Geocaching during the Pandemic

Hello! I am back. It has been a while! Between COVID, work, and school, I have been very busy and have not had a lot of free time to write here.

Today, I want to talk about geocaching. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is an activity where you use a GPS or cell phone to find (or hide!) containers, called "geocaches" or "caches". These are located all over the world and there may be some in your neighborhood! I have been geocaching a lot since the pandemic has trapped me in Montana, but it has allowed me to explore places I never would have gone otherwise.

The best part about geocaching, for me, is that it allows me to be somewhat of a tourist in my own state. I have lived in Montana for 22 years, yet there are so many places that I didn't know existed until I started geocaching again. The best geocaches I have found are the ones that are slightly out of Bozeman, in the neighboring towns that I normally don't have the needs to visit. Livingston is the perfect example. Livingston has quite a few geocaches that can all be found in a day, so recently, I made it a point to find every single one in Livingston and I had the best time. I also tend to geocache alone, so this allows me to unplug from work and social media and into the outside world.

Since I have began geocaching again, I have had so much fun and added over 100 new caches to my smiley list in the past year! If you are thinking that you are too directionally challenged to geocache, fear not. I have the worst sense of direction, yet here I am, thriving as a geocacher and exploring my state in a whole new way!

Overall, I think everyone should geocache if they feel like they are stuck at home with nothing to do. It is so simple to start and you will get addicted as soon as you find your first one! So take the leap, download the free app to your phone, and explore your home in a new way that you never knew existed! Cache on!

For context, this photo to the right was taken by my roommate as I slithered under the rock into a small cave to grab a cache I had walked past dozens of times before without even knowing it was there! Her dog decided he needed to join me as well.