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Geocaching
Who didn’t love treasure hunting as a child? The adventure of searching for something with maps and a compass and the excitement of finding it make treasure hunting fun. But it’s not just child’s play anymore, thanks to global positioning devices (GPS) and the Internet. A quickly growing, modern treasure hunting game, geocaching (pronounced “GEO- cashing”), involves registering at a site such as www.geocaching.com and obtaining the coordinates for a treasure (“cache”) in the area where you would like to search, whether close to home, within a day’s drive, or even while on vacation. Using a portable GPS, participants can search for the cache. By receiving signals from three to four GPS satellites, a GPS device here on earth can find any given location on earth within several yards of its coordinates, the latitude and longitude information can pretty much pinpoint where a cache is hidden. Some cell phones also have GPS capability built-in (although most carriers charge a monthly service fee to activate this function). Most sporting goods stores sell GPS units. Dick’s Sporting Goods lists numerous handheld models on its site, ranging from $69.99 to $599.99. Once a participant hides a cache and lists its coordinates online, the hunt is on and whoever finds it first becomes the winner, although subsequent finders can enjoy the game, too, as long as they don’t read a “spoiler” about the FTF (caching lingo for “First to Find”). Finders leave a cache in place until the person who initially hid it decides to move it and relist the new coordinates. Geocaching.com lists the following rules: 1) If you take something from the cache, leave something of equal or greater value; 2) Write about your find in the cache logbook (this is a hardc opy included with the cache at the site where it’s hidden); 3) Log your experience at www.geocaching.com. The site also urges geocachers to be mindful of the environment by not leaving trash behind and by picking up any trash they find (“cache in, trash out”). Geocachers should also place caches in plastic bags and include no food, explosives, ammunition, knives, drugs or alcohol. Food items would attract wildlife and insects and of course, the other items pose safety hazards should they fall into the wrong hands. Andersen’s organization boasts more than 240 members ranging from Rochester to Syracuse to Albany and even Connecticut. The Web site enables member cachers (primarily living in Central and Western New York) to discuss the sport and become aware of caching events in the area. It may sound simple enough to find a cache, but that’s the easy part. Getting to it—and doing so before someone else does—provides the bigger difficulty. It’s like a twist on the old adage, “getting there is half the challenge.” Clever geocachers can place a treasure in an area that’s far removed from an easy stroll in the woods. For example, some may hide a cache on a cliff accessible only by rappelling or underwater diving so that the geocacher must use diving equipment. Some caches may be in plain sight, but on the opposite side of a steep ravine. Caches can be hidden in urban areas where access can be difficult because of others’ perceptions about why the cachers are rooting around in the shrubs outside an office building or walking along a highway. “When I’m out with my friends caching, typically people we meet will ask what we’re doing and we tell them about caching,” Andersen said. Some geocachers have encountered curious passersby wondering what they are doing. A few have a brush with police who want to find out why they are poking around in the bushes outside a public building or wandering along the highway. If a geocacher discovers that a cache is missing, he can report it to the Web site as “did not find” so that the owner can verify the coordinates. He may have recorded them incorrectly or the cache may have been disturbed by someone else finding it. Geocachers call those not involved in the sport “muggles,” a term borrowed from the Harry Potter series to refer to non-magical people, since geocachers at times may feel as misunderstood by outsiders as the wizards at Hogwarts. Scouring the countryside for a small box or plastic bag only to scribble a note in its accompanying book and then leaving it there may be hard for muggles to understand, but for geocachers, it’s pure magic—and fun. By the Numbers By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant |
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Season is ideal for game that’s becoming more popular