Anyone into Geocaching?

[kristijoy]

I've been thinking my son might have fun on family outings going on sort of a treasure hunt. I think I can get started with a simple app on my phone.

Any one do this with kids? Any stories? Advice?

[TanyaH666]

ooh, i keep meaning to look into this because it sounds like fun! i can't wait to hear what others know.

i DO know that Disneyland Downtown Disney had to be shut down for a couple hours last year to bring in the bomb squad because a suspicious pack was left by itself outside a shop. Turned out to be a geocaching device for a family treasure hunt! how embarrassing would THAT be!

[krystalhartley]

I don't but it sounds like a fun hobby.

[lee69]

It is super fun! My friend's husband is totally into it with their 3 boys. Apparently there are tons of them everywhere.

[Sharon Kay]

I am glad you mentioned this ... we are supposed to be doing our FIRST geocaching this week ... it's a contest through our local hackerspace and the deadline is tomorrow night ... and we haven't even started! We got busy with the robot and didn't get it started ... I want to do this ... the other night when we had time it was hailing and raining ... not the ideal weather ... ok making a post-a-note to remind us ...

[Keely~B]

It's a lot of fun. We haven't done any caching lately but were just talking about going soon.

[digideb]

We used to geocache ALL the time when we lived in Panama City! We haven't done much the last 4 years. But, anytime we travel to a new state, we get one! Trying to get one in every state! But, yes, it is SO much fun! Such an awesome family activity & kids will love it!!

[jessica31876]

I looked into in and even joined some communities to try it out and we never got around to doing it. We spent so much time hiking in the woods with the kids growing up and there were so many places around us it seemed like lots of fun. Id still like to do it but my husband has a hard time walking very far so it would be harder for us to do it now.

[Sherri Tierney]

We do a lot of geocaching. It can be so much fun. We've been to some places right in our town that we never knew existed (and we live in a little town so it hardly seems possible). Of course, we've also gotten in to some trouble...

One cache led us on to what was apparently restricted property. We found it and came back to find cop cars sitting by our van. We were traipsing over pretty rough terrain with two little kids so my husband ran on ahead to find out what was going on. Turns out no one is supposed to be out there. If DH had been out there alone, he'd likely have gotten arrested for it. The fact that we had two little kids with us and a print out of the coordinates for the cache gave our story credibility and the cops just warned us not to go out there again. Yikes!

Another cache is just about a mile down the road from our house. Its under a bridge and it took a little finding. My husband was determined to find it and really got down there looking... well, along with the cache he found poison oak.

Moral of the story, geocaching can be super fun and take you all sorts of amazing places but be careful.

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by Sherri Tierney

One cache led us on to what was apparently restricted property. We found it and came back to find cop cars sitting by our van. We were traipsing over pretty rough terrain with two little kids so my husband ran on ahead to find out what was going on. Turns out no one is supposed to be out there. If DH had been out there alone, he'd likely have gotten arrested for it. The fact that we had two little kids with us and a print out of the coordinates for the cache gave our story credibility and the cops just warned us not to go out there again. Yikes!

LOL! So Adam and I tried geocaching a few years ago and I thought for sure we would love it because we love seeing new places and being outdoors but this was exactly what we didn't like about it. We felt the whole time it looked like we were up to something shady and someone was going to call the cops. Granted we'd chosen some easy level ones and easy apparently equals conspicuous, haha, but we didn't really love the whole snooping around in bushes around an office building or in a parking lot or along the side of the road aspect of it. But neither of us were kids who broke the rules so maybe we're just boring like that, haha.

[SmallMoments]

We LOVE geocaching!!! We usually stick to parks and graveyards, since they're both public property.

Start at www.geocaching.com... you can get a lot of tips, app suggestions, etc.

[kristijoy]

Originally Posted by TanyaH666

ooh, i keep meaning to look into this because it sounds like fun! i can't wait to hear what others know.

i DO know that Disneyland Downtown Disney had to be shut down for a couple hours last year to bring in the bomb squad because a suspicious pack was left by itself outside a shop. Turned out to be a geocaching device for a family treasure hunt! how embarrassing would THAT be!

Disneyland is the only place I have ever seen that has SO MANY PEOPLE all trapped inside. I'm so glad they have a BOMB squad!

[kristijoy]

Originally Posted by SmallMoments

We LOVE geocaching!!! We usually stick to parks and graveyards, since they're both public property.

Start at www.geocaching.com... you can get a lot of tips, app suggestions, etc.

THat's the site I found! I was totally looking for things in parks & hiking trails.

Sounds much better than dumpster diving!

[SmallMoments]

We also like to check rest stops when we're on trips/weekend getaways. There are quite a few rest stops that have them!

[kristijoy]

Originally Posted by SmallMoments

We also like to check rest stops when we're on trips/weekend getaways. There are quite a few rest stops that have them!

Oooh! That sounds fun!

[Lyd]

We did it at our last family reunion up in Bear Lake. The kids loved it. We really hit the jackpot on one when the note inside the cache said to go to the nearest house and they would give us popsicles. I don't know that we would have actually done it, but we were a pretty large and conspicuous group, so before we even had the chance, this cute old guy came trotting down the road with his back of popsicles and handed them out to everyone. So fun!

[Sherri Tierney]

Originally Posted by Nettio

LOL! So Adam and I tried geocaching a few years ago and I thought for sure we would love it because we love seeing new places and being outdoors but this was exactly what we didn't like about it. We felt the whole time it looked like we were up to something shady and someone was going to call the cops. Granted we'd chosen some easy level ones and easy apparently equals conspicuous, haha, but we didn't really love the whole snooping around in bushes around an office building or in a parking lot or along the side of the road aspect of it. But neither of us were kids who broke the rules so maybe we're just boring like that, haha.

I can relate! There is a cache at the local historical society. We were looking for it and the grounds keeper came up to us wanting to know what we were doing in the bushes. We told him about geocaching and showed him the cache but it still felt strange and since the museum is on a busy road we were milling around right there for everyone to see. There are some definite drawbacks like that. I felt stupid and just wanted to leave. My husband (a definite rule breaker type kid) didn't care at all and just wanted to find the cache.

[ChristinaP]

My boys love geocaching! They are 6 & 8 and ask to go all the time, DH isn't so keen on planning road trips around it though :/

I love the story about the popcicles! He must sit there watching for people to find the cache!