Sharpes-R-Us

Geocaching

Last weekend Dave and I went geocaching. It may be a bit difficult to convey why, but I really had fun. In the rain.

Geocaching is basically high-tech treasure hunting. It's been around for 5 years and happens all over the globe. You go to a web site and enter your zip code. It will then display the coordinates of the closest caches to your location. Then you use your GPS to get to those coordinates. Once there, it's a tricky game of hide and seek. You may or may not know exactly what you're looking for. And there may or may not be additional clues to help you along. But you'll know once you've found it. The cache will contain a log that you sign to record your visit (you'll also log your visit for everyone to see on Geocaching.com). It may also contain several small items that you can trade. The idea is that whenever you take something, you leave something of equal value behind. Then you replace the cache just as you found it.

At first, I was intrigued. It seems like a geeky thing to do, gives me an excuse to get a GPS once again (a GlobalSat BT-338 Bluetooth GPS Receiver that I use with my Treo 650), might show me some cool places I've never been right in my own area, and I could use the exercise. But how many could there be in my area? A dozen or so? There are hundreds within 20 miles. That's a lot of geocaching without travelling anywhere. You probably pass several on the way to work. They might be just off the road in the woods, or hidden in your bank's parking lot.

The caches vary greatly in size, difficulty, and the terrain where they are hidden. The easiest ones you can drive right up to and they're large and practically out in the open. The hardest are the size of your little finger and may require scuba gear or rock climbing equipment after a 5 mile hike.

You'd think it's simple since you know where to look, but you'd be wrong. The GPS is only going to get you in the general area. There's typically a 30ft x 30ft area or so. That's a big area to search for a film canister.

But when you find it. Wow. It's all worth it. The hunt is a lot of fun. We're just beginning and learning more and more about how craftily the caches are hidden. Right now, I'm 2 for 5.

Interior Decorating - this one is a micro hidden in the Home Depot parking lot. I know right where it is, but I've been twice with the whole family and we haven't found it yet.
A Micro for the Books - this was our first micro find. Dave found it just as I was ready to give up. Very cleverly hidden in the bank parking lot in Morrisville. But now we know all about this hiding technique and we'll never forget it. Signed the log.
Evil V.M. - This one really troubled us. And still does, though we've since collected better ideas and are itching to go back. It's a micro hidden in the common area of Carpenter Village. Dave and Wayne used to live there. One guy drove up and asked if he could help us. I guess it was a bit strange for the two of us to be looking around out there in the rain. We finally had to give up...for now.
Squeeze Da Grape - This one was easy and fun. We found the largest grape you'll ever see in the woods near the Triangle's winery. Did you know there was a winery in the Triangle? I didn't. I took a toy car and some funny glasses for the kids and left an electronic poker game.
African or European - This one topped off the day. We were looking for a coconut. Yes, a coconut and I didn't see any swallows that might have carried it there. We followed the GPS to a greenway trail. We had read previous logs that people did some unnecessary hill climbing and the cache warned of falling rocks. Naturally, when the GPS pointed up a very steep hill, we decided we'd follow the trail around and surely it would curve back to where we needed to be. It didn't. Finally we decided to climb the hill and walk down a drainage cutover to get to the coordinates. Once there we find a tree beside a storm drain and the whole area is covered with large rocks, the kind that take two hands to move while taking care not to smash any appendages.

It's getting dark and raining more now, but we've already made quite a trek to get here. We looked under rocks and in trees, but had to give up. Unfortunately, we still had to get back to our parking spot. We found that this area backs up to a business parking lot and it was simple to access it from there. Instead of sliding down the hill in the woods, we opted to walk the long way (did I mention it was raining?) through the parking lot, down the drive, around the road and back on the trail to our parking space. We lost and I still had fun on this one. I think we'll be back.

I expect there will be more geocaching stories to come. You can get a simple standalone GPS for as little as $100. That's about all you really need. You can do a lot of research with Google Earth and plan a route to the area if you wish. Give it a try!

Labels: geocaching

Posted by Chris on 11/30/2005 09:52:00 PM :: Permalink