Real Life Treasure Hunt

I recently watched an episode of Small Town Security (I know...don't judge me...) where Brian, the office manager, discussed his hobby of Geocaching. For those of you who have never heard of this, geocaching is a free real-world outdoor treasure hunt where players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using a smartphone or GPS and can then share their experiences online. I find it completely fascinating.

Taking my curiosity further I went to www.geocaching.com to get a better understanding and see what people find. I entered my zip code and found hundreds of coordinates from Santa Monica to LAX Airport where people have hidden various treasures for other adventurous strangers to find. 

I love this concept of an adult treasure hunt. The rules are so simple. Join a community of other nerdy adventure seekers on the site, get a GPS and enter coordinates, go on your adventure and find the hidden item. Once you locate said item snap a photo of your success with the item and put it back for someone else to discover. Amazing. 

My draw to this whole thing is the connectivity it brings to perfect strangers in the world. Someone randomly picks an item to hide and another complete stranger comes along and finds it. And the cycle continues. Each stranger is now connected by the same item they all searched for. With a world as busy and chaotic as it is today it is an activity like geocaching that encourages connectivity and community. 

I am excited by the wonder of what I could find that has been sitting there, right under every one's noses in the community just waiting to be found. I wonder what the story will be behind the item I find and how it got there or who it find from. I am fascinated with the excitement of the hunt and the satisfaction that will come when it is found. I think I have stumbled on to a new hobby.