I found you, Miss New Booty

On a cold and lazy mid-October evening, my good pal Brennan and I decided to go geocaching. You see, long before the world of iPhones and Androids, adventurous little rebels formed a community where strangers created these “geocaches,” containers ranging from Nalgenes to fake rocks to small plastic tubes, which held small notes, and sometimes even treasures and goodies, and the finders could log their names. Without GPS, people would learn the coordinates of a location on the Internet and approach it themselves. Though there was (and is) sometimes booty in the caches, the real rush has to do with seeking out the mysterious container, as well as getting to add your name to the log.

Now, in what we can only call the most modern of ages, the rules of the game have changed ever so slightly, but the essence remains the same. Though a Google-maps-esque screen will come up in your phone indicating the location of the desired target, you will not get directions or the exact information about where it is. Rather, you will see that it is in, for example, a park next to X and Y road and then you, with your phone, must gradually wander through the area until the cache is found. While there are thousands of geocaches across the world, and the application highlights the ones within a less than ten mile radius to you, I was disappointed to learn that the closest two to Tufts are in Davis Square! That’s it, two! I live in a middle-of-nowhere New Jersey suburb that is essentially the boondocks and there were about 15 locations near my house, so this was a sad discovery. I encourage all of us at Tufts to make more. There is something so wonderful and communal about them and I wish there were more opportunities to find them around here.

Anyway, as Brennan and I headed toward the back of Davis Square, we spotted a small parking lot that corresponds with the area the target seemed to be in on my phone. Only knowing that the geocache was “Davis Square”-themed, and contained some goodies, we gleefully walked over and scoured around. As you get very close to the cache, the app then gives you a hint. Ours informed us, “Davis Square belongs to those who guard it.” Perusing the area and getting surprisingly familiar with a large tree, we were having no luck. Just as we were about to give up, a final moment of inspiration consumed us and we ended up finding the cache! While I obviously can’t reveal where it was found, just know the hint helped immensely. Inside were assorted knick-knacks, like a quarter from the Grand Canyon, a rubber cockroach and my personal booty, a German public transportation pass. After leaving a note on the back of a Curious George sticker in return we got to scribble our geocache team name and the date, Oct. 19, 2014.

Though we wanted to hop to the other site, it was a bit farther than expected so we are saving it for another day. A lot of my friends were making fun of the running around aspect, but to be honest and wildly cliche, that is the best part. It really is the search of discovery, the hope and the process, over the reward itself. Do it with a best friend, a partner, a group of friends or just yourself. Make geocaches, log geocaches and experience the weird concept of strangers everywhere facilitating this random exchange of goods because hey, it’s an excuse to be a treasure hunter for a day.