Forget Poker Runs, try this .....

[drummer]

I just saw on the Travel channel a new sport that has developed from technology called, "Geocaching." There is a N. CA based website that tells all about it and posts the details but the essence is this. It is a "hikers" scavenger hunt using GPS's. Some one hides a prize and clues, then gives out the coordinates to the first clue and the game is on.

So why not apply this to biking? A great deal of us have GPS's for our bikes, it seems like a logical leap.

Here are some of my thoughts. Some one either hides an item or supplies a prize of some sort (a restaurant - ie free lunch) at the end of the quest. Then either places clues along the way or uses landmarks as clues to the next area. After this, they post the prize and the coordinates to the first clue. Who ever gets to the restaurant first gets the prize or free lunch.

Seems like a great addition to riding. Maybe not a replacement to Poker runs, but certainly some thing else fun to take advantage of.

[tommcgee]

One of the primary sites is: http://www.geocaching.com/

[warredon]

I've been Geocaching for well over four years now and it's a blast. They come in all sizes and a lot of them are not as easy to find as you might think. The sport does go well with riding my BMW. If you have any type of portable GPS receiver, I strongly suggest giving it a try.

[clowry]

Our Retreads group did something along these lines. We called it 'Ride and Seek'. There were a number of pictures of 'landmarks'provided, with rough guidelines to their locations (not everyone in our group had a GPS). The idea was to ride to the location and take a picture of you and/or your bike with the landmark. In some cases there was a question to be answered about the landmark, like 'What's the 4th word on the 2nd line of the plaque?' or 'Who lived here in 1842?' or something. For each picture you submitted before the agreed upon deadline, your name went into a draw for prizes to be awarded at our Christmas breakfast this coming Sunday. There was also a bonus prize draw for anyone who got all 17 locations. It was a lot of fun! I hope we do it again next year!

Cheryl

[PGlaves]

If you happen to be in Botswana - just a little east of the border with Namibia - and if you happen to get the coordinates from Ron Ayres - you can find the spot where we set a geocache when I hit my 500,000th BMW mile.

[clowry]

We've been geocaching for a couple of years as well. When we were preparing for aour cruise to Alaska last summer, Dave looked up a few possibilities. Most of them didn't work out, but we DID manage to find one up in Carcross, Yukon.