Today’s topic is one that is very near and dear to my heart: Geocaching. If you’ve heard of it, great. If you do it, even better. But if the word puzzles you and you’d like to learn more, then continue on, dear reader. Continue on. You’ll fall in love.

In simple terms, Geocaching is a game that anyone in the world who has a Global Positioning System (and recently, GPS enabled smartphone) can play. It began in the year 2000, when a man named Dave Ulmer stashed a black box full of books , videos, money (probably not a lot) and other goodies  in the ground. Going online, he publicized a set of GPS coordinates that would allow anyone to discover the exact location of the box, originally termed a stash. The rules of the game were simple: Find the box, take something, leave something different behind. And most importantly, sign and date the logbook that was inside the container, as proof you had been to visit.

Now, 15 years later, the rules are much the same. Called geocaches, these containers can vary in size from being no larger than your finger to large canisters full of swag to trade. In every cache there is a piece of paper or logbook, which you sign when you find the cache. They’re not always easy to find, and the locations they can be hidden in are sometimes very tricky and devious. There are even different types of caches to find: multi-caches, caches that give you coordinates to a location where the coordinates to the next location are hidden until you arrive at the final cache; mystery caches where you have to solve a puzzle in order to find the coordinates to the cache, and many more. It’s a brilliant little hobby, and tens of thousands of people hunt for them every day. There are caches hidden almost everywhere, and the U.S. is especially saturated with them.  Don’t believe me? Go to the website Geocaching.com and type in your location. I will bet you money that there is at least one within a few miles of you right now. You’ve probably passed by it for years without a clue as to its existence. Here’s a map of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, a town I’ve gotten into trouble plenty of times in. Each green rectangle, question mark, and smiley face is the precise location of a geocache (smileys are ones that I have personally found).

I know, it’s nuts. How are they so prolific, you ask? Well, one of the cool features of geocaching is that anyone can place one. If you see a good spot for one, you can put a cache together, plot the exact coordinates, and upload it to the website. You’d be surprised at how quickly people will start hunting it down. The geocaching community is full of really great people, just enjoying the outdoors and the thrill of the hunt.

Now there are specific rules of course, you can’t just throw a container into someone’s yard and call it a day. Placing a cache on private property without the owner’s consent is a big no-no, and so is placing one too close to where many people are normally active. After all, people are naturally curious animals and often horribly mess up things they don’t understand. This is where the term muggles comes into play. Yes, just like the race of non-magical folk from Harry Potter, and they’re just as common. Muggles in the geocaching sense are people who don’t have a clue about caching, a.k.a. all of you guys reading this (well before you read this- now you’re in the know!). If they find a cache, they might not leave it alone, they could vandalize, destroy, steal or otherwise ruin the geocache, and believe me, that’s the worst thing that can happen in this game. So if you have the urge to find some caches, don’t let anyone see you when you find them. It can raise some awkward questions or worse, they could see you replace the cache, find it themselves, and steal/remove it. It adds a little clandestine activity to the scavenger hunt, which makes it all the more exciting.

Muggle-dodging aside, there are also some other rules critical to successful geocaching. If you come across a cache that contains all manner of interesting goodies, feel free to take one! However, please only take ONE, and in return you must put something of your own into the cache. Nothing of extreme value is necessary, I’ve seen stickers, plastic spiders, and even packs of gum (which I really don’t recommend). Just feel free to take a memento and leave one for the next cachers to enjoy as well.

One of the most important things you can do is leave the cache just like you found it. Some of the geocaches are planted in very tricky locations to reach, or otherwise very well hidden. It is vital that once you have finished signing the log and/or trading items, you place it back exactly where it was. The GPS coordinates have been precisely set by the CO (cache owner), and if you move the cache it may become difficult or impossible for anyone to find it after you.

Lastly, have fun! This whole game has been designed for the sole purpose of giving people a fun and interactive way to explore the outdoors, learn local history and enjoy hunting down secret treasures. I’ve come across some absolutely beautiful areas while searching for these babies, with stunning mountain views and sparkling waterfalls. I’ve also learned some fascinating things about Tennessee, like the fact that there’s a tiny park in the middle of Murfreesboro that has a monument at the precise center of the state, or that there’s a piece of Mount Rushmore in the middle of Smyrna. Crazy stuff, and I know about it solely thanks to geocaching.

If any of what I’ve just said piques your interest, then I encourage you to go to the Geocaching website and sign up for an account. Like everything in this world, anything people find remotely fun gets commercialized so companies can turn a fat profit, but a regular account is free and gives you access to more geocache locations than you could ever find in a lifetime. A premium account is a monthly or yearly subscription that is worth the investment for heavy geocachers, but completely unnecessary for anyone starting out. You can also download a variety of geocaching apps from the Google Play Store or App Store. The official one that is produced by the makers of the website I just linked to has a very slick design, but is often unreliable when it comes to determining your exact location. Also, never, NEVER pay for its $10 big brother. It is actually worse than its free version, and is hella overpriced to boot. My favorite would have to be c:geo, which, while possessing a slightly more cluttered interface, has far more options for the non-premium user and gives you much greater control than the “official” geocaching app. Both use your geocaching.com account to login and therefore when you log a cache you’ve found on either app, it posts it on your account so you can see it on the computer, the other app, or whatever: they’re all connected.

So there you have it! My rudimentary explanation of one of my favorite outdoor activities. I hope it catches you on fire as it did for me, but if not, that’s fine too. You might come across the word in a few years and remember “hey! I read a post on some guy’s awesome blog about that. I should check it out this time.” In the meantime though, I’m gonna be out searching for caches. I hope to see you out there one day too (except I’ll probably think you’re a muggle and hide). Happy hunting!