HIKING & CAMPING

Finding hidden treasure in the Hudson Valley

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“Walking isn’t fun unless you’re doing it for something,” my seven-year-old son reported as we strolled across the grounds at Olana State Historic Site last week, searching for our next geocache. 

While it can sometimes be tough to get my kids jazzed about going “hiking,” they ask all the time to go “geocaching,” which is just hiking combined with treasure hunting. (The biggest difference is that when you’re geocaching, you’ll need to allow time for your kids to dive head-first into suspicious tree stumps.)

A quick geocaching primer

If you’ve never heard of geocaching before, then you are what is known in the geocaching world as a “muggle.” (And if you don’t catch the Harry Potter reference, that makes you a muggle squared.)

I am by no means an expert in geocaching, but I have used it to trick my kids into hiking enough times that I think it’s worth talking about here, in case you (or another awesome person) might be able to harness the power of geocaching to turn potential adventurers into actual adventurers.

If you’re a muggle, you’d probably benefit from watching this quick YouTube explanation of geocaching. I’ll wait at the next paragraph.

Pretty cool, right? The only caveat I’ll add is that they may play up the “free geocaching account” part a little too much. The free app will get you started, but you’ll need to shell out 10 bucks for the full version of the app if you really want to do stuff (and if you get SUPER into it, you’ll have an opportunity to shell out a few more bucks to upgrade your account, but you could pretty much geocache for the rest of your life by cruising by on that initial 10-buck investment).

How many geocaches are stashed around the Hudson Valley? Many thousands. In pretty much every public space (and a bunch of private ones, too), you’re never far from a geocache. Here’s a screen grab of the geocaches around Poughkeepsie — check out the path of the Dutchess Rail Trail lined with geocaches:

You use your phone to navigate to the approximate location of any geocache you select, then, once you get within about twenty feet, you need to bust out your sleuthing skills.

Sometimes, they’re in pretty sneaky places!

Most geocaches operate as a “give-a-trinket, take-a-trinket” operation. The rule is that you’re supposed to leave things of equal or greater value than you take. We’re usually talking about erasers, little army men, poker chips, general junkery. Great way to unload the Happy Meal toys currently rolling around on your floorboard!

It’s very important to dump everything out on the ground, every time

2019 Taconic Region Geocache Challenge (May 25 – Nov 11, 2019)

While tricking my sons into hiking with me (i.e. geocaching) at Baird Park one evening this summer, we stumbled upon a geocache that had this description:

This Cache is placed as part of the 2019 Taconic Region Geocache Challenge… Find 45 challenge caches in the Taconic Region and stamp your passport to earn a trackable geo-coin.

“TRACKABLE GEO-COIN???? WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT IS, BUT WE MUST HAVE IT!!!” we all decided.

Thus began our quest to find 45 geocaches stashed around various state parks in the area: Baird Park, Olana, Norrie Point, Wonder Lake, etc.

It’s a tough challenge! We’re about halfway there, and at this point, it’s probably time to admit that we are highly unlikely to find 45 geocaches before the challenge expires on Nov 11.

But we’ve had so much fun trying, it’s quite possible that we’ve found some things that are more important than a trackable geo-coin.

Seriously, what is a trackable geo-coin, though? Whatever it is, I still kinda want one.

Much like I trick my kids into hiking with geocaching, the NY State Park system has tricked us into exploring some great new spots with this geocaching challenge. Did you know that Baird Park has a beautiful new playground? We didn’t, either!

If you hit Norrie Point State Park at the right time (mid-July or so), it’s raspberry central! We didn’t know that.

We also learned that Olana State Historic Site has to be one of the best places in the Hudson Valley to take in a sunset.

We may never find out what a trackable geo-coin is, but that’s really beside the point after all, isn’t it? (I still want one, though.) If you know someone who agrees with my son that “walking isn’t fun unless you’re doing it for something,” geocaching might just be your something.

People who are more experienced at geocaching than me: What’d I miss? What else should people know? What the heck is a trackable geo-coin?

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