Geocaching

Today when I woke up and checked the temperature, I found that it was 70 degrees outside.

Determined not to waste such a beautiful day, I decided to go geocaching.

For those of you unaware, geocaching is an international hide and seek game, essentially. People will hide small containers, called caches, and then post the coordinates on geocaching.com. Then other people will use those coordinates to find the geocahce. When you find it, you log on the website that you found it, sometimes sign a log left in the cache, then replace it and move on.

Before today the last time I had gone geocaching was the summer after my first year of grad school. My friend Becky and I had tried to find some of the caches on Kent's campus with zero luck, and eventually gave up because it got dark and a storm was coming.

Today I decided to go and find some of the caches that were close to campus. I found a few parks I didn't know existed...one just off campus by the highway (where I was unsuccessful in finding the cache) and another north of campus with a large mansion and hiking trails (where I was again unsuccessful in finding the cache).

I eventually became determined to find SOMETHING today, so I expanded the search and found one located near the airport. Unsure of whether I would be able to actually access the cache, I went on my way. What I found was an old pet cemetery from the 1940s and 50s. This place obviously hadn't been used in recent years, but was still cool to see. I walked through the park on my way to the cache and this time was successful in finding it. It was a cool find, and very easy, and unlike the last two, was where the coordinates said it would be.

I love discovering new places. The fact that I found the park with hiking trails means that I will be going back there now that the weather is nicer. It also just seemed like a good place to go to get away from campus...which is something I feel that I will be needed much of in the next few weeks.

Geocaching is wonderful. If you haven't tried it, perhaps you should.