Geocache and Modern Day Treasure Hunting

November 23, 2010, By Buzz Bishop 1 comment

My son and I love to geocache, something he calls “treasure hunting.” At first it sounds a little nerdy, but with something as simple as a smart phone app you can turn any walk in the woods into a treasure hunting adventure of discovery.

Kids love to hunt and discover things. It’s part of the job description. Getting them to put down the game controller and go outside to play can sometimes be a difficult task, but if you can toss in the promise of adventure, they’ll run along with you every time.

What is Geocaching?

Geocaching is a game of hide and seek that uses GPS to do the seeking. There are more than a million (1,233,181 according to Geocaching.com) caches hidden around the world. Usually they’re a sandwich sized tupperware filled with trinkets and a log book. Sometimes they’re as small as a contact lens case or as big as an old ammo bin. Each and every one, however, tells an amazing story. The log left with the cache, and the one found online, have notes from each visitor. The tradition is to take a trinket and leave a trinket. A keychain, a pin, a sticker or a figurine is traded with each find.

What Do You need?

Some geocache with specific GPS devices, the kind you’d use mountaineering or for deep back country adventures. My son and I do it with my iPhone and an app.

The home of geocaching is Geocaching.com, a website where you can register for a free account to log and search for caches and also the place you can get the app for iPhone, Windows Phone 7 and Android devices.

Once you have an account, type in your home address - you’ll be floored by the number of hidden treasures that are in your favorite parks, on your block and along your commute.

We just moved this past year and geocaching has been a great lesson in discovering my new home town. I’ll scan the map for an area dense with caches and pack up my son for an afternoon adventure.

I must admit it took me a while to get the hang of geocaching. Our first few outings we came back empty handed, but once I got a better read on my iPhone’s GPS abilities and the methods of hiding caches, it’s become a breeze.

You do have to watch for muggles when you’re doing your geocaching. Yes, the word from the Harry Potter lexicon has the same meaning to geocachers. While you’re stomping through brush next to popular pathways, you’ll want to keep the cache location a secret from those not in on the game.

Who Can Geocache?

I started geocaching with my son when he was two and a half. I picked up the activity from friends with older kids who love to go out and discover new treasures each weekend. It’s the sort of activity that’s perfect for the whole family. Once they’re old enough to walk and wander and take direction, they can geocache.

And they’ll get quickly hooked, it might even be a way to make a family hike in the woods a little more intriguing for teens and tweens. While they’re caught up on the mystery of finding a cache, the whole family is outside spending time together exploring and getting some exercise.

The next step for us is to start hiding caches of our own. It’s a modern day twist on the message in a bottle. My son and I can bury a tin with some trinkets in a park and go back each week to read the stories from our neighbors and visitors who have discovered the cache.