At the risk of stealing my own thunder, I’ve titled this article with a spoiler to be sure. So I was trying to find a good idea for an adventure for Ian and I to go on since it was a Sunday and we were both free. After going through the obvious activities such as beach, nature hike, playground, etc, I figured that the ‘generic’ options were not nearly creative enough for the two of us to have any lasting fun. Instead I tried to imagine some activities that would appeal to my sense of adventure and it hit me, why don;t we tryout geocaching? The adventure game where people stash boxes, bins, tubes, and tupperware with tokens, clues, and logs for a fun and exciting game for all. According to the geocaching official site:
“Geocaching is the real-world treasure hunt that’s happening right now, all around you. There are 2,492,832 active geocaches and over 6 million geocachers worldwide.”
These number provided by geocaching seemed impressive yet effermeral to me at first since what does nearly 2.5 million geocaches really look like anyway? Well, after browsing through the caches in my local area I have to admit to being quite taken back by the long list. While I am sure the coverage changes with region, I can attest to the multitude of sites located in Barnstable, MA.
Not knowing what we should be looking for and how to best navigate the entries, my brother and I decided that picking our caches based on proximity and name would be our best bet–besides, it keep it simple for our first go. I know I was always told to not pick a book based on its cover, but how many of us actually follow that truism anyway?
To spare everyone the play-by-play–and to keep from giving away any spoilers–what Ian and I found was a great sport full of adventure, mystery, and bonding time. This proved to be the first of many outings that Ian and I will share playing this great game of geocaching. (We even have some ideas for our own caches in the future!)