Geocaching

 Whether you're brand new to geocaching or an experienced cacher, Sault Ste Marie and the surrounding area is the place to be for geocaching!!  Geocaching is the real-world treasure hunt that's happening right now, all around you!  We like to joke that we use multi million dollar satellites to find Tupperware hidden in the woods.

A couple of friends from southern Ontario often mentioned geocaching on Facebook and I was curious what it was all about so I Googled it and it looked like such a fun activity to try!   The whole family jumped in the van (it was Mother's Day... they had no choice) and away we went!  We picked an easy one nearby and found it right away.  It was a film canister hidden under a lamp post skirt in a parking lot.  We signed our username (thewilliams_6) on the log sheet that was inside, put it back where we found it and then logged our find in the app.  That was the beginning of this highly addicting hobby for us.  We started caching 2.5 years ago and since then, our family has found 1080 geocaches!

You will find all of the info that you need to get started on the main geocaching website:

www.geocaching.com/

This video will give you a quick run down of what exactly geocaching is:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YTqitVK-Ts

There are close to 2.5 million geocaches hidden world wide and in Sault Ste Marie and surrounding area alone, there are close to 1000 caches hidden within approx. 25 miles!  That should keep you busy for a while!  There's such a wide variety of caches hidden in and around our beautiful city!  They can be found all over the place, such as along hiking trails, near tourist attractions, at rest stops on the highway and at the rate our local caching community is going, on almost every street corner too!  There are big containers such as ammo cans full of 'treasures' hidden in the bush, right down to teeny tiny 'nano' caches that might be stuck to the backside of a stop sign!

There are so many reasons that we love geocaching: fresh air, exercise, challenges, treasures, camaraderie and FUN to name a few!  Searching for caches has brought us to some amazing locations that we never even knew existed... even after living here my whole life!  We enjoy discovering and exploring new places such as parks and hiking trails and geocaching sure makes that happen!  For one of our kids, there's nothing like searching for a cache and discovering a huge ammo can full of trade-able trinkets in the woods!  For me, I love finding the really creative caches such as this one that's hidden in a unique way and in a great location!: www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC3NTT4_landslide-road-cache

When we're traveling to a new city or country, one of the first things I do is go to the geocaching website and search for caches in that area.  If there is something amazing to see there, such as tourist attractions, parks, monuments etc, there will most likely be geocaches hidden nearby!  We get to see the main attractions of the area AND find caches at the same time - that's a vacation win/win to me! 

If you are visiting Sault Ste Marie and the surrounding area, looking for geocaches around the city is a great way to see many of the popular local attractions!  For example, Parks Canada has hidden a fantastic series of caches called The Heritage Hide’n’Seek GeoTour.  Finding these caches will bring you to a couple of popular tourist locations and you'll be able to find out more about our city at the same time.  You are even able to earn a collectible Parks Canada geocoin by participating in this geotour! www.geocaching.com/adventures/geotours/hhs

If you are traveling to the area from Southern Ontario, our family has hidden a series of caches called "Welcome to Northern Ontario".  They're fairly easy and hidden along the highway in several of the towns on your way here.  The first one is near Espanola and as your work your way north to the Sault, you can find the rest of them along the way. www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC48NM0_welcome-to-northern-ontario-espanola?guid=1f346560-48d4-439d-97e2-4552f3f0445c

We have a very active local geocaching community here in Algoma.  If you're interested in finding out more about the hobby (or sport, depending how you look at it) you can find our Facebook group here:

www.facebook.com/groups/geocachingSSMandAlgoma

Maybe we'll bump into you while on the hunt for our next cache... only 2,445,100 left to find!!
Happy caching, from thewilliams_6 family

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