Geocaching treasure hunters use GPS satellites to find hidden stash around town.

Geocaching is a modern-day treasure hunting game that uses hand-held GPS devices.
GPS stands for "global positioning system," a series of two dozen satellites in low Earth orbit that continuously broadcast their position. GPS receivers are able to triangulate on these signals and determine your location on the Earth's surface.

How to play

Players, armed with a set of coordinates for a nearby geocache, go out and look for stashes of goodies hidden by other players.

If one of the goodies in a cache you find strikes your fancy, you can take it -- provided you leave another goodie in its place. In addition to the goodies, caches contain a logbook so you can scribble a note for future visitors.

Once you select a cache and enter its coordinates into the GPS receiver, the receiver can tell you how far away the cache is and in what direction it lies.

Figuring out how to get to a cache is half the fun. Knowing that a cache is, for example, 11.2 miles northwest of you doesn't do you much good if there's an impassible mountain range, a lake, or something else in your way -- you'll need to find your way around.

What is in a geocache?

You can find almost anything in a geocache besides the logbook. Typical items include:
  • Small toys
  • Books
  • LEGO bricks or mini-figs
  • Stuffed animals
  • Music CDs
  • CD-ROMs
  • Tapes
  • T-shirts


Cache bonus

Some caches contain a disposable camera. The camera isn't a goodie to be taken though; just take a picture of yourself and tell the cache owner if you snap the last photo. The cache owner can then recover the camera, develop the film, and put your smiling mug on a webpage along with those of all the other visitors to the cache.

Get the "Call for Help" geocache

We have the coordinates to a geocache for our viewers. Go here for the full details. Send an email to Ed Hall when you find it so he can keep a log on his website.

Ed Hall is know as Buxley in geocaching circles. Visit his website, Buxley's Geocaching Waypoint.