Geocaching

"Up in smoke, I wonder what that means," I thought to myself. I was staring down intently at my hand held gps trying to get a fix on the exact coordinates. I wasn't concentrating on my surroundings, I knew there was nothing to see except an old stand of trees, everything else was barren. Then I looked up and suddenly I saw it--a crumbling chimney surrounded by that lone stand. I got that surge of adrenaline that always happens when I find a new cache.

Geocaching is a high tech treasure hunt game using a hand held gps device and the internet to download the cache's coordinates. The cache/treasure is usually a container with small trinkets like army men, marbles, costume jewerly, etc. The game isn't really about what's inside the container, it's more about the hunt itself.

Larry and I have been caching since 2006, when he bought me my own gps. After searching for caches in town, we discovered we liked the ones hidden in the woods better. One of the rules of geocaching is stealth. Muggles (nongeocachers) are not supposed to know what you're doing. Finding caches in the woods is more enjoyable for us because of the non-stealth factor.

As we've searched for "treasures", we've been to places that we never would have visited before if it weren't for geocaching. There was a couple of fun caches in the Chiricahua Mnts. near the New Mexico border that we found while camping, and numerous ones in Payson and Prescott.

Geocaching is a fun, family friendly sport, that gets me outdoors and enjoying God's kingdom. I love it!

http://www.geocaching.com/