KalamaQuilts

at weight watchers today we were talking about ways to get moving and several people mentioned they like to geocache and turns out there are a bunch of places to look here where we are vacationing.

I looked on the apps store and there are all kinds of apps to find caches in the wild,
would you share your experiences and if you recommend an app?
thanks, Sharyn

PamelaOry

It’s been years since I’ve done it but it was a lot of fun. I used to enjoy putting together small treasures for the other cachers to find. When I did it there was only one website, not sure about all the apps...

Roberta

I personally haven't done it but a friend has and loved it. There is actually a hiding space in our town but I'm too old to go and look for it :-)

riutzelj

Even easier because you don't need gps though with today's smart phones that isn't hard to do anymore, is letter boxing. Same basic idea, but there you sign the log book and perhaps leave a goody. Websites generally have the clues.
Another one, started recently is "rocks", painted rocks are placed around town with date and site on them and you exchange one of yours for the one that you find. I know lots of folks doing this one in oregon. Again, there are websites with the clues.
Letter boxing and the rocks are like a treasure hunt and you follow clues. Geochacheing, you have GPS coordinates.
My girls do these things with their kids. They look up clues for new towns and areas before visiting and making finding the things part of getting to know a tourist area. Most of these have european and international followers as well, just use internet to find clues.
Geochacheing extends to the forests and woods in the Pacific Northwest so is really good if you like getting off the beaten path.

nuffsaid

I began to geocache with my daughter just to have time with her. Then, I discovered that I really enjoy it. Go to geocaching.com. There is a free app to use on your phone. You need a username with which to sign the pieces of paper (logs) found in the caches, and the user name is also what you register with on the geocaching website. Another excellent app for both iPhone and android phones is Cachly--which has a modest price. With both of these apps, you get maps with the cache locations, descriptions of the caches, and "activity"--the log notes of the people who have found the caches. Geocaching is so much fun. It gets you outside, you discover places that you never knew about, you find very interesting facts or history about different locales, and there is an enthusiastic geocaching community to become part of. Have fun!

KalamaQuilts

thank you for sharing your thoughts!

riutzelj, I have a friend in Indiana who paints rocks, So does a little packet for me each year with my word for the years, and includes some small rocks, I call them seed rocks

ND Quilter

We stared geocaching about 5 years ago. We are campers who do not like shopping malls but like to have something to do when we are camping. When we started geocaching, you had to have a special gps unit. But now, if we know we are going to spend the afternoon geocaching, we pick up the gps unit because we can get more information about the caches. But if we are doing something else and just decide to look for a cache, we use the app on our phones. I agree nuffsaid. Go to geocaching.com. There are some caches you can find with free membership. There are other caches and you get more information with a paid membership. I think it is $30 a year. We call it cheap entertainment for the year. There is a lot of information on the site. The app we use on our iPhones is "Geocaching". The web site and the app are linked so you get the same information on your phone. We find it a lot of fun. The grand-kids call it "Treasure Hunting!"