DIY Geocaching?

[jeb6294]

The boys still have a few more weeks of summer vacation left.  When they're at their mom's house they generally sit in front of the Xbox or iPad all day.  I want to make sure that isn't happening at our house.  One thing I thought about doing is setting up a "prize" back in the woods that they could do a little hiking to go find.  I've just started looking into it...any suggestions on how to do it?

I don't want to set up a regular Geocaching site and end up with other people traipsing through the yard.  Are there any good iPhone/iPod Touch apps where I could see the GPS cords where I leave the "prize" and then they could use something that would lead them to it?

 

[Supe]

I think the GPS Tracks app is the most common for iPhones.  Mrs. Supe and junior used it before.  It lets you create waypoints, and you can attach a picture to the waypoint also.  Seems like that would be the easiest way of doing it.  

 

[ktulu]

You could also place it as more of a Letterbox instead of a Geocache. Then develop some hints / directions to locate the physical letterbox. Have them make their own "stamp" to use when they find it. 

 

[Road Guy]

We were out in the backwoods this past week and a guy came up to us with some type of puzzle on his phone, he said he was geocaching and I guess he had to solve the puzzle to find the next spot? It was a complicated looking puzzle and we couldn't help him (we were on the way back from a long hike and didn't really have much extra mental energy left) but maybe you could make some sort of puzzle image and then leave stuff or another puzzle at each spot where you could text them the puzzle image once they prove they found the right spot / clue?

unrelated but one time I fake buried a big bag of old quarters and a few dollar bills in our backyard and told the kids I found them while digging out for a patio (when they were fairly young) came back the next day to a million little holes dug all over the yard where they were also looking for some treasure!