Stories of finding treasure piqued my interest during my childhood. I loved stories about buried, sunken, and guarded treasure not because I was obsessed with gold but because I loved the idea of discovery and conquest. I dreamed that my life could be as adventurous as the characters I read about. Sadly, I realized that stories about buried treasure were all just fairytales. I thought I would never be able to experience the sense of victory after finding buried treasure; that was until my cousins told me about Geocaching.
Even though Geocaching isn’t like a real treasure hunt, it is as close to it as it is going to get. Geocaching is a worldwide scavenger hunt, in which “take one leave one” is the main guideline. How it works is you go online and type in your zip code and the mile radius that you would like to keep your journey confined to.
The website gives you a list of hidden geocaches nearest you. Each cache is titled and has it’s own list of instructions and clues. The caches are also divided by level of difficulty and type of cache; some caches are simple entry logs and others contain treasure! (they are more like trinkets, but I like to view them as treasure). If you find a cache with treasure in it, you must abide by the rules: 1. Take one thing, leave one thing. 2. Leave the cache exactly the way you found it. 3. Do not create too much attention to yourself when you find it, otherwise “intruders” will ruin the game.
With these few guidelines in mind you are almost ready to start the hunt. First you need to create a free online profile; this allows you to keep track of conquered quests and map out new discoveries. There is also a free app for your smartphone that sends the coordinates straight to your phone.
So what are you waiting for?, there is treasure to be found probably closer than you think.
Check out their website for more information at:
http://www.geocaching.com/guide/
