Not sure if you can call GeoCaching a sport, but the kids and I recently
discovered it and became completely hooked.
Reading the webpage GeoCaching.com, it almost sounds like the white-hot
action of watching golf or bowling on TV.
If your not familiar with GeoCaching, basically "caches" are hidden all
around the world, and then logged into a database with their coordinates and
a few very basic hints. The object of the game is to download the different
cache locations into your GPS and then go find them. In my area in central
Ohio, in a 20 mile radius, there are no less than 300 hidden caches.
Before I tried this, I wondered just how challenging it could be to use your
GPS to find any given cache. Under normal to optimum conditions, your GPS
can get you within 10 feet if the cache coordinates. Then you have to find
the hidden cache itself.
The caches range from micro size film canisters, to ammunition boxes (the
size of a couple of shoe boxes put together) and they are typically well
hidden. The typical size is a Tupperware container or a gallon sealed
plastic jar.
The caches contain a little bit of everything from toys, to letters to
GeoCoins. The rule is, if you take something from a cache, you have to
leave something comparable.
GeoCoins are really the main bounty. They are metal coins, just larger than
a silver dollar, that have been minted specifically for GeoCaching. Once you
find a GeoCoin, you log it into the database, and then leave it at the next
cache (and then log that into the database). GeoCoins have a trackable
serial number so owners and finders can track the progress and location.
The designs are very cool. So a Google image search for GeoCoin or search on
eBay. You can buy these coins, activate them in the database and then put
them in circulation. Here's one of my favorites:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem
<http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140115505782>
&item=140115505782
I'm going to buy this one as a collectible, but others I've bought and put
in circulation.
The only problem I had was trying to explain to my 6 year old why we
couldn't keep the wickedly cool large coin we found and he subsequently
claimed :-)
Finding a cache with a GPS isn't as easy as it sounds. Our first hunt was
rated a 1.5 out of 5 on the difficulty scale published with each caches
information. We knew where the local park was, so we we parked and found
the referenced path, but then had to find a way to the coordinates on the
GPS. Once there, it took about 25 minutes to find the cache. It was a small
Tupperware container hidden in the rocks on a river bend.
Our second find, was also a local park, but it was overcast and the GPS
accuracy was 15 to 20 feet instead of the normal >10 feet.
The cache we're hunting today is at a very old cemetery. We have to locate a
certain gravestone at the specified coordinates, get information from the
text on the gravestone, decode it, and then use that information to find the
final cache. This one's rated a 2 on the difficulty scale.
As with any sport, there are idiots. Someone chose to hide a cache in the
area of the Whitehouse outer wall and then everyone wondered why the
searcher was busted when he was walking around the Whitehouse front gates
with a GPS.
Then, there's always public idiots. Someone saw a GeoCacher looking for a
cache, watched them find it, then called the police and reported a
"suspicious" box. This particular cache was an ammo box that had an 8 x 10
blaze orange sticker on the side that identified it as a GeoCache box with
the ID and website on it. The police and fire department were going to
"dispose" of it as if it were a bomb until one of the fireman clued everyone
in as to what it was. Even though it was hidden by permission of the park
owners, and clearly identified, the city is considering billing the cache
owner for several thousand dollars for the cost of the emergency response.
I can understand their caution, but the initial police officer clearly saw
the ID sticker.
Anyway, if you have a couple of hours to spare, and know someone with a GPS
(or if you have an integrated GPS in your phone) go to the website, look up
caches in your area and go find one. You'll be hooked too.
Gary
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
