by Karen Ardy

Created on: July 08, 2009   Last Updated: July 09, 2009

Do you remember the games of hide and seek you played as a child? Or the treasure hunts that had you searching for clues all over your home or neighbourhood? Well......you can again experience the thrill of those childhood games with geocaching.

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which you use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to find caches just about anywhere in the world. There are 842,869 active geocaches around the world and some of these caches are near your home. A GPS is a computer that receives signals broadcast from GPS satellites. It needs to read signals from at least three satellites at a time to calculate its general location. The more satellite signals the GPS can read, the more accurate the position.

By joining www.geocaching.com you will be able to locate hidden geocaches in your area and hide a geocache of your own. All you have to do is input your postal code or zip code and all available hidden caches will be revealed to you in latitude and longitude. Most GPS devices will put you within approximately six to twenty feet of the hidden cache. Often a clue is included just to help you pinpoint the exact location.

This sounds deceptively simple. But remember, it is one thing to know a location on a map but another to try to arrive at that location. There will be times that you can not just hike straight in the direction that GPS points because there might very well be natural obstacles in your way. You have to find the best route to the cache when a downed tree or a river is in the way.

A cache is a small water-proof plastic container filled with items that you can take with you provided you leave a item of your own in exchange. Also, you will find a notebook and pencil to record the date you found the cache and possibly list what you have exchanged. Some ideas for a cache would be an inexpensive compass, a small hand-held game, novelty pencils or perhaps a yo-yo. Your local dollar store can provide you with plenty of ideas. An interesting idea would be to include a disposable camera and ask the seekers to take a picture of themselves before returning the camera to the cache. Do not include food items of any kind. Animals can smell far better than a human and the likelihood of the cache being destroyed by a wild animal is high. Explosives, ammunition, knives, drugs and alcohol should not be placed in a cache. Always respect the local laws. Do not forget to mark your cache with the words "Official Geocache"

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