People worldwide have played a variety of orienteering based treasure-hunting games for over a century, but it was the US government's decision to remove selective availability from the Global Positioning System on May 2, 2000 that truly gave life to what we now call geocaching.

Prior to this the US Department of Defense deliberately degraded the accuracy of the codes transmitted by satellites. Accuracy on civilian receivers varied anywhere between 15m to 100m. Now relatively inexpensive handheld receivers are accurate to within 3m. This precision almost immediately gave rise to the possibility of a worldwide treasure hunt.

The world's first geocache- originally called a GPSstash- was hidden on May 3, 2000, by a man named Dave Ulmer of Beavercreek, Oregon.

Today there are over 241,000 active caches in more than 221 countries worldwide, and the Atlantic provinces have eagerly played along. Nova Scotia is, in fact, home of Canada's very first geocache. It was hidden near East River on June 28, 2000.

There are 2367 active caches in NS, 2792 in NB, 211 in PEI, and 856 in NFLD. This means there are over 6,000 little treasures hidden all over the Atlantic provinces; secretly tucked away in hiding spots ranging from the most remote locations deep in the woods to that unassuming public park you walk past on your way to work everyday.

The rules of the game are simple. When you find a cache –using coordinates readily available online- take an item and leave one behind, sign the log book and return the case.

Sound like child's play? Don't be too sure; knowing something's location and actually getting there to find it are two entirely different things.

If nothing else, geocaching is an excuse to spend a day tramping around the woods.