Thousands of years from now, archeologists will scratch their heads wondering what strange global religion caused the peoples who inhabited planet earth at the start of the third millenium to worship small plastic toys and worthless trinkets.

Perhaps a future genius among them will piece it together: the ancient boxes of silly junk buried in the earth from Boston to Beijing, were once prizes in a worldwide high-tech treasure-hunt game called Geocaching.

In response to last week's Treasure Box post, Wide.Eyed.Wanderer posted a comment about this hot new hobby that is catching on like wildfire around the world. As he explained, treasure boxes are involved, but are usually just a Tupperware container or metal box or plastic bottle, and contain nothing of serious monetary value. It's a prize find, but it's not so much about the treasure. It's about the thrill of the hunt.

It seems the advent of the handheld global positioning system (GPS) spawned this new international pastime. You go online to find the coordinates of the latest "Geocache" hidden in your area (could be in a tree trunk or ancient temple), then, GPS in hand and Gumby or Matchbox car or whatever in pocket, you try to be the first to find the cache. When you do, you take a small souvenir from the box (left by the previous Geocacher) and leave a replacement prize for the next intrepid adventurer who finds it.

For more: www.geocaching.com

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