Nevada Geocaching Association

Meet & Greet Groundspeak

(shamelessly stolen right from the cache page)
GC17DQX
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Time: 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm

A lackey or two (or four? or even more?) will be coming to Vegas soon after the New Year, and they'd love to meet with as many geocachers as possible. Whether you are a veteran of the game or just recently introduced, please drop in for the afternoon.

Cache and release

Techie treasure hunt game gains in popularity

BY ANNA HERKAMP
BISMARCK — There may be hope for parents everywhere who fear high-tech toys only keep their children inactive.

While the Internet and video-gaming is blamed for childhood obesity and decreasing amounts of quality family time, another piece of technological gadgetry could be the antidote to the 21st century banes.

Global Positioning System (GPS) devices are now a form of entertainment for families looking for some outdoor adventure. Since 2000, satellite technology has ushered in a new era of creative treasure-hunting called geo-caching.

It was that year the government began allowing civilians less restricted access to satellites.

Soon after the satellites became available, tech-savvy people created a game that uses latitude and longitude coordinates to place caches of small treasures.

The game has become a way of connecting with people and places otherwise unknown.

“It’s a techie way of playing treasure hunt,” explained Lynn Burrett, of Cayuga, Ind., who frequently geo-caches with her family and friends.

To geo-cache, all that is needed is Internet access, a GPS device and a mode of travel.

Those interested log onto geocaching.com and enter a ZIP code. A list of caches in the area pops up on the screen. Once a cache is selected, the coordinates for the cache location are uploaded into the GPS device.

Although a general location is known, identifying the specific location becomes the challenge. Finding the cache is the reward.

Geocaching fun for all

Alan Van Ormer
August 15. 2007 6:00AM
Those who participate in geocaching do it for many different reasons.

It could be for the challenge of the treasure hunt. It could be for the fun. Or it could be for just seeing what is hidden inside the container.

?For me, it is the challenge of finding the next cache,? said Ann Thiel, who lives in Sherman. She found her first cache on May 6 and her 40th cache on Aug. 6. ?Some dedicated geocachers can find that many in one day.?

Geocaching got its start in 2000 when a Global Positioning System (GPS) enthusiast hid a container in Oregon and posted the coordinates on the Internet. Geocachers hunt for their hidden treasures by using the GPS, which receives satellite communications, and the Internet, which helps get the cache coordinates by either hand entry or downloading from the geocache Web site. The arrow moves as the geocacher walks and when the person gets to the cache the arrow is set on the treasure box.

Caches are stored throughout the country. There are six geocaches in the Garretson area. Three are located in Devil?s Gulch, two at Palisades State Park and one at Split Rock Park. Thiel has hidden two caches and she has plans for hiding at least one more in the area.

The typical cache is in a Tupperware container, but the cache could be placed in larger items and also containers as small as a 35mm film canister or prescription bottle.

Uncovering the rising popularity of 'geocaching'

Updated Wed. Aug. 8 2007 1:52 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
When Mary Barker was given a global positioning device for Christmas she had no idea what she was getting herself into.
"I have trails up behind my house and I wanted to map my trails," Barker told CTV's Canada AM. "But I didn't have a clue how to use it. I'm not a techie person at all."
However, Barker, a hiking enthusiast and a Girl Guide leader for more than 30 years, not only learned how to use the device at a college course, but was soon turned on to the fact that it is a critical component of geocaching.
Barker became so intensely involved in the activity that she has even gone as so far as to start her own geocaching academy.
But what exactly is geocaching? Geocaching is an activity that is an online scavenger hunt of sorts that began around seven years ago and has a process and a set of rules enthusiasts abide by.
It involves a package, commonly referred to as a "cache" being concealed in a secret location on public land. The satellite coordinates of the package are then posted by the person who planted the package online to the website www.geocaching.com.
Geocaching enthusiasts can then see the satellite location on the site and then proceed to go about searching for the package in an online scavenger hunt using the posted coordinates. All they need is an Internet connection, a handheld global positioning device (GPS) and a boundless curiosity to search for the package.

If you hide it, they will come; then what?

Geocaching found Lauren Weaver this April in Connecticut, where she was visiting her sister.
The families went on searches, looking up caches' coordinates online, then using Global Positioning System (GPS) units and determination to search the woods and brush for them. In a weeklong trip, there and in Boston, they located 13 caches.
Weaver was excited to return home to Eden Prairie, where she knew dozens of caches were waiting for her. But when she got back, all the caches in the city's parks had disappeared.
Turns out Eden Prairie had discovered geocaching as well.

Geocachers, parks working together

Until last year, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources did not allow geocaching within state parks. Instead, it allowed "virtual geocaching," where coordinates would lead not to a placed cache but to a natural or structural feature.
"It was really ineffective," said Chuck Kartak, deputy director for the state parks system. "No one really does that."
Now, geocaching is allowed, as long as each cache is registered with the regional park in which it's placed.
"We need a permit so we know what's out there," Kartak said. "If we were to do a prescribed burn or some sort of resource management activity, we'd want the caches out of there beforehand."
In fashioning its policy, the state and Eden Prairie looked to others. Three Rivers Park District, which now has about 160 caches within its 27,000 acres, was one of the first agencies to create geocaching rules.
The guidelines remain similar to those the district approved in 2002, said Marlene Witucki, a park district employee. Examples include: No caches on regional trails. All caches must be registered with the park district. No burying caches. All caches must be within 25 feet of trails.

Cache and carry

Ask your children to hike seven kilometres up a mountain in a downpour? No problem. Just hand over the GPS and tell them to find the treasure. Welcome to geocaching When old-fashioned orienteering goes high-tech, can bomb squads and sniffer dogs be far behind?
Shelley Page, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Sunday, August 05, 2007
We emerged at the end of the trail three hours after our quest began. We were soaking wet but exhilarated. With the help of the GPS, we calculated we'd hiked seven kilometres.
Hiking purists might think that taking your kids geocaching is the cheat's way to get them into the wilderness. But our kids weren't just hiking, they were on an adventure that required them to take risks, veer off the beaten path, learn navigation, hunt for clues and tap into their tenacity.
Before we left the area, we decided we would leave our own cache, which consists of a coffee container filled with tiny treasures. It's in a beautiful marine park with unmatched views of the Pacific Ocean. It's up about 40 steps carved into a rock face, hidden between three boulders.
If you come to such a place, and notice someone searching for something, please don't call in the bomb squad.

A way to get people into parks?

In the past two years, many cities have moved from banning to permitting geocaching. Some, however, have gone further -- to promoting it.

Duluth offers classes for children. Minnesota State Parks is planning a hunt for the state sesquicentennial in 2008. Three Rivers sponsors classes, too, and is planning to hide its own treasures as part of its 50th anniversary celebration this fall.

"We hope it brings different people into the parks who maybe haven't been before," said Linda Seaton, Three Rivers park services manager.

This spring, Montana State Parks teamed up with Northwest Airlines and others to sponsor a geocaching contest in the Twin Cities. Clues and coordinates for the weekly Montana Treasure Trek were posted at area outdoors retailers, and cachers competed for prizes, including trips to Big Sky Country.

"I think people are starting to recognize that there's a revenue that could be gained here," Werner said.

Dave and Mary Purdham, who live in Eden Prairie, geocache wherever they go. Recently, that was up in Ely where they visited their son. On that trip and others, geocaching was a secondary pursuit.

But sometimes, they'll take a short road trip simply to get away and geocache a bit. Rochester was a recent destination.

"You see a different side of a city when you're geocaching," Mary Purdham said -- "the less populated part of parks, the backside of areas."

For now, their wish is simply to geocache close to home. Although Eden Prairie OK'ed the guidelines in July, the parks department has not published the form cachers need to fill out.

Some geocachers there are worried that the delay is a harbinger of the bureaucracy to come. Most are frustrated because they're missing out on the limited number of long days and sunny weather of summer.

"The city may end up having a huge onslaught of applications," said Deb Sweeney, another Eden Prairie geocacher. "We're chomping at the bit."

Geocaching an alluring hobby

Some time before dawn on a balmy Saturday morning, five Connecticut treasure seekers begin a weekend-long quest.
Armed with a Global Positioning System unit and coordinates downloaded from geocaching.com, the hunters, known as geocachers, bushwhack and hike their way through Raleigh N.C.'s extensive greenway in search of the more than 250 geocaches hidden within a seven mile radius.
They are not alone. The annual GoeWoodstock event, which took place over Memorial Day weekend, drew 2,000 geocachers who gathered to share their enthusiasm for the fast growing high tech treasure hunt.
Geocachers use GPS technology to find cleverly hidden containers placed by other players, who post the GPS coordinates of the treasures online. The geocaches can be as small as a film canister or as large as a trunk. They always contain a logbook, and often small trinkets — toys, coins, tools and the like — for trading. The rules are: If you take something, leave something; make sure to sign the log; and, if you like, record your visit online at geocaching.com.
Enthusiasts of the hobby say geocaching helps them discover new places and enjoy the outdoors. "Many people feel they know an area, or know their state. What I have found from geocaching is that there are hundreds of places in the area in which I live that are quite scenic or historical in nature or beautiful or what have you that I never knew existed," South Windsor geocacher Will "MilesStone" Vees says. "By the
collective efforts of geocachers in my area, we have made these areas known to one another and more accessible. It's a great way to know your area more than you can imagine."

Geocaching hits P.A.

A current adventure game involving global positioning systems has made its way to the Prince Albert area.

Geocaching involves individuals and organizations setting up caches all over the world and sharing the locations of these caches on the Internet, allowing GPS users to use the co-ordinates of the location to find the caches.

Caches, which can provide the visitor with a variety of rewards, can range from large to small. Larger ones could include maps, videos, money, tickets or other similar items.

Each cache includes a logbook so the person finding it can record his or her discovery. If the visitor takes something from the cache, he or she is asked to leave something in return.

Glen Booker of Prince Albert said there are about 37 caches in the area and about 500 around the province.

A local group of about six dedicated geocachers is planning a “meet and greet” at 5 p.m. on Aug. 24 in Little Red River Park across from the swinging bridge.

Such gatherings are known, in geocacher parlance, as “event caches” because there is no physical cache involved (those are called regular caches).

“I currently do have two (physical caches) in Little Red River Park,” Booker said.

He became a geocacher two years ago.

“I was just doing a web search after I bought a GPS and I stumbled across it,” he said.

A couple of different aspects of geocaching make it appealing to Booker.

“It’s going to areas you wouldn’t have gone to otherwise,” he said.