One day the P's ("the P's" is short for my parents, just a little Gizmo slang) stumbled across this world wide game called GeoCaching. You can find out how the game is played at The GeoCaching web site. This game seemed to be a good way to combine walks and a game. Before we joined the Bark Park (I love the Bark Park), the P's and I would spend several hours each week GeoCaching.
But, the short description is that people hide things (caches) all over the world. Then they post a description of where they hid their cache on the GeoCaching web site. So, to play the game, all you have to do is go to the website, get the description where a cache is hidden, and then go out and try to find it. We were really surprised to find that there were a bunch of caches hidden near our house. They recommend that you have a GPS receiver and that you find the caches by their coordinates. But, there are a bunch that you can find just by looking at the map on the web site, and reading the description. We have found a bunch with out ever using the GPS.
When I'm GeoCaching, I have a uniform I like to wear. So, if you ever see me, and I have my GeoCaching uniform on, I'm playing the game.One of the reasons I like GeoCaching is that a lot of times it involves a short car ride, which I love, and some walking with the P's, which I also love.
In this picture we were out on a walk to a cache site, when I decide to plop down and chew on a stick for a while. This was back when I was little and still had some puppy teeth. The P's had to get me a leash made of chain because I had chewed through my first two leashes... hee-hee... sometimes I miss my puppy teeth.
Sometimes caches are hidden deep in the woods (which I love), or in a city park, or sometimes they are hidden close to businesses. Dad and I were going after one in a park in this picture, when we ran in to these two dogs that didn't seem to like me. I'll bet if I could have played with them for a while they would have liked me.
GeoCaching has a few rules. The main rule is to be sneaky. You aren't supposed to let anyone see you find a cache. I have a hard time being sneaky, but Mom and Dad are pretty good at it. In the above picture, if you look right at the tip of my nose, you can see the cache we just found. It was a small film canister hidden next to the tree. When you find a cache you just open it up, sign the log sheet inside, and then go back to the web site and record that you found it. Some of the caches have "Swag", Swag is little toys you can take. But, if you take one... you have to leave one.Another rule is that you have to have a dog with you. At least I think that is a rule. Because, Mom and Dad (the P's) said they don't go GeoCaching without me. Although, a couple of times we have run into other GeoCachers, and they didn't have dogs with them. I guess they don't know the rules.
A fun side game is to find trackable items. Trackable items are a special kind of swag that you can log on the website as you move it from one cache to the next. In this picture I am hanging out with two trackable race cars. They both started in Germany and were racing to Indianapolis. We found one of them before it made it to Indy, but the other one was already there. So, we got both of them and took a picture so we could post the picture to show the guys that started the race the cars ended up together.
In this picture, Mom is putting both cars in a cache in Indianapolis. This cache already had a lot of neat swag in it.
Here is Dad finding a cache in the woods. But, I was helping quite a bit, usually by running on the opposite side of trees that Dad was on, so that my leash would get wrapped around the tree. I think if we pass 50 trees in the woods, I can get my leash wrapped around each one on the way into the woods, and then again on the way back out.
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