It has been almost a year since we started geocaching. So I will write something for rememberence.

Geocaching is a modern day treasure hunt. People will hide things outdoors, usually in a forest preserve, a park, a place of historical importance or genereal interest. They will then publish the gps coordinates online. You, as a player, will punch that coordinate into your gps device and go find it. People usually hide children’s toys or other trickets, and a log book.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. For one, the gps device can be as accurate as within about 5 meters radius, that’s probably the best you can get. It will be worse if you don’t have a clear view of the sky. For another, since the cache is outdoors, you will get the challenge of looking for something in nature.

This is a great game to bring people outdoors. You will need a gps device to play.

I became interested in geocaching after reading some news stories about it last year (2004) before Christmas. I like the outdoors and I am also kind of geeky. So this sounds like a perfect hobby for me. I just needed an excuse to justify spending around 120 bucks for the Garmin eTrex. What a better excuse than presenting the eTrex as a Christmas gift to my love?

Alas, that was not meant to be;-) My better half, being an intelligent lass as she is, quickly realized my scheme. She has “threatened” several times ever since that she would buy a baking machine for my birthday;-)

But, truth be told, after a few months of geocaching, we (including Maria, I hope) are totally hooked. It’s such a relaxing experience to walk outdoors and explore what nature has to offer. Together with our 5 year old son, we’ve found around 51 caches so far. We’ve cached in Illinois, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Sweden so far.