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A new and exciting sport is taking shape around the world and it's called Geocaching. Take a vigorous hike, mix in a bit of technology, adventure, exploration, mystery, don't forget a thinking cap, and some patience and you have the makings of a Geocaching adventure. All you need is a GPS or Global Positioning System, a pair of hiking boots (in most cases) and the desire to explore. Internet access is also necessary, but more on that in a moment. What is Geocaching exactly? According to the official Geocaching website (http://www.geocaching.com) the sport is described as: "Geocaching (pronounced Geo-cashing like cashing a check) is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache."
A cache is a hidden treasure chest containing just about anything. They can contain simple trinkets, money, a disposable camera for the cache finders to photograph themselves at the cache, logbooks, coordinates to other unpublished caches, or in many cases "travel bugs". Travel bugs are small metal tags containing a code number for tracking the bug as it makes its way around the world. Basically, an individual creates a cache containing a travel bug they purchased on the Geocaching website. This bug features a unique identifying number. Once the cache is hidden and the coordinates are published on the Geocaching website, it becomes an available cache to be found. Anybody can visit the site and download the coordinates of the cache and attempt to find it. Once found, the visitor can take the travel bug and relocated it to another published cache. This is how the bug moves from location to location. Another Geocacher can then locate the new position of the bug, visit that cache and again relocate it to another cache location. Travel Bugs have been known to travel far distances in this way and can be tracked by visiting the Geocaching website.
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