We had the jones a few years ago, found maybe 100 caches. Our GPS tanked and since then we've gone maybe 3 times. It's still fun, but the obsession is gone. Worse things than geocaching to be struck with.

I went to find a bunch with my friend. I thought it was OK, but I thought that it was less fun than letterboxing, in which you really have to rely on your compass skills. That, and I was always disappointed in the caches themselves, which tended to be grubby, damp Ziplocs containing sodden notebooks, and only some cute things, mixed with crap like plastic bottle caps.

So, I like it a lot in theory and like the online/social aspect, but am more interested these days in using GPS/mobile media for things like discovering lost landscapes, trails and structures.

I'd never heard of letterboxing, miko. It sounds really cool - I think I'll find some places to stop while we're on our road trip.

I've never tried geocaching. I did see it on an episode of Law and Order once. I think the prize (or whatever it's called) was a clown fish keychain.

Here's Letterboxing

I've never tried geocaching. I did see it on an episode of Law and Order once. I think the prize (or whatever it's called) was a clown fish keychain

And a DEAD BODY

CHUNGCHUNG

Yeah, there's no way I'm going to even consider this or even try to find out it it happens in my area, because I would become addicted, lose my job and family and end up a shambling, stinking hulk of a human being.

It looks like Geek Heroin, indeed.

There are 351 Geocaches within a 5 mile radius of my postal code. Wow.

It's not so much the prize part of it - I've never taken anything from a cache, though I did start leaving things. It's the fact that these little things are all around, everywhere (at least here in Seattle) - like, EVERYWHERE. And I never knew! People are hiding and finding these things constantly (the log books seem to show caches being found no less than once a week). It's like I discovered some kind of conspiracy or secret society that was always there, but you had to look a certain way to see. I guess it just appeals to something in me that the steadfast skeptic I've become as an adult hasn't felt since childhood.


BTW, if you haven't already tried it, look here in the Google Map of nearby geocaches to your home or workplace. Tell me that's not just amazing (wherever you are, I'll bet!).