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Geocachers -
Geocaching
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Sunday, 19 August 2007 14:44 |
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.
Inside the cache is a logbook and assorted items. Thiel has found such things as a candlestick, little cars, a skeleton key chain and earrings. She has been collecting small cars from the caches that she has found. Once an item is taken out of the cache, the geocacher replaces it with another item.
?I?m looking for the cache, not anything specific,? said Thiel. ?It?s always a surprise. A lot of people make it a family event.?
According to Thea Miller Ryan, who is the director at the Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls, geocaching has become popular in this area. There are more than 1,000 caches in a 100-mile radius of Sioux Falls.
?It is so popular because it gets people outdoors,? she said. ?We do it as a family. It is challenging and we are never bored geocaching.?
She receives constant e-mails from geocachers who have found a cache on the campus of Augustana College near a well-known piece of art.
?So many people didn?t know that piece of art exists,? she said. ?Geocaching puts us in places we would have never found if we didn?t look for caches.?
The Outdoor Campus also holds a 1 ? hour geocaching class two times a year. It teaches them how to use the GPS and also how to be ethical geocachers playing by the rules and respecting the environment.
In addition, they have a yearly outdoor event for geocachers. This year?s Siouxland Geocaching event is on Sept. 8. Ryan expects more than 150 geocachers who will go hunting for cache in three different parks in the city.
Neither Thiel nor Ryan have found the amount of caches that Michele Weiss and her family have. Since December 2005, Weiss, who moved from New York a couple of years earlier, have found over 500 caches and are among the top 25 in South Dakota.
?Our favorite thing is that it is a family outing,? said Weiss. ?It takes us to places we would never get to. Some of the views are phenomenal.?
For example, the family hiked to the top of a waterfall near Lake Tahoe to find a cache.
?Geocaching keeps our kids engaged because they are finding a treasure box at the end of the hike,? said Weiss. ?That is what it is all about.?
Geocachers seem to enjoy the fun, the sense of adventure and the challenge.
?The cache is not always easy to find,? said Thiel. ?I spent 30 minutes looking for one cache and gave up. Other times, it takes 30 seconds.?
Just seeing what is inside the tiny container is also part of the excitement.
?There are some surprises,? said Thiel. ?The cache usually has something special for the first person to find it.?
Then there is the socialization, exercise and seeing how many caches you can find.
?It compares to a scavenger hunt,? said Thiel. ?The difference is you are looking for a specific item or collecting things.?
The key to a successful geocacher is practice. ?You get more experience by finding more,? said Thiel. ?You know better where to look. You start to think like they think. But, then once you figure out how certain people hide things, then all of a sudden they throw you for a loop.?
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