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Click here or tune in to the live show to hear the coordinates for the Think Out Loud geocache. If you find it before the end of the show, you could be on the air!
A lot of people will be geocaching this weekend with their families, on their own and at GeoWoodstock in Carnation, Washington. Geocaching is a high-tech scavenger hunt that began in Oregon ten years ago, and has since swept the globe. You can see the spot where the first cache was hidden and follow some local geocaching enthusiasts on their adventures in this episode of Oregon Field Guide.
It all started as a fun thing for a few people who were part of a newsgroup devoted to GPS technology. An Oregon man hid a bucket in Beavercreek and posted the coordinates to the newsgroup. The next day, two brothers from Vancouver found the bucket containing a slingshot, a can of beans and a log book (among other things) and they were inspired to start hiding their own caches and posting the coordinates. The activity quickly outgrew the newsgroup and a web developer in Seattle started the official geocaching website, drawing new participants from around the world.
Today there are over one million geocaches hidden in more than 200 countries. There have been a few mishaps along the way. Just recently, a geocache in Washington was mistaken for a bomb. Geocaches are sometimes found by "muggles" (non-geocachers) who don't know what to do with them and may move them or destroy them. There's also some disagreement in the geocaching world about whether or not caches have to have physical items attached to them. Some people enjoy hiding and finding "virtual caches," and some parks and recreation departments prefer this method, since it's less likely to disturb plants and animals. Some enthusiasts aren't into the virtual caches and get more excited about collecting geocoins and other prizes from their adventures.
Have you ever geocached? What did you find? What did you hide?
Photo credit: The Rogue / Creative Commons
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I love Geocaching and have been very active since 2004, but created my account in 2001. Geocaching has changed a lot over the years. Some things are for the better, and others not.
I'll be attending Geowoodstock VIII this weekend and will make the trek for the last remaining Project A.P.E. cache in the northern hemisphere. My favorite types of caches to hunt are those off the beaten path and take me to a beautiful area. Night caches and really clever hides are great too.
Groovy Cachin' Dude! - Albany, Oregon
http://gcswag.com/ -
GCDude or others:
I'm curious about these lines: "Geocaching has changed a lot over the years. Some things are for the better, and others not."
What are the changes you've seen?
Thanks,
Dave
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Some of the changes that I've seen is simply the sheer quantity of caches available. Groundspeak recently went over 1M active caches worldwide. That is great from one standpoint in that wherever you go, you'll be certain to be able to go caching (except for off-limit areas). On the other hand, many people get into Geocaching to "try it out", and put out trashy caches. Poor hides, lousy containers/SWAG, don't maintain them, and forget to remove them when they stop playing the game.
I actually preferred caching in its infancy when it was more of a "secret". It was like a club, and if you didn't know the proper handshake (hand to chin), you were in the dark. I miss the mystery and the unique hides. Now, I'm generalizing...there are still great hides and cachers out there they make it great. Why else would I continue?
I think Jeremy et al have made some great improvements in the website. They have been working really hard to improve the interface, add features, and make this one of the most fun and afordable hobbies around. When you look at it, a GPSr, a $30/year premium membership, and desire for adventure is a pretty cheap hobby these days. It appeals to the very young and the young at heart.
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"Geocache".
Just for fun:
Now being this started in the PNW, I assume that it is properly pronounced the same as our famed geoduck clams. As gooeycash!?
Henh.
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Cool topic. Folks love scavenger hunts.
For winter house-bound and indoor weather a group I go online with is a group that does a form of semi-virtual geocaching. The destinations are advertisements printed in newspapers no later than 1940. The clues have to be imbedded in other newspapers of the same vintage.
The search takes place in library reading rooms that have either real paper or microfiche access to the newspapers in their collections.
The winner has to copy the advertisement and show up on a set deadline in a coffer shop where local participants compare success or failure. Winners get free coffee and treats.
The pipe dream is that we can get good enough at obscure research to eventually do some sort of real treasure hunt.
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Though I've only ever gone once and didn't find the cache (my GPS was really old and lacked a digit on it's coordinates) The idea is very cool to me. I have yet to get a GPS device since then. When I update my phone, I hope to try a few more.
As an electronics nerd I've recently become deeply interested in the concept of the "Reverse Geocache". Instead of going to a location to find a cache, this is a box that has to be taken to a particular location in order to be opened. It has electronics along with a GPS receiver in it and a method of automatically unlocking the box.
There's an example of one here: http://arduiniana.org/projects/the-reverse-geo-cache-puzzle/
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I wonder if Oregonian's interest and inspiration for geocaching might have been nurtured by the traditional annual Rose Festival Medallion hunt. No GPS in the early days. The clues were always fascinatingly fun and often frustrating. My kids remember me waking them early on a Saturday morning to search under, around, and in telephone booths and street signs on Washington in downtown Portland. We didn't find it. Fun stuff.
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My family and I love hunting. The children (6 and 8) love the adventure. Plus this month we found our first travel bug in Waldport. The best find I ever was involved with is at the Multnomah County main library.
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Great to see you giving attention to this topic and particularly for sharing stories from active geocachers. This game creates amazing passion among the people who play it. It's a great way to explore new areas, learn about local history and make new friends. We just published a book - The Joy of Geocaching - that's full of these stories, and we invite your listeners to stop by a check out a few.
Geocaching is a game for all ages. At Geowoodstock this weekend you'll see players ranging in age from five to 85. You can play anywhere and make it as easy or as challenging as you like.
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A friend MAKES stamps for her geocaches. It is SO impressive. I've seen her working on one of Pee Wee Herman. So, she leaves the stamp and an inkpad.
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I belong to a group called the Mooters, made up of serious Tolkien fans who met online and have become close friends over the years, though many of us have never met 'in the flesh'.
Last month we had a "Mootstock" a gathering of those of us who could make it to Oregon from Michigan, Houston and other points east, and we spent 5 days at the coast reading aloud, hiking, talking of all things Tolkien, making coney stew and more.
During one of our hikes, we came upon a geo-cache, purely by accident, not far from the Hecita Head lighthouse. We were amazed and delighted to find a wizard stamp in it, which you can well imagine, fitted in well with our theme. We left it there; we took nothing but we placed some objects of our own in it and a little note. We noted the contact info on the container and tried, later, to get hold of those who had left it but they were no longer online.
What happens to 'lost' geo-caches? Is there a place one can report them so that those who want to find them can connect to them?
We are still in the process of putting up a photo gallery of Mootstock 2010, which will include pictures of the letterbox we found. It will be found at: http://mootstock.com/mootstock_2010.htm
I can be emailed at: valdaquende@mootstock.com
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Geocaching can be a fun family activity. We don't do it a lot, but it's a fun way to keep kids interested when out on a day hike. Often, a good geocache will take us to a view or a beautiful location that we would not have seen otherwise. It is great fun when traveling or when spending time with cousins of vastly different ages. Most of the time, the caches don't have any "swag" that is interesting so, thankfully, the kids aren't too focused on what trinket they get -- although it is exciting if someone has left something interesting or useful. The kids do like to find Travel Bugs and move them along.
We also use the Travel Bugs in an attempt to encourage an interest in geography and travel. Sadly, most of the ones we have started have been stolen or have gone missing -- never logged in by the cacher who took them.
My eldest daughter has hidden a cache in the Hoyt Arboretum near her favorite tree. It's fun to see who finds it, what they write, and whether or not they post a photo of themselves climbing in the tree.
Microcaches are the one part of geocaching I don't care for. It's more about finding a teeny tiny magnet than having an experience or seeing something interesting. We avoid those, but based on how many there are, they definitely have appeal for many.
Urban caches do make for a fun, quick activity on a lazy summer day.
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The GPS instruments that surveyors use are accurate to something like one or two centimeters. And they were so even back before the military opened GPS up for the public. That's less than an inch. One inch equals 2.54 centimeters.
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Geocaching is a great way to help your family and friends get outside and be active. There are caches for everyone from short in town hides to long treks where the hike is the reason to go. We are going to be helping educate people at daVinci days in Corvallis on July 16-18th.
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My 6-year old son, Rory, wanted me to share our favorite find. He initially wanted to call in but was a bit too shy to follow through! I'll let him explain our find: "We were in Michigan trying to find a geocache with my Dad and Paba (what I call my grandfather). It was cold and snowy, and we were standing on the side of the road looking around a guardrail. At first we didn't think we would find the cache, but then a bolt on the guardrail wiggled only on one side. We kept on turning it. The bolt fell out, and we saw that it was hallow. We found the geocache inside it. I felt really, really good finding it!"
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PLEASE don't go off trail more than a couple feet in Portland's Forest Park! The park is under plenty of stress, more folks (no matter how sensitive we try to be) going off trail can be too much at this time. This is a real concern, please, let's be smart about this. I'll even try now that I've been told.
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Inspired by your FB post yesterday about today's topic, I overcame my initial thought of "why would I do this" and checked out the website. Then I took my kids out last night an we found a cool cache with some small toys. They each left something and took something. We put them in a bag at home for the next time we go out. Best of all I got them to take a mile walk from our home in the rain instead of watching a movie.
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This is why I enjoy talking to people at daVinci Days coming up in Corvallis on the 16-18th. We have a booth at the festival staffed with geocachers to help answer people's questions, teach them how to use their GPS devices, and teach them how to geocache. For the most part you're never more than a mile from a geocache, and if you're taking a drive you're always going to pass by a few wherever you're going.
My nephews love geocaching, the hunt, the hike, the find, and trading cars or small toys. Sharing, caring, and exercising them to wear them out all at the same time.
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Geocaching has been so wonderful for my family! Coordinating two kids and their various playdates, soccer games, etc. means that we are often across town with an hour or two to kill before picking up one kid or dropping the other off somewhere. I added the Geocache iPhone app to my phone and have discovered that with the app right on my phone, I can look up geocaches in the area, grab our "cache bag" of trinkets, and wander off looking for fun.
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We are handed a powerful Multi billion dollar tool that took decades to realize....and we use it for empty amusements like a toy. Imagining the possible , takes a back seat to gadgetry and gaming.
Imagine you are given a powerful Saturn V rocket engine from the Apollo Program and you use it to roast chestnuts. It may work and be entertaining, but it is a far under use of the technogy's true potential. -
For kids it is not an empty amusement of a toy. It is a treasure for them. I have two kids, 4 and 7. And you should see their faces when they help find a geocache. It is wonderful. For people like myself it is the locations that I get to see and enjoy that is the amusement Everyone should try it with an open mind and then they can truely decide if it is a worth while hobby!
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Interestingly when the British Empire was on the decline, and resources were stretched, the English culture contracted and began inward domestic pursuits, navel gazing and self- amusing entertainment.
Examine late 19th Century British literature: Jane Austin, the Bronte Sisters, Wordsworth and Longfellow--Romantics concerned with social tensions, marrying upward, and double entedre slights at cocktail balls--instead of the declining imperial state and losing wars and territories. The British public was drawn into mythical nonsense fantasy of Alice in Wonderland, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelly's Frankenstein instead of learning languages, finances, international administration and thinking of the post Imperial future.
Similarly, we no longer harbor desires to go to the Moon, Mars, space exploration or the next frontier. We do not have the 'next big ideas', but rather explore the intricate social lives of celebrities in the blogoshere. Here We Are---Entertain Us.
We have a powerful tool in GPS...don't waste it on blind treasure hunts that waste valuable fuel and time traipsing all over wide State of Oregon or the Continental US. We need better GPS tools and applications that exploit this new powerful tool If man were given fire, but just used it to put on Fireworks shows, it would overlook the potential to use fire to cook food, weld metal, generate power, move vehicles and even go to the Moon.
I would like to see GPS as a tool used more productively. Such as increase accuracy of weather forecasts, match commuters to routes such as organized carpooling, redistribution of surplus items such as an abundance of homegrown tomatoes, tracking lost animals, enabling random drivers to become couriers by simple destination coordinates.
We need to be productive, not just amused.
Happy 4th of July Fireworks.
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Using a GPS for geocaching is not just an amusement. I love to teach people how to use a gps! I teach them as we geocache! Enjoying nature, history, and more is worth the money and the traipsing all over the world. I know more about places than some people who have lived in those places all of their lives because I geocache.
GPS's can monitor traffic now. You can track lost animals. There is a lot of great things that can be done with the gps. The GPS has fun things and important things to do with it. Just like the computer has those things.
Anyone out there who is skeptical of geocaching should try it with an open mind and your opinions might change. But if not at least you gave it an honest try. It is not for everyone! But it gets people into the outdoors instead of sitting at the computer or watching tv doing nothing that gets your body excercising.
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No way is Obama going to loose my support. Louis Vuitton I am not as stupid as those who want me to believe that the President is responsible for Diesel Jeans the mess in Washington.
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Jacob…
You would have us all forego our frivolous pursuit of geocaches, and have us instead sit at our solitary desks and ponder the more worldly uses of the GPS system. I say “Nay!”. Far better to use this technology for the masses to build better relationships within families by being together outside, exploring the bounty nature has provided, seeing the world in reality instead of reality TV; exercising our minds by first finding the geocaches on the internet, and plotting a course to locate them, then the physical exercise finding the goal by car, walk, hike, bike, bus; and finally the exhilaration of the hunt and the “Eureka!” moment of the find. Not to mention the fun, laughter, excitement, and friendships found along the way. There is also the mental challenge procured by the hiders, to place something a little different, something to make others smile and add fun and laughter to their lives, and the opportunity to share in that via the logs. This pastime also employs hundreds if not thousands of people, working behind the scenes, providing apparel, physical caches, Geocoins, Travel Bug Tags, GPS units, maps, conventions….the list goes on and on.
If you want to find a better, more lofty use for the system…then go for it. But it is not your place to judge us nor tell us how to live our lives.
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I'm still waiting to do my very first geocaching search. I stumbled upon it when my wife organized a scavenger hunt for my birthday using GPS. She was doing some research and found this whole world of Geocaching. I was amazed to find the number of things to find around my area too!
oh and don't you LOVE the way the 'non-geocachers' are called muggles... lol.
- Jeff
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Comments are now closed.
Thank you for helping to introduce this great free family game!
I have published a link to the details about your show in The Online Geocacher, a free ad-free online geocaching magazine. Perhaps you can mention our web address - The Online Geocacher http://onlinegeocacher.com
Please mention our annual geocacher gathering coming up July 3 in Carnation Washington. This is the eighth annual gathering of geocachers worldwide. GeoWoodstock is free to everyone and attracts thousands of geocachers, entertainers, vendors and people curious about our game each year. The GeoWoodstock VIII web address is http://www.geowoodstock.com/