A couple of years ago, a friend of mine picked up a GPS. I have to admit, being the geek that I am, that I was more than a little intrigued, especially once the U.S. government changed their policy around GPS and enabled them to be far more accurate for civilians than was previously allowed. But, practically speaking, I was a little bit at a loss as to how I might actually use a GPS. I didn't really see how I could benefit from knowing precisely where I was at any point in time.
That changed when I discovered geocaching. Sort of a game, sort of a reason to get outdoors, geocaching gives the GPS a purpose, namely to help you find stuff that other people have hidden. Kind of a clever concept, and one which I thought I was being so smart to think up until, when I mentioned to my friend "hey, wouldn't it be neat if we could challenge each other to find something with our GPS", to which he replied, "oh, you mean geocaching". Doh! I guess it just goes to show that there really are not that many fresh ideas anymore (but always room for a better implementation).
Anyhow, geocaching is implemented really well, so I won't go into how it can be made better (yet). But suffice it to say that I got a GPS for Christmas this year, and have really taken to the sport. In case you are interested, I got a Garmin GPS 72 (see why, at left), and use expertGPS on my desktop to manage data (although I am still searching for a good mapping option for Canada). Here are links to caches that I have found and hidden.
I have a number of travel bugs and geocoins, some in circulation and some waiting to get dropped off.
Geocaching has got me interested in hiking in general, and in the Bruce Trail specifically. I am embarrassed to say that all these years living in the Toronto area, I have not explored the Bruce Trail until now. Better late than never, I suppose.
Copyright © 2003, 2004, Tom Otvos