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Earthcache - what is it?

Over the last two weeks we have been able to experience our first Earthcahes. Our first one was on a trip to Prince Edward Island (PEI) and our second (last night) was a bit north of our home.

So what is an Earthcache?

An EarthCache is a special place that people can visit to learn about a unique geoscience feature or aspect of our Earth. EarthCaches include a set of educational notes and the details about where to find the location (latitude and longitude). Visitors to EarthCaches can see how our planet has been shaped by geological processes, how we manage the resources and how scientists gather evidence to learn about the Earth. (from Geocaching.com)
(more at www.earthcache.org)

Our first earthcache taught us about the red dirt found on PEI - there is a high concentration of iron oxide in the soil which rusts and turns the sand and soil red - very cool! Our second one brought us to this amazing sand dune close to our house - well about an hour away - it was very close to my Aunt’s house though. This dune was on the bank of a river near Wasaga Beach in Ontario. It was an amazing site to see. The amuzing part of this cache is that my Aunt - who lives about 4 minutes from the wonder - had no idea this was there!

So what is so great about Earthcaches?

Well there is no cache box to find - no log to sign - they can’t hold trackables - there is no trading going on - so what’s the point?!?!

Well Earthcaches are designed to bring you to some amazing part of the earth and help you learn. This is one of the reasons we go geocaching - we love to see really cool places - earthcaches definately help you find these places.

So if you have never tried an earthcache go ahead and look for one close to you and check it out - you will learn something and you may just have fun doing it!

2 Comments so far

  1. P.J. September 6th, 2008 8:24 pm

    Earthcaches are awesome. You can also receive pins for doing certain amounts and working on putting some out there. I’m hoping to work on placing some soon myself!

  2. Yossface September 21st, 2008 10:09 pm

    I love finding other people who are excited about earthcaches :) My husband and I just created our first earthcache in NYC. It’s even more fun for me to read logs for people finding the earthcache than to read the logs for people finding our traditional caches because we know they learned something cool in the process!

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