07-09-2008, 03:09 AM
|
#459 (permalink)
|
|
Cruise-a-Lot
Location: Colorado
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,765
Frubals:24332097
Activity:  Today:  |
Quote:
Originally Posted by gkm
Well my goodness!! Chris, it's certainly nice to hear from you. I'm sorry you've had such a stressful time at work. It sounds like you'll be ready for a cruise. By the way, what is geocaching?
Garry
|
It's where a bunch of nutcases like me employ billions of dollars worth of government launched satellite equipment in a search for Tupperware. Now wasn't that a helpful explanation? 
I'd say "seriously", but there are only a few "serious" players in this game, there are over 610,000 geocaches that have been placed around the world. A geocache could be anything from a container as small as a pencil eraser to as big as a 5 gallon can. Each contains a log, and each is registered in a single worldwide database at Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site. The "owner" provides some relative information about the difficulty-to-find and the terrain, a description, and the location in latitude and longitude. Each cache is then "stamped" with a unique designator to identify it. The hope is that others who enjoy getting out and about will find these caches using a portable GPS unit, log them both physically at the site and electronically at geocaching.com, and if the cache is big enough, perhaps swap a few items (I like to leave behind Coleman camping bits and pieces) and move on to the next.
There are several just down the road from you, and a whole pile of them up in Hendersonville. Some are pointless -- 35mm film canisters stashed under the skirts of the lights in a Home Depot parking lot -- and some are outstanding -- one of my targets is at the Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona (on my "must see" list while I'm there). Could be high up on what could barely be called a trail in the Rockies, or in front of the local Walgreen's store. Ideally, they're to take people to interesting places they might not otherwise visit.
Try this:
Click on this --> Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site
Put in your zip code (28731) in the upper right corner and click on the arrow at its right
Click on the "Map It" icon in the upper right corner
Amazing ... every one of those icons is a cache near you. So far, I've found over 700 of the silly things!
|
|