A New Hobby

For the fourth of July, we went to Lake Tahoe with a group of friends. I think the entire town where we live was there, but that's another story.

While we were in Tahoe, we tried a new activity. Geocaching. A geocache is a small vessel that is hidden somewhere in a public spot. It's location is noted on a web site with its exact longitude and latitude. It's then the job of the geocacher to take those coordinates and find the cache. These caches can be anywhere: in trees, buried under leaves, in bushes, near rocks, etc. The hidden object can be anything from a film container to a ammo box. It usually contains a log and some items for trading. To find the caches, you go to the web site, find a cache near you, simply enter the coordinates into your GPS and start hiking.

At Northstar, the first place we tried it, the resort had actually hidden the caches. They provided participants with maps and rental GPS' with the coordinates already loaded. We skipped the rentals, loaded coordinates into our phones and went right for the search.

Now, normally, if we suggested anything like hiking to the kids, our suggestion would be met with protest. "Too hot", "too long", "too sweaty"....would be the complaints. IF we actually forced the issue and made them hike, it would make the "Trail of Tears" look like a party. La Nina would be drinking water like she'd just crossed the desert and the Magster would be taking the smallest steps possible, her head wobbling on her shoulders like she didn't have the strength to hold it properly.

However, geocaching is not hiking, so there is minimal complaining. In fact, the Magster led the search. Now, La Nina still brought up the rear...but sweating happens whether your hiking or geocaching. Both had great fun finding the caches and searching through the trade objects. (We were unprepared to trade, so we just looked.)

With 1.1 million caches hidden world wide, this hobby can be pursued anywhere. We've found about 5 caches within a mile of our house. A couple are within a few hundred feet. The only challenge to this activity is muggles: Folks who don't approve of cachers and actively seek to throw away our stashes. So, if you're doing this, you're supposed to hide the GPS' and only look when no one else is around.

We've had a blast pursuing this new activity with the kids. For more information, check out this web site: http://www.geocaching.com/. Have fun and beware of muggles.