natalie behind, she did not enjoy it. We had to go about 100meters off the path through dense brush, which Tim and Cody thought was GREAT! Natalie....not so much. Anyway, it was a great hiking day, we found the cache, and got some nice fall photo shots of the kids in the woods.
Starting out!
Cody found the Geocache!
And some neat shots of the kids:
8 comments:
Cool!! So these "Geocache's are just out there to find? maybe I need to try it with my GPS. What make/model GPS did you buy?
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We bought a Magellan eXplorist. It's a portable GPS, but can also load road maps onto it and use it for driving. It's quite cool! Next time we come to your place we should do some out there... sans little ones.
I don't know if it would work with yours.. you have to carry it with you as you're searching. It tells you which direction to go (compass) and how far away you are. Tim and Cody were our navigators, they led us right to it!
Awesome pictures Lisa! This geocaching thing sounds neat! How did you find out about it?
Thanks for the explanation. I had looked it up on Wikipedia as well, but was interested in how it would actually work out.
Really cool. Maybe we should do it sometime. Sounds like fun.
Great pictures, by the way. Very artsy...
I actually read about it on Chandra VanderBoom's blog. It works great - we should definitely do it sometime! I bet there's lots around your area, or even by Mom and Dad's!
Thanks for the photo compliments. I had bought some cool black frames and wanted some low color candid shots of the kids to put in them - I think those will work
Sherri, have you ever played with Google's Picasa picture download? It's pretty neat - got some cool effects.
It is a lot of fun! :)
If you would like to find out more about Geocaching drop by Geocaching Online It has a regularly updated blog and hundreds of links to how-to's, information and more.
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