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Geocachers -
Geocaching
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Sunday, 29 June 2008 06:58 |
GeoWoodstock VI, World Geocaching Event Held In Wheatland Friday, May 30, 2008 9:56 PM PDT Did you notice all the out-of-town traffic last Saturday? Did you wonder why people were walking all over town looking at little devices hanging from around their necks? May 24, Wheatland was host to the World Ge0Woodstock VI, an annual event attended by geocachers from all over the world. Geocaching is a relatively new hobby/sport that gives people an excuse to get out and explore. In May, 2000 the federal government declassified certain GPS signals, making the devices ten times more accurate. Now you can mark a location anywhere in the world, and find it again . . . or let someone else find it using GPS coordinates. Geocaching hobbiests download coordinates to GPS devices, then travel to those locations to see what they can find. Typically, geocachers find a box containing some small items. Geocachers collect “geocoins” and track “travel bugs”. Usually this activity is done solo or in small groups. But once a year, at “GeoWoodstock” geocachers come together from all over the world. This year they gathered at Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm here in Wheatland.
Wheatland citizens, Mona and Doug Hood, were introduced to geocaching by a friend 3 years ago, and incorporated the hobby into their normal travel. They have geocached as far as Bend, Oregon. And they have established their own cache in Wheatland.
The first geocache was placed by a computer consultant on May 3, 2000 as a test of the new accuracy of GPS signals. Today there are 584,808 active caches worldwide.
For more information, go to www.geocaching.com.
http://www.thewheatlandcitizen.com/articles/2008/05/31/news/latest/doc4840d84664e6f284573742.txt
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