Caching for Treasure on the Treasure Coast

The Treasure Coast abounds with treasures of all kinds: shipwreck bounty; shell, coral, wood and glass gifts from the sea; prehistoric shark teeth and even Vero Man. Treasure hunters continue to delight themselves with rare and not so rare finds – treasures all the same.

Would you be interested in an “any day, any time adventure that can take you to amazing and beautiful places”?! Let me introduce you to a modern treasure hunt called geocaching.

Geocaching combines the thrill of childhood games such as Capture the Flag and Hide & Seek yet appeals to the “pirate” within us all. Geocaching has its roots in a 160-year old game: Letterboxing – a mid-nineteenth century game using clues and references to landmarks embedded in stories. Today, that game has evolved into a “recreational activity of hunting for and finding a hidden object by means of GPS coordinates posted on a website”.

Smart phones and GPS devices are the tools that lead you through rural, urban or suburban “jungles” on a search for your treasure cache. “Caching” (geocaching) comes in different sizes, shapes and difficulties. When “selective availability” of GPS technology became a thing of the past in 2000, Geocaching took off. According to Wikipedia, “a typical cache is a small, waterproof container containing a logbook”. Cachers enter the date they find the “treasure”; sign a log with their code name and then return the cache to the exact spot where it was found. Large caches often have items for trading. Treasure hunters must leave an item if they take a souvenir.

Geocaching has grown like wildfire and is surprisingly popular here in Vero Beach. My mind imagines the game as a modern adventure where Swiss Family Robinson meets the Pirates of the Caribbean with “smart” phones and GPS. It is a game for ALL ages and is a wonderful family and group activity promoting fun competition. Think of it as an outdoor adventure that lends itself to the modern fascination (have teens?!) of sharing your geocaching photos, stories and adventures with players from around the world. Social media meets the outside world.

Here in Vero, where boating and the water is a way of life, there are caching adventures via canoe, kayaks or small boats. One of a series of caches is near the Vero Beach Marina and will take you into the mangroves near the intracoastal waterway. (https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC37D46_vero-beach-paddle-1)

Next time you are looking for a solo, family or group adventure, explore Vero and our Treasure Coast further by caching for treasures. Treasure hunting on the Treasure Coast – what could be more fun?!

https://tcchronicle.com/geocaching/

https://www.brillig.com/geocaching/vero_beach.shtml

https://www.geocaching.com/local/default.aspx?state_id=10

https://www.geocaching.com

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC37D46_vero-beach-paddle-1

“Selective Availability” – https://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/modernization/sa/

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Sherry Nist

Sherry Nist joined VeroVine.com as a writer, strategizer and promoter of Vero Beach's first and only digital grapevine in August 2014.In 2011 she founded eMedia Connections, a social media marketing & public relations consultancy while living in Charlottesville, Virginia.She is a "serial" entrepreneur who grew up outside Washington, DC, surrounded by technology and mainframe punch cards as the daughter of an IBM Systems Engineer.

Born in Huntsville, Alabama, Sherry lived in Mexico City for two of her elementary school years; this began her love for language, culture, Spanish and the adventures of living abroad.Sherry graduated with a BA from the University of South Carolina Honors College in Columbia, South Carolina with a double-major in Economics & International Studies.After graduation, her wanderlust took her to Steamboat, CO;San Francisco, CA; Beijing, China; Washington, DC; Nyack, NY and both Fredericksburg & Charlottesville, VA for the last 15 years.She moved to Vero Beach to stick her toes, permanently in the sand in early 2014.

Sherry's professional work experience has been in the Finance & Wireless Telecom worlds.Her skills include training/teaching, writing/editing/publishing, strategic planning, regulatory affairs, technical & consumer marketing and foreign languages.Spanish and Mandarin Chinese are her specialties.

When not creating, writing and roaming online, Sherry enjoys her two teen daughters:Josephine, 21 & Camille, 18; surf fishing for the "big one"; greens & beach golf; walking Vero's beaches; biking & swimming; shooting photos on her smart phone; hanging at Waldo's & Dario's and socializing/exploring all over Central & South Beach.