We have found several very nice walking trails in the area and have been doing some geocaching along the way. What is geocaching? It is a treasure hunt game using a GPS enjoyed by people around the world. Other geocachers hide treasure in various containers and the game is to find the treasure without being seen by others. "Treasure" is a misnomer. The treasure normally consists of small items like plastic toys, stickers, tags, whatever with no real value. Once finding the treasure, you trade one of your treasures for a new one. Because of these toys, kids really enjoy this game. The whole point of the game is to get you to places--usually scenic--that you haven't been before. For more on geocaching go here: click here. Once you find the treasure, you log it on a log book hidden with the treasure and log it on the geocaching website. Membership is free. And you can hide your own treasures for others to find. Sometimes, the only treasure is a log book. For example, pictured below is a cache we found on the lake shore in Branson:
What? you can't find it??? Here is a close up:
Still can't see it? Well, it's easy. Here is a fake cattail stuck in some rocks. If you pull the cattail straight up, there is a small film container taped to the plastic stem. Inside the container, is a piece of paper to log that you were here. The whole point of this escapade, was to get us to take a walk along Lake Taneycomo in Branson on a beautiful day. It worked.
We do not own one of those dedicated GPS devices. We use our cell phone--a DroidX. In the past, we have used a Blackberry. Therefore, this game is costing us nothing other than some shoe leather and a little exercise in the fresh air. We enjoy it. Too bad Kiley isn't here to navigate! She enjoys it also.
No comments:
Post a Comment