Geocaching: Hidden treasures all around

kabc

By ABC7

Thursday, August 6, 2009

LOS ANGELES "I use millions of dollars of government equipment to find Tupperware in the woods," laughs geocacher Ed Karnes. "Because you're using the GPS system."

Link: Geocaching.com
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With a GPS device, you can go out and search for little containers with trinkets inside, hidden all over the world.

Karnes and Ken Fricke are geocaching buddies. This hobby has given them a chance to explore places like /*Griffith Park*/, as well as develop some strong friendships.

"You go places that you normally wouldn't go, quite honestly," said Karnes. "Most of the people I geocache with are working, they work five, six days a week. And they're dying for the weekend so they can get out there and cache. They cache with their families, their kids love it."

With kids being so naturally curious, geocachers say it's an ideal way to allow them to explore and have fun.

"They love it," agrees Fricke. "You put the coordinates in the GPS, and you turn it on, and the arrow says 'Go this way 50 feet,' and they grab the GPS from you, and they just start walking, walking, walking. And it's like, 'I found it, I found it!'"

There's really nothing of value in each cache. You just sign a log and move on to the next one.

"You always find a log. Always. That goes without saying," explains Karnes. "And you sign it. Now when you sign it, you go back onto the Internet, and you claim the find. Lot of people do this just for the fun of doing it, some people get into the point where they're doing it for the numbers. And I've just found my 3,000 cache about an hour ago."

If you think this is something you'd like to get into, visit Geocaching.com.