Geocaching: Discover Laval, one treasure at a time

Today, we’re offering you a unique glimpse into the world of geocaching—an innovative and fun way to explore Laval! It’s basically a giant treasure hunt.

All over Laval, boxes, suitcases, and trunks of all sizes are hidden. The goal of the activity is to find them and sign the “cache” logbook.

Two Laval residents who are passionate about this activity, Claire and Claude Latour, kindly agreed to tell us about their interest in geocaching. For the past few years, they’ve been crisscrossing the city and hiding little treasures all over the island. “We’ve placed at least 300 caches in Laval, and we’ve found nearly 4,000 during our travels,” they explain proudly. “That might seem like a lot, but others have managed to find as many as 12,000! For us, it’s a way to get out and about and enjoy a great activity. Every outing helps us discover places we hadn’t known about before,” they continue.

In each cache, the couple hides a few small, worthless items and includes a logbook where other geocachers are invited to sign their names. The “Sherlocks of the cache” might find a tiny one under a park bench or a very large one at the Nature Center!

To find out where geocaches are located, visit the geocaching website. Just enter a ZIP code, and you’ll see the ones near you. Enter the geographic coordinates into a GPS device, for example, and go on a hunt! You can then take one of the items and replace it with another. For instance, Claire once found a small porcelain dog that had been placed in Sainte-Dorothée… in the southern United States!

Browsing the geocaching website, you can see just how numerous and widely scattered the caches are, because “there’s a rule that says they all have to be at least 165 meters apart, otherwise it would be too easy,” the geocachers explain to me. You can even receive email alerts when a new cache has been placed near your home. “We know people who will even head out in the middle of the night to be the first to find it!” our enthusiasts exclaim. “Even we, before heading out on an outing, sometimes check to see if there’s a cache near our destination!” conclude Mr. and Mrs. Latour.

Geocaching is a hobby that originated over twenty years ago, first in the United States. Since then, it has become a global phenomenon and is very popular on Île Jésus. If you’re interested in geocaching, I invite you to stop by the Laval Tourist Information Office. Who knows what might be “hiding” there?!