Not Just for Nerds | A Workout for the Body and the Mind!
It’s summer and you want to be outside. You love to get out into nature, maybe take a hike somewhere, but you find yourself more motivated when you have a purpose. Welcome to geocaching, where you can exercise mind and body simultaneously!
What Is Geocaching?
You know what geography is, right? You may also have an idea of what a “cache” is—something stored somewhere, typically for future use. Geocaching simply offers you the best of both worlds—an opportunity to go on a “treasure hunt” in the great outdoors. You won’t use a gas-station map, though, and you won’t follow a treasure map you found buried on a desert island. Instead, you’ll need a smartphone with a GPS app and you’ll need to rely on your powers of observation.
How Does Geocaching Work?
It’s fundamentally very simple. Since the inception of geocaching, millions of people have created caches in locations around the world. The caches may be found anywhere, from urban settings to deep forests. To get started, you’ll need to go to geocaching.com or install the app on your phone. You’ll also need to set up an account. To have access to all the features, you’ll need to pay a monthly fee.
Once you have an account set up, you’re ready to start finding caches. You can start on a desktop or you can use your smartphone. If you use your desktop, you’ll get a GPS reading to take you close to the cache. If you’re on your phone, the built-in GPS will do that for you. It’s important to understand that the GPS won’t lead you right to the cache. In addition, the cache will typically not be obvious. It may be under a fake rock or hidden in some other way.
Once you find the cache, you’ll want to sign into the logbook on the app. Next, you will want to take one thing with you from the cache, but you’ll need to leave something in exchange. Once you’ve done that, put everything back in place, so it looks exactly as you found it. The most important rule of geocaching—leave no trace that you were ever there.
