Geocaching - Anyone with experience?

[Spectre]

I have been trying to find an activity that I would be able to do with my 10 year old son. A friend told me we should go geocaching. I looked it up and it sounds interesting... but would a 10 year old enjoy it?

The way I was looking at it is this...

1.) It would give us time together, without his mom or brother. (Which is what he wants.)
2.) It has a kind of "treasure" hunt aspect to it.
3.) It would get us out and exercising... (lord knows I need that)
4.) It can be done year round.
5.) Short of the initial investment of a handheld GPS... Cost is minimal.
6.) Might get him away from the X-Box for a while.
7.) There may be some great photo ops. along the way.

If there is anyone with experience geocaching, I would love to hear some opinions... Good, Bad or otherwise.

Heck, if you have anything to say on the topic.... experience or not.... I welcome your input.

 

[TOLady]

Paul, geocaching is the perfect sport for a father and son team. You'll spend quality time together out in Mother Nature's world, you'll see all sorts of wildlife, and your son will learn about navigating. I'd highly recommend it. Even the simple Garmin Etrex leaves a breadcrumb trail on the screen. If you sync your camera time with your GPS, you'll be able to marry up your pics with the GPS track and you can show these via GoogleEarth.

Go for it!

 

[BourbonCowboy]

Paul, geocaching is the perfect sport for a father and son team.

"Sport"?

 

[RossoGTV]

I have been trying to find an activity that I would be able to do with my 10 year old son. A friend told me we should go geocaching. I looked it up and it sounds interesting... but would a 10 year old enjoy it?

The way I was looking at it is this...

1.) It would give us time together, without his mom or brother. (Which is what he wants.)
2.) It has a kind of "treasure" hunt aspect to it.
3.) It would get us out and exercising... (lord knows I need that)
4.) It can be done year round.
5.) Short of the initial investment of a handheld GPS... Cost is minimal.
6.) Might get him away from the X-Box for a while.
7.) There may be some great photo ops. along the way.

If there is anyone with experience geocaching, I would love to hear some opinions... Good, Bad or otherwise.

Heck, if you have anything to say on the topic.... experience or not.... I welcome your input.

1) Absolutely. BUT, it may not last into the teenage years. Not cool then
2) True. But don't build up the expectations too high on the 'treasure' aspect. After a dozen or so plastic boxes crammed with damp McDonald's toys it palls a bit.
3. Again, this is true.
4. Yep. I'm not clued up on Oregon weather, but you may have to budget for some good warm, weatherproof clothing and footwear.
5. + Good clothing unless you already have it. A pda or smartphone is also useful for cache details if you don't want to have to print out the cache details.
6. Probably!
7. Definitely.

I started when my youngest was about 9 and he was fine but my eldest at 14 was certainly not interested. At 12/13 my youngest wasn't interested anymore.

 

[Matt336]

My dad and I have done it. He started Geocaching about 3 years ago (my senior year of high school) and I've went with him a few times. I thought it was fun. It's nice to spend time together doing stuff like that. I think you and your son would enjoy it.

 

[Bob Walters]

"Sport"?

Wasn't it Ernest Hemingway who said something like, "Bull Fighting and Auto Racing are the only sports. All the rest are games".

However, he forget to put Russian Roulette on the list. :biggrin::biggrin:

 

[robert photo]

I've been geocaching for almost 5.5 years now (though the last 2 years have slowed down quite a bit as far as finding caches, I'm still very involved in the local communities) but have always enjoyed it. I find I have more fun if I stick to the caches in parks or the ones with historical meaning. Some hiders go out of their way to hide caches that are fun and/or challenging or are at unique and interesting spots.

Let me know if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail off the forum if you'd rather. :smile:

 

[bnk190]

I've been geocaching since May 2002. I have slowed down the past couple years but it's an something I still like to do. I liked it a lot more when it first came out then I do now which is why I slowed down.

Here are my likes: Get to spend quality time with family, and friends. I can't tell you how many new parks I discovered through geocaching. In the past I would just drive by but when there is a cache in there you get to stop and explore. I liked this the most. You get the thrill of the hunt and it somehow would turn a boring walking into something more fun. At the time I wasn't into photography but yes there are lots of photo opportunties. When going on vacations I find local caches that are close by that again will take me to some places I would never go to. Doing this we stopped at some pretty cool places in South Dakota.

My dislikes are you put a ton of miles on your car and therefore go through a lot of gas. With the cost of gas at $4 that adds up quickly. My main dislike is now that so many people doing it. In the past the caches would be in cool places like in a forest or an interesting spot. Now that it's popluar you get caches in park and ride locations, gas stations etc. Granted you don't have to do these but you have to spend more time filtering through them. Who knows apparently other people like seeing parking lots. Not my taste though.

Don't expect to find much in the caches. When a cache is first introduced the best items are typically in there. Within a very short time you end up with lots of broken toys or Happy Meal toys. Great for little kids but not my liking. You don't have to trade anything which I typically don't for this reason.

Now when I geocache I go more for the location. Where is it taking me. I don't really care if I don't find the cache and many times don't even log it.


You may be in for a small shock on the cost. Yes you have a gps and a car and that's all you need but after hiking through wet grass and stepping in puddles I soon bought gortex boots, that then lead into still having wet jeans so you get wicking and quick drying pants, treking poles, back packs etc. It all depends on how far you go with it. The good news it's much cheaper then photography!!!!

 

[Wilross3]

You've probably already found this site http://www.geocaching.com/ but it is a great source of info. I've done some geocaching for about 6-7 years, less recently, but it is a fun thing to do. Some of the caches are really pretty well hidden - just make sure nobody sees what you are doing - a lot of caches get removed by people unfamiliar with the "sport."

I am amazed at how many caches are hidden in any given area.

Good Luck!

Bill

 

[Amarok]

I've done it a few times out here in Eastern Oregon, I found it as a good way of getting out and exploring the area. Out here there seems to be a tendency to setup caches that are more about finding the area and seeing whats in the area versus finding some McDonalds trinkets.

 

[BostonRott]

If you would rather not purchase a GPS, look at letterboxing instead. Not as popular, therefore not as many trashy locations. Most boxes are in woods, on hikes, and you get to have some grand adventures. :smile: It's been around in the US since '91, but in England since the 1880's.

 

[sommer]

We've been letterboxing for the last couple of years. A GPS is helpful for that but not necessary. For most outings, a compass and natural landmarks will do you just fine. There are no trinkets involved with letterboxing---you buy or create a family stamp and then exchange stamps in each others' books when you find the letterbox. My daughter chose our stamp when she was 7, so we have a gecko :smile:. She's 9 now, and she gets really excited about finding boxes. It's really fun to do on vacation, too---we did a few in Huntsville when we went down for the Cafe gathering one year. It gets you out and exploring new places near and far!

 

[threecats]

Been geocaching and some benchmarks for a few years. (threecats on geocaching site). Last trip out to NM we decided to find the vulture scene from Wild Hogs. A lot of the locations were on Google Earth. So armed with rough coords and a couple screen shots we managed to snag it exactly. After that we spent about 5 days caching while taking pics.

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[threecats]

Paul,
Get him a travel bug started. I have lost many but some I have sent off have been all over the world

 

[vinman]

My wife and I started this weekend and had a successful first attempt. We went for a late afternoon walk at a local college campus so I whipped out my iphone, opened the geocache app, and BOOM - they were everywhere! We picked two that we thought we could access with our stroller and found 'em both

My 16 year old son will be thrilled (he's as geeky about stuff like this as I am - I'm just excited that my wife is into it!).

 

[Kees de Bruin]

I don't do it myself but a few of my colleagues do and they are enjoying it with the whole family. And the suggestion to use the GPS track to tag your photos is also a goof one.

 

[threecats]

I don't do it myself but a few of my colleagues do and they are enjoying it with the whole family. And the suggestion to use the GPS track to tag your photos is also a goof one.

I did just try a test using my Garmin and Houdahgeo (for mac only) to tag some shots. I must say it did work very well and much easier than I thought. It took like 4 clicks to tag every shot.

 

[rhondavid]

My entire family loves geocaching. I have kids from 25 to 5 and everyone of them ask when are are going again. The little kids, 5 and 7 want to know when we are going treasure hunting.

I think geocaching is a great family activity, gets you outdoors and in some cases can give you a good workout too. The official geocache site is great and easy to use, it is free. There is a garage sale area on the site that offers used equipment for sale. That is where I purchased mine at a great price. This allows you to get into it without investing a huge chunck of change.

http://www.geocache.com

Give it a whirl! I think you will all like it.