The sport of geocaching has only been around about a decade, but it has grown immensely in popularity over the last few years. For those who aren’t familiar, geocaching is an outdoor sport in which participants use a GPS device to hide special containers and locate containers that have already been hidden. The containers are called “geocaches” or simply “caches”, and typically contain a logbook, which geocachers use to record the date they found the cache. Some caches may also contain a special tag or souvenir.

Currently, geocaching is practiced in over 100 countries worldwide, and caches can be found on all seven continents, including Antarctica. There are reportedly about 5 million geocachers worldwide, and numbers are growing. Currently, the sport of geocaching has no actual governing body, although there is an official website which offers rules, advice and support for people looking to get into the sport. Similar to benchmarking and letterboxing, geocaching is a great outdoor activity for families, friends and individuals.

In what was apparently an April Fools joke, Outside Magazine posted a blog article Friday stating that the International Olympic Committee had decided to add geocaching to the list of sports at the 2012 Olympic Games. At first, when I initially read the post this morning, I thought it was legit. Then I read the byline on the article: April Fuehls. Needless to say, I felt a little gullible.

Now that I think about it, geocaching probably wouldn’t be a very good spectator sport. However, it is certainly fun for those who participate.

Have you ever geocached?

For more info, check out geocaching.com.

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