...geocaching

The group with their first geocache find. It was a Folgers coffee container with a log book and some trinkets inside.

Geocache find #2. See the tube bolted to the pole? That's the geocache. Very clever.

Geocache find #3. The group sorts through the goodies.

We met an expert geocacher on the trail. He has found over 1850 geocaches!

Suppose you have a GPS and a group of kids you want to keep busy for the afternoon. Someone says they've heard about geocaching and thinks it would be fun to give it a try. You go to the computer and download coordinates into the GPS from a website called geocaching.com. Pile into several vehicles and follow the arrow on the GPS screen until you get relatively close to the geocache. After you park the truck hand the GPS to one of the kids and let them run through the woods until they find a small red container under some brush and tree roots. You will have made your first geocache discovery. It's very exciting for kids, and adults.

Our first geocache was hidden at the base of a large spruce tree and covered with branches. We couldn't see it and the only way we knew it was there was because the GPS said so. Once we found the red Folgers coffee container we removed the lid to discover a log book and a number of small trinkets. The idea is you can take one of the trinkets if you replace it with another. We brought some decks of cards and small tape measures to trade. Then it was off to find our second geocache.

We set our GPS unit to the next set of coordinates and took off down the road in the direction of the pointing arrow. As we neared the next geocache we parked and followed the kids as they made a mad dash to be the first to find the next container. It was cleverly bolted to a sign post. We signed the log book and traded trinkets, and it was off to the next geocache.

The third geocache was in a campground. We had difficulty locating it because it was stuffed in the center of a hollow tree that had fallen long ago. It was well out of view and took some looking around. But, once we found it the kids knew the routine, so they signed the log book and made the trinket trade.

We had no luck finding our fourth geocache and after searching for a good 30 minutes we gave up. We didn't have any more coordinates in our GPS so we decided to take the group for a hike on the Resurrection Trail in Cooper Landing. Little did we know that we would make one more find.

As we were walking along we stopped to chat with a fellow hiker. He had a GPS in his shirt pocket and one of us mentioned that we had been geocaching for the first time earlier in the day. The hiker asked if we were going to the geocache about a tenth of a mile up the trail. We said we didn't know about it and wondered if he could give us the coordinates to enter in our GPS. He did and we all marched to our unexpected fourth geocache discovery of the day. It was a good one, too. It had the usual array of trinkets as well as some Cold Stone Creamery gift cards! After making the trinket trade we stood on the side of the trail visiting with our new geocaching friend. He obviously knew a lot about geocaching and someone finally asked how many he had found. We were all amazed when he said 1850! One of the kids did the math and pointed out our group only had 1846 to go. We were with a smart group of kids alright.

At the end of the day the kids were tired and their backpacks full of geocache goodies. We stopped for pizza on the way home and we recounted the day's events as we ate. Then, of course, we drove to Cold Stone Creamery to use the gift card we found for dessert. Since we all knew where it was no coordinates were required. Unlike a geocache it's plenty obvious.

So, if you ever need some good fun (or an ice cream cone) and you have a GPS, set some coordinates and go...geocaching.