A few years ago, on a walk in the woods, my daughter took out her phone and started looking at some kind of directions on it. Then she disappeared into the brush while I stood on the path trying to figure out what was going on.

I could hear her walking back and forth, kicking leaves around and looking under fallen trunks of trees. Finally she found it, whatever it was, and our geocaching adventures began.

To make the explanation short – people hide things and give map coordinates so other people can find them. The instructions are on an app that can be downloaded on any phone. When you find the cache, you add your name and the date to a list kept with the cache, and if appropriate you can leave some little trinket of your own. There are all kinds of embellishments to this game, including levels of difficulty, endless variety of hiding places, and contests and conferences to attend. Since getting hooked on this and reading some of the blogs about it, I have found caches almost everywhere I go.

Some caches are very small and hidden so well!

Some are ridiculously obvious and silly, but still…

Some are in remote woodlands.

Some are on city streets, or very busy public places.

One fall day Julia and I were out hunting on a trail near Hayward and we ran into a friend of mine. We hadn’t spoken to her for a few years and when we explained what we were doing, she disclosed that she had placed most of the geocaches that we were looking for! Neither Julia or I have placed (hidden) any of our own caches but I think that will be the next step. All we need to do is choose a water proof container of some kind, something that can be hidden or camouflaged, include paper and pencil, plot the coordinates of the hiding place and register on the app.

This really is a fun, outdoor adventure that is virtually free to anyone with access to a cell phone. Doing fun things with others helps to grow relationships and make great memories. I highly recommend giving this a try if you’re wanting to spend time with someone who is adventurous and doesn’t mind being outdoors. Geocaching!

One of my favorite vlogs (video blog) is by world famous The Geocaching Vlogger and it is hilarious. I learned so much about geocaching from his videos and find them addicting. So entertaining! Check it out here: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCA0ptTLSLXKFsL4eOnF6RZg