Some Basic Information About Geocaching:

What is Geocaching exactly?
Well... remember when you were a kid and you wanted to go dig up burried treasure and you thought that some sprinkler irrigation pipeing was actually pirate loot?  Its kinda like that, only less messy usually, and its not exactly in your backyard.

Geocaching is an opportunity to get off your duff and see the world.  No, its an excuse to buy expensive equipment and get off your duff and see the world.  Thats better.  For a more elegant version of this, check out http://www.geocaching.com/faq.asp for the official FAQ and stuff.  Good times.   

How is this supposed to be hard or entertaining?
Some people may think that its kinda strange that people find this fun when it seems so easy.  I mean you have the coordinates and the GPS, so the rest should be a piece of cake... right?  Hell no!  If it were that easy then no one would be doing this.  Part of the fun is searching for the cache and using your own keen navigation skills to get you there in one piece.  Some caches are placed in forests which makes it even more difficult since the trees disrupt the signal from the GPS sattelites.  You may only be able to get a signal about 150 feet away, and then have you use your brain from that point on.  Whatever the case, expect to be frantically trying to find the right place to park, the right trail to follow, and then whatever other skills may be needed by the particuler cache.  Some caches have you crossing streams, climbing mountains, and venturing out into remote parts of the desert.  Others take you to sandy beaches that are quiet and rarely feel human feet upon them.  And since each cache is placed by another fellow Geocacher, you can expect that they are placing that cache there because it represents a specific challange or is just a great spot that they want to share with others.  Either way, if you have a sense of adventure then this is a sport that you may find interesting.

I want some more information about this wicked cool sport!
Check out www.geocaching.com which is the official home of geocaching.  There you can register yourself (its free!) and start checking out caches!  You can even add specific caches to a "watch list" that can send you an e-mail every time there is a change to that cache.  Also another hobby for some people is the Degree Confluence Project, check it out at www.confluence.org.

So why do people do this?
Because it's fun, an adventure, and gets you to see more of the country than you would in your daily routine of home-work/school-home-sleep-repeat.  Granted, it's not a sport for everyone, but for those who like hiking and such, its a worthwhile experience.  Whats better than going hiking in a beautiful place and comeing back with something to show for it?