Saturday, August 8, 2009

Treasure Hunting


Have you ever heard of geocaching? I had saw the word before, but didn't really know what it meant. But, when I saw that my bloggy friend Shannon from Southern Grits and Tidbits was doing it, I decided to learn more about it.


Geocaching is a worldwide game of hide and seeking treasure. You can look online for a cache near you and then go out and find it. It helps to have a gps in order to locate the caches.


We started out using our car gps and found one on the first try, although we did have to look around to find it. The next one we tried to find, we couldn't find. That's when I decided we needed a new gps. We got one that is a handheld unit that can be used for hiking, finding geocaches, and other things. It has helped out a lot with locating the caches.


When I say we're looking for treasure, it's not silver or gold or anything. It's usually just trinkets that people take and leave from the caches. If you take something, you're supposed to leave something of around the same value. For example, my 12 year old took this General Lee car and left another car. My husband also found this miniature tape measure and left something to replace it, although right now, I can't remember what he left.


This has become a fun activity for the whole family. We go out and take walks in the woods and search for treasure. It's also been great exercise for me, especially since I never exercise. Some of the trails are quite steep! Sometimes the walks are a little hard on me and Hunter. Like this time, when he just rolled down the hill. But he's a trooper, he always gets right back up and goes again.


Mitchell always gets a kick out of finding the cache and seeing if there's a treasure he'd like to keep in it.



Are any of y'all geocachers? I'd love to know how long you've been doing it, or any helpful hints you have for us. So far we have found 6 caches!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have not heard of this before. Sounds like you all are enjoying it very much.

Beth Herring said...

This is something new to me. Sounds like a lot of fun though.

Tracy Golightly-Garcia said...

Never heard of this--I will try this with my daughter. I love your blog!
Tracy :)

KathyB. said...

I HAVE heard of this and always thought it sounded like fun! In fact, there was an episode of NCIS ( one of my favorite T.V. shows ) that started with geo-caching. This is such a perfect family hobby for the parents of two sons! Hey, for the parents of daughters too!

Tipper said...

I have never done it-but so want to. It sounds like so much fun!

Twisted Fencepost said...

No, I haven't. But I would like to. Maybe one of these days I'll have time.
I have a friend who does something very similar, called Letterboxing.

My Blessings From Above said...

I would like to try this, but we don't have a gps yet! :)

Homemom3 said...

this sounded like so much fun that we looked it up and sure enough we have some caches in the park near us so I know what we are doing next weekend. Thanks so much for this wonderful...and free, family fun activity.

Nancy said...

We used to do this with our Girl Scout troop (back when I was a leader - before I had kids!) SUCH FUN!!!!

Donna(mom24boyz) said...

I read about this on Satoris Smiles Blog too. She have hit some wonderful ones as well. We plan to try that this summer..I think this weekend is pretty clear in our schedule..I just may have to hit my husband up to give this a try :) YOu guys look like you had a blast!

Michelle said...

How fun! We did that a couple times in NM...I should look for some around this area now.