Hey jeffy

[JavaCat]

What's that geocaching thing on your GP signature?

[michigancat]

It's not cool.

Trust me.

[JavaCat]

I think it might be cool. I live in Johnson County though so maybe it isn't.

[michigancat]

My dad's done it a little bit.

Basically, you leave a trinket in a public place and post the coordinates somewhere online.  Then, someone uses their GPS to find it and move it to a new place.

I think.

[JavaCat]

A trinket? Yeah, that's not cool.

[jeffy]

Geocaching, as Rusty says, is treasure hunting.  It does use a GPS.  A typical cache would consist of a container of some sort (tupperware, ammo can).  Within the container are trinkets.  Some are worthless dollar store items, where others can be fairly interesting.  The reward in geocaching is not in the treasures, but in the find.  I have been some fantastic places that I never would have known were there had I not done geocaching.

One of the little 'trinkets' geocachers have are called travel bugs.  They are items, specifically numbered, which move from cache to cache while being recorded online.  I own a couple of travel bugs.  One went from Salina to Tulsa to the Puget Sound then back to Nebraska.  Here is an example of a travel bug.  I'm sure this will be familiar to all of us.

[JavaCat]

That's kind of cool. Need to find a better word than trinkets though.

[jeffy]

How about:
bangle, bauble, gaud, gewgaw, novelty, fallal, chachka, tchotchke

The official geocaching definition of our hobby is this:
"Geocaching (v.)
A sport where one uses expensive global positioning technology to locate useless dollar store items in remote locations of the planet."


There are log books in each cache.  Many people avoid trading items, but merely sign the log book to say they actually were there.

And there are caches for all levels of desire.  I've seen (not actually found) caches hanging along verticle cliff faces, but most are hidden amongst trees in relatively simple areas.

I would consider it an addictive hobby.

[cyclist]

  One went from Salina to Tulsa to the Puget Sound then back to Nebraska. 

All the way to Puget Sound, only to end up in Nebraska ?   

[jeffy]

Yeah, the Puget Sound....

When I made the TB, I put it in a cache in Tulsa.  Usually TBs tend to hang around a state for a bit.  I wanted it to rove around OK for awhile.  Stupid SOB took it right up to Seattle.... I'm just glad it's back in Big 12 country.