Having Fun with Geocaching GPS

You've probably heard of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) being used for serious concerns such as troop placements and targeting during warfare or helping to find lost hikers throughout the nation's wild places, but have you considered the many ways you can use GPS to simply have fun? It turns out there are several location-based games such as geocaching gps being enjoyed by the owners of individual, handheld GPS units.

Geocaching is one of these popular games and is like a high-tech treasure hunt. Players use their GPS units, many of which now can be bought for less than $100, to travel to certain latitude and longitude points on the map. When they arrive at the designated spot, they find and collect some sort of hidden object to add to their cache. These items are usually of no real monetary value and are stored in weatherproof containers. It's not the treasure itself that matters. It's the journey to the "treasure" and the fact that you found it. Along the way, players enjoy hiking and seeing some of the natural beauty the country has to offer.

There's also typically a logbook at the location in which players can record their adventures while seeking the cache. It's interesting to read entries in the logbook and then either leave the cache behind or take some of the items and replace them with similar ones. When the players return to a computer, they can record their finds on one of the Web sites catering to geocachers and get coordinates to the next cache for their next GPS adventure.

Another fun aspect is to track the travels of a specific cache item as it is found, taken and placed in a cache at another location. It's GPS geocaching's answer to Where it the World is Waldo. One of the items often used for this is a geocoin, which is usually imprinted with some sort of identifying marks such as the country of origin. Does this type of GPS game sound like fun? If so and you're wondering how to begin, check out http://www.geocaching.com/ for tips on how to get started. The site has information on the history of geocaching, answers to some frequently asked questions, a geocaching event calendar, tips on how to hide and find geocaches, a buying guide for GPS units, and a glossary so you can get all the terminology straight in your head.

Once you've read up on the basics, the site has lots of other areas to explore. You can do an online search to find geocaches that are in your area. For instance, a ZIP code search revealed that there are 10 geocaches within a mile of the post office for that ZIP code. You also can do searches by state, country, area code, latitude and longitude. If you want to hide a cache in your area, there are guidelines located at Geocaching.com and you can report the new cache via the site's online form.

There is a tremendous amount of information online about the fun activity of geocaching gps. Read up then get in the game.