Are you interested in getting outside and exploring where you live? Do you want go on long hikes to explore the wilderness and escape from civilization? Do you want to discover hidden treasure around you city? If so, geocaching may be the activity for you.
Geocaching the activity of navigating to a specific set of coordinates and locating a container that was placed there by the hider. Geocaching started in May 2000 when Dave Ulmer hid the very first geocache in wilderness near Portland Oregon. This date corresponded with the end of selective availability, which was the intentional degradation of GPS signals by the US Government. With the end of selective availability, the accuracy of consumer handheld GPS receivers was improved to about 10-25 ft.
When geocaching was first started most containers were fairly large, usually an ammo box or a larger Tupperware container. As time has gone on the range of sizes has greatly expanded to include anything from the size of a small earbud to to the size of a large closet. The largest geocache I've ever found was the size of a telephone booth. Most caches available to be found today are probably the size of a pill bottle or smaller. The first shows a small or regular sized geocache and the black canister below is a nano cache, one of the smallest cache sizes.
Once you arrive at the coordinates and locate the container, the next thing you do is sign the log book. If it is a larger cache, this will usually be a small notebook or for smaller caches, a strip of paper. The log book serves as a record of everyone who has found the cache. Lastly, if it a larger cache, there will usually be small trinkets or items in the cache. These are know as swag. If you want, you can trade something you have for something else in the cache. The generally accepted rule is to trade trade even or trade up, which means only trade your item for items of equal or lesser or value.
If this sounds like something that would interest you, you can visit geocaching.com and sign up for a free account to view the geocaches near you. There are also apps available for your smart phone (both Android and iOS) if you would prefer that. The only caveat with the official apps is that they only allow you to view easy, beginner geocaches. In order to view more difficult caches you must either visit the website or pay to upgrade your account. I recommended visiting the website, so you don't pay for something you may not enjoy.
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