Go Geocaching in Madison County It’s fun and it’s free!
Go Geocaching in Madison County It’s fun and it’s free!
by Lisa Flournoy
If you enjoyed playing “hide ‘n seek” as a child, you’ll love geocaching! In fact, almost 5,000 geocaches are hidden in Madison County. That’s right – 5000! Visit www.geocaching.com and you’ll discover 250 pages for our 32340 zip code. These pages list all the coordinates you need to plug into your GPS (or GPS smart phone app) to find the spectacular little “gems” hiding all across Madison County.
However, geocaches are not just hidden in Madison County, Florida; they are hidden all over the world! The first geocache was hidden in Australia on January 10, 2004, making this month the ninth anniversary of geocaching as a recreational sport. More adventurous geocachers trek to the Arctic Circle or to the top of Bronco Butte in Arizona, where a helicopter placed the treasure. More refined geocachers prefer searching in cities such as Paris while enjoying the sites and culture they offer.
In Madison County, geocaches are currently placed in popular downtown Madison locations such as the Wardlaw-Smith Mansion, Lanier Park, and the Madison Historic Jail as well as in more remote locations throughout our beautiful natural landscape. One recent geocacher who visited the Warlaw-Smith Mansion commented on www.geocaching.com, “Beautiful historic town. On our way to Key West from Arkansas.” In a unique way, geocaching brings tourists to Madison!
Local geocachers Jamie Andrews and Kelly Zimmerly, both teachers at Madison Academy, team up and enjoy geocaching with their daughters, Kylie and Hannah. “We love geocaching,” said Zimmerly. “We like to find the geocaches before the girls,” admitted Andrews, who learned about geocaching from friends in South Florida.
Although precautions should be taken when searching for geocaches, especially in remote locations, geocaching is an activity family and friends can enjoy whether on vacation or just on a weekend adventure. For more information on geocaching and to sign-up for a free membership, visit www.geocaching.com.
Lisa Flournoy, a freelance writer and web designer at lisaflournoy.com, is a geocaching novice who is looking forward to organizing a geocaching Easter egg hunt adventure this spring with her sons’ eighth grade class in Madison County.
Hannah Zimmerly (left) and Kylie Andrews enjoy geocaching at Lanier Park in Madison.
Thank you for writing a nice article. Geocaching has been around for over 12 years (not 9) and as you mentioned is all over the world. If you want more information you might want to check out the Geocaching website http://www.geocaching.com; or the Florida Geocaching Assoc website http://www.floridacaching.com; or to get even more locally the Tallahassee Area Geocachers http://www.tagfla.com. The Tallahassee geocachers hold classes and events for cachers to learn more about the latest and greatest in GPS units, software and awesome hides.
Geocaching has taken me all over the country to places I never thought I would see. Some places are great surprises as driving thru southern Colorado to find a cache at the location of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s Great Train Robbery. Or the home of Annie Oakley in Kansas. If I had stayed on the interstate I would have never seen these places but geocaching pulled me off the highway to these out-of-the-way locations in history (these are just 2 examples among 1,000s).
Geocachers like to be cleaver in the way “caches” are hidden. Some might be big enough to have treasures to trade but all will have a log sheet for you to sign. You might find an old film cannister or a tupperware container. It might be the largest mouse trap you’ve ever seen sitting off a trail or a parking meter out in the middle of the woods. Whatever you find you are to sign the logsheet and re-hide the container as you found it or better. And then go online to geocaching.com to write about your experience.
Geocachers also give back to their communities by hold trash pick-ups called CITOs (Cache In Trash Out). In Tallahassee we have picked up trash at boat landings, along park ponds and have even adopted a city street to keep clean.
I have met some awesome people while geocaching. We are doctors, nurses, lawyers, police officers, accountants, firemen, chefs, professionals, computer nerds, etc. We’re from all walks of life but we all share the same passion … geocaching.
Whats geocaching?
This is a very nice article, but there is some incorrect information in it.. Geocaching was born in Oregon, USA on May 3, 2000, by David Ulmer. Read about it here: http://bit.ly/953Emb
On another note, the first geocache in Australia was published on May 18, 2000… read more about it here: http://bit.ly/TufNr4
Thank you for spreading the word about geocaching! Cache on!
Great Article Lisa!, My family and I have been Geocaching for the past 1 1/2 years. It is a good clean fun family activity. We have enjoy hours of fun searching for caches in our area and in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennesee. We have even hidden a lot of them in and around Madison. When you did your search for 32340 on Geocaching.com website it returned all caches located within a 100 mile radius but even if you narrow the search to just 15 miles you still get 87 active caches to enjoy! 36 of these are located along the Four Freedoms Bike and Walking Trail. Geocaching has taken us to many places that we would have not even known were there. We have seen many people come to Madison County just to work the caches along the trail and around town.. Again, great article and would love to meet all the other Geocachers in our County.