TREASURE HUNTING IN ELKMONT

The Athens Visitors Center is excited about its Athens-Limestone County Civil War Trail Geocaching Adventure.  This adventure  leads “geocachers” to some of Athens-Limestone County’s most preeminent Civil War sites and history.  The trail offers many fun caches, lots of drivebys and several hiking caches along the Richard Martin Rails to Trails in Elkmont. The Athens Visitors Center is a great place to find out more about this way to enjoy our Elkmont trail from a different point of view.

What is Geocaching?
The sport of Geocaching, much like a traditional scavenger hunt, allows players to create caches around the world and share their location coordinates for others to find using their GPS units. According to Geocaching.com, geocaching is a “worldwide activity enjoyed by GPS users”. “Seekers” use their GPS to locate a series of hidden "caches" at coordinates specified at geocaching.com by the “hiders”. 

The "hunt" takes you throughout the community with opportunities to experience different places, people and activities- in this case, Athens-Limestone Civil War history and sites. When “seekers”, also known as a “cacher”, find and open the hidden "cache" you take a trinket and leave a trinket -- this keeps the cache full. 

What do you need to Geocaching?
You need a GPS unit or smart phone with GPS navigation (portable because you’ll need to be able to carry it with you), a computer to download the coordinates, trinkets to “trade-in” at the caches and a sense for adventure. 

This family friendly hobby is easy and free. There are caches of all kinds for all ages and usually placed in interesting places. Caches contain at least a logbook to track the cache’s visitors, and may contain other objects such as maps, books, software or even money. Not all caches contain treasures. The rules are simple. If the cache contains a treasure, you may take it. If you take the treasure, you must replace it with something of equal or greater value. Sign the logbook and return the cache to the exact location you found it.

 

All you have to do is log on to www.geocaching.com and check for caches in your area- search by city, state, or zip. Then enter the coordinates into your GPS and go find the cache. A Hill Spirit tip for beginners.  Caches can be hidden in very creative ways.