Freeocaching. Geocaching With No GPS.

Our Nerdy Hobby, Geocaching Without Gadgets

My wife and I have been active participants in the sport of Geocaching for a few years now. It is a great way to get outdoors, exercise and be rewarded by finding hidden caches of small treasures. It encourages us to discover hidden places off the beaten path and notice things in the outdoor environment that we would have normally never have paid any attention to. An example of this is when we recently went Geocaching in Austin Texas on the Barton Creek Greenbelt. One of the geocaches that we discovered was hidden along a trail that hugged the edge of the cliff.

One of the clues regarding the cache on the Geocaching website, was to look for pieces of wax honeycomb on the ground near the edge of the cliff. We thought this was a bizarre clue, but did find a spot that was littered with pieces of honeycomb and dripped beeswax. Just above the hidden cache, which consisted of an old ammo box full of trinkets, toys and music CD's, was a beehive halfway up on the cliff wall. According to the clues that were left about the cache by the person who hid it, the beehive in the crevices of the cliff wall was known to be over two hundred years old. Early Texas settlers had collected honey from that same cave in the 1800's.

It is little discoveries such as these, along with the joy of finding little "treasures" and leaving pther ones to be found, that make this adventure sport so much fun.

Freeocaching is Born

Recently while out on a hunt, our GPS quit working. The handheld  GPS unit made by Garmin only cost a hundred bucks but we were strapped for cash just after the Christmas holidays and couldn't afford a new one. We decided to try a new twist to the sport. "Freeocaching" we call it, or Geocaching without a GPS.

For many years before Geocaching, a similar hobby called letterboxing was enjoyed by a small number of people, including scouting groups. Letterboxing is similar to geocaching except that detailed clues are provided about the location of the letterbox. The letterbox is often a book that you sign, to show that you were among the people who found it. Geocaching improved on this hobby by adding the element of technology and prizes in the cache. From time to time the Chrysler Corporation even sponsors a geocaching promotion featuring tokens that are placed in geocachers. Some of these tokens may win the finder a new Jeep.

We decided to try and find geocaches in our area with just a topographic map, compass and the clues provided on the Geocaching.com website. The website provides links to topographic maps that you can print out and carry with you, as well as clues and "spoilers" if you want to read them.

To find a freeocache you just need to use the clues given in the description about elevation, vegetation, etc, and use your common sense to imagine where in the general area the hider would have chosen to place the geocache. You can use spoilers if you like, but we perfer to ignore them.

I have found that the maps on the geocaching.com site will get you within about 200 feet of where the cache is located. Your odds of finding the geocache are not as good as using a GPS, but we both enjoy the challenge of using this method. It is not always about the finding that makes the sport fun.

Since we began our new take on geocaching, or "freeocaching", we have found over fifty caches without using a GPS. It adds a whole new element of challenge to the sport.

What You Will Need For Freeocaching

It really helps if you have a partner to help zero in on the cache. It also helps if you have two way radios. We use a pair of Midlad GMRS radios and a headphone / mic setup. A good compass is also essential. Wear long pants to protect you from thorns and poision ivy, take lots of water and plan on spending a little more time to find a cache than with a GPS. If you try "freeocaching" you just might like it. Visit http://www.Geocaching.com and sign up for a free account.