icansee4miles

So what if I told you I had found an activity that you and your best friend could do together that was fun, frugal and was good for you?    Oh, and it is good for the environment and ‘green’.  And best of all (from my perspective) - it involves playing with gadgets.  No silly - it’s geocaching!

Lyndsey and I got into this last spring and we had a blast.  Basically you take your GPS (less than $15o where I shop), fire up the browser and check out www.geocaching.com.  Sign up (it’s free), pick a silly nick (we’re longpulleyrose - don’t ask…), find a cache near you, jot down the coordinates, pack a lunch and head out for an adventure!

Here’s how it works…  (and this may sound a little goofy).   Other grownups have gathered together certain trinkets from around their house.  And they’ve put these trinkets in a weather-proof container (these range in size from film cannisters, to tupperware, to ammo boxes).   Then these other grownups have gone outdoors to some remote public place, trekked around for a while until they find a likely hiding spot (like a dead tree trunk or a hole in a fence post).  Then they carefully note the GPS coordinates and hide their container.  All the while making sure no civilians (muggles) are in the neighbourhood.   Oh, and they include a little log book in the container too.  Then these folks come home, and post the coordinates in the web site.  Often with clever little clues.

Sometime thereafter, intrepid adventurers (yours truly comes to mind) kick up their browsers, find the coordinates to the nearby caches and go  hunting.  When, (if) they find the cache, the idea is to open it up, log the find, swap one of the trinkets for one of your own, and keep score on the website.  God’s truth - some people have logged >2,000 caches found!  I think we’re at 25 or so.

We’ve mostly stuck to nearby caches - and you wouldn’t believe how many wonderful places I’ve discovered within 10 miles of our house - that I didn’t even know existed.  And this isn’t as easy as it sounds.  Our GPS will usually get us to within 10 feet or so (barring tree canopies) - but some of the trails are challenging and even when you’re near - these can be very, very tricky to find.

Lyndsey and I can be a little competitive - so for a while we were keeping seperate scores of finds.  But that got to be too much bookkeeping (after I lost 4 times in a row) - so now its a team event.

So go out and enjoy (and if you do signup - be sure and pm us at longpulleyrose).