Geocaching: Retreat activity for the entire family!

Geocaching has been called the fastest growing outdoor recreational activity in the world. Geocaching.com describes this activity as a “high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world, by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices.” The premise of the experience is to download Geocache locations from the internet to your portable GPS, follow the course set out to make the find, locate and sign the record inside the find, and re-hide the cache in the same place for the next adventurer. Geocaching is a great way to get outdoors with the family, our family call name is “eastfinders” and we have found different sizes and shapes of geocaches here I n Canada, the United States and in Austria.

The Geocache website has so much information about the history and the “game”, check it out. Countryside Camp has probably close to 30 Geocaches around our location in North Dumfries that will take you through the forests, into the marsh, and across rocky terrain in each of the identified levels of difficulty described on www.geocaching.com. Bring your camera, take a lunch and enjoy God’s creation and have fun with the entire family. This would make a great Retreat Activity for your church youth group or young adults. One year, to step up our annual family Easter Egg hunt, we hid the eggs as geocaches, with each egg having a set of coordinates; what a blast and a great way to engage the tech generation with the outdoors. GPS units range in price from $100 to $1,000 and there are even aps for your smart phone so check it out and check us out at N43.29339 W80.37091.