Geocaching

A couple of weeks ago the boys and I had our first geocaching adventure. We had a blast! Geocaching is basically like a treasure hunt for grownups, or anyone actually. The gist of it is that someone hides a container with stuff in it somewhere, then s/he logs the coordinates of said container on the geocaching.com website. Then anyone can go and find the container. You don't actually take the container, just sign the log book and swap some token that you brought for something in the cache. Then you replace the container exactly as you found it so someone else can join in the game. Kind of silly I guess, but just plain fun if you like to be outside. The caches range in size from teeny tiny to large ammo boxes. You use a gps to find the cache. The GPS will get you pretty darn close, within a couple of yards or so typically, then you have to search. Some of the finds are ridiculously easy, some are much more difficult.

Anyway, on our first geocaching adventure we went to this undeveloped park. It was a really beautiful area, and spring is just gorgeous here this year. We found 3 caches, one of which was actually pretty well hidden, we almost gave up on it. The boys had a blast, the scenery was fantastic and in general it was a really fun day.

One of the very cool side benefits of geocaching is really discovering the area around you. We were walking in an area that used to be a riverbed, the evidence of prehistoric people was all around us. We found a geode, tons of rocks that had obviously been used as tools or in the tool making process. I even found 2 arrow heads. It was so much fun looking through all of the rocks, I could have spent hours doing that. The boys loved walking in the woods, listening to the birds, picking flowers, and playing with bugs. They are excellent hikers, bushwhacking with the best of 'em! They got really excited about the "treasures" that we were finding too.

We had so much fun that I decided to introduce Mike to geocaching as well. Last weekend we found another park with a bunch of hidden caches, he really had fun too.

Anyway, there are about a gazillion caches hidden in and around the area here so I should never be bored! The closest cache to the house is only .2 miles away, so somewhere in the greenbelt behind our house. One of these days I'll go check it out! It's kind of fun to think of all the ones that I have surely walked by but simply never knew about.