The Art of Geocaching

I have never been geocaching, but I have a dear blogger friend, Carole, who does. She runs a terrific blog called So You Wanna Go Geocaching, and I enjoy reading her articles. She has so far maintained a “temperate” mode– that is, she’s described and journalized the art of geocaching in temperate New York and New England weather (no winter), but her latest post promises: “Snow doesn’t stop serious geocachers!” Oooo how titillating!

In case you don’t know (and I didn’t know until Carole informed me), geocaching is:

…an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called “geocaches” or “caches”) anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and “treasure,” usually toys or trinkets of little value. Today, well over 800,000 geocaches are registered on various websites devoted to the pastime. Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica. source: Wikipedia.

New York State and New England experiences about five months of what we classify as “winter”: temperatures below 30-40 degrees (sometimes subzero) and the possibility of snow for the months of November to March. Places in the southernmost areas of New York are more temperate; when I lived in the Southern Tier, spring and planting season usually came a good 2-3 weeks earlier than the Great Lakes area of New York State. So we New Yorkers have learned to adapt to winter (thank God for berghaus fleeces, though!); and we organize our work and leisure in tandem with it. I did wonder if geocachers took winter off (that would mean half the year!) so I was pleased to see Carole’s mysterious inference that devoted geocachers brave the winter elements in pursuit of their quest.

Geocachers use a portable GPS device to locate the caches. It’s like modern-day treasure hunting, with the GPS as the map. I hope to try my hand at geocaching someday– I know the kids would love it. I recommend checking out Carole’s blog for more information, great tips, and entertaining stories about her geocaching exploits.