Geocaching

Friday night, I was Pinteresting when I came across this pin:

http://pinterest.com/pin/125403304/

Geocaching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game that gets you off the computer and out into the great unknown where you locate hidden containers (called geocaches) using nothing more than a GPS-enabled device and a lot of enthusiasm. Once you find the geocache, the objects in it are yours to keep (if you want) but you are expected to replace the items you take with other items of equal or greater worth for the next seeker and then record your experiences in the online geocaching journal so that others can take part and learn from your experience.

I thought it sounded pretty cool, so I checked out the website www.geocaching.com

Random treasures buried all over the world, thousands within a 100 miles of here, eh? I'm in. 

I couldn't get to sleep, I was that excited. The next morning, I kidnapped my mom and sister (and their GPS-equipped smartphones) and set off to find geocaches in Otter Lake. We downloaded the app, selected a particular geocache and followed my mom's iPhone down a gravel road and stopped when we heard the iPhone tell us that we were within 5 meters of the waypoint (the coordinates of the geocache). We looked around the secluded area and stumbled upon THIS!

Hidden under a few branches was an army ammo container full of goodies!

Here's what was inside:

A log book, which I signed, coins, army patches, keychains, Pokemon cards... I took a keychain and left 2 Pandora beads in trade.

It was really nice to get outside, drive around and discover roads I'd never been on and places in my own backyard that I'd never seen. But it's the idea that we could find this box, in the middle of nowhere, based on a few coordinates is what really got me hooked. Over the next 2 days we found 5 caches, all in Otter Lake.

According to the website, there's a geocache in Quyon on Clarendon, one at the Luskville ball park, and quite a few in the Gatineau Park near our house. I can't wait to go find them!

But now, I'm on my own, I have a not-so-smart phone, and can't get one until December 2012.... boo. So, I need a proper GPS. I've been scouring Kijiji and Used Ottawa to try to find one that can be used for geocaching so I can set out again, maybe in an even bigger group next time!