“Using Multi-million dollar satellites to find
tupperware containers in the woods.”--nucci6

What is Geocaching?

Last updated 2/12/2009

Geocaching is a great outdoor sport that the whole family can enjoy. You'll see new things, experience the great outdoors, overcome challenges, and solve puzzles.  Using a GPS and a set of coordinates from Geocaching.com, you'll set out to find "buried treasure", more commonly called a cache.  Some will be easy to find, just hidden well, but others may require you to overcome physical obstacles or solve riddles or word games.

Caches range in size from as small as a thick watch battery to as large as a chest.  All but the smallest caches, micros, will typically contain a logbook to sign and leave some words regarding your experience, and items for trade.  Typically the trade items are small children's toys which makes this activity extremely fun for kids.  The rule of thumb when trading items is to always trade up, always put something better in the cache than what you take.  Our signature trade items are brand new Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars, they are always popular with kids and seem to get snatched up quickly.

How to Get Started

There are a lot of resources online that can help you get you started in this sport.  Geocaching.com has a greate Getting started page that provides a lot of information and tips.  Although I'm not endorsing any of the products, in the Tools page on this site I list and describe the tools and applications I use for Geocaching with my family.

Who is E.T. Phone Home?

E.T. Phone Home is my family's Geocaching name, don't make the same mistake I made when we first got involved in this sport.  On the Geocaching.com website, you'll need to create at least a free account on their server.  I made the mistake of using my standard account for websites.  This account becomes your Geocaching name, so take some time and come up with a cool name for yourself.  We ended up changing our name after over 100 finds, but fortunately I was able to re-log them under the new name.

Our First Find

Read about our first find, the event that changed our lives as a family forever.

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Make Your Own Custom Garmin Maps

Find out how easy it is to create your own maps for your Garmin GPSr using freely available data and tools.

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Preparing for a Great Day Caching

Here's how we prepare for a great day of caching using TomTom, GSAK, and some macros.

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