Geocaching -- Fun with your GPS -- Tell your clients

Time to think about having some fun with your GPS. Listen and learn. About geocaching, an outdoor treasuring hunting game where your gps receive helps you natch coordinates to find friendly hidden caches anywhere in the world. Coordinates for the caches are posted online with clues about the location at websites such as Geocaching.com .

Typically, the treasure is a small plastic (keeping out water) container (the best ones come from the dollar store). Inside is a logbook, a pencil and some TREASURE, typically toys or trinkets or little $$$$ value. . When you find the cache, the deal is to sign the log book as directed, usually with the date; your name and city/state, and decide how to address the treasure. You can take a toy as a souvenir and leave a toy so the cache is supplied for the next hunter. Some people mark the log TN/LN when not taking or leaving a toy. That only works when you don’t have a five year old on the team who came for the toy swap. Then, you can note your find on the Internet. Treasure can contain ‘Travel Bugs’ or Geocoins, the travels of which are logged and tracked online.

Occasionally the treasure hiders go over the top and have a 5 gallon bucket or larger container. But, the ones we’ve hunted tend to be micro-caches. Some caches have been as small as film canisters.

Virtual geocaches are noted; finders take a photo (it is nice to have YOU in the picture) which is then posted online at a geocaching website.

Geocach-ers have to watch out for ‘muggles’, the uninformed and uncooperative. Muggle or ‘geo-muggles’ don’t appreciate the caching game. When you are finding, you need to keep a low profile and carefully replace the cache without ‘them’ seeing you. THEY have been known to vandalise or steal caches.

My daughter and her family have searched out caches in several states. The one hunt I was able to participate in was going to be a no-brainer. We almost didn’t find it because we thought it would be easy to find in a small area. Sometimes your mom’s and your grandma’s arrogance pays off. When we finally READ all of the clues and paid attention, then followed the right path, the five-year old got to see his FIRST box turtle and found some ‘lost’ Easter eggs.