Geocaching:
The Sport Where YOU Are the Search Engine!
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Geocaching is a great adventure game for those who like to hike and use a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS). The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the Internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is to leave something if they remove something from the cache, sign the logbook in the cache, and then log the find on the Geocaching web site.
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This was our first cache in 2002. Our friend, Mary, knew that "gadget girl" (Jodie) had purchased a GPS in the fall for hunting; one spring day she brought an article from The Wall Street Journal about geocaching. The next weekend we (WoodsWoman and Geo-hubby) made our first find in northern Minnesota. Since then we have found many more. We try to take a photo of one of us at each of the caches we have found. This was #1.
The cache itself can be anything--an Altoids tin (micro cache), an ice cream bucket, a five-gallon pail, a plastic cake pan. Many are in ammo cans. We have bought several of them on eBay and we're sure the UPS guy thinks that we are survivalists or something because of the many deliveries of ammo cans to our house. Some caches are "virtual" caches--that is, a cache that one locates and then just answers question about it. We have found several of those in Las Vegas and along Route 66.
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Canyon Diablo--Two Guns (just east of Flagstaff): We tried to find this cache twice in 2004 along old Route 66. We must have moved a ton of rocks looking for it then. We finally found it in 2005!
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We did some geocaching near Nelson, Nevada in 2005, which is a great spot. The one on the left was called "OU8alizzard." It was nestled in a rock near a small cave. When Jodie spotted it, she screamed and scared Sandy and Lee. The hider of the cache had put a very realistic looking plastic lizard on top of the cache container! In the center is a cache that we found in a pet cemetery. Years ago someone buried a pet in the desert and other people followed suit. It was a little eerie to open the cache container--didn't know what we would find. Right: That same day we hiked to a cache and noticed as we got closer that there was a 4WD vehicle parked at the top. Obviously, we were a little concerned about whom or what we would find. It turned out that it was Officer Bob and he was a delight. We ran into him one other time in the same spot with Warren and Lee.
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On the left is a virtual cache in Las Vegas at Caesar's Palace. We had to email a photo of the site to the cacher who had "hidden it." The GPS is strategically placed! We have found some caches in some very interesting places. On the right is a micro (small) cache that was right on the Brooklyn Bridge at New York New York. We could not believe the ingenuity it took to "hide it in plain sight!" It was really interesting to locate it when there were hundreds of people around who did not have the foggiest idea what we were doing.
The great thing about Geocaching is that it takes us to places that we might otherwise have missed when we travel. We try to look up caches before we leave on a trip to get us out and about for some exercise. We tend to leave hiking "gadgets" in the caches or mementoes from Minnesota's Iron Range.
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On the left Geo-Hubby at Natural Bridges in Montana. We found this gorgeous spot when we were on our way to Big Sky to go fly fishing and would never have known about it except for geocaching.
On the right is a view of Las Vegas that only hikers and geo-cachers see. We have encountered some of our most challenging caches in the Las Vegas area far from The Strip.
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We met Frank and Linda (on the left) at a geocaching get together in Las Vegas. Since then we have enjoyed some very interesting caching experiences, thanks to their expertise. They are the epitome of gadget folks--GPS's, radios, computers in the car! We have introduced many of our friends and family members to geocaching. On the right, Jodie, Sharon, and Homer watch Gayle signing the logbook in a cache near Lake Mead. They are all from Seattle and we have also had many geocaching adventures with them when we spend the winter in Las Vegas. All of them have gotten their grandchildren into caching.
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We introduced some of our Las Vegas friends to geocaching. On the left we are near Mesquite, NV, with Warren and Lee. It was a gorgeous hike and a gorgeous view of the mountains. On the right we are way UP with Maggie and Mike. We had quite a drive to this cache, which had been pretty much damaged from the snow and rain in the mountains--not much gambling up there!!!
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Geo-Grandson (left) loves to go 'caching with Grandma and Grandpa. During the summer of 2005 we spent a day in and around Ely and found 10 geocaches. This is one that he found with Geo-Grandpa (AKA "Geo-Hubby"). What a fun day for all of us!
This spring (2007) his fourth grade science project involved geocaching--whether he could find something that "Geo Grandma and Grandpa" hid more quickly with his new Etrex or with a map with the latitude and longitude. He received an A+ for the project and we are all so proud of him. Now Grandma has another geocaching buddy!
Jodie and her friends, the Walkie Talkies, have hidden many caches around the Iron Range in northern Minnesota--some of them in historical places. It has drawn folks to our small town--people who might not otherwise have driven here or, for sure, not stopped here at all. Check out the Walkie Talkie page.
It is a wonderful activity and is just one of the many things that now keep us busy and out of mischief!