Geocaching anyone?

Now that spring is officially here, I think the kids and I will begin working on finding more geocaches in our area. Familiar with geocaching? It's basically modern day "treasure hunting" using a hand held GPS device. (Although, to be honest, you don't need the GPS. More on this later....) Geocaches are little containers hidden in your community by every day folks like ourselves--sometimes they are tiny (think a lipstick tube) and others are larger (think coffee can). Geocaches can be hidden under rocks, in trees, inside lights, under benches, pretty much anywhere. The idea is to get outside, see the city/forest/beach you are in and search for the cache. Best of all, it's free! And world wide! You probably have hundreds of geocaches near you that you never even knew were there. You can find out more info at this website http://www.geocaching.com/

My family? We're love to search for the cache so we can swap SWAG and sign the guest log. SWAG are the little trinkets left in geocaches by the folks that have been there before you. SWAG can be stickers, erasers, tokens, marbles, toys, etc. We search for the larger, coffee can type geocaches so we can swap SWAG. We take a trinket, we leave a trinket.

What do we leave? Our local teacher store has a great collection of "space" marbles that are super cool. A whole bag is only $3 so we can leave one marble in each geocache we find and they last a while. We also dig through the toy box and look for little bouncy balls, animals, etc. It's been great fun! The kids just love to race to find each cache and see what's inside. Sometimes you find some pretty cool stuff and other times, just wet stickers (we get a lot of rain in our area this time of year). My kids love to get outside but we sometimes run out of things to do and places to go. Geocaching has taken us to parts of our town we have never seen. We also have to work together to find the cache (we are not always successful) and use the clues left on the website above. Very tricky!

As I mentioned above, you technically don't even need a GPS system. We've been geocaching for several years and we just use the maps on the website listed above. To do so, first, set up a free account with Geocaching.com so you can view their site information. Then, search for caches in your area. It will most likely show a long list. We prefer the "Search with Google Maps" option so we can get a better feel for where the caches are located. When you find a cache you want to find, click on it's name to view more information. I then select the "Geocaching with Google Maps" option so we can print off one copy of the map with all the streets listed (driving directions). Then I switch to "Satellite" view and really zoom in on the cache. You can usually see the trees and bushes nearby so you know exactly where to begin your search. I print a copy of this map and it becomes our main source of info when searching (we also use the "clues" provided by the author as well) We have found most of the caches we look for using this method. I did just buy a Garmin but to be honest, it's still in the box. So many buttons! Super long manual! Ugh. I need to figure it out eventually as I hear it's more accurate than my "map method." But that's a project for another day....


Anyway, here are some photos of the kids geocaching....

This hunt begins up the hill...


Could it be near these rocks?


This rock arrangement looks strange... (always a good clue!)

You can actually see the lid of the geocache poking out from under the rock.

Found it! (a water bottle covered in camo contact paper)

Checking out the treasure in a different cache

Jackpot! (Quite a good selection in this cache)

Ahh...this one was hidden in the bottom of a lightpost in a grocery store parking lot! (Popular option in our area since the bottom of the light "box" just slides right up--no tools needed for geocaches)

We chose to leave 2 space marbles and mini kitty.

Blessings!
Laurie