"There's nothing to do in Carlsbad."

I'm not going to be one of those Chipper McPeppypersons who claims that never is true, but it really wasn't this weekend. When there is cool stuff to do, we should all jump at the opportunity.

On Saturday, I participated in a GPS-guided treasure hunt that served as a fundraiser for CASA, a non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of abused and neglected children.

Long story short, it was probably the most fun I've had in ages.

Geocaching (not, as I thought for a long time, "geocatching") basically involves plugging in latitude and longitude coordinates into a GPS unit. The GPS unit tells you which way to go and how far away you are, and you head toward your destination. You can get a starter GPS unit for about $80 these days. For more information, visit http://www.geocaching.com/.

There are some micro-caches that are disguised in public places. Many of the caches, however, are ammo boxes stashed out in the middle of nowhere. To make it more fun, there's a bunch of junk stashed in the ammo box that serves as treasure. You can take something, but you're expected to leave something behind. So you'll take a plastic dinosaur and leave a little keychain, or whatever. Then you fill out a little sheet of paper using a bunch of acronyms that the geocaching people invented.

There are all kinds of perfectly sensible rules. You can't stash a cache somewhere on private property, or on national park land. You can't leave live snakes or dirty pictures in the ammo boxes.

New Mexico has so much public land, however, that this is a great place to play. It's a great way to get some exercise with some sense of accomplishment.

The missus and I have gone geocaching several times now. The first few attempts were dismal failures, but I'm proud to say that we've been on a recent winning streak. So we were pretty confident when we headed north to Carlsbad's KOA at some ungodly hour Saturday morning to participate in the CASA fundraiser. Two friends joined our team.

The first part of the competition was a dash through Carlsbad and Artesia. Each team started with one set of coordinates that took them to a local business in one town. The team would have to perform an activity, such as dancing the chicken dance or having a nail painted, to find the next set of coordinates. The trip was set up so you'd either hit Artesia or Carlsbad first and then switch after eight stops.

It was a great way for the sponsors to get the word out about their business. Some businesses gave away gift certificates and other items, and there was a large drawing once everyone finished the scavenger hunt. I'd list all the participating businesses, but there's a chance I'd leave someone out and do more harm than good. I'm certainly open to a complete submission from the CASA folks.

The morning scavenger hunt was sort of an "everybody wins" event, but the afternoon challenge was the fearsome competition.

Each team received a set of clues that had to be deciphered to reveal the coordinates of five locations across the county. Everyone then scrambled to find clues at each spot. The first team to reach all five clues, which formed a proverb, won $500.

According to the rules, if you wound up on some road that was in such terrible condition that you couldn't continue to drive without risking injury, you probably were going the wrong way. So I guess that ruled out Canal Street.

My team found out early on that we were at somewhat of a disadvantage. Most of the other teams had children, who are much better at bounding quickly across rugged terrain. We were quickly left panting in the dirt.

One of the locations turned out to be on C-Hill, while another was on Werewolf Hill. There was a spot near Lake Avalon and one east of Brantley Lake. The final spot was near Lakewood and we found out, the hard way, that there's no way to drive directly from east of Brantley Lake to Lakewood. This effectively took us from being out of the running to being way out of the running.

It turns out a family won the thing. The dad is an oilfield worker, so he probably knew which of those back roads actually lead to other places. The $500 prize is going to be used to get braces for a child in the family, so it's pretty neat that the CASA event is helping yet another child. Plus, it benefits the local dental community.

Anyhow, go out and buy a GPS unit and participate next year. I promise you'll have fun, if you just bring a positive latitude.

Marksteiner is city editor of the Current-Argus. Reach him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or track him down at 628-5531.