Geocaching on Jekyll Island

What: Geocaching
Where: Jekyll Island, GA
When: Anytime
Cost: Free if you already have a GPS ($5 parking on Jekyll)

Recently we borrowed a GPS and headed to Jekyll Island to Geocache. Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt that uses a GPS. You can geocache anywhere, but I read something recently about geocaching at Jekyll Island and thought we’d try it while on vacation.

It took a while to prepare. We searched out locations to geocache on Jekyll. To find the coordinates, you have to register, but it’s free. Apparently you can load them to your GPS or phone with a click, but it didn’t seem to work for me. That could be because we’ve never used a GPS before and we had a learning curve getting the GPS up and running. Finally I just copied the coordinates by hand and brought the paper with us. Then we had to determine our pirate names, you can’t search for buried treasure without a proper pirate name.

Our first venture was a bit of a bust. We found our first cache, which was very exciting, but just as we started to get into it, the GPS died. Like good pirates, we didn’t give up, just went home for some ale before beginning again the next day. With a fully charged GPS, we headed out again. However, our family couldn’t find the side of a barn with the GPS and the coordinates. We did finally get our first cache, but only after a few discussions about mutiny.

In the end it was a fun afternoon exploring the historic district of Jekyll Island and we had a lot of laughs about our inability to follow the GPS. We got sidetracked once setting traps on the trail like Man vs. Wild, but it was fun to watch all three boys working together toward a common goal that involved more than a new computer level.