There was an exercise that we used to do a lot in the Marine Corps dealing with Land Navigation. The methods are different but the challenges are similar to geocaching. In Land Nav, we would use a map (usually 50,000:1 scaled), a lensatic compass, a protractor, and a whole bunch of neat tricks such as 90 Degree offsets, G-M calculations, and Distance Estimations. Its one of the things that i was really good at and one of the things i miss most.
With Geocaching, it may be a little easier using the GPS, but there are other factors that make it entertaining and challenging. I get a kick out of the creativity of cache hiders in how and where they hide their caches. Some cache hiders throw in some encrypted hints. And, so far the most challenging, some have set up multiple stage caches.
I am still new to the game and have found that there are some downsides. Now and then there are people that try to ruin the fun by removing the cache. But with so many people playing the game, and responsible cache hiders checking on their cache and reading the postings, i am sure that a missing cache is the exception, not the norm.
From reading the forums, i see that the possibilities are endless to this game. I now have a reason to get out in my own hometown and see parks and trails that have been right under my nose all along. I am looking forward to seeing what a "Mega-Event" is like. And i would love to see how geocaching works in metropolitan areas. Maybe i'll even hide my own or get into Travel Bugs.
