Treasure Hunting using GPS

Or Geocaching using a GPS instead of a map with an X on it. Bruce and I spent three hours today finding six caches in Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. This is a very lovely park 10 miles south of Gainesville, FL

The first step is to log onto www.geocaching.com and type in the zip code for where ever you want to find some caches. We found lots of them in the general area. Then you need to transfer the coordinates from the website to your GPS. There are also some clues as to where the cache is...under a palm tree, on the ground covered with leaf debris, past house under tree, or under a dead oak tree.

A cache is a container with stuff in it. The container could be an ammo box, plastic food containers that lock shut, or even a rusty can. The stuff can be anything from small toys, stickers, pencils, Mardi Gras beads(LOL that is what I leave), or just about anything that is not X rated. You can take whatever trinket you want, as long as you leave a trinket behind. There is usually a little notebook for logging when you found the cache, your name, what you took and what you left.

What we found in all of the caches today, were Travel Bugs. These are bought by someone who puts them in caches and then when found by some else, they are taken to another cache. The TB has a registration number on it and you can log on and find out where it was started, where it has been and how many miles it traveled. You actually need to post(on the Geocaching site) where you found the TB and where you may be taking it. Some of the TB's have been in circulation for years. I found an alligator that is apparently in a race to somewhere. The TB that traveled the farthest was from Washington State and British Columbia. We found one from Maine, NC, CA, MI.

Geocaching is a great way to get outdoors and enjoy the hot, humid weather that has finally arrived in Florida. The only thing that makes me uncomfortable are the bugs, spiders, ticks and things that bite you when hiking around in the brush.