My wife and I were late joining my partner and a client for lunch. They were finished with their lunch and deep into business conversation. As we sat down, the conversation stopped for a minute. My wife has always had a knack for making things come to an abrupt halt, but that is another story and this is an article about geocaching. The conversation picked back up when a cell phone rang, and after everyone in the restaurant decided it wasn’t theirs, my partner walked outside to take the call. The client, Jerry (not his real name), had a card on top of his notebook and a map of the area with some notes on it. Jerry was from out of town, so being a local, I asked him what he was looking for. “Cash,” was his one word answer. My wife and I both perked up and started asking questions, one after another. In less than three minutes, he explained the very basics of geocaching and the fun he and his son had every weekend. He gave us a Web site address and handed us one of his signature cards. We looked at each other and something clicked.

We are both outdoors people, enjoying everything from mountain biking to hiking, canoeing, fly-fishing and even orienteering years ago (many years ago). This hobby/sport looked like the perfect fit for us. She, being the younger of us, issued the challenge while we were online searching Web sites for information to “go for it.” The more we learned from the sites, the more it seemed this was a combination of outdoor activities, knowledge, stealth and a fair measure of luck that was perfect for us. She is not a golf nut yet, and I am only day labor when it comes to her outdoor passion – gardening. Geocaching, or treasure hunting, as our family calls it, would take over our free time and evenings on the computers, searching for caches and maps.

We have logged over 20 caches in the few weeks since we first logged on as Frodo13, and we don’t even own a GPSr. We are not snubbing the technology, in fact, I have an old Magellan Meridian XL but it seems to think we are located some 32 miles SSW of Panama City Beach, Florida (check the map – it’s kind of wet there), so it was no help. We have made all of our finds with downloaded maps and a good street atlas. And that is also where some of our frustration comes from. Finding information about cache locations, other than latitude and longitude, is harder than it might seem. As newbies, we don’t feel we have any right to ask the veterans to include clues for those of us who use this low-tech approach (3-D, color-enhanced satellite images aside). It might even start a small branch of caching that is underserved on the Web sites. We know we are having a blast and we have discovered lots of hidden places right under our noses, and we look forward to finding lots more.

I must admit we placed a bid on eBay for a new handheld GPSr. However, we think it might stay in the truck, unless there is an emergency and we really hit a tough one, or if there is a new travel bug that has been posted overnight and the dew is still on the ground and sunrise is in 20 minutes! Really, this great hobby has taken hold of us and we hope to introduce a few others to geocaching in less than three minutes.

Postscript:
Please consider including location descriptions that allow your cache to be found without a GPSr, and if you feel like it, encrypt them so it won’t take away from those who enjoy the latitude and longitude of it.

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David is an architect and his wife is completing her PhD in clinical psychology. The couple lives in Birmingham, Alabama, and has two cats – one of which is named Frodo.
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