Trifter

Recently my sister called me and asked me if I wanted to go “geocaching.” Though I had heard of it before, I had no idea what it really was, so I did some research.

Geocaching is like treasure hunting, only you use a GPS device instead of clues to find the location of the treasure. This is no ordinary treasure, either, but rather a container with interesting items, usually not worth much, that you can trade for providing what you leave in return is of equal or greater value.

Image via Wikipedia

According to Geocaching.com, there are over 840,000 caches of “treasure” just waiting to be found! Even Antarctica has some. To make things simple, they have a search box on their website where you enter your zip code, and suddenly you find that, lo and behold, you have some caches in your area to check out.

Another great thing about the Geocaching website is that you can see the difficulty of finding the cache before you decide to try for it, because they rate the difficulty in two ways: mental and terrain. By the way, the treasure is not buried, rather it is hidden.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

If you manage to find the treasure, sign the log to show you made it! You can also go to the website and send the hider a note that you found it, or share your experience.

If you would like to be a hider, there are a number of guidelines to follow, for instance there is no geocaching on state land, near railroads, near military land, and more rules like that to obey. Geocaching.com has really good instructions that walk you through the process of hiding a cache for others to find.

Sounds like great family fun! I can’t wait to try it.

More Family Fun to try:

• Visit The World’s Largest Aquarium
• Catch sharks and eat cereal on the beach at Cape Canaveral National Seashore
• Look for unique water towers like Paul Bunyan’s Fishing Bobber, or the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle