"I want to find another hidden treasure!" my 7-year-old announces to the family at breakfast.
"Yeah, let's go again mommy. It was so much fuuuuun!" my 9-year-old adds.
"OK," I say, "we'll go again soon."
"Today? Pleeeeeease!?!"
And so continues my family's newest and "most exciting," according to the girls, outdoor hobby to date: Geocaching. We found our first geocache through sheer luck on Rattlesnake Mountain last month and since then, the girls had been itching to find more.
Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt using a GPS (global positioning system). The "treasure," called a geocache, is usually hidden behind a rock or next to a tree and typically covered with dead branches or bark. The caches are filled with small toys and a notebook log and are not buried as you might suspect, so there's no digging or tools (other than your GPS unit) required.
The coordinates of caches that people have hidden (there are thousands all over the world, and tons in Maine) are logged on geocaching.com. A person interested in finding a cache logs on to get a cache's coordinates to input into their GPS unit, then sets out to find it.
That part is easy. Purchasing a GPS unit, in my opinion, is the tricky part. I'm a gadget freak but even I was intimidated by the hundreds of options. I questioned several people about what features they liked on their GPS units and what they felt was necessary to geocache. That narrowed the field to less expensive handheld units. I settled on a $170 Garmin eTrex with additional memory and a USB connection to download area maps (sold separately). I've yet to use the map feature; we've found several geocaches without them (we've relied on our Maine Atlas to get us to the various trailheads, however). As it turns out, the $100 unit, without the map storage memory, would have worked for us.
With our gadgets in order, my family set out on a rare, partly sunny afternoon to find geocaches. I added the coordinates of a couple of geocaches that were close to each other to my GPS, figuring that if we had time, we'd look for more than one. The first coordinates took us to a trail along the Presumpscot River in North Windham. The river was overflowing, fast-moving (an impressive sight from the trail) and had washed out the trail in several areas, but we found the well-stocked geocache less than a mile from the trailhead without a problem.
We headed to the Highland Lake public boat launch in Falmouth next to find a geocache without coordinates. The cache owner had decided to give people without a GPS a chance to learn about the sport. The "additional hints" section for this cache, along with a photo of the actual hiding place were necessary, so I had printed out the page. We found the small, round thermos-type geocache without much trouble. The cache in Windham was larger and held more stuff, but this cache was clever in how the log and treasures were stored.
A couple of days later the kids wanted to find another cache (beware, this sport is addictive!). I found coordinates to a cache in Deering Oaks Park described as a "mini-micro cache." My 9-year-old spotted it once we reached the coordinates — impressive since it was the size of a film canister. It took me more than a minute to spot it, even after she pointed it out. After a couple of attempts by the kids to get to the cache, I had to do it. It was the find that will go down in the Almeida family folklore. The kids continue to share — and be thoroughly entertained by — the story of me grabbing the cache. Without giving away the hiding spot of this cache, let's just say I had to do some fancy maneuvering to get my hands on the container so we could sign the log. Putting it back wasn't as easy as retrieving it. You'll have to read the "logged visits" of this cache's log page to learn more about the antics involved in getting to this cache.
The decision of where to find the next geocache fell to my 7-year-old. She wanted to see a waterfall, and after a search of the geocaching web site, we found one in Portland on the Fore River Sanctuary Trail. The kids really liked this trail, with its boardwalks, birds and variety of landscapes (from marsh to woods). That was a good thing, because it was a long hike (more than three miles round trip) to Jewell Falls, where the cache was hidden. We found a nice spot for a snack break at the falls and then my 9-year-old found the cache.
In all of the geocaches we've found (six as of this publishing), I've yet to be the first family member to actually spot it. The kids have found five of the caches we've logged (my husband spotted the first one). Why, you ask, do I not spot them first? Maybe because I'm so caught up with all of the features on my GPS unit that I forget to look for environmental clues that indicate the cache location (i.e., dead tree, stacked branches, etc.). So gadget geeks beware: You have to look around once you've reached the cache's coordinates to actually find it!
My kids think the ultimate treasure to find in a geocache is a Travel Bug. The "bug" is a tag attached to a particular item that is tracked online (at groundspeak.com, which is part of the geocaching web site). The two we've found were attached to small action figures. Usually, but not always, travel bugs have a "mission." The "Homer" bug we found on Rattlesnake Mountain's mission was to visit a city or town called Springfield in every state in the United States. We weren't planning any major trips when we found Homer so we put him in a cache at Wells Reserve and hoped someone else would pick him up to bring him to his desired destination. The bug we found in Windham, "Dora the Diner," wanted to eat at diners across the country. She was a huge hit with the kids. We took her to the Maine Diner in Wells and had so much fun we attracted the attention of several other diners. I very much enjoyed the kids' explanation of geocaching and travel bugs to the over-70 crowd.
Geocaching is a great activity for kids because it offers a chance to enjoy a local hiking trail, get some exercise, learn practical map skills — and have fun with the family. And the stories my children have shared about our adventures finding hidden treasures have been priceless.
If you don't have a GPS unit but your family is interested in giving geocaching a try, I'm going to make it easy for you. The kids and I have hidden a cache at the Lowell Preserve Trail in Windham. The coordinates are logged on the geocaching.com website but I've also provided a treasure map that you can use to find my family's cache without a GPS.
Happy treasure hunting!
Trip: Geocaching
Find Caches: To find coordinates to caches, go to www.geocaching.com
Learn More: Get answers to frequently asked questions about geocaching at www.geocaching.com/faq
Maine Geocaching: To chat about caches or find out more about geocaching in Maine, go to geocachingmaine.org
A few "rules" about finding the Lowell Preserve cache:
1. Please do not move or vandalize the container. And make sure you return the container to its original hiding place. Do not move it to another location because others will not be able to find it.
2. If you want, you can take something. But please also leave something of your own for others to find. And be sure to write your name in the logbook so we can see how many people have visited our cache.
3. And it would be great if you took a photo of yourself and/or family with the cache and uploaded it to our Geocaching photo gallery.
Still not sure about introducing your family to geocaching? Here's a few things my family has really enjoyed about the sport:
1. Discovering a new cache. Every cache we've found has been different in both size and content so we never know exactly what we'll find.
2. Hiking on new trails. There are some really interesting trails in the greater Portland area and the incentive of finding a cache has motivated the kids to want to do more hiking than we have in previous years (even in the rain!).
3. Talking about our finds. The kids have been telling everyone they know (OK, so have I) about geocaching and how much fun it is. It's fun to listen to them explain how to geocache to their friends, and their friends' parents.
4. Developing map reading skills. Geocaching is a really fun way to introduce children to maps. They have a lot of motivation to learn how to read the trail map and GPS unit to find the hidden treasure.
No GPS? No problem. If you don't have a GPS but want to find a geocache, follow this geocache map to find the cache my family has hidden at the Lowell Preserve Trail in Windham. Directions to the trailhead are at the bottom of the map. Don't forget to bring a swap for the cache and HAVE FUN!
Originally published in the Maine Sunday Telegram, June 5, 2005
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