This site is a champion of the Geocaching group, perhaps this is because we have much more experience with this activity - we have roughly 60 confirmed finds over a period of many months.  Geocaching is becoming more formal and structured as time goes on.  The button above will take you to the Geocaching site.

Letterboxing is another activity that appeals to us and is similar in form to geocaching but from what we can gather takes the adventure one step further on getting to the site of interest.  If you would like to go to the Letterboxing site please press the button above (this site is undergoing a major reconstruction at this time 5/1/03).

The International Orienteering Federation is for the more athletic minded and appears to be out of the question for us here at Virtual Moore.  The button above will lead you there.

The Armchair Treasure Hunter group seems to be an intellectual group but to be fair we do not know too much about them and we have a lot to learn.  I love the color scheme of their site - by pressing the button you can see for yourself.

If you are going outside on an adventure you need to know the weather!    NE Indiana GOES Eastern  Infrared Image Static Radar Looping Radar Storm Total Precipitation Other Image Access

Geocaching - How To Get Started

The best way to learn is to go to the site and read the rules of the road.  While simple there are definite DO's and DON'T's.

What do I need? The first thing you need is a GPS.  A simple GPS costing about $100 will do just fine.  That said the more expensive units usually have WAAS and that increases accuracy about 5 times.  The normal unit is about plus/minus 15 meters and the WAAS unit is about 3 meters accuracy.  We have a $100 non-WAAS unit and we have not lost a "prize" yet.  Be sure you set it up to DD MM.MMM configuration and not DD MM SS.S

With the GPS in hand, you can go to www.geocaching.com and locate a cache you want to find by typing in your  zip code.  A list of hundreds of sites will pop up and are on several pages with the nearest one being at the top and the farther one at the bottom.  When we select the one we want o go after we print it on the printer and take the copy with us - it can come in real handy sometimes.

We keep a logbook of caches we have found (via the printed docs above) and a logbook of ones we want to go after.  Another nice thing to have is a "kit" that contains trading items, accurate compass, flashlights, water bottle, some rope and a change of socks.  The flashlight may seem strange but if you get caught on the hunt at dark you do not have to give up.  There are many other items that you can put in the kit - it is up to you and the environment in which you explore.

That is about it!  Simple and fun, do anytime thing.  Good luck and enjoy.