TREASURE HUNTING

Who doesn't like a treasure or scavenger hunt? If you do, you need to check out geocaching. Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment. Leave it to my former search and rescue husband, who was in search of a new hobby to find this one, and right up his alley too! When we headed out today, our first destination was to find a benchmark. Benchmarking is very similar to geocaching, in that you head out in search of a marker used in surveying. Using our hand held GPS we drove as close as we could to the benchmark we were in search of. Then it was off the beaten path, onto railroad tracks and when we came upon the exact coordinates on our GPS we found this: Nothing but weeds and over grown vegetation. Not willing to venture any closer into the thicket, we just assumed it was there somewhere and made our way back to the pickup, a bit disappointed, but wanting to try finding the treasure that awaited us on our geocache search, but not without me having to become one with nature in the middle of the boondocks. Enough said there, I think, except that men are much more equipped to handle this type of emergency situation than women! Following the coordinates on the GPS we came to a stop near a turnout. Upon closer inspection we saw an old boot by a guardrail. Thinking that we had found our first treasure, we excitedly picked up said boot and were disappointed when finding nothing inside. Craig ventured around, feeling that his new found hobby was going to be bust, until he heard me yell "I found it". Tucked within the guardrail, I saw a small white plastic box. Craig come running over and we began looking inside. There was a card informing us of our find, and a few trinkets inside. The rules are if you take something you have to leave something of equal or greater value behind. Not wanting to take from the treasure box, but wanting to leave our mark, I left a tape measure key chain inside. We then signed and dated the log stating that we were there, and then carefully tucked it back where we found it. What a fun way to spend a few hours, driving out in the country and finding a little treasure. We are now in the process of creating our own treasure box to hide somewhere along our travels, and looking forward to going on many more treasure hunts in the future. If you are interested, click on this link to get more information on geocaching. I'd thought I'd sign off this entry with a few of the sights we saw while on our treasure hunt. Enjoy!