Hello! Miss Julie here to tell you all about the fun time we had on October 17 at the Learn to Geocache Program at Prairie Park. Though the air was chilly and the sky was misting, these stalwart fellows braved the elements to find the six treasures buried under branches, in tree trunks, and under logs. And what fun we had! Take a look at this slide show:
Did you miss your chance to Geocache with our group? Never fear! There will be another chance to use the Earth’s multi-billion-dollar satellite system to search for treasure in Prairie Park in November. However, if you do not want to wait, I will keep the caches active this week ( October 19 – the evening of October 25) so that you can try your hand at searching for caches on your own. Here is a printable PDF that you can open up to find all the coordinates that you need:
As you can see, each cache has coordinates that you could enter into your map (Google Maps or whatever program you choose), an aerial picture of the cache area, and a QR code. If you scan the code with your phone instead of punching in the coordinates, the QR code will take you to where you need to be in Google Maps. Make sure you have “GPS” enabled on your phone. Some phones, like mine, call it “Location”, but they are one and the same. A blue triangle, which represents your location, should pop up on the map with the most direct route to the cache drawn out for you. Just follow this path, and voila! You will be near the treasure. Now the GPS will only get you within a few feet of your goal, so from there on you have to search. Brush aside leaves, look under branches, and if you get stuck, check the hints on the PDF printout. A word to those that have older iPhones: for some odd reason, when people put the coordinates into their iPhones, sometimes they were shown a location in China. While there may be geocaches hidden in China, rest assured, I did not put them there. This problem was easily solved by using the QR code instead of the actual coordinates, so these families were still able to be successful in their searches.
If you want to read in detail about how geocaching works, then take a look at this other printable PDF that explains which programs you can use, geocaching etiquette, and how the satellites work to lead you to a specific spot on Earth: