[twitter]Santa was very good to me this year. He skipped the underwear and socks and silly trinkets that hold no value, instead he gave me three official geocaching containers.

Geocaching is a worldwide treasure hunt that is a brilliant way to explore new places. If you have younger kids, or just have a yearning for exploring, geocaching is the perfect addition of adventure to any hike.

DadCAMP is the handle we use for geocaching and my DadCAMP site has a great primer for first time geocachers. Basically all you need is a GPS device (or the geocaching iPhone app) and some time to wander.

Make sure you bring some small trinkets too. Yknow, the sort of things you’d find in a dollar store loot bag. There’s a reason Zacharie was introduced to geocaching with the code name of “treaure hunting”. You bring some toys with you on each hunt to trade with those inside the cache. Zacharie loves to trade pins, action figures and stickers. I keep a bag of our treasures in my glove compartment in case we run into a spontaneous urge to cache on one of our dad-ventures.

Since moving to Calgary, Zacharie and I have used geocaching as a way to explore new parks and neighborhoods. It’s given us great bearings in our new home and has exposed many new places to explore.

So now we have a chance to give back. We’ve placed our cache near our favorite neighborhood park. If you’re up for a visit to Cougar Ridge, come to our Yellow Park and look for GC39TNP, DadCAMP Cache #1!