Geocaching

Geocaching

One of the fun things I did over the holidays was geocaching.

Geocaching is an outdoor activity that most often involves the use of a Global Positioning System ("GPS") receiver or traditional navigational techniques to find a "geocache" (or "cache") placed anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small, waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure", usually trinkets of little value. Participants are called geocachers; those not familiar with geocaching are called geo-muggles or just muggles, a term borrowed from the Harry Potter series.

I went with my sister's husband Aaron, who has been into geocaching for a while. He got a new GPS unit for Christmas, and we tried it out by looking up 5 or 6 caches that were within a 10-15 mile radius of the house. The GPS unit gets you within a meter or so the cache, and then it is a matter of just looking around for the hidden container type cache-thing.

A couple of the caches that we looked for were really well hidden; the toughest to find was hidden inside the pole at the end of chain-link fence- you had to unscrew the top of the pole and the cache was rolled up inside.

Typically the caches include a log-book that you sign to verify that you found the cache; they often contain found-items as well, little trinkets that geocachers have left behind.

It was good times. I think it would be fun to get a GPS device (do you have one Adolph?) and search out a few of the zillions of caches that are hidden around Austin. It would be a great bicycle-riding type trip to do on a lovely 70 degree winter day...