Geocaching is a hobby we have both enjoyed for over 10 years now. We used to be much more heavily involved, but still fit it in when we can. Simply put participants use navigation skills to find hidden containers or geocaches. Geocaching is a type of global treasure hunt of people looking for caches, or hidden stashes of objects. Geocaching may also be described as a series of hide-and-seek games, where hiders provide online clues for seekers. There are several million geocaches located all over the world. Sometimes the hiding places can be quite innovative and sizes from micro to large make the task that much more challenging. It requires a navigational device, such as a handheld GPS, but it is not necessary. We use the geocaching app Geocaching on our I Phones working well for us.
I have known people with over 10,000 finds and others that have that many and are striving to geocache the entire U.S. Barb and I are still pretty much rookie pioneers that enjoy the sport within reason. Caches are usually a small container that contain a sign in log and perhaps some trinkets. You sign off that you found it, exchange one trinket for another, and return it to it's original hidden location. We have found caches in Michigan, Missouri, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, and Oklahoma accumulating a pretty modest count of 212 finds.
Micros are the hardest to find
There are always caches located nearby every time we camp, but for one reason or another seldom make the effort to get back "on the horse". Being sidelined here waiting on RV parts is the perfect opportunity to get out and stretch our legs. There are 7 in our vicinity and even more a few miles more.
Setting off we usually decide which cache is closest and work from there. We dial in the app and find the cache, navigating to as close as we can before setting out on foot. I do have a Garmin handheld GPS that I carry as well should we have problems. It is decent exercise with the obligatory lunch break as well. We even took an hour out to let Roux run in the Duncan 'Bark Park'. We just had lunch and let her play NASCAR DOG.
We started out 'bangers', finding the first 3 easily. Our luck would not hold as the next 3 were located in the country on backroads and not found. Checking back with our site we discovered these sites had problems with maintenance in the past and, in fact had not been found since back in April. On our way back into town we stopped and found 1 more underneath the skirting of a light pole mount. We finished the day 4 for 7. Roux did have fun at the Bark Park as Barb and I sat on a bench, eating our lunch and feeding 'Her Majesty' on her pit stops from play. It was still a pretty nice day with temps at 70 and sunny. We're gonna try and get out again before we leave.
"Geocachers are the only people that can get lost, even with a GPS in their hands"
Otis Gore
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