Geo-what?

The title of this blog is a question that Jared and I, along with many other geocachers, hear when telling someone about geocaching. We call them muggles. Just that fact alone makes my inner Harry Potter nerd so happy!

But while wizards in Harry Potter want to keep muggles ignorant of the wizarding world, geocachers actually embrace them and try to convert them to love geocaching just as much as we do. So, let me answer the question to "Geo-what?"

Geocaching is basically a worldwide treasure hunt game. When GPS first came out to the public, a guy named Dave Ulmer decided to test it's accuracy by hiding a bucket of trinkets in the middle of the woods with a log book and see who could find it. Much to their amazement, it was found in a day. This sparked many others to hid things in the woods and share the coordinates to see if someone would be able to find it.

Thus geocaching was born. Hide a container somewhere. Put a log in it. Post the coordinates. See who finds it!

Jared and I love geocaching for a few reasons.

1) People often place geocaches in areas they find beautiful. We have been on so many hikes led by geocache coordinates that have been gorgeous. We would have never tried these trails otherwise. For example, we went camping in Austin and found this beautiful spring in the middle of nowhere...because there was a geocache nearby!

The spring trickled down and created a little waterfall.

It was so beautiful!

2) The geocaches also take us through historically significant spots when touring new places! Again, these are places we may have never known otherwise. When we went to Boston, we got to see where the first telephone conversation was made from along with the entire Boston Freedom Trail. It was like our own personal tour guide!

I got to toss "tea" into the Boston Harbor!

3) Some of the geocaches are very creative. Our favorites are where people obviously take the time to make the hunt and find very entertaining. Sure, we will find the pill bottles stuck in trees, but we really love not only a challenge, but a great container. Here's a video of a geocache that Jared gained some inspiration from for the geocache that he hid.


4) Geocaching can literally be done around the world. Check out Europe and all the geocaches there!

So Jared and I highly encourage you to check out geocaching.com and sign up for a free account. You can geocache from your smart phone and they have great tools for beginners to find out how to begin. May your adventures be many!