I Love Geocaching!

I just love geocaching.  If you are not familiar with geocaching you basically go on treasure hunts to look for hidden canisters using a GPS device.  We use an app on the iPhone to find our geocaches and log which ones we find.  This last find on Friday was one of our best ever  - it was hidden deep inside a hollowed out tree trunk.  We actually had to use a flashlight to locate it.  My brave 10 year old daughter is showing off her dirty arm - she had it so far inside the tree trunk to grab it.  We all cheered when she finally pulled it out.  There was a few trinkets in it.  We traded in our trinkets (some lucky coins, silly bandz, etc) and left with the trinkets from the canister.  When done, we placed it back inside the tree trunk and went off to find the next one.  We found 2 of the 3 we set out to find on Friday.

Here is why I love geocaching so much:
1.)  Great for all ages.  You have to walk slow to follow the directions of the compass on the iPhone app.  This makes it easy to allow the youngest in the family (18 months) to keep up walking on her own.  The older kids are so engaged looking for the hidden treasures.

2.)  Short or long hikes.  We check out the geocaches before we leave.  Some days we have time for longer hikes some days only short treks.  We can usually find geocaches that are close to the starting point to make it an easy walk if necessary.

3.)  Satisfaction of finding the treasure.  We have gone on a few hunts and come up empty handed.  So when you go looking for one and find it (especially a tough one like inside this tree trunk) you feel a real sense of accomplishment.  In this day and age where every kid gets a trophy, the trophy starts to not mean so much.  Therefore, even the times we don't find the treasure it is okay because it makes the times we do find it all the better!  I am still feeling excited about our find on Friday and it is Sunday night.

Anyway, if you are new to geocaching you can find out more information here.   If you are not new to it, I am hoping you are impressed with our tree trunk find using a flashlight!