BlogHer - Give The Gift of Time and Adventure this Father's Day - Comments

We did this once

Mary Tsao — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 17:45:51 -0500

We did geocaching once, after my husband got his new GPS. Unfortunately, we picked a geocache that was much hard than our capabilities. It is harder than you might think!

We will definitely do it again, but probably when the kids are a little older and can participate in the adventure. It is pretty neat when you do find a cache.

Mary
BlogHer Contributing Editor, Mommy & Family
Mom Writes

Sounds fun

Pupsickle — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 11:16:29 -0500

Great idea - I've wated to try this for a while, but I've lacked the time. Father's day sounds like a good time to start.

We already have a GPS, so it'd be FREE. And I love a free gift idea. Thanks!

for dating, too!

jes — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 09:32:26 -0500

Am I a total nerd to say that I've already been geocaching, and think it's sooo fun? Sometimes Roger and I plan group dates (you know, with friends and such) and we go geocaching.

GPS units are also helpful for camping. And not getting lost.

But only if you know how to work them.

Give The Gift of Time and Adventure this Father's Day

Karen Rani — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 06:29:20 -0500

Contributing Editor Karen Rani also blogs at Troll Baby .

High on Life's Cindy, from Georgia, and her family have taken up a new hobby: Geocaching. Family adventure will never be the same.

The word geocaching comes from geo, for geography, and cache, like in your computer - a piece of memory, hidden away.

Using a handheld GPS unit, individuals and families (like Amber's, from My Life,) seek out a cache, planted by other individuals and organizations. The idea is much like a treasure hunt, and kids love it as much as Dad will. Participants use location co-ordinates to locate the cache, and are encouraged to leave something for the cache, if they gain something from their hunt.

Cindy's husband was estatic about his early Father's Day gift:

He ended up running around our front yard, in the dark...watching it "track" him. LOL! Anyway...we went on our first "Treasure Hunt" today! It was really a lot of fun. I have a feeling this is going to become our new family hobby.

Dzrtgrls have chronicled their Geocaching adventures dating all the way back to 2001. The writings are poetic and you can feel the hot desert sun as you dive into these stories:

Our daypacks thumped rhythmically against our backs as we followed the chain of waypoints loaded into the GPS unit. We were crossing a lava flow on a high plateau in the Mojave, about thirty miles east of Barstow. A hawk was circling; a coyote had just loped off to eye us suspiciously from a jumble of black volcanic basalt. Where were we going? We really had no idea!

GPS Units can cost anywhere from $100 to $1000, depending on how many features you're looking for. The official Geocaching website has a buying guide that proves helpful.

If you're reading this, you already have the most expensive piece of equipment needed for geocaching: a computer and internet access. For about a hundred bucks, you could give the gift every father really wants: an outdoor hunt, with his tribe.