Have you tried geocaching yet?
Escape the great indoors—tear the kids away from the TV or computer, and go geocaching! This high-tech treasure hunt, may be the answer to your prayers because it has you searching for hidden containers in the great outdoors using GPS-enabled devices, like smartphones. You can find the coordinates for more than 2 million geocaches on-line at www.geocaching.com, and join millions of folks, both young and old, who have already discovered the sport.
Last summer, Parks Canada launched a series of geocaches for tourists travelling across northern Ontario. The Heritage Hide’n’Seek GeoTour now includes 26 educational geocaches, guiding travellers to scenic vistas and great locations, while also pointing out some of Canada’s significant history and geography.
Think of it as summer school for you and the kids, just way more fun! Each cache is assigned a point value depending on the level of difficulty involved in locating it. Find the cache, complete the passport, collect 100+ points and you could earn a cool collectible coin from Parks Canada.
For those people wanting to be initiated into the adventure of geocaching, Pukaskwa National Park is offering a Geocaching 101 program twice per week during July and August.
A quick explanation and lesson about how the game works and you could be out on the trails looking for your first geocache with a GPS borrowed from the park’s Visitor Centre.
Pukaskwa hosts six geocaches, on its front-country trail network, which feature geology, rare species, forest fires, and Anishinaabe (Ojibway) teachings.