7/29/06 Geocaching

Now here's a really cool idea. I've never really wanted a gps unit ever...but then I read about this geocaching and now I'm tempted to go out and get my own unit so I can start doing this. It looks like so much fun. I typed in my little town and Napa and was surprised at all the caches just waiting for me to find. What else is cool is you can also create caches. AND when you find a cache you get a little prize that was left by someone else. But when you take something, you've got to leave a little something too.

"Anywhere on Earth -- it's a sport. It's a hobby. ItÂ's certainly an adventure. And for a growing number of outdoor enthusiasts, it’s becoming an obsession. Geocaching combines the mental challenge of a scavenger hunt with the physical challenge of hiking through unknown territory. According to geocaching.com -- the online worldwide headquarters for geocaching -- the derivation of the label is straightforward enough: 'geo'’ as in 'Earth'’ and '‘cache'’ -- as in the French verb cacher which means "‘to hide"’. Geocachers crawl all over the Earth to find items hidden in everything from caves to tree trunks to roadside guardrails. Here'’s how it works. Members of the geocaching community hide treasures or caches. Since the community is worldwide, the treasures could be a couple of miles or a couple of continents away. As of this writing, there are approximately 290,000 caches hidden in 222 countries."

A really cool thing is this is a great sport for women to get into. Lynn Black of Hershey, Pennsylvania is the world’s top geocacher. With a over 16,000, she has found more geocaches than anyone else.

To check it out visit:

www.geocaching.com