Friday, January 7, 2011

New Hobby!

Ok, so I have a new hobby. Have you ever heard of Geocaching? Its official website defines it like this: “Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.” But I define it as FUN and do you want to know the best part? Its free! All you have to do is to have a GPS and a sense of adventure. Just yesterday I grabbed three caches out running errands.

This was a fun find with Engineer’s Falcon and family!
Photobucket

Is this making since? You basically can geocache two ways. First you can get on geocaching.com and find caches (containers big enough for at least a log) near you, then you put the lat and long into your gps and you are off! Or you can, like me, use an app downloaded to your smart phone. The app uses gps to again locate caches and guide you to them.

Here is an example of one that I found up in a tree - can you see it?
Photobucket

I have been to Vegas many times, but the last time I was there I decided (with Best Friend) to geocache! We not only had a fantastic time, we were taken to many places we would have never seen had we not been caching!

I think this is my favorite find ever! Here we are down in a ditch near the Vegas airport. Helicopters and planes kept taking off all around us and there were warning signs everywhere! HA
Photobucket

OH! Did I mention geocaching can be dangerous?
Photobucket
Ok not really, but we followed a ‘mob history’ series that took us to some very interesting places!

Another very cool aspect of caching is trackables. If the container is large enough, many people will drop what is called a trackable inside. They can be coins, travel bugs, tags and I even found a POW MIA pin! If you choose to take the trackable, you log it and relog it when you drop it in another location. You can see everywhere it has been and how many miles it has traveled.

In Vegas I found my first trackable – a geocoin!
Photobucket
After logging it we found out that its goal was to go where all dreams come true. So we took it and dropped it in a cache at the entrance to Disneyland!

In closing – my dad and his first find!
Photobucket

Please let me know if you have any kind of questions about geocaching in the comments! I am more than happy to answer!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your new hobby! It is so much fun, and tons of adventure. Sorry we didn't get the dual post up sis! Someday I will be better and blog again, but I am glad you shared your adventures. If you want to blog more about it, don't feel like you have to wait for me. Love ya girl.

Rebecca

Marissa said...

This looks like a lot of fun!! I am going to tell Kyle to do it since he travels all over the world!! Fun!!! :)