By Deserae Johnson, @Northwest Wellness Massage / @harvester_woodworks
Imagine telling your kids, “We’re going on a treasure hunt today!” You pull up an app on your phone, click on a green dot, and follow the path. Once you arrive at the location, you begin your search. You don’t know what container you’re looking for and you don’t know what you’ll find inside. All you have is the GPS coordinates and your instincts to guide you! You only need some time in between appointments, a half day before preschool, or a Saturday with no plans.
There are more than 1,500 Geocaches in Boise alone and millions worldwide. Once you’ve created your account you’ll have access to finding Geocaches immediately. You can almost quite literally find one in your backyard here in the Treasure Valley! And the best part, it’s FREE! Yep, completely free, but there is one catch. You will need a cell phone or GPS device to participate.
There are two different account types: Traditional (free), and Premium ($39.99/yr or $6.99/mo.) As with many subscriptions, each level has its own benefits. With a traditional membership you will have access to a limited number of caches and have the ability to view premium caches on the map, but will need a premium subscription to view and find the premium caches. The app itself is intuitive and simple to learn.
My son and I found our first cache on 11/6/2011. We were immediately hooked and for more than a decade my family and I have been hunting for Geocaches. Most caches include some sort of trinket. The rule of thumb is, you can take something, if you leave something in return. Over the years we’ve collected key chains, coins, collectibles, toys, and Travel Bugs. We’ve found caches that required a magnet to recover, a riddle to solve, and a series of caches, each with a clue to finding the final prize. Each cache container is as unique in size as it is in shape. One of our most favorite caches was disguised as a nail and hidden in a fence post right alongside other nails; hidden in plain sight, like many other caches. There’s always an adventure waiting with each cache.
My favorite part of searching for Geocaches is the hunt. Over the years, Geocaching has helped us discover and explore waterfalls, caves, desert landscapes, and mountain terrain. We’ve waded through water, dug in the dirt, sand, and mud, and overturned millions of rocks. We’ve had caches that elude us to this day, and caches that we’ve come back to time and time again.
The kids love signing each cache’s logbook and reading through the others who’ve signed before us. The trinkets are so much fun to look through, but our favorite to find is a Travel Bug. It’s a special device with a serial number. When you look that number up online you can view every place in the world it's been. Then you get the fun of passing it on to another cache for someone else to find.
Once you’ve become pros at hunting, you can hide your own, just as we’ve done. We’ve made so many memories with our family and friends and found new places that we never would’ve found otherwise. While we love the excitement of finding a cache, we will forever love the thrill of the hunt the most!
To learn more check out https://www.geocaching.com/play and @geocaching on Instagram!
About The Author:
Deserae Johnson is the mom of a 16yo boy and 6yo girl. She’s lived in the Treasure Valley for 29 years and in Idaho for nearly 33 years. She’s a Sports Massage Therapist and a Woodworker. Her family enjoys Idaho’s outdoors and has explored it from top to bottom. They love discovering new places and sharing this beautiful place with family and friends.