|
Geocaching ... What? |
|
November 22, 2011 |
 |
|
Genna Hill
shows off a treasure she and her mother,
Jennie, found while geocaching up Grouse
Creek. |
By Jennie Hill
One night while taking care of my newborn
daughter, I flipped the TV on to PBS and caught
part of a show about geocaching. I thought it
sounded extremely interesting, something my
family would enjoy.
Then, in my state of new motherhood, I promptly
forgot about it. A couple of years later I
stumbled across an ad for geocaching and was
reminded of the show I had watched, which
motivated me to check out the website
www.geocaching.com.
So what is geocaching? It's the use of a hand
held GPS to find caches that are placed
throughout the world.
Think of it as a treasure hunt, you get your
coordinates and go in search of a Tupperware,
ammo can or something similar containing
trinkets. Once found, you sign your name to the
log book, swap out a trinket if you like and
then replace the cache in it's hiding spot. Most
are hidden under rock piles or in rotted out
stumps, some are magnetic and hidden behind
signs. Caches come in all sizes, too, from tiny
pill bottles to five gallon buckets.
Logging onto the geocaching website shows that
there are 6000+ geocaches in "my" area, which
includes parts of Montana and Washington.
Signing up as a premium member will gain you
access to roughly 300 more caches than the basic
membership, which is free.
Once signed in you can search any area you are
interested in going to.
A GPS, or Global Positioning System, receiver is
a must for this sport. There are a few different
brands, many different styles, all in a wide
price range.
After looking and looking I ended up buying a
very low end, no frills, no bells and whistles
unit. Two years later, I am still very happy
with my purchase.
Sure I wish sometimes that I had a GPS with
terrain maps or that I didn't have to hand enter
all my coordinates, but my Garmin works great
and can be as accurate as eight feet at times.
Since geocaching is all I use it for, it doesn't
need to be fancy. With the increasing popularity
of Smart Phones, some may choose to use their
phone and yep, there's an App for that, but I
found that my phone tends to be about 35 feet
off from my hand-held GPS unit.
My kids love finding the caches, and I'm pretty
sure they feel the trinkets are specially placed
for them!
Geocaching offers a great way to get out and
explore Boundary County and to revisit some of
your favorite areas! |
|
Jennie Hill was raised in Boundary County,
spending much of her life outdoors around this
area, growing up north of Bonners Ferry and
currently living in Naples. Jennie is married to
Abe Hill and they have two children. As a family
the Hill's enjoy camping, fishing, Geocaching,
riding four wheelers; pretty much anything that
gets them outdoors. |
|
Questions or comments? Click
here to
email! |
|
|
|
|
