Geocaching?

[rosarugosa]

We stumbled onto a geocache this weekend while hiking in Lynn Woods, and there was something captivating about the idea of this crazy, ongoing, worldwide treasure hunt. Do we have any dedicated geocachers on the forum? Do you find it to be a source of simple, frugal fun in the great outdoors? Or is it another time suck, and reason to spend more time online, and buy special stuff, etc? It seems to me that it could go both ways, but we are definitely interested.

[herbgeek]

I don't have a GPS (well, we have one for the car, but I mean I don't have a personal device) , so I've done the low tech equivalent of geocaching, letterboxing. I like next to a state park, and there are a couple of caches I've found in there. I like the riddle aspect of the letterboxing, geocaching just seems to require no creativity.

letterboxing.org

[happystuff]

Letterboxer here too, mainly through our GS troop. Our troop has written several letterboxing hikes at a nearby hiking area. Great fun.

[Amaranth]

Both are fun. Letterboxing is more about the experience. Geocaching has more of a acquiring things edge to it, though you could get around that by finding the cache but not giving/taking things.

With letterboxing, it's customary to carve a unique stamp for yourself, but you could also do a drawing and have one made from the drawing.

With both you often meet other interesting people looking for the same letterbox or cache. Both are also good for mapreading, exercise, seeing areas you might not have otherwise experienced.

If you create letterboxes or caches, it might be fun to somehow do a simpleliving oriented theme with them.

[Kestrel]

DH and our #1 son are VERY into geocaching; #2 son not so much. The three of them, plus two grandsons, often go out together for the day having a wonderful time together. DH wants me to get into it too, but I want them to have "guy time" together, without Mom, and have fun. DH hid a cache in our front yard and enjoys talking with the people who come to find it. I think he likes it for the gadgety part of it in particular, and yes it can get expensive. Our last "vacation" was thru Montana, northern Idaho, and Washington and he had plotted out every cache along the way. Grand Coulee, Rocky Reach, and Chief Joseph dams in WA encourage geocaching and have a geocaching challenge where if you find all three caches at all three dams you get a cool patch, so of course we had to do that. Apparently there's a cache on a space station, and one on the bottom of the ocean somewhere, and one on Everest, I think. They're all over the world. Some caches can be very easy to find if you're experienced, and some are challenging and DH has to go back a couple of times to find them. He loves it.

Depending on the size of the cache (some are micros - very very tiny - and some are as large as an ammo can or the like) there's a log where you can sign in that you found it (not your real name, of course), and take and/or leave a token, but DH doesn't care about that, unless it's a "travel bug" where someone wants the token to wind up in a certain place and you make sure you pass it along, and then you go on-line to the geocaching site and log in that you found it as well.

Here I sound as tho I know what I'm talking about ... I just "know" because DH loves to talk about it. And even at that I don't know. :~)

[ToomuchStuff]

I don't travel enough to do either. That said, I have an uncle that used to do surveying around lots of the country, using GPS stuff (from state stuff, to defense stuff, to oil pipelines). He went to work for one of the GPS companies and got a job where most of his stuff is done via the phone or online. So he retired from "home" life and travels and geocaches on the way to family gatherings, work meeting requirements, etc. A lot of his time is spent living out of a pull behind camper (and he is married) and they seem to love it.

[decemberlov]

Our family loves geocaching! I bought my DH a hand held gps 2 yrs ago for Christmas. They kids absolutely love it. It's a great way to spend an afternoon. We have lots in our area and find it's a great way to find neat little hiking trails and little spots we never knew existed. We also always bring the gps along when we go camping to provided some fun on our trips.

Last year my husband hid out DDs b-day gift like a geo and put the location in her card! She absolutely loved it!

[Tussiemussies]

Had read a lot about letter boxing and it seems like a very fun thing to do on an afternoon. On the old boards we had a thread about it. Here is the URL for letterboxing North America, the menu is on the very top...

http://www.letterboxing.org/

>8)

[Stella]

We are letterboxers, but we'd like to try geocaching too. We love letterboxing.