Our First Geocache Hide


Our First Geocache Hide
By Allan Olson
We finally did it! We planted our first geocache for others to find after starting our caching adventures in May and logging 184 of our own finds.
This weekend we hid our very own geocache in an area near where my wife grew up close to the Rainy River. We had been talking about it, and I’ve been eager to hide one for some time. We decided this weekend that it would be good to hide one in an area where there aren’t very many. Now we have the suspense of waiting for someone to find it!
On Saturday night we did some research and hid the treasure. We gave a niece the coordinates to find it, and after a little bit of searching she located the hiding spot.
The name of our geocache is “Rapidly Waiting,” which hints at the location of the hide.
For readers unfamiliar with the activity of geocaching, I’ve included some background information:
Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.
The geocache craze takes you on a modern day “treasure hunt.” Caches can be a variety of sizes, and they can range from an “easy, quick find” as they are labeled on the description of the cache, to difficult, meaning they are going to be tricky to locate. Other rating details include the container sizes and terrain style.
One of the important things we have learned about this new adventure is the importance of dressing for the occasion. We now plot our course in advance so we can determine not only the route we’re going to take, but also the manner of attire required to get there. Long pants and shoes are normally a safe bet when searching for any cache. (Note: Due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control, there has been an occasion or two where we could have used swimming gear to reach the treasure; in those instances, we’ve simply marked them as inaccessible for the time being.)
To get started on a geocache hunt, one of two pieces of equipment are required: a GPS unit or a cell phone with GPS capability. With a phone, the main drawback is the lack of cellular service in some areas. However, we’ve found that for now, our phones work just fine. When using a phone, you have to download an app for it (some are free, while others have a minimal charge) and sign-up for a free basic membership with the geocaching.com website.
A great thing about geocaching is there is no admission fee; the only cost is the fuel that’s burned in your the vehicle or the calories burned while walking or biking down the trails – many that have caches stacked “virtually” on top of each other.
This game is also run on the honor system, meaning if you searched for the cache and couldn’t find it, but reported that you did, it would be similar to taking someone’s Monopoly money when they left the room for a minute.
In just the Cass Lake area, there are 125 such treasures within a 15 mile radius of downtown – most bigger cities have even more, as you might expect.
We caught the geocaching bug in May when my wife was looking for something to do with the kids this summer. I was clueless about the whole idea. One Saturday while I was working, she loaded up the kids. My younger brother happened to be around, and he joined them as they headed out to search for a few close by. Since then, we have found at least one geocache every weekend. July was our least productive month (due to the heat) when we found only 10; August was our most productive month with 80 finds. We ended September with a total of 58 finds for the month.
There is a learning curve to this hobby, for sure. Be dressed for the hunt and bring a change of clothes and some food and water along (with first aid and other personal items you need or want) because once you are on the hunt, you might not want to stop!
Currently there are 1,905,752 active geocaches listed and over 5 million geocachers worldwide, with the number growing daily!
Please be safe on the lakes – wear your life jacket, keep the kids safe, and remember to take a picture to preserve a lifetime of memories. School has started – so please watch out for those buses that are transporting our precious cargo.
Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.



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