What is Geocaching?
Primer 101... we’re talking just the basics here, but it’s enough to get you started or should we say addicted? Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices.
Are you part of the worldwide treasure hunting phenomenon that is literally sweeping the globe? Are you even aware of it? Geocaching is either something you’re full blown obsessed with or simply have never heard of. It’s a high tech spin on good old fashioned treasure hunting. It’s something the entire family can do. With a relatively inexpensive investment, you, your friends and your family can experience the thrill of discovery anywhere on the planet.
Web Bite
Sample this....
“A true legend among all extreme caches in Czech Republic, for that this one is IMO far more challenging than any other cache in my country. For logging this extreme cache, you have to climb a 24 meters high pylon, which is built from two vertical pylons and one horizontal on top of the vertical ones. After you climb on the top of the pylons along the 2-3cm long screws, it's not over yet! The actual container is located UNDER the horizontal pylon, approximately in the very center of it. So how to get to the container, which is then like 2 meters far from the edge? Well, that's up to you.”
“This wild cave near Shepherdstown, WV gives explorers new to the sport an opportunity to descend into timeless caverns with ancient speleo-therms and unseen challenges.”
“Mines, drainage mines, trees, old ruins, rappels and a great hike. What more do you want? “
“This cache has everything! Cliff rappelling, HUGE tree climbing, urban structure rappelling, tunnels and to top it off you'll need to setup a zip line across a creek!”
“Swim about 800meters, climb up the rock - then jump down!”
“Wahe Ka-Ho-Nee involves ropes/ladder to get up a nearly vertical chute, crossing th stream up to seven times to get up to the bottom of a beautiful waterfall about 1.5 miles south of the Bonneville Dam”
or not....
Using a GPS unit and preset coordinates, the geocacher sets out on a hike or adventure if you will, to discover a hidden geocache. For the traditional geocache, another geocacher will have placed a waterproof container usually containing a log book (with pen or pencil) and sometimes interesting (or not so interesting) trinkets. If you take something out, you leave something for the next. You log your successful discovery and replace the cache as you found it. A treasure for the next geocacher to discover. Once a geocache has been placed it’s up tofellow geocachers to ensure it is self perpetuating.
The activity was originally referred to as GPS stash hunt or gpsstashing. This was changed after a discussion in the gpsstash discussion group at eGroups (now Yahoo!). On May 30, 2000, Matt Stum suggested that "stash" could have negative connotations, and suggested instead "geocaching".
You can pickup a GPS unit at many outdoor/camping stores or even one of the many “big box” stores that carry outdoor lifestyle products. There are many sites on the internet that provide detailed instruction on effective hunting and use of the GPS units themselves and most importantly provide the co-ordinates to caches hidden around the world, including quite likely your own neighbourhood.
Geocaching.com has been leading the way in the sport for many years, although based in the United States they inventory the coordinates to caches around the world. Register a free account, walk through some very helpful and basic instruction, plug in the region, town or city area you want to search and there will be a host of choices in varying degrees of difficulty from novice to experienced. Geocacher-u.com also offers some terrific instruction as well as additional support in walking through the initial setup with geocaching.com.
Part of the thrill of discovering a cache is the bragging rights that go along with it. There are rules and etiquette to follow, many are common sense and many are specific to certain areas particularly natural or conservation areas. Often the author of the specific cache will post any conditions to be aware of, but it’s always a good idea to look into the guidelines set by specific property owners.
To enjoy Geocaching you need computer access to the Internet to find caches near you at www.geocaching.com, plus a GPS receiver to find the waypoint coordinates of the cache, plus some intuition to find the cache itself.
Some caches contain ‘travel bugs,’ which are trackable items designed to move from cache to cache with their travel monitored on the website www.geocaching.com.
Rainbow Hydrothermal Vents is the longest geocache without a find. This geocache is arguably the most extreme. It is at a depth of 1.43 miles in the Atlantic Ocean near a hydrothermal vent. It was placed 19 July 2002.
