Geocaching

So before Linda left, she told me about something called Geocaching. It is treasure hunting with a GPS and there are caches hid all around the world. Her cousins were the ones who sent her the GPS and told her about the treasure hunting. She was curious to see if there were any in Antarctica so she pulled up the website and sure enough. There are over 40 caches hidden on the continent. One was actually right outside of McMurdo on one of the trials.

Deciding we wanted to play treasure hunters, off we went with GPS in hand, entering the coordinates and double checking our location. The actual place of the cache is not exact, it could be any where in a wide circle of ten to twenty feet of the ending point, so you're not led directly to the spot. The caches range in size from cigarette cartons to shoe boxes, so you really never know what you are looking for. People stash these hidden treasures away and then submit the coordinates to the website for others to come and find. You don't take the goods, just record that you found it, or sign the paper tucked in side saying who you are and when you found it. Even where you are from if you want.

I thought of you Dad, with your love for GPS. You should look it up and see about taking a hike with Mary to go "Treasure Hunting." You might even put the coordinates for the ARK on the sight and label it as a "large cache" so people can "find" Noah's Ark. Just a thought.

So as we followed the trail, our little white arrow got closer and closer to the red flag, till soon we were right on top of it. The final spot was at roll cage Mary, where there is a statue of Mary, protected by a roll cage, and mounted on top of a mound of rocks. Looking through the rocks, we found a little plastic bag with a tin container labeled Geocache. We'd discovered treasure!

Our Treasure Map

Getting Closer

Roll Cage Mary

View from Cache sight

We've Found it!

We opened it up to discover small trinkets, some loose change, and a ripped out piece of paper where people had signed their names. We added ours and then took pictures to document our find before returning it to its hiding place.

Opening the treasure tin

Leaving our mark

Found some snow along the way and stopped to play . . .

The whole experience was a blast, I've never really treasure hunted before, and now I want to go hiking more and find these caches. Who knows, maybe I'll even hide one.