Geocaching is for really cool people P.E.R.I.O.D.

I recently went on a Geocaching hunt in Marinette County. I was doing research for small article on what Geocaching was, so I decided it would be best just to go out and do it. Roughly, there are around 250 caches here if my calculations were correct and I think I’m hooked.

My first thoughts on Geocaching: Ugggh, I don’t know how to do it. I don’t have a GPS. I don’t know how to use a gridded map. I am not good with coordinates. My last thought of what kept me pushing forward was the thought of actually finding a hidden treasure! So dramatic, I know.

I am telling you my steps in order of importance, yours may be different. I don’t know, I don’t know how your brain works. Type A or type B? Personally type A over here for Awwwwesome!

Step One: Download an app called “GEOCACHING” Seriously folks, it was that easy.

Step Two: If I remember correctly I had to create an account. It was either with my email or facebook account. The best thing was they didn’t even ask me for my blood type. Some registrations are far too in depth, but this app just got straight to the point.

Step Three: Goooooooo!

Other steps you find may be helpful. 

1. Gas up your car. 
2. Locate your car. 
3. Call a buddy to go with you, adventures are better with other people. 
4. Bring a snack or two. 
5. Have a pencil/pen to sign your name.

Wear shoes that can get muddy, you never know where your feet might take you that is in the direct opposite of where the actual Geocache is located.

Now what is a geocache? A geocache is basically just a fancy name for a treasure. Something hidden in plain site that someone wants you to find, but then put back as you found it. The ones that I found were called micro caches, meaning small. There were some I didn’t have time for that could be in a treasure box, or a coffee can, or hidden under a fixed object. But what each geocache has is a clue or two. Click your finger on the cache in the map on your app (wordy, I know) and it will lead you in the right direction. We all know Siri doesn’t lie with directions right?

My first find was awesome. It took us a while to find it and of course, just as I tapped out, I looked for about 10 more seconds and yelled “I found it!” My buddy and I had walked past it at least two times.

The second one was equally as cool, with the same tap out, only to look for a little longer and find it again. I won’t tell you where or what, but I found it, so that makes me really cool.

So after you find it, you sign your name on a little sheet of paper about the size of paper that a troll would write on and date it. You can see the others that have come before and made it out alive as well, then you mark it in your account on your app. I can’t explain much more, you just have to go and try to find one.

Easy peasy. I rate this form of entertainment E for easy and exciting. Also C for clueless, because you do look silly looking around trees and around signs in the middle of nowhere. We had a dump truck pull up next to us asking if we needed assistance. One of the caches (which we did not find that day) was hidden at a cross roads of two roads on a gravel road in the middle of Egypt. I think the man asked “mam, do you need help with something.” I replied that we were geocaching as I flicked my hair back and winked. Pretty sure he had no idea what I said and just nodded and waved. Thinking about it now, I should have said, “yes we are looking for a geocache and I need you fellas to take a few minutes and help us find it.” Rookie mistake.

Author: Allyson Bickel