Any Geocachers here? (See www.geocaching.com for info if you haven't heard of it)

Yep. I have done some geocaching, but it has been a little while since I last went. It can be alot of fun, or incredibly frustrating depending on your sattelite signal strength. Good excuse to get outdoors and hike though, and interesting to read the log books sometimes. If you have a GPS, I would recommend trying it.<br><br>Enjoy!<br><br>Greg

We use geocaching as a navigation training aid.<br><br>Ted Fisher<br>Vermilion County Search and Rescue

To me, geocaching is just a good excuse to go romping around outdoors. Unfortunately, finding the goodies is almost like shooting fish in a barrel (at least here in Florida). Simply follow the arrow. Sometimes the terrain can be difficult, but that is it.<br><br>Letterboxing looks like it has more potential to be challenging. Some letterboxes (from what I understand) can be a combination of orienteering and puzzle solving. Finding one like this should be able to fill a person with a real feeling of accomplishment. Unfortunately, there are not many letterboxes in Florida, and most of these give clear directions which remove the challenge :(<br><br>Oh well, at least I still have orienteering for a challenge.

Hi Herrkey:<br><br>I'm sorry to hear geocaching isn't that exciting down there. Maybe its the terrain.<br> Here in CT and NY its more of a challenge as you have to study topo maps beforehand to figure out the best approach. There is also some orienteering (or dead reckoning) involved when you lose your GPS signal in a pine forest and have to rely on the last bearing you had.<br><br>Chris

Yup. Here in Florida, the terrain is as flat as a table. What I wouldn't give for a mountain or two. (and throw in some snow while you are at it)<br><br>Actually, Florida DOES have mountains. Unfortunately, they are land-fill sites

I thought there would be some fellow cachers here. Has anyone else noticed that their fellow hobbyists tend to take to the woods with a GPS receiver and little else survival wise? My friends and I notice this a lot here in the CT/NY area where many newbie cachers are going from the computer keyboard to the great outdoors for the first time. Hopefully they stay close enough to population to escape serious harm.<br><br>Chris

My nieces and nephews call it "treasure hunting" and think they are pirates.

It is a blast, gets them away from the TV and gets them a nice mixture of fresh air and exercise!

Yup, we do it from time to time. It can be a lot of fun, a good excuse to get out into the "woods," and learn your equipment...

Its a good way to kill boredom and get away from the TV.

Thats something I'm going to try down the road when my kids get old enough, right now my 21 month old is just happy to get outside and run and fall.
Gives me an excuse to get a GPS too

I haven't personally haven't done any geocaching myself but it sounds like a great way to encourage children to get out into the great outdoors.

I not sure if geocaching is as popular as Orienteering in the UK at the moment, which itself is a great competative sport.

A great way to introduce navigational skills via a GPS in the same way using a map and compass is used in orienteering.

Looks like there are currently 22,435 geocaches located in the UK alone!

THIS ONE looks like it would be fun to give a go.

I don't have a GPS, but one day about two years ago, I stumbled onto a geocache. It was a decorated, identified geocache made up of an old ammo box. On several different hikes, I went back to the general area where I had found it and re-found it several times.. I dropped odd items into it and logged in on the notebook. This winter the brush will likely be reduced and I may find it again. I'm surprised someone hasn't stolen the box by now, but it seems to hold some respect for those who have found it so far. I think it's pretty cool.

Hiker1, Have you ever thought of getting a GPS unit?

Tried out geocaching earlier this year and discovered it's a lot of fun. You can sign up for an account for free, and if you really like it they have a "premium membership" for $30/year. The advantage to paying is you can download files with the locations and put them on your GPS instead of programming in coordinates by hand. I was surprised to put in my local zip code and see all of the caches in the area. Apparently this is a popular hobby!

When my wife and I started caching 5 years ago or so, it was still pretty new, and caches were fairly few, even back in MD. After taking a few years (and 2 kids) off, we are back at it again. It is hard to believe how many caches there are all over the place now. You don't even have to go out in the woods if you don't want to.

My 4 year old loves to go "treasure hunting". She gets a big kick out of finding treasure and swapping items. We always have to tell her to keep her voice down so the pirates don't come and steal the treasure. Our 6 week old comes along too, but doesn't seem as excited about it yet... Hmmm.

Greg

There are a lot of people out there geocaching... and a lot who haven't a clue about it. The part that gets me is wondering how many other geocacher's I pass daily without knowing it... sort of a secret society if you will.

I've been into caching for a few months now and started to place a few caches myself. I initially bought the gps for my hiking/backpacking but got turned on to this extra activity. It keeps me active, I've travelled up and down valleys and have checked out viewpoints I never would have before. It's also a semi-social activity as you interact with your buddies on a delayed basis or via a website but once in a while you can attend a social event where you finally get to meet fellow cachers and swap stories.

This is one of the few out-of-doors family activities out there so I think it's great on that basis alone. The fact that you have to use your imagination and intuition to find the actual cache is bonus - it keeps the "grey matter" upstairs working! Caching is rarely boring - we have a number of active local cachers that combine games, puzzles, multi-caches, virtual caches, the various features of your gps, and complex slight-of-hand to hide their locations.