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 Geocaching is hide-and-seek using the internet and GPS.
It's popular, worldwide, and you have available to you all the toys
you need to play. There are nearly a million Geocaches world-wide.
So, while the weather is still good, here's how it goes:
I get a waterproof container somewhere in size from a
film canister* to a five gallon lard bucket. Then I stick some type of
Guest Book and maybe some trinkets in it, maybe even some
"Hitchhikers", and take that somewhere and hide it
making note of the GPS coordinates.
Trinkets like toys,
buttons, coins, make up the majority of "Cache Treasures",
these you get to keep. Then there are the Hitchhikers. Hitchhikers go
from one Geocache to the next, and so on and so on, moved by people like
you playing the game. The goal being to see where the Hitchhiker
travels. Someone may even ask you to aid them in getting their
Hitchhiker to a specific destination.
Since we're talking about
you already, and its always about you, here's your part. You go to a
website like http://www.geocaching.com and sign up. Then you can
enter a Zip Code or City and get a list of Geocaches complete with GPS
coordinates and clues. Now, run out to your car and get your Tom-Tom, but
before you do, press Ctrl-Alt-Del and lock your PC so the boss doesn't
see this on your screen and get wise to you.
Welcome
back. Now enter the GPS coordinates from the Geocache that
interests you into Tom-Tom and text your Office Spouse to plan on
a long lunch. Have them bring a pen along so you can sign the
Guest Book. Hint: If you're told to bring a pen it may be because what
you're looking for is too small, like a film canister, to hold one.
Lock your PC again and
follow Tom-Tom to the Geocache site and find the cache, log your name in
the Guest Book, take a toy or Hitchhiker and leave a little somethig in its
place. Have your Office Spouse take a picture of you with it and
hide it back where you found it.
Rush back to the
office, unlock your PC, and go back to that website to
chronicle your brilliance in finding the cache, your plans for any
Hitchhikers, and what, if anything, you've added to the Geocache. Do not
leave guns, drugs, or alcohol in a Geocache. The "why?" is
obvious three paragraphs down.
Don't for a minute think
that they're all going to be simple. There are easy ones,
"drive-bys" they're called, but others will have you needing your
GPS just to get back home. Some even recommend bringing water, food, and a
knife**. They are all outdoors, and the sun always sets. Some are just
one clue after another like a Nicholas Cage movie. Some can only be found
at night, sunrise, up a tree or underwater. There are Geocache Groups that
only put their Geocaches in Cemeteries.
There are rules and
language and interesting things and a cute little movie at http://www.geocaching.com so you
won't look like a Newbie. TFTH TNLNSL Things can get pretty interesting for
Geocachers too. Check this out from Wikipedia;
"Cachers have been
approached by police and questioned when they were seen as acting
suspiciously. Other times, investigation of a cache location after
suspicious activity was reported has resulted in police and bomb squad
discovery of the geocache. Schools have been occasionally evacuated when a
cache has been seen by teachers or police, as in the case of Fairview High
School in 2009. A number of caches have been destroyed by bomb
squads."
You can find plenty
Geocaches with what yu already have, just print the clues from the
website, Google the coordinates, and go. But this is Cocktail Talk so
we need a Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx Color Handheld GPS with an electronic
compass and barometric altimeter and a Dell Mini 10 netbook with Verizon
Wireless Broadband. Then we'd never have to stop Geocaching
except to get beer and cigarettes and we could do do that when we
got out of coverage so we wouldn't miss anything.
Don't let yourself get
carried away with this stuff or you'll end up walking the public
beach wearing socks and sandals with a metal detector
and a bucket. You can cut and paste the GPS coordinates from the
Geocache website into Google Maps instead of typing a street address.
Then you've got the power of Google Maps and Satellite and Street
View. Cut and Paste the folowing GPS coordinates into Google
Maps to see the location of a Geocache in a Train Station Parking
Lot.
N 42° 28.888 W 088° 05.587
Zoom in with Satellite
View. While you're there, Right Click on the Google Map and choose
"What's here?", that returns GPS
coordinates. You could use this feature to map a Geocache you
hide in your neighbor's yard, but I wouldn't recommend it. $6 a month turns
your iPhone into a Geocahing GPS so you can play on a whim. We were
having Pizza on the shore of Lake Butte Des Morts last night and the iPhone
told us there were 3 Geocaches less than 100 yards away. No, we
did not go looking. But it was pretty neat there were so many
caches nearby when Geocaching iPhones came up in conversation.
Socks with sandals***, Speedo and Cowboy Boots, that's your call, and
that's Cocktail Talk.
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