30 Days of Blogging - Day 21: Geocaching

10! (This is the beginning of the countdown DUHNAHNAHNUH)

I just added an update w/ picture to Day 12 so check that out fo shizzle if you are interested in picturing my weirdness.

For today, however, I would like to talk at you about Geocaching.

What is geocaching? Allow me to quote the website.
Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. 
Facebook has started this "One Year Ago Today..." thing (which explains why so many people have been talking nostalgic-like as of late on my FB feed) and turns out that exactly one year ago today is when I found my first geocache.

It was a tiny magnetic container stuck to the underside of a walking bridge.


Sadly, it has since been muggled (which is the smartypants term for when someone who is assumed to not be a geocacher harms/destroys a cache), but I still walk over that bridge all the time and smile.

I haven't tried to find many caches since, and I only have about a 50% success rate, but it is a really fascinating activity that I would wholeheartedly recommend everyone try at some point.

There are a TON of caches, literally all over the world.







As a reference, this is a screenshot of the livemap of geocaches in and around Grande Prairie.

Every green box thing is a cache.

There are 98 caches in this picture alone, and this whole picture is only a teenyteenytiny dot on the world map.






Try it. It's the most fun and most frustrating futile activity I've ever taken part in, and it's always a gamble what you're gonna get!

Things I wish I'd know (or paid more attention to):

- Start easy, start happy. Maybe with one in a parking lot (it's probably hiding in the base of a light pole).

- Download the app. Also, read the recent comments on the cache to see how recently it was found and if there are any hints.

- Don't trust the GPS on your phone. DON'T DO IT!! It is not very precise and it can only get you to a plus/or/minus amount of meters. I've spent far too much time staring down at my phone walking around like a goof because my phone can't decide if the GPS is pointing to the garbage can in the parking lot or the picnic table behind me or the fence over there or...

- Go with friends, but choose wisely.  DON'T take anyone who gets bored easily. DON'T take anyone who isn't interested (you will not be able to change their mind quick enough, trust me). DO go with someone who has experience, if you can.  And DO go with people you can frustrated with and still have a good time.

I personally think it's a blast and I look forward to more finds in the future :)

Toodles for now my lovelies! I can't believe there are only 9 more days!!

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