What in The World Is Geocaching and Why Is It So Fun?

This weekend my wife and I found a pirate's chest, buried just off of a beach road in a National Park. We left it just as we found it except for taking one of the coins inside and leaving one of our own.

We got into the sport of geocaching by accident. While walking along our favorite trail in the park while walking our dogs we followed the dogs just off of the path and I happened to look up and see an object hidden in the fork of a tree. It was a plastic Tupperware container containing a Geocaching cache. Inside was a note pad and pencil where finders left their names and comments about how hard it was to find. There were little trinkents like old buttons, a toy car, a policeman's badge, a military patch, a Costa Rican coin, etc.

Each geocache is hidden by someone just like you are me to be found and enjoyed and geocachers are encouraged to take something from it as well as leave something of their own that is interesting.

Some have particular themes, like the pirate booty themed cache we found just up in the dunes covered with dry reeds.

The GPS cooridinates of each site are listed on the official Geocaching site at http://www.geocaching.com along with a description of the site. If too many clues to the exact location are given in the comments you will be warned of "spoilers" so you can quit reading if you wish.

Although the coordinates are given the caches are never that easy to find. A good GPS will get you within a few feet but the cache is never at that exact spot. You will have to look around, high and low to find the cache.

Geocaches can be anything from an old ammo box or larger container to a tiny spy capsule in a crack in an urban wall.

Caches are all around you, you just don't know it. They are in almost every county in the United States and almost every country around the world.

Some are at exotic locations such as Easter Island and even Antartica.

To get into the sport all you need is a GPS. My wife and I use a device from Garmin called the Rhino. It has a GPS and GMRS - FRS radio built in. With the mapping model we can see each other's location on the map as we communicate and zero in on the cache which is also displayed on the display. It is nice to have both devices in one.

For more on the sport of geocaching visit the official geocaching site at http://www.geocaching.com

For more on the Garmin Rhino try the Amazon link below.