Geocaching

Like any activity, the right equipment will cost you some money up front. But once you have bought a GPS receiver, you are set. Geocaches are almost always found on public lands or other areas open to the general public, so there shouldn't be any admission fees. The website http://www.geocaching.com only charges a minimal fee to become a full member. It is $3 US a month or $30 for a full year. Even this fee is optional, as most of the services of the website are available to non-paying members. You are not obligated to put items into a cache (but don't take anything if you don't leave anything). Most times, I only sign the log and carry on. Even if you do leave items, they rarely cost more than a dollar per item. Geocaching has been described as: "People with too much time on their hands using a multi-billion dollar global sattelite network to find Dollar Store trinkets in the middle of nowhere."

A late response, I know, but geocaching is a relatively free and fun sport. It requires a GPS navigator of some sort, but aside from that, it can be relatively cheap. I paid about $100 for my Magellan eXplorist 200 GPS unit, and it's the only real expense I've had to pay for, aside from gas money to reach some of the places I've gone geocaching at. Basically, it involves finding the coordinates to a cache in your area by browsing http://geocaching.com. Then you enter the coordinates into your GPS and use the GPS to find the location--usually a local park or monument, though sometimes smack-dab in the middle of nowhere. Usually the cache description will state the difficulty involved in reaching the cache. Once you reach the area, there's a lot of fun wandering until you narrow down the exact area of the cache, then a LOT of searching. Caches can be as small as film cannisters or as big as large boxes, but the most common ones (film cannisters and ammo boxes) are usually pretty well hidden, often in natural hollows in trees or sometimes in small rocky nooks. Once you find a cache, you log it by signing a logbook and maybe by taking something from the cache. Most large caches contain a number of small trinkets (usually McDonald's toys--lots of people take their kids--but sometimes cool things like pins or medals or even gift cards) that are free to take, though it's good form to leave something of equal or greater value. I usually hike around with a handful of things to drop off in the caches I find. Finally, you return to geocaching.com and enter the online log to show that you found the cache. I've only found a little over 10 caches, but some people have found as many as several thousand. It's one of those sports that you accomplish as much as you're willing to put into it. It's very casual, and not usually competitive, but still a lot of fun.

I've never heard of it.

I ran across your question here and it looks like it's been answered several times. I am curious if you are still reading these messages if you ever went geocaching

I have used a compass and the map provided by geocaching.com! I still do not have a gps unit. I have seen geocaches with one hundred dollar bills in it for the first to find, and the gps store has travel bugs that are not exactly dollar store stuff! I also use the bus to get to caches and walk to the location. Often there is one at the park, library parking lot, beach, even the shopping center! Some are virtual caches, so all you have to do is find something, like a mural or something like that! The best ones are puzzles and may have more than one part! Definitely a lot of fun, and the get-togethers are the best! Potluck picnics and celebrating birthdays even if you do not know anybody yet! This year, there is going to be a geocaching woodstock in California!

All I know is that it must be fun because my wife can't get enough of it. I think that she has done all the ones in our local area and now she is dragging me and my son further and further afield. She has lost weight running up and down the hills looking for those caches. She is obsessed. Oh, she has an obsessed partner as well and an obsessed posse that gang up sometimes at night for a BBQ and then they go caching in the bushes. They also meet up at the pub sometimes to talk about caching, exchange geocoins and find more caches. My wife and her friend are teachers and they have been offering it to a group of students as a co-curricular activity and some of those students are becoming obsessed as well. Don't get involved; once you get started you too might become obsessed.