Two Journals go geocaching

The best kind of exercise is usually one where you don’t even know you’re getting a workout – like playing all-day bocce or backyard badminton – and geocaching is one of the best examples of stealth fitness that I’ve found.

For those who are unfamiliar with the geocaching phenomenon, it’s where treasure hunting and technology meet. You download the location of a cache – pronounced like cash, but not filled with it – from a geocaching Web site to your Garmin handheld and the search is on. (Or you can enter in known latitude and longitude coordinates and go from there.) The compass screen points you in the right direction and lets you know how far of a hike is ahead – though the shortest distance isn’t always the easiest.

Jocelyn and I took my parents and sister’s family out for the geocaching debut, and with the help of a pair of Rinos, an eTrex Venture and a GPSMap 60CSx, we found three caches in an hour. My dad was as giddy as his grandkids when he stumbled across the first, and we all huddled around to sign in and admire the trove of trinkets. But here’s where fitness factors in. By the time we’d tucked the third cache safely back into its hiding place and returned to our picnic table, we’d trekked nearly two miles.

And ours isn’t the only Journal immersing itself in the activity. The Wall Street Journal’s second installment of their Tech Diary has reporter Andy Jordan and a family of four geocaching in New Jersey with Garmin products. Click here to see the video.

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