Geocaching

















Yesterday a fellow homeschooling mom (Sheryl) and her kids met us at Symmes Park in Loveland to give us a taste of geocaching. Deanne and I had wanted to try it out ever since learning about the geocaching sites last year, but had never had access to a GPS receiver before. Neither of us wanted to invest the $100 or so it would cost to get one if it wasn't something that we would enjoy. Well, let me tell you...it was a BLAST! The kids really enjoyed themselves and I have to admit that the lure of finding hidden treasure even inticed me! We found some small trinkets to exchange (Halloween toys on clearance for 80% off) and headed off for an adventure!

We found 4 caches yesterday, 3 in Symmes Park and one in Hidden Creek Park.

So for those of you that don't know.....What is Geocaching? Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.

This is the site we used to locate our caches: http://www.geocaching.com/

After all the fun, I came home and did some GPS research. Here is a great site with a Beginners Maual http://www.garmin.com/manuals/GPSGuideforBeginners_Manual.pdf

Now if I could just figure out how basic of a system I can buy and still have fun! I found one at Walmart for just under $80, but I am not sure it will do everything I need it to do, so I have to do some more research. Right now the two cheapest units I can find are the Garmin eTrex GPS Unit ($80) and the Magellan explorist 200 ($118). Off to do some more research! Maybe I will find some other options!