What in the world is geocaching. Um, okay. You see, its like this. You use billion dollar GPS satellites in order to search for tupperware hidden in the woods. It's really cool! Seriously.
Geocaching is the outdoor adventure where you use GPS devices in order to find hidden treasure. At the Geocaching.com website is a database with a treasure-trove of information about hidden caches. The database will give you the latitude and longitude of the geocache, a description of the hiding place, and perhaps a hint or two - along with the logs of all those who found it before you. Armed with your GPS receiver, you are set to wander. Generally the GPS receiver may get you within about 6 feet of the hidden container - and now you must sleuth. What size is the container? How difficult is the hide? Does the title of the cache or the hint give you a clue? Did the previous geocachers in their logs slip up some useful information?
Geocaching is a great opportunity to be outdoors. It can be what you want it to be when you want it to be. It can be a bike ride or a hike. It can be on top of a mountain, under the sea, or even in the space station (yip, there is cache up in the space station). It can be in the city or it can be in the country. For me, it was a great excuse to go hiking with the dogs.
Best yet - the cache owner tells you why the place where the cache is hidden is important. One cache in Arlington tells the history of Stafford Junior High. Another cache tells about Donaldson Run. Another shows you an old air field located at Baily's Crossroads.
What better time to learn about Geocaching than the Northern Virginia Geocacher's (NOVAGO) Fall Event. Heck, just showing up to the event counts as finding one cache! Sunday October 23rd. It starts with a bike tour of Arlington (along with finding all the associated caches along the trail) and then a picnic at Glencaryln Park.
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