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The word is baby boomers are trading in their golf clubs for mountain bikes. Now, with some recent technology, a bike (or backpack for that matter), the allure of an old-fashioned treasure hunt, and you have one great new sport that tones the legs and pumps the heart — geocaching.

The general rule of thumb for this fun activity is that you take an item and leave an item, and then write about your experience in a logbook. It's that simple, for the most part, and it's growing like kudzu.

The sport uses a GPS units (for Global Positioning System) to hide and seek containers called "caches." Websites such as www.geocaching.com list caches worldwide. Coordinates are normally given in longitude and latitude.

"Brain exercise doing complex thinking activities while increasing blood flow and oxygen to the brain is a great combination for your overall health," says ReZoom's wellness and anti-aging expert Dr. Mark Houston.

To date, there are roughly 350,000 caches in 222 countries. To engage, you log onto the website of your choice, pick from a list of caches in your area, plug the coordinates into your GPS unit and head out. A GPS unit can determine your location within anywhere from 6 to 20 feet at any location on the planet. However, the word "hidden" is used in the sport for a reason. You can expect some climbing or at the very least some head scratching.

Locate the Kid Within — on Bicycle

Cleanse the lymphatic system and grab middle-aged spread by the horns by choosing difficult, off-road caches that require a bike or at least shoes with great ankle support. You know the ones. Mountain bikes are an obvious choice because the tires are meant for off-road surfaces. Depending on which coordinates you choose — some take you on a leisurely drive and others take you on a journey with "legs" — the health benefits will be proportionate to the degree of difficulty, which is noted by stars on some websites. The more stars, the harder the cache will be to find, and the harder it will be to get there.

For the needs of the beginner, any GPS unit will work, says Chuck Jackson, product representative at Garmin Ltd., which designs and manufactures navigation, communication and information devices. "Some are what we call geocaching-ready, which will allow you to download directly from websites, and it will put it straight into the unit," Jackson says.

Anything that gets the body and brain flowing will help with long-term brain health, Houston notes.

"There is a clear connection between brain health and physical health," he says. "Increasing physical activity increases memory and alertness and reduces anxiety and depression. Increased mental activity reduces dementia in the future."

It should, at the very least, be interesting. There are even caches underwater. Other exotic caches include those at the Arctic Circle and in the most social of places such as the Coliseum in Rome. You know what they (the sages) say: It's all about the journey.