“Caching is a great way so see new places and blow off some steam while you are exploring. It can be done in the country or the city and you can meet great people along the way,” says Tania Rice, owner of Certified Esthetics in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Caching — or geocaching as it’s more formally known — is an outdoor recreational activity in which the participants use a GPS and other navigational aids to hide and find containers anywhere in the world. “Basically, we use a GPS to locate caches, trade swag items in the cache, sign the log book, and leave it for the next adventurer,” explains Rice. “We do this year-round with our family. It can take us to interesting places in the city or take us deep in the woods.”

Geocaching first became possible in May 2000 when the U.S. government gave the public access to GPS satellites around the world. Rice became involved when her son heard about the activity on a children’s TV show and asked her to Google it. “When we did, we found out the closest of the million caches all over the world was just 500 meters away from our house.”

That was enough to get them hooked. “We have geocached all over Canada and the U.S. We have been to Canada’s very first cache. We have a travel tag in the shape of a heart that has traveled from one end of Canada to the other by being picked up and dropped off by fellow cachers,” she says. “I love learning about historical buildings and places, beautiful scenery, and the thrill of a good hunt!”

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.

Read more about