Geocaching: The Treasure Hunt you didn't know what out there.

A geocache hidden in the brush.

My dog Gage stood at full alert while I looked around an overgrown service road a half mile from my house. An area that always makes her nervous, possibly because the local coyote hides in there during the day. My phone said 3 feet. I knew I was close, but doubted I'd ever find anything in that tangle of brush. Then I saw it, a round plastic container with a screw top, covered in grey duct tape. I felt a little jolt of excitement I didn't expect. I pulled a few sticks off the top, unscrewed the lid, dropped in a Canadian coin, and just like that, I'd found my very first geocache.

I searched for my next one immediately.

My trusty Watchdog, Gage

Twenty feet off a busy bike path I walk all the time, Gage kept watch for muggles, geocaching lingo for non-geocachers, while I trudged into the trees and found a plastic container wedged between two diverging tree trunks. This one one was full of treasures: a list of names, tiny farm animals, a spotted rubber ducky, green beads, and now a Canadian dollar. I had no idea that items were hidden just off that path, luring people through the woods to sign their names. I'd walked past it a hundred times.

Trinkets inside a located Geocache

The last one was under a highway bridge on the same trail, a tiny metal tin wedged between a safety rail and a wood post, invisible unless you knew to look. Too small for trinkets, but tucked nearby and out of sight from the path was a unicorn rubber ducky. I signed the log, left my coin, and stuck it back with just a corner showing.

One morning, three geocaches, and I think I might be hooked.

What is Geocaching?

It started on May 3, 2000, the day after the government turned off selective GPS availability for civilians. Within 24 hours, a man named Dave Ulmer hid the first cache in Beavercreek, Oregon, filled it with trinkets and a logbook, posted the coordinates online, and geocaching was born. Twenty-six years later there are over 3 million caches hidden worldwide and millions of active geocachers. In Florida alone, over 31,000 are waiting to be found, including caches that require a kayak or scuba gear to reach. Florida State Parks has its own geocaching program with caches hidden across 71 parks from Pensacola to Key West.

A located Geocache

How it Works

Download the Geocaching app and sign up, it immediately shows every cache near you. Many locations are free; a paid membership unlocks harder and more hidden finds. Tap a cache, and the app guides you with a countdown: half a mile, 100 feet, 20 feet, 6 feet. Then you start looking for something that doesn't belong. When you find it, sign the logbook. Take a trinket if you want, but leave one in return. Log your find in the app and a smiley face marks it as found.

Geocaching Lingo

• Muggle: A non-geocacher nearby who might spot you searching. Borrowed from Harry Potter. The goal is to find the locations without being seen by muggles.

• DNF: Did Not Find. This happens from time to time.

• FTF: First to Find. Bragging rights when a new cache drops.

• TFTC: Thanks for the Cache. You can leave notes on the app, this is a common one.

• Trackable / Travel Bug: A tagged item you place in a cache with a mission, like "get me to Iceland." Anyone who finds it moves it along, and you can follow its journey on the app.

  
  

Geocaching is a great adventure that pretty much anyone can do at any age, any fitness level, any neighborhood. It is a great reason to get out and explore your neighborhood, or an area you are visiting. I stumbled into it watching a mom and daughter happily sign a logbook at a park and had to know what they were doing. Now I think I will always be curious about what might be hidden in parks and trails I am on.

31,000 locations are waiting for you in Florida. You have your work cut out for you.