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Geocaching Honor - Answers

Have you heard about one to the latest outdoor hobbies to come along – geocaching? You pronounce it Geo-cashing, like cashing a check.  This is now an approved honor and the patch is available.

Now what is geocaching? Geocaching is an entertaining worldwide treasure hunt for GPS users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a GPS unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the Internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.  

The GPS Stash Hunt and Global Positioning Stash hunt are other names for geocaching and can be interchangeable. However, geocaching has become the standard for the game. The word Geocaching broken out is GEO for geography, and CACHING for the process of hiding a cache. A cache in computer terms is information usually stored in memory to make it faster to retrieve, but the term is also used in hiking/camping as a hiding place for concealing and preserving provisions.

Now what is a GPS?  GPS stands for Global Positioning System. A GPS unit is an electronic device that can determine your approximate location (within around 6-20 feet) on the planet. Coordinates are normally given in Longitude and Latitude. You can use the unit to navigate from your current location to another location. Some units have their own maps, built-in electronic compasses, voice navigation, depending on the complexity of the device.

You don't need to know all the technical mumbo jumbo about GPS units to play Geocaching. All you need to do is be able to enter what is called a "waypoint" where the geocache is hidden.

If you can’t wait to get started here are several websites that can give you a lot of information. You can also use your newfound skill at doing Internet searches and do a search on geocaching, and geocaching in your state.

http://gpsinformation.net/

http://www.ggaonline.org/