Is anyone on the forum into geocaching? My BF and I have been talking about doing it for quite a while as a fun outing thing to do (we <3 the outdoors). Would love to hear others opinions of the hobby?

Caike,
my boyfriend and I are in the same boat as you.
We have been talking about it for about 2 years now, we can just never seem to find the time to start doing it and have the weather cooperate.

We started a week or so ago, and love it. We bought a Garmin Etrex for less than $100. It's lots of fun. DH and I both enjoy it and so do our 7 & 9 year old boys.

We have been thinking of doing it as well. I think we can rent the units from the local park. Our 12yo son has done some GPS work with a park program and also through Boy Scouts. He would love this!

www.geocaching.com is where we started looking around to see what was near our house. Surprisingly there are a ton of sites just a stone's throw away. I think it would be an awesome way to get out on the weekends. Better then sitting on our bums...much like tonight.

I think we're going to plan our first outing within the next week - perhaps we can all stay in touch about our experiences?

Jen, did you find your first one? How was the trip? Hard hike or easy? Let us know!

We've found three so far, and they have been pretty easy ones. We're planning on doing harder ones, but were afraid our boys would lose interest if we started with hard ones and couldn't find them. We got our gps on Amazon for $78 w/free shipping.

Geocaching is a lot of fun! My neice is into it and we did a few when she was down visiting. There are caches everywhere! She sent us two 'travel bugs' and we put them in a cache in the Bahamas when we were on vacation. I'd like to do more but DH works 6 days a week and I don't want to run all around S. FL with 3 little girls by myself! It is like a modern day treasure hunt. Have a great time!

That's exactly how I am thinking of it - a modern day treasure hunt! I honestly find there's nothing more fun then hunting for something that's hidden...and I think would be a great way of bonding with the person/people you do it with.

Very cool about the travel bugs you took down to the Bahamas. I'm fascinated by geo coins and travel bugs; I just think it's a great excuse to not only travel, but really explore where you are going as well. I'll keep you guys posted! I'm so excited now after all the comments!

DH and I have been geocaching since March. We love it. We have seen our city in a new light since geocaching. We have been to so many little spots that we never would have thought to visit.

We found our first few geocaches without a GPS, instead we used google maps. It is harder, but still fun.

In busy places it can be areal challenge to grab a cache with all of the muggles about.

Ok maybe you can help me with this - I tried to figure out what the definition of "muggles" was, but couldn't find ANYTHING to explain. Could you please define? I'm assuming "people who don't know what geocaching is and who could ruin it for future others if they misplace it"... is that about right?

I have been geocaching since 2001. Now I do it when I am on vacation somewhere. It is a great way to explore new areas. I like the virtual caches the best.

this sounds so interesting. i went to that website and am a little confused, but i think i get the gist of it. this may be something i have to look into further!

thanks for posting this!!

Ok Kaya - I have a question for you; can you help me understand what a virtual cache is?

Adree - Neat eh? I can't wait until we do our first one... I'm psyched... It's an awesome way to get out and go to a few places you never would've ended up in.

I havent ever had a chance to do it but i know there is an item hid at the airport where I work so we have people looking for it all the time. It is pretty cool.

Virtual caches are ones that do not include a hidden box of junk or a log book. They give you the coordinates of something or somewhere. It can be a place, a statue, a beautiful view... You get credit for the find by answering a question about what you found there or taking a photo and submitting it to the cache's owner. Many are historical like the ones in DC. At one time I set one up that asked you how many acres of ponds at a particular fish hatchery. You had to take the tour and read the signboards to be able to answer that question.

Some places have outlawed caching on their properties, like National Parks. Some national parks even have fits over virtuals. Some physical caches have been blown up by bomb squads and geocachers have been arrested for trespassing in places like train tunnels and trestles. The moderators try to review every cache but it sometimes isn't possible to weed them all out. Use common sense - if it says No trespassing-don't and if it looks dangerous - don't

HTH

Geocaching was made possible when the fed gov stopped dithering the gps signals. You used to be able to leave the gps on the kitchen table and come back to it a few days later and find it had thought it moved several miles. The first was a bucket that was buried along a highway in OR or WA somewhere. That was before the leave no trace was loosely adopted.

Really useful information...I like the sound of virtual caches as well. The man is back from his exercise tomorrow so maybe I will try and convince him to plan something this weekend or next. (Sometimes it seems like we have 0 time to plan anything between our two schedules LOL.... we're working on it.)

I live in Oregon, the geocaching hotspot of the world. BTW If you leave your GPS on the table, it will still " move" as the satallites are moving! Also, if you are hiking and you don't turn your GPS when you stop for lunch, you get bonus distance!
REI offers classes, not on Geocaching, but on using a GPS. As a women, it can be empowering to know how to use it well if you plan to stop around by yourself. Plus, you will find out some of your settings might be incorrect and that will make caching easier.
I am not an "expert" but I do kow quite abit , if you have more questions-
it is one of the best activites that you can do, but then again, I live in a great place to do it!
Cheers fellow cache cakers!

It is soooooo fun to do! My kids and I Love to go out and hunt things down! We did it all the time when I homeschooled all of them. Now I am only homeschooling one, but we all still love to do it!!