Geocaching in Seoul

Maybe I am just old, but until recently I have never heard of Geocaching.  Supposedly it is very popular and has been around for quite a few years, but I only found out about it a few weeks ago.  As soon as I heard about it I knew it was a perfect activity for our family.  It fit all our criteria:

• adventure
• exploring
• outdoors
• FREE!!

It was that last one that really hooked me-it doesn't get any better than free.  For those of you that are old like me :) and have not heard of Geocaching it is basically a huge scavenger hunt that is all over the world.  People hide small log books or trinkets and enter the GPS coordinates on a website then you pick which ones you want to find, enter the code in your GPS device and set off to find them.  There are a few hundred caches hidden in Korea alone.  That is a lot of adventure for our family.  The website www.geocaching.com will give you more information if you are interested in checking it out.

A few weeks ago on a kind of dreary Saturday we set out to find our first caches.

We tried to pick an easy cache for our first one so that we could figure out what we were doing.  We knew the cache was hidden on the mountain that is behind our house, but unfortunately we walked to the wrong side of the mountain before we realized our mistake.  It took us quite a long time and we walked a very long way before we got ourselves back to the correct area.
We walked through this cool garden on our journey.

That is a massive vine.

Finally we were on the correct path.

Not all of the caches are hidden in the woods, some are right in the middle of the city, but this first one we found was.
Russ is the official navigator on these adventures.  The GPS will get us to about 30 feet of the cache, then it is up to us to find it.  Often there are hints given that will help you know where to look. 

Our first cache was hidden under a fallen tree stump.  The caches can be all sizes.  For our first one we picked a large cache to find.  Can you see it hidden under the branches?

sorry about my finger in the picture

It had taken us quite a while to find this cache and the girls were a little bit discouraged.  But they quickly became excited when we found it.

Some of the larger caches you can trade small trinkets in.  The girls were really excited to open it up and see what was inside to trade.

Inside most caches is a log book to sign.  It is very fun to see who has found this cache before and when it was last found.

After the girls traded their trinkets and I signed the log book we replaced the cache very carefully exactly as we found it for the next people to find.

 

Since it had taken us so long to find the first cache we only had time to find one more.  We put the code in the GPS and set off for our second find.
The second cache of our day was a coin exchange.  It was a small plastic box that had coins from all the different countries of the people that had found the cache.  It was very well hidden and Lucy was the first one to find it.  She was so excited when she saw it.

We put a few American coins in, signed the log book and carefully re-hid the cache.  Overall, it was a successful geocaching day.

This past weekend it was beautiful on Saturday and we decided to venture out to find a few more caches.  I plotted a bunch that were all hidden on a local university campus here in Seoul.  The campus was beautiful and we had a great time walking around.

This time, since we had so much geocaching experience under our belt, we found the caches much more quickly.  We ended up finding 8 caches that day.  We found a few that were very small and difficult to find.

Figuring out where to head next.

Taylor spotted this one first.  It was hidden between the rocks behind some leaves.

 This cache was a fake rock hidden in a rock wall.  The bottom of the rock was hollowed out and it had a film canister cemented in it.  Lucy was excited when she was first one to see it.   One of the things that Russ and I really like about this adventure is that it is a whole family experience.  The girls are just as good at finding the caches as Russ and I are.  I pick out and plot our caches for the day, Russ leads the family to the area then we all look.  It is very exciting for the girls to find the caches before Russ and I can.

This cache was our most difficult to find for the day.  It was hidden under the cement stairs.  It took us about 30 minutes before we finally found it.  We were just about ready to give up and were all really excited when I found it.

 We stopped along the way to take some pictures with the Spring flowers on this beautiful campus.

 Taking a snack break.  The weather was perfect to be outside. 

Another thing Russ and I really like about geocaching is that it takes us to parts of the city we never would explore otherwise.  This campus was beautiful and we had so much fun walking around and exploring different parts of it. 

This cache Lucy found on a trail over a small mountain behind the university.  It was another large cache where you could trade small trinkets.

 This was our final cache of the day.  It was a micro cache and Taylor found it.  There was a small strip of paper inside of it for us to sign.  It was very small and hidden in this rock wall.  It was an impressive find.  Here she is holding it up next to the crack she found it in.  It was less then an inch long.

On our way home we passed this Buddha with pretty lanterns all around it.

This is quickly becoming a favorite family activity and there will be many more geocaching adventures in our future.