I’m good at that

Ok, it’s been a few days since someone posted here so let me be the one to say something in the hopes of stimulating a conversation.

Anyone conversant with geocaching?

I know *of* it.

I’ve heard the term, but don’t know what it’s all in aid of.

Short version: Treasure hunting for geeks.

You set up a ‘cache’, usually a waterproof container with a book for folks to sign, maybe a few small cheap toys or keychains for folks to take as trophies. You then post the GPS coordinates of your little package on one of many websites. It’s basically a means of folks to explore and such.

huh?  That’s confusing… does anyone have a link to a site like that?

It does sound fun. I don’t know if anything like that is done round here - I’ll have to look it up and see.

hulitoons - 18 February 2012 09:34 AM

huh?  That’s confusing… does anyone have a link to a site like that?

Yes. It’s called Google and typing in geocaching.

Madmouse - 18 February 2012 09:37 AM

It does sound fun. I don’t know if anything like that is done round here - I’ll have to look it up and see.

I bet it is. It’s pretty much everywhere there are geeks and the technology to do it. And there are lots in Edinburgh and the area.

I had a friend in London who was doing it for a while. He stopped when he found pretty much all the cahces that were in his area and surroundings.

Anyone interested and with a smartphone can download one of various apps for doing this. Gives the location, allows you to log the cache you found and uses the phone GPS for helping locate the coordinates. (Otherwise you’ll probably want a GPS designed for walkers. People walkers, not zombie walkers.)

I’ve been doing it for about 10 years now and I still have fun with it.  I find it’s one of those activities that gets me outdoors, keeps me active and brings me to places that I wouldn’t normally go if there wasn’t a cache there.  The most common thing I hear from people who are new to it goes something like this, “Wow, I never realized that (insert object/destination here) was here, I’ll have to do this more often.”.

I’ve also found that most people who use smartphones don’t have as much fun and get frustrated because the gps function in smartphones isn’t as accurate as a dedicated gpsr.  Thus they end up with coordinates that have a greater margin of error than my gps.  There are caches in every part of the world and in every environment.  No matter where I go I can always search for a cache.

Sounds like a lot of fun, Gray!  What kinds of things have you found, and when you do find a cache, do you normally leave something else in exchange?

I actually stumbled upon a cache by accident once (I was roaming around a park outdoors) and left it for the goal for the people involved in the geocaching. I don’t think it was a very large scale group like yours Gray… prolly a local group or a school group. I will typically go off trail looking for deer antlers or something out of the ordinary when I go for a walk in the wild. I will typically take a deer trail or something of the sort.