FEATURES

 
 

eocaching: Like Hunting For Nerds

 

One part treasure.hunt, one part GPS trek, geocaching is attracting enthusiasts from all over

Brendan Kergin, Nexus (Camosun College)

CTORIA (CUP) — About a year and a half ago, I used a multi-million-dollar system of
atellites and complicated computer equipment to go into a forest and find a damp and
lirty piece of Tupperware. I opened it up, pulled out a small notebook, and wrote down the
late, the words “Rogue Towel,’ and some other coded messages.

I quickly re-hid the small treasure box at the bottom of a stump and walked away, care-

not to be spotted by the walkers on a nearby trail. I have since repeated this activity over
P70 times, and it’s fun.

These mysterious activities are part of a modern sport called “geocaching,” and it’s
become a regular activity for me—before work, after school, or on the way to anywhere. [’ll
ro find little treasure boxes, and trade away my swag for all new secondhand stuff.

I race other geocachers to new sites just to earn the honour being the first to find
i , and then meet them a week later to laugh at how we both snuck into a closed park at

am only to be beaten by a third team.

There is a community of random people who participate in this pastime, which often
tarts out as a short adventure that becomes a a ime activity planned into a regular
chedule, and then some.

The other great part about eau is it’s fairly new. Rules are still being hashed out,
ssociations just starting, and www.geocaching.com the nexus for almost all caches and

chers out there is growing with on passing ae New options, players, and hide sites are.
ded to the game daily too.
So what gibi is one

  
   
   
  
 
 
   
  
 
 
  
 
   
  
 
 
  

It’s difficult to explain. The debate over just what exactly it is a sport, hobby, a game has
hever satisfactorily been resolved. To make it easier, geocaching is often referred to as hik-

g for nents, though that doesn’t aoe pin it down.

sible park use,” says Rob Gennell (whose caching name is Mushroom
other things that can be gained in the public spaces other than just

1¢ Global TesGsding System (GPS), a series of satellites
give people the exact location of something on the sur-
themselves. This system is commonly used for every-
es, to hunting, so most of us have had contact with GPS in

 

~ After the public GPS was made more accurate, there was a boom in GPS-related games
sing receivers known as GPSr. Included in this was a simple game called the GPS “stash
unt,” later got renamed geocaching,
btarting in Oregon and quickly spreading up and down the coast and beyond, geocaching is
ow completely global, with 331,000 caches and counting worldwide.

The basic idea behind caching is to take the co-ordinates of an exact location from the

Internet, go. tothe location using a GPSr, and find something there. Normally it’s a water-
tight container of sorts, although.sometimes.it’s a number, or information that needs to be
collected.

Beware the Muggles

One of the most common problems for a geocacher is dealing with “muggles.” Taken from
the Harry Potter word for normal folk, muggles are people who don’t cache. Because they
don’t know about the game, muggles inadvertently find and destroy caches, thinking what-
ever they find is theirs to take, use, or throw away.

Then there are legal issues like property laws. Since many people mistake the caches for
junk, certain matters need to be hammered out by the caching society so that the game can
go on without any hitches.

Chris Edley (Mr. Landsharkz), director-at-large for the British Columbian Geocachers
Association, is one of the people who represent the hobby. Edley is currently working with
government agencies on issues and rules for caching in Victoria. “We're the public face for
geocaching,’ he explains. “A lot of agencies are developing park polices and we represent
the geocachers at the table.”

A young history

David Ulmer is credited for inventing the game when he jumped at the opportunity to
hide a bucket near Portland for other GPS enthusiasts. On May 3, 2000, he posted the co-
ordinates and a short description of the bucket on an Internet newsgroup.

Within a day it was found, and the basic rules behind “the GPS stash hunt game” were
established. Just a few days later, more stashes in other states started to appear on mes same
site.

 
   

In less than a month, the Aedgling hobby had gone jomonieae with ‘Australia
ing up on the idea. Eventually, Jeremy Irish registered www.geocaching.com, and the new
site offers a much more user-friendly interface, centralized categorizing system, and a ]
to sell ad space, memberships, and even clothing. Despite heavy criticism from early cach
who were at odds with the commercial and centralist aspects | of Irish’s i initiative, a site.
became the biggest of its kind.

 

 

  
 
  
   

 

The numbers game
Countries such as India (21 active aan ad Brazil 1 66a active ep. ate an sparse
when gauged against geocache heavyweights like Canada (25,796) and Germany (25,129
A GPStr costs upwards of $400 from major hardware stories, although cheapet mode
can be found. Used models can be purchased from EBay for as low as $60.

The fine art of the cache
While the original cache was a bucket hidden partway into the ground in a park outside

of Portland, Ore., caches have developed into a few more
common forms.
The traditional or go-to cache has one set of co-ordinates
and a container placed somewhere at that physical O
will contain at least one item; namel a logh
the finder to note they did indee
tion any other liule things

sll he
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