Craig and I took Friday off work and headed up north to Silver Lake area camping... just the two of us. We are still here and at this very moment I am sitting around a campfire blogging and enjoying the peace and quiet. I am very content! Craig left a bit ago to run into the dunes for a few hours and I was very happy to be left alone and do nothing but enjoy the cool breeze and crackling of the fire. It's been a wonderful weekend. As much as we love and encourage the kids and their friends to join us when we go camping, I need a weekend like this a few times a year.
We decided to try something new this weekend... Geocaching. If you don't know what it is check out their website. www.geocaching.com It's a hobby where people hide caches all over the world and then put the GPS coordinates along with clues online for others to find. It's really easy. You simply program the GPS coordinates into your GPS which takes you to the vicinity and then you use the clues to find whatever is hidden. Usually it is some sort of box or container. Inside you leave your name, where you are from and the date you found the cache. It's interesting to see when the last person found it and where they were from.
We went hunting for 3 different caches this weekend and were able to locate 2 of them. The first one we found was behind an old historical cemetery a few miles from our campground out on a dirt road. It was a beautiful place!
We found it just into the woods tucked under a fallen down tree. It was an old army ammo box. People leave little trinkets. We didn't have anything to leave but we signed the register.
The next day we went hunting again. This one was by far my favorite. We had no idea where the coordinates were going to take us but away we went. Much to our delight it took us down this little two track at least 3 miles into the woods! We ended up at a nature preserve and then had to go on foot on some hiking trails... right up my alley!
It took us a while to find this one. Just as I was about to give up Craig says "I found it!".
This one was a Tupperware container hidden under a rotting stump.
Here I am signing the register.
If you look at the website you will be amazed at how many caches are hidden all around the world. You can put your zip code in to find ones hidden in the area you are at. Almost anywhere you are at in the US there is a hidden cache a few miles from you. What a great thing for families to do and I'm sure kids would love to do this. And for hardly any cost at all if you have a GPS. Give it a try!
2 comments:
This reminds me of letterboxing (if google it, you'll find it) but with a GPS. With letterboxing, you make or buy a rubber a stamp and leave your stamp in a book in the box. I like the GPS idea.
What a fun adventure!!
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