What is Geocaching? If you look up the definition, it is “the recreational activity of hunting for and finding a hidden object utilizing GPS coordinates posted on a website.” While that’s an accurate description, it’s so much more.
I found geocaching when my two elementary school sons were bored one summer. The weather was too nice to stay indoors, and honestly, funds were a little tight. I recalled reading about geocaching so I did one quick Google search, found a free app, and thirty minutes later we were out the door with water, a pencil, and some stickers in a backpack.
With the temperate weather of the Monterey Bay area, geocaching is a great family activity. You can find caches hidden in parking lots, parks, beaches, and quite likely in your neighborhood or one within walking distance.
For first-timers and those starting with young children, the ability to find an accessible cache is important to make the game enjoyable for everyone. Websites rate each one on the difficulty of the terrain the cache is located on and how easy the cache is to find. The website geocaching.com has a wide selection of ratings, including wheelchair and stroller accessibility. Basic memberships are free on this site. Sign up, enter the zip code of where you’d like to search (making it an excellent portable game playable just about anywhere), then find a cache that suits your needs.
Once found, the cacher signs the log in the cache (bring your pencil) and then return it to the exact place found. If you’ve found a box type cache, there may be trinkets to be exchanged and its proper form to leave something if you take something. If not, sign the log then log your find on the website. While looking for geocaches, you are encouraged to not let other people see what you’re doing, you try to keep the hiding spot and the cache safe and secret from non-cachers, or “muggles” as they’re called. Once in a while, you may run into others looking for the same cache, and this happy coincidence can lead to a group hunt for a cache or maybe even caching playdates.
Once your family has been caching for a while, you’ll find yourself looking for more difficult caches or different types of challenges. Fortunately, geocaching has a variety of difficulties, cache types, and even group activities. Aside from hidden containers for caches, there are events where unique coins are hidden; there are caching picnics, nighttime caching, even caches hidden in the bay for those that dive. Some caches are stringed together so that you have to find the first one before moving on to the rest in the series. Some caches lead you to a location, no container, just a great place, maybe some history or interesting facts about the area. There is a cache for everyone, not just kids.
For kids, caching is about the hunt and the find. But, as a parent, what I found was that it served as a way for my family to develop a healthy walking habit, my boys worked cooperatively and furthered communication skills. We celebrated our finds and would come home with great stories of our treasure hunts. Eventually, we graduated to making our caches and hiding them. The boys used the skills they learned during the hunt to finding just the right spots for hides. They had to learn how to use a GPS device and how to read coordinates as well as write out clues and stories to go with their hidden cache. After placing a cache, it has to be cared for, replacing logs, sometimes the boys even put special trinkets for other kids to find.
Geocaching can lead to healthy habits and the development of lifelong skills. Mostly it’s just a lot of fun. You need very little to start: good walking shoes, weather-appropriate attire, a pencil, a handheld GPS device or GPS enabled phone, and an app, maybe a small trinket to exchange, and a sense of adventure.
Happy Caching!
JL Schmidt is the mother of a high school student and a homeschooled special needs child. A former medic and police dispatcher living on the Monterey Peninsula, she works as a novelist and is the creator of LiteraryMonterey.com.