There will be an intro to Geocaching at the Fond du Lac, Wisconsin Public Library on October 8, 2011. The three hour introduction to the game will be put on by locals Kyle Schmitz and Vanessa Theel.  Geocaching could keep the local kids busy as there are more than three hundred geocaches within 10 miles of the main library location at 32 Sheboygan St. Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Source: fdlreport.com

The Parks and Recreation Department in Woodbury, Minnesota has wrapped it’s third summer of a kid’s geocaching camp. What a great idea! We know that groups such as the Boy Scouts have integrated geocaching into activities, but for a city to take the step to offer a camp for kids specifically focused on geocaching is exciting. Tell me that wouldn’t be a fun summer job to have!

The camp introduces 9- to 14-year-olds to geocaching by teaching them the basic guidelines and allowing them to go outside and find geocaches located in Woodbury on their own with the aid of an instructor. The camp is now in its third year.

Anyone else heard of camps like this in your area?

Source: Woodbury Bulletin

While it has gained steam and is becoming more of a household name, geocaching still has some hurdles to overcome. One of those hurdles is the fact that those not playing don’t always know a game is being played. It is understandable that with a game that often requires stealth so the cache is not discovered by those not playing, that those that don’t use a sufficient amount of stealth are going to be pretty dang suspicious.

This happened to myself recently when attempting to locate a cache at a new park. The park sat literally in the backyards of some houses in a new development. While searching we were being watched by a lady in her back yard. She came over to ask what we were looking for as she had seen a couple of other groups there earlier. Guessing this would happen more, we fessed up and she understood.When leaving though she asked us to notify the police that it was there as there had been some burglaries recently and the neighbors have wondered what people were searching for in the park. We let the cache owner know and it was moved.

Last week this led to the police being called in  Baxter, Minnesota. Read the rest of this entry

The Athens County convention and visitors bureau in Ohio is embracing Geocaching with open arms.  They have developed two series of Geocache trails, one traditional and one handicap assessable, that takes cachers to interesting points around the county. In addition to finding those geocache containers, they can locate a secret word in each cache that will help them to solve a larger puzzle at the end, earning an additional prize.

A PDF of the flyer can be found HERE. The flyer gives a short description of geocaching and explains how to get started. Listed at the bottom are the names and coordinates of the caches needed to be found to obtain the words to finish a crossword puzzle enclosed. Once the entire puzzle has been completed, the cacher can return it to one of two locations to receive an Athens County Geo-coin. Read the rest of this entry

Hey there! Welcome to the blog for Midwest geocaching! A look at the high-tech treasure hunting game from the midwest, including Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Nebraska. We will have a look at geocaching in the news as well as talk about some of the best caches in the midwest.