What is Geocaching? Well, do you enjoy playing games? How about solving puzzles? Do you like watching the Amazing Race or movies like Indiana Jones or National Treasure? If so, then check out the coolest game you have probably never heard about…Geocaching!
What is Geocaching?
Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game. Geocachers use a GPS to navigate to a set of GPS coordinates, and then attempt to find the Geocache (container) that’s hidden at the location. It’s amazing because Geocaches can be found all over the world! Many “caches” are hidden in locations that are important to people, have historical significance, or are just pretty cool places. Also, it makes for a great road trip game for those long road trips.
What is in a Geocache?
You will not find treasure in a geocache, but for the little geocaches, it feels like a treasure. You can find what we call geocaching swag inside geocaches. Some geocaches are too small to hold anything, but some a huge and have lots of swag and some geocaches you may find what we call a Geocaching Trackable.
What types of Geocaches are there?
There a couple of different types of geocaches. There are just normal geocaches. Someone hides geocaches and they leave clues and hints in the geocaching description to find the geocache. There are some geocaches that you have to solve puzzles to find the location of the geocache. Also, there are geocaches called “Mulit-Caches” where there are several stages to get clues to the final coordinates. There are lots of different types of geocaches, but all are super fun.
Where can I find Geocaches?
The locations are very diverse. Geocaches can be hidden in local parks like Piedmont Park in Atlanta, at the end of a long hike, underwater, or on the side of a city street. When you find a cache, there is often a log inside that you can sign and date. Then you put it back in the same location for the next person to find.
Everything is logged on your Geocaching profile so that you can track your caches over time. And it has a social element; you can leave comments and photos for other people from the cache that you found.
To us, Geocaching is an adventure into unknown lands. Every Geocacher does it a little differently; we mainly go for caches outside our city because it gives us a reason to explore new places. The amazing thing about Geocaching is that its an international treasure hunt that only you and a few others know about. So in a way, it’s your own international secret.
Geocaching Around the World
We love Geocaching internationally. It takes us off the beaten tourist path, an example would be a secret beach that only the locals know about, with an amazing view that no tour book mentions.
On the other hand, it will also take you to those frequently visited must do’s in the area. In some of these popular areas, you may find very cleverly hidden caches in the middle of everything, which is always a fun challenge!
Geocaching Technology & App
There are a couple of things to think about before heading out of the country to cache. Take time to research what caches you want to grab before going there and download it on your device. You can cache with any smartphone by downloading the geocaching app or by having a portable GPS unit. You can also go directly to Geocaching.com to set up your profile and check in your status.
We change our destination so we use our smartphone and sometimes we use local WiFi to locate a couple of nearby caches. This is half the fun of geocaching. What’s great about researching caches is reading the comments and reviewing all the favorite points; this is usually a good guide on where to go in the region. A lot of places will be off the tourist path and into the countryside.
What is a Geocaching Trackable?
Another part of Geocaching is tracking your miles with “Geocaching trackables.” Geocoins help keep track of your favorite caches and how many miles between caches you have racked up.
Another way people use trackables is to set free a trackable with a certain destination in mind and let other cachers take it there from cache to cache. It is wonderful to help people full fill their trackable dream by taking them to locations the owner wants to see.
So in a way, you are taking something of theirs around the world…a place where the owner may not be able to go.
Geocaching Supplies
You do not need a lot of supplies to get going. The only thing you will need is a sense of adventure and a profile. As you get a couple of easy geocaches under your belt then you can increase your geocaching adventures and boost up your supplies and create your ultimate Geocaching Adventure Bag.
Let’s Go!
Always remember to respect the Geocaching rules and mottos. When taking something out, you place something back in. Always respect the surroundings of the Geocache location. Also, HAVE FUN!!!!
Did you find this useful? Pin It to your Pinterest Boards and make sure to Follow Our Boards too!
