Just wondering if anybody else has done this. We were introduced to it this weekend. How exciting to actually find the Cache!!

We were given a little hand held Gecko GPS to try out. They’re pretty old technology and aren’t that accurate in the last two or three feet (I know what’s on my Christmas wish list). If fact this one triggered a 17 ft indicator when we were right on top of it.

It was so cool. Vince seemed to clue in to what we were doing (just smelled something human scented I’m sure) and started pawing the section of the log it was hidden in.

When I pulled it out he seemed almost as excited as we were. I think he’ll be a great working companion for this new found past time.

 Quote: CJ Barrett

When I pulled it out he seemed almost as excited as we were. I think he’ll be a great working companion for this new found past time.

Ha
I haven't heard of it before, did some googling and sounds like a fun time. I'm not quite clear though, is it a race to get the box first or does everyone have their own box to find. Did you fill the box with dog items or other items?

My parents do this, and it sounds like a lot of fun, and a great way to explore new areas. One of these days I want to give it a try.

We go GeoCaching at least once a week.

Aimee- there are literally MILLIONS of GeoCache's hidden around the world. People go hide a cache, then post the GPS coordinates online, and you get to go look for it. Once you're there, you sign a log. The first to find gets some extra appreciation, but each cache gets found hundreds of time, by different people.

"There are 1,496,515 active geocaches and over 5 million geocachers worldwide." (Taken from http://www.geocaching.com, which is THE website if you're interested in playing!)

http://www.geocaching.com/map/beta/default.aspx?lat=37.09024&lng=-95.71289 Map- with the location of geocaches. It's fun. Zoom in and out, or look for your zipcode/town. You'll find that you've been walking around/past geocaches for many years!

Some Cache's have themes- we have one hidden that is all about little boys, and we hope that people follow the theme, taking a toy, and leaving a toy suitable to boys as well. We also have a cache hidden near a local dog park called 'Puppy Love', and it's stuffed to the brim with dog gear.


What could be more fun then looking for hidden treasure, stuffed in tupperwear, hidden in the woods, or in the middle of a city? It's a blast. My kids enjoy it, and they are 3 and 7. My oldest has his own little-kid GPS, that's only function is geocaching. (can't really help you if you get lost in the woods)

Always remember- if you're looking for a geocache, you've got to be sneaky. Don't want the 'muggles' (non-geocachers!) to know that there is treasure hidden all over. We recently had a cache that we'd hidden 'Muggled'. Someone one who does not geocache found it one way or another, and broke our container, throwing the contents all over the woods, leaving us a note that said 'this game is stupid, get a life'. Boo.

 Quote: Kelly Byrd

What could be more fun then looking for hidden treasure, stuffed in tupperwear, hidden in the woods, or in the middle of a city? It's a blast.

Yes, yes… what Kelly said!!! Gosh it’s fun.

What a shame about the “Muggler”. It’s all intended for such good, honest fun, for the whole family, four legged members included. Such a great outing and like Kadi said, a great way to find and explore new areas.

All on land open to the public or permission has been granted to have a cache placed in a specific area if it’s on a more private piece of property.

The cache we found had a ton of stuff in it. A gift certificate for a Taco at Senior Froggy’s, a matchbox sports car, a little tiny lock and two keys, a king cob marble and and a bunch of other stuff. There was a bouncy ball about the same size as the marble which totally wasn’t an appropriate toy for Vince to play with but I did take it back to the path and bounced it once for him just so he could play a bit too… hee hee… so yes Aimee, it did have a “dog item” in there - the little blue bouncy in a cache in the interior of BC has been in Vince's mouth.

We have a small bucket of these fake gold coins which our friends said would be perfect to leave in most of the caches, so we added one of those. Didn’t take anything (just played with the stuff) but apparently it’s okay to trade stuff too. Bob really wanted the Taco certificate but it looked really cool in there and I told him we had nacho fixin’s at home. Way closer than any Senior Froggy’s in our area.

It had a little note pad and pencil in a baggie too. We haven’t registered with site and don’t have a cool handle yet so I just signed it “Bob and CJ – our first!!”.

Like Kelly say’s, they’re everywhere. I couldn’t believe all the dots when they punched in our location. Who’d a thunk it. Now we think everybody we see in the woods is Geocaching. A fun pastime that we plan on doing a lot more of.

Ahhhh, I guess the addiction has begun, CJ! It's FUN. Way fun.

We found a cache once that had Jamba Juice gift card, with a note taped to it. The gist of the note was "This card has lots of money on it. Please be kind, take it, get a smoothie, and put it back in this cache" I though that was a COOL idea. Also like the taco, though! All good thoughts for the future. Logan's (my 7yr old) favorite thing to find are matchbox cars, or the odd star wars action figure. Kylie (3yr old) is happy with marbles, and shiny rocks. Koenig... well, Koenig is happy with a release to go chase the birds.

Hee hee, yup, it’s like being a kid again. Can sure see where it would get addicting. I got a few caches programmed in for the weekend; should be a good adventure.

I’m anxious to see what Vince does with the next one. Had I been paying more attention to him and his tracking ability I may have picked up a few clues earlier.

Don’t know if it’s in the rules or not but if he’s any good at this I just may have myself a treasure hunting dog. May never have to lay another track again.

Mind if I ask, how much of the treasure hunt involves driving and how much involves walking? My dad and stepmom started to get involved in geo-caching several years ago when they lived in Arizona. Now that they're back in Michigan, they keep talking about taking it up again, and I've thought about it myself, but the big thing that holds us back is the price of gas. Michigan is one of the highest states.

Hey Cheri – if you go to the second link that Kelly posted and type in your zip code you’ll see the caches hidden around your area. There is actually two hidden down on our beach, which is in walking distance for us. We were at a camping area so we just entered the location we were at.

I’ll bet you’ll be surprised at how close some are. I haven’t checked the city areas around us but from what Kelly is saying, they’re right in towns too.

This sounds like a lot of fun! There were a ton of them around where I live. I need to get a GPS!

When you select a particular cache to find, does it tell you what the theme is, or is it just hit or miss? I'd love to do this with my son, so I'd be more interested in ones that a kid might find fun.