National Trails Day Celebration: Introduction to Geocaching Hike

Have you ever felt there's more to the world than can be seen by casual inspection, that there's something valuable hidden just out of sight? There are hidden treasures in our cities and open spaces, and they are called geocaches!

This event will teach you about the sport of geocaching, and how to find geocaches ('caches' for short) that have been carefully hidden near our trails so they are invisible to the vast majority of people who are ignorant of their existence. The fun of the sport is the challenge of finding these hidden items. (For a subset of geocachers, there's an even greater challenge in hiding caches, often in creative and unique ways, so that others will enjoy discovering them.)

(Some wags have described geocaching as a sport that makes use of billions of dollars of high-tech government equipment to find plastic containers hidden in the bushes.)

Statistics: We'll hike the 3.4 mile long Vista Loop with about 550 cumulative feet of climbing. There will be 15-18 caches to find along our route. This hike is expected to take 3-4 hours or so, much longer than you would expect for the distance because we will spend about 10' at all the caches we encounter along the way.

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We'll hike the Vista Loop route from the south end of Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks. It's beautiful hike, starting with a trail through Sherwood Forest, climbing to the Vista Loop Trail where we'll have a great view of the city, then passing the infamous picnic table on the Lilly Tomlin Trail on the way back down.

This hike is for anyone who is curious about the sport of geocaching and would like to try it out. Along the way, we'll stop every so often to search for hidden caches. We'll hike at a moderate pace, but the duration of the hike will be long for the distance because of the caching stops. There will be lots of chances for rest and taking pictures.

Geocaching: Geocaching uses billions of dollars worth of orbiting satellites to get us within a few feet of a hidden container. From there, it's up to the geocacher to find the container, sign it's log sheet and perhaps exchange some swag. We will pass 15-18 geocaches (http://www.geocaching.com/) along the way. If you sign up at www.geocaching.com (http://www.geocaching.com/) beforehand (it's free) you can log the caches we find. A GPS (Global Positioning System) device isn't required for this hike, but if you plan to bring one along, details on how to get the cache coordinates will be available below. And if you would like to trade some small items of swag with those in the cache, bring them along. They shouldn't be any larger than about the size of a deck of cards, and not worth more than about a dollar.

Directions: From the 101 Freeway in Thousand Oaks, turn south on Moorpark Road. Drive 0.5 miles to the parking area at the corner of Greenmeadow Ave.

Map: http://bit.ly/vnnmUF

Cache Coordinates: A file containing the coordinates and descriptions of geocaches we'll visit is called a 'pocket query.' The pocket query for this hike is not ready yet, but it will be available at least a few days before the hike. You will receive an email when it is ready, with instructions on how to retrieve it.