urban treasure hunting
I went Geocaching with Jane today. As nerdy as the term for the activity is, it is actually totally fun.
Basically, there is an online community at www.geocaching.com of people that both hide and seek out little treasures. These treasures can range from a small film cannister with just a visitor log inside, to a chest full of goodies and knickknacks. You find the caches using a combination of GPS coordinates and hints, sometimes having to solve puzzles or riddles along the way. Overall, it's a great way to see parts of the city you've never seen before, and the thrill of a find makes it all worthwhile. Many of them are stashed in places you walk by everyday, but hidden out of plain sight.
We hit up three caches this afternoon near her house in Northgate. The first one was near a reservoir, and we were really frustrated. The clue seemed to hint that it was near a standard mini-trashcan attached to a bus station pole, but we couldn't find anything, and passing cars were shooting us strange looks. We searched and searched and were about to give up, when Jane (being a much better treasure hunter than I) reached under the can and realized that someone had built a false bottom that locked into it. A short twist later, she had a logbook in her lap.
Here is a typical cache logbook for good measure:
I am truly impressed by whoever engineered the false bottom. This thing was a work of art:
The next closest treasure on the list was located in a nearby park, so we headed over there. No riddle or hint was given, so we were searching through a patch of underbrush for quite some time before I spotted a plastic container hidden in the undergrowth near a fence. This one had been around since 2005, and thus was full of accumulated goodies:
We took a Porsche 911 commemorative coin, and left behind a little rubber koi fish.
The final cache we hit was in a communal "Pea garden", a shared space where several locals were growing produce. Again, we got a bit frustrated until we figured out the riddle, and then it was just a matter of time. There were no treasures, but the people who ran the garden were giving away some free plants and stuff, so I ended up with a potted shrub, and Jane got some garlic out of the deal.
__
All in all, it was a blast. I highly recommend this to you guys as a way to liven up a lazy summer afternoon.
I'll be hiding some treasures of my own pretty soon..
Basically, there is an online community at www.geocaching.com of people that both hide and seek out little treasures. These treasures can range from a small film cannister with just a visitor log inside, to a chest full of goodies and knickknacks. You find the caches using a combination of GPS coordinates and hints, sometimes having to solve puzzles or riddles along the way. Overall, it's a great way to see parts of the city you've never seen before, and the thrill of a find makes it all worthwhile. Many of them are stashed in places you walk by everyday, but hidden out of plain sight.
We hit up three caches this afternoon near her house in Northgate. The first one was near a reservoir, and we were really frustrated. The clue seemed to hint that it was near a standard mini-trashcan attached to a bus station pole, but we couldn't find anything, and passing cars were shooting us strange looks. We searched and searched and were about to give up, when Jane (being a much better treasure hunter than I) reached under the can and realized that someone had built a false bottom that locked into it. A short twist later, she had a logbook in her lap.
Here is a typical cache logbook for good measure:
I am truly impressed by whoever engineered the false bottom. This thing was a work of art:
The next closest treasure on the list was located in a nearby park, so we headed over there. No riddle or hint was given, so we were searching through a patch of underbrush for quite some time before I spotted a plastic container hidden in the undergrowth near a fence. This one had been around since 2005, and thus was full of accumulated goodies:
We took a Porsche 911 commemorative coin, and left behind a little rubber koi fish.
The final cache we hit was in a communal "Pea garden", a shared space where several locals were growing produce. Again, we got a bit frustrated until we figured out the riddle, and then it was just a matter of time. There were no treasures, but the people who ran the garden were giving away some free plants and stuff, so I ended up with a potted shrub, and Jane got some garlic out of the deal.
__
All in all, it was a blast. I highly recommend this to you guys as a way to liven up a lazy summer afternoon.
I'll be hiding some treasures of my own pretty soon..