Looking for a Fun Summer Outing? How 'Bout a New-Age Treasure Hunt!

Have you ever longed to be like Indiana Jones and search for hidden treasures? Well now you can with the wonder and fun of Geocaching!

Wait, what the heck is Geocaching? Why a fun real-world outdoor treasure hunting game of course! In May of 2000 a guy started a fun game using a GPS and hiding ‘caches’ for people to find. Soon after that one treasurer hunter launched the Geocaching website and the rest is history.

So what do you do? It’s fairly easy to get started. Simply log on to the site (it's free) and start looking for caches near to your location. You then use a GPS or smart phone that is GPS enabled and find the cache based on coordinates given on the cache list. After you find the cache, simply sign the logbook and discover what people have left. Some people even like to add a new item or swap existing ones for fun and then go online to share the experience.

Searching for nearby caches to our 94928 zip code came back with a whopping 1911 records for only a 20 mile radius! Apparently quite a few people in the area enjoy doing some treasure hunting.

One such person is local outdoor enthusiast and dad, Jeff Bossaller. I sat down for a little Q&A on what he likes so much about geocaching.

How many caches have you found?  “I have found 395 caches so far and with the kids about 50.”

How long does it usually take to find a cache?  “I have found caches in anywhere from one minute to 20 minutes after I reach the coordinates.”

Do you use a GPS or phone? “I have used both a GPS and my phone, but I far prefer the GPS.  I have the Garmin 550T GPS which is a top of the line GPS, although it is not necessary to have such a high end GPS.  The phone I have is the Thunderbolt (Droid).  It works just fine with an application that you can download for about $10.”

What is the most fun about it? “ I like many things about Geocaching. First I like the places that it takes me. Although caches can be found almost anywhere, I mostly go after the ones that involve hiking or biking. I have been to high mountains with great views, I have seen hidden caves and underground rivers, I have been to the crash site of a 1950's war plane, etc. I like hunting for the cache once I get to the coordinates. It is very much like treasure hunting. Finally, I like the game. There are many different things about the game that make it very interesting. There are beautiful coins that are called geocoins that can be found in some of the caches. Geocachers pick them up and move them from cache to cache.  The owner gets to see where his coin has traveled to, and often sees pictures of locations and people along the way. There are also different levels of difficulty for the caches with some of them being very hard to get to and others being very hard to find.  For example, last week I went to the top of Mount Saint Helena and climbed a pine tree that was approx 125 feet tall to get a cache. It was a long hike followed by a tough climb. On the flip side, there is a cache down the street from my house located on a fire hydrant.  It is a magnetic container about the size of a watch battery. This was a very tough one to find. Most caches fall somewhere in between and are fairly easy to get to and not too difficult to find.”

So if you are looking for something to do outside for fun why not try a little Geocaching? My daughter and I gave it a whirl and had a great time romping around a park looking high and low until we finally found a cache. She loved the hunting part so much she has asked me to go every day since the first day!