Geocaching

It is so beautiful outside today!  What a good day it would be to go geocaching...one of my personal favorite hobbies.

Ever been?  Know what it entails?  For those of you who don't, let me tell you all about it.

You need internet access and a handheld GPS or an iPhone with downloaded ap.  Go to THIS website:  http://www.geocaching.com/. From there, type in your postal code--and you will be taken to a web page where dozens of potential geocaches await.  Drill down into one of them, and you can get all the information you need to go on your own treasure hunt!

Plug the coordinates into your GPS and away you go!

But what IS a geocache?  At minimum, it will be a miniscule container containing a piece of paper to sign, but it can be FAR larger (five gallon bucket size!)...The bigger ones will contain non-expensive articles of swag to trade out and you might get very lucky and find a travel bug, pathtag, or geocoin inside.  Those last three articles have unique tracking numbers on them and their respective owners are watching them progress across several geocaches.

There are a lot of cool things about geocaching....First, you can go by yourself or you can go with a group.  Your physical health doesn't really matter--while some caches are located in physically challenging places, there are many that are completely accessible to anyone.  It is a family-friendly activity--any age group can get involved.  The geocaching community encourages environmental responsibility.  They ask you to cache in and trash out--meaning spend some time picking up litter while you are caching.  It is an inexpensive hobby.  Once you have a handheld GPS, your only costs are some gas money.  I have two GPS units--one I bought off eBay for $75 and the second I spent $50 for at a pawn shop, but of course, you could pay full retail for a top of the line model at a store.  If you have an iPhone, the ap is $9.99 to download.

But for me, geocaching is more.  It hits on all four cyclinders.

It is physical....gets me out there, hiking, involved.  I NEED that.

It is mental...there is a puzzle involved, you have to hunt, look for, FIND something.  I NEED mental challenges as often as possible.

It is emotional...I get caught up in the hunt, disappointed if I don't find it, elated if I do....I NEED that.

It is spiritual...I am out in creation, often the woods or by a lake or a stream.  I feel connected to God in places like this, so yeah, I can get there while out caching.

Any time you find a hobby that can hit you on so many levels, it is in fact, a keeper.  If you haven't been, it IS cool.

Whatever you do on this beautiful day, make it enjoyable!