Add Adventure to Your Walks with Geocaching
Hunt for Hidden Treasure with this Family-Friendly Activity
-- By Christopher Stormann, Ph.D.
There are thousands of treasures hidden in parks and forests across the country. There may even be some lurking near you. All it takes to find one is a little hiking, a little know-how, and a cool gadget that uses our government's weapon delivery system. Sound like a fun way to stay in shape? If you haven't heard of it already, it's called Geocaching.
Geocaching is deceptively simple. Somebody hides a "treasure" and gives you a few clues along with the approximate coordinates (longitude and latitude) needed to find it. Clues can be riddles to solve or landmarks to identify. Getting you close and keeping you on track is a handheld Global Positioning System (GPS). Without going into all the techno mumbo, GPS uses 24 satellites to pinpoint an exact location with great accuracy. You can pick up a GPS receiver at most electronics stores for about $100.
Finding the treasure (called a cache) can be tricky, but the real challenge often lies in reaching the area. To help you prepare, hikes are ranked in difficulty on a 1 to 5 star scale. A one-star, for example, might lead to a cache hidden just off a well-marked footpath and tucked inside a hollow tree (reachable while pushing a stroller). Meanwhile, a five-star can require rock-climbing equipment. That's pretty extreme and uncommon, but the difficulty level is limited only by one's imagination. There are caches on islands reachable by kayak or canoe and then only during a full moon. There is even an underwater cache that requires scuba equipment.
