Once upon a time, we thought treasure hunts were the people we read about in our childhood fantasy books.
At least, that’s what I thought. Until my dad introduced me to geocaching.
Geocaching isn’t entirely new, mind you. This introduction happened when I was in early middle school. (For context, I’m 21 now).
People began geocaching in 2000. For all you techies who want to learn why GPS technology became more precise at that time, click here. For all you who don’t care, read on.
What is geocaching?
Using GPS coordinates, geocachers are directed to a cache, which is sort of like a treasure chest. Once they find this treasure chest, they open it, sign their name (or username), and take one of the treasures inside. Of course, you replace the treasure with something of your own.
Before you get too excited, most caches aren’t big enough to be treasure chests. Many of them are microcaches, which are about the size of a film canister. But I think these are the most fun to find. They’re small enough to hide in creative spaces, even though you don’t get a treasure. Obviously, these are the cheapest and easiest to hide. They’re also the most common.
What do you need to go geocaching?
An account on geocaching.com
At geocaching.com, you can find the coordinates to caches near you, log your finds and interact with fellow geocachers. It’s the first step to getting started.
GPS
In elementary school, we used my dad’s clunky Garmin watch and manually entered in the coordinates. Now Geocaching has a free app—so your smart phone works as your GPS. Get it here: app.
Pen
You have to sign your name, and a pen won’t fit in many microcaches. It’s a good idea to bring your own.
Vocabulary
If you’re going to geocache, you’ll want to know the lingo. Here’s some of the most common words you’ll hear.
Muggle
Yes Harry Potter fans, it’s the same word. Just as a muggle in Harry Potter’s world is in the dark about magical things, so a muggle in the geocaching world doesn’t know about geocaching (you might have been one of them before this article). So be stealthy. While you’re searching for a cache, you might weird some muggles out. They might think you are doing something illegal. Or that your cache is a bomb. It’s a true story.
Hitchhiker
Items that move from cache to cache. If you see one in a cache, you can take it and move it to a new one (tracking it online, of course). The idea is that the hitchhikers will travel a great distance.
Since my early days of geocaching, they’ve added a premium account. This means you have to pay to find the coordinates to some caches. We know, eye roll.
This is where we come to my story.
I found 74 caches alongside my dad. I even hid one with my sister (it’s no longer active RIP).
This year, when I tried to resurrect my account, I couldn’t even remember my username. After having geocaching.com send a reminder to an ancient email account, I found that it was crosscountryJN, referencing my days as a cross country runner in middle and high school.
I found the app (there’s an app now?!!!!) and realized I could use it as a way to explore Sarasota. I commute from Largo, which is about an hour and ten minute commute (ouch). Any excuse I get to understand Sarasota a little better is a good one.
So join me on the beginning of my adventures of geocaching in Sarasota.
I visited two caches near the beach: In the Palm of Your Hand and Useless Coin Microcache.
Don’t worry, there are no spoilers here!
In the Palm of Your Hand allowed me to discover Lido Beach. There were plenty of muggles around, and I, adjusting to using my phone as my GPS took much longer than I should have to find a cache other users called an easy find.
But the view was spectacular.
The hunt for the cache begins at Lido Beach. Photo by Jennifer Nesslar
I couldn’t find Useless Coin Microcache, but previous users said it might need maintenance. So it may not have been there. Either that or I’m pretty rusty at geocaching.
But while I was there, I was introduced to Bayfront Park, full of gorgeous views and playing dolphins. It even had a kid’s splash park. And an even better view, I would venture, than the previous cache provided.
The entrance to Bayfront park, a place I discovered while geocaching. Photo by Jennifer Nesslar
One of the many views at Bayfront Park. Photo by Jennifer Nesslar
My conclusions about geocaching in 2015:
- New technology isn’t always more reliable. My dad’s clunky old Garmin was a lot more accurate GPS than my phone is.
- Premium is a bummer. I can’t visit half the caches in this area without paying to upgrade. As a broke recent college grad, I can’t afford that. Thumbs down, geocaching.
- I never would have stumbled upon Lido Beach or Island Park on my own, even though they near places I have gone many times during my internship. So if you want to explore Sarasota—or you’ve lived here forever and everything seems dull—go geocaching. You just might find something amazing—or at least something interesting.
