How did I get involved in all this, you might ask. Well, one day I read a story about geocaching, and went to the website http://www.geocaching.com/ to learn more. I discovered that you could put your postal code in and the site would show you a list of all the caches hidden nearby. I was so surprised to find some of them were actually within easy walking distance from my home!
I have a friend who had a GPS which she used when she was building some trails through the woods here, as a millennium project a few years back. I asked her to come for tea, and if she still had the GPS, if she would mind bringing it with her, and showing me what it does, and how it works. She not only did that, but she left it with me for a couple of weeks so I could see if I could figure it out for myself.
That night, I decided to go for a walk, with the GPS in hand, and try to find one of the local caches. The longitude and latitude given were supposed to be for a plaque on a building, where I would find a date. I was to use certain numbers in that date to calculate the next spot to head for.
Off I went, feeling confident I knew where this plaque was. But wait, according to the GPS, I was headed in the wrong direction. I turned and went the other way. So, then I got a new notion of where I might be heading......but I passed right by that place and was apparently still going in the right direction. I did find the plaque, and got the numbers for the calculations. But, by this time, I had decided this was too much fun not to share. I went back home and told my spouse that this amazing little gadget had just taken me for a walk, and I had no idea where I was going until I got there. I now had the co-ordinate to find the actual cache, but I wanted him to join me in the fun.
The following evening, I handed him the GPS and off we went. He found the same plaque, of course. But without any preconceived notions, he took a completely different route. Then we went looking for the treasure. There was a clue about a big tree, and as we neared the area there were very few big trees, so we figured this would be really too easy. But caches are not just left out in the open. They are generally hidden, under, inside of, or behind something, and quite often camouflaged too, it seems. It's not what you find in the cache that makes the whole experience worthwhile though. It's the hunt itself, and what you find along the way. In this case, we saw a couple of families of ducks while out walking.
We did find it eventually, and took a toy vehicle for our grandson and left something of equal value behind. I signed the log, and later logged the find online. Already I knew I was going to have to buy a GPS of our own. I was hooked!
I have a friend who had a GPS which she used when she was building some trails through the woods here, as a millennium project a few years back. I asked her to come for tea, and if she still had the GPS, if she would mind bringing it with her, and showing me what it does, and how it works. She not only did that, but she left it with me for a couple of weeks so I could see if I could figure it out for myself.
That night, I decided to go for a walk, with the GPS in hand, and try to find one of the local caches. The longitude and latitude given were supposed to be for a plaque on a building, where I would find a date. I was to use certain numbers in that date to calculate the next spot to head for.
Off I went, feeling confident I knew where this plaque was. But wait, according to the GPS, I was headed in the wrong direction. I turned and went the other way. So, then I got a new notion of where I might be heading......but I passed right by that place and was apparently still going in the right direction. I did find the plaque, and got the numbers for the calculations. But, by this time, I had decided this was too much fun not to share. I went back home and told my spouse that this amazing little gadget had just taken me for a walk, and I had no idea where I was going until I got there. I now had the co-ordinate to find the actual cache, but I wanted him to join me in the fun.
The following evening, I handed him the GPS and off we went. He found the same plaque, of course. But without any preconceived notions, he took a completely different route. Then we went looking for the treasure. There was a clue about a big tree, and as we neared the area there were very few big trees, so we figured this would be really too easy. But caches are not just left out in the open. They are generally hidden, under, inside of, or behind something, and quite often camouflaged too, it seems. It's not what you find in the cache that makes the whole experience worthwhile though. It's the hunt itself, and what you find along the way. In this case, we saw a couple of families of ducks while out walking.
We did find it eventually, and took a toy vehicle for our grandson and left something of equal value behind. I signed the log, and later logged the find online. Already I knew I was going to have to buy a GPS of our own. I was hooked!
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