Guest Pass: Geocaching At Oakdale Nature Preserve
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- After two weeks in the deep freeze, Matt Brickman was getting a little stir crazy. So for this week's Guest Pass, he headed outside to have fun in the snow while geocaching at Oakdale Nature Preserve.
"Geocaching is a glorified treasure hunting game," Oakdale recreation coordinator Mike Anderson said.
The basics are simple: you swap your driver's license for a GPS, punch in the coordinates and you're off to find your treasure. But in practice it can get tricky.
"You don't just walk on a random trail, or go in a loop or a circle," said Anderson "You actually have to go off trail, into the woods."
The caches are hidden throughout the preserve's 225 acres. They might be in a tree, in the middle of a marsh, or beneath the fresh snow.
And when you get within 25 feet, the GPS can't help you.
"So we're going to have to go off track & look for it ourselves," Anderson said.
Wandering around in the cold and snow might test your patience. But the moment of locating that cache is so exciting, you don't even mind the cold.
Geocaching is free at Oakdale Nature Preserve, and you can find more info here.