Geocaching in the outdoors

Geocaching can happen anywhere. It can be in the great outdoors, or it can be cleverly hidden in what appears to be out in the open of a heavily traveled area. It is really up to you where you want to do it. Just go to the Hide and Seek page on geocaching.com and enter where you would like to search. It could be in your neighborhood, where you are going on vacation, or on your way to the store. Normally when people start out geocaching, we suggest searching from their home street address. People are usually surprised how close there are geocaches to their home. Usually, a geocache is hidden somewhere that the person hiding it finds interesting or has a memory tied to it.

You heard about that treasure hunt called geocaching and want to know more? There are all kinds of explanations and definitions of geocaching on the web, some that scare possible geocachers away due to technological terms. We don’t want to do that, so we will give a simple explanation and hopefully you will leave the page as a cacher! Below we give a short explanation for many of the common geocaching questions, in which the “MORE” links will take you to more detailed explanations within our site. Feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments!

What is Geocaching?

Geocaching is a game played around the world where the player searches for  a container called a geocache. Geocachers are all ages, shapes and sizes…anyone can be a geocacher!  You find a hidden container, or designated location,  using clues and a GPS (or these days a smart phone),  logging your visit with your name and date on a sheet of paper found in the container.

Where do I go Geocaching?

Geocaching can happen anywhere. It can be in the great outdoors, or it can be cleverly hidden in what appears to be out in the open of a heavily traveled area….(MORE)

What is a Geocache?

The geocache itself can be anything from a container that can hold a small piece of paper, to a virtual cache where the place you visit itself is the geocache…(MORE)

What is in a Geocache?

Inside a geocache you will find a log book or piece of paper to log your find. There will also be “tradable” items. The geocaching exchange rule is if you take something, leave something of equal value.

What do I get?

This is actually a very common question. It is a treasure hunt, right? With geocaching, the tresure depends on what is in the cache, and depends on how you define treasure. While geocaching usually begins sitting at a computer desk, one of the biggest benefits is that it gets you away from the computer, into the outdoors searching, discovering new places.

How do I go Geocaching?

The first thing you need to do is register for a free account at Geocaching.com. Geocaching is usually done using a GPS. Don’t let that scare you off, it is possible to go caching without a GPS…(MORE).

A small geocache container

The geocache itself can be anything from a container that can hold a small piece of paper, to a virtual cache where the place you visit itself is the geocache. Cache containers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some may be obvious when looking at them, but most are not. For the most part it just has to be big enough to hold a slip of paper, or log, that people can sign. It can be a homemade container, or something that was purchased in a store. The best are the caches that appear to be a fixture that blends in with the environment. Common geocache containers include tupperwear, bison tubes, ammo cans of varying sizes, hide-a-key boxes, and other water tight containers.

A tricky geocache

There are other types of geocaches that actually take you to a place, called a Virtual Cache or Earthcache. Usually, for these types of caches there will be some questions to answer so that you can prove that you visited the site. These are often educational and/ or landmarks. Great when traveling. These geocaches can often be found without a GPS since they are usually taking you to a specific area.

The official geocaching blog, Latitude 47, has identified a cache in Iowa as it’s geocache of the week. 49 and Holding the Cache, located in Pella, Iowa is centrally located in the Midwest for anyone who may be driving through, not far off course of Interstate 80. The cache holds the most favorite points in the state, and there is not a traditional geocache within almost sixty points.

A geocacher who logged this cache writes, “To say this is the best geocache I’ve ever seen would be an understatement. This is mind-bogglingly fantastic! The creativity, work, money, craftsmanship, and awesomeness that has been put into this cache is just plain amazing… I’ve seen and made a few pretty darn cool caches, but this one takes the cake.”

Geocache Page GC202RG

A Lincoln, Nebraska high school has added geocaching to the list of activities included in a new adventure class as a part of the Physical Education curriculum. This is a fantastic way to introduce kids to the sport, as well as livening up the P.E. classes that have seemed stagnant over the years. While geocaching is not the big heart pumper of physical activity, it does encourage being outdoors, and for the most part, walking to find one. That sounds like a winning formula in the days of kids comparing their XBox scores rather than how fast they can run or how far they can hit a ball.

The students who signed up for the course have done geocaching, an in-school treasure hunt using a GPS device, as well as orienteering with compasses. They learned to kayak in the swimming pool and played kayak polo and did a number of teambuilding activities leading up to the ropes.

From JournalStar.com