Geocaching - Now This Is Fun!

Every once in a while something comes along that’s just plain fun. Geocaching is one of those things. If you’ve never heard of it…don’t feel alone. I only found out about it a few weeks ago.

Geocaching started in Portland Oregon. It evolved around the Global Positioning System (GPS) developed by the Department of Defense. Before the turn of the century, the military limited the GPS accuracy available to civilians to about 328 feet. President Clinton changed that in May of 2000 so that anyone could determine their position to within roughly 30 feet, anywhere on the planet!

Now, what has all this got to do with computers and the Internet? When Dave Ulmer hid a bucket of trinkets in a woods outside of Portland, Oregon and announced its location on a USENET newsgroup- geocaching was born. He listed the location by its global coordinates. Coordinates are measured as units of latitude and longitude and these are broken down into degrees, minutes, and seconds. Which is what you’ll find when you read your location using a GPS receiver.

Geocaching is in essence, a world wide scavenger hunt using GPS receivers as the divining rods to find the treasure. Though in most cases, the treasure has little or no actual monetary value. The fun is in the hunt.

You don’t need much to get started. Walmart carries GPS units, as do most hunting and fishing outfitters. You can buy them on the Internet, or you might want to check out eBay. That’s where I got mine. I just searched for “GPS” using a price criteria of under $75 and got 493 hits. Not all of these were hand held units. Some connected to laptops, others listings were accessories, but there were plenty of units to choose from. I paid about $70 including shipping for mine.

So, let’s say you have acquired a GPS unit…and you’re ready to start geocaching. What do you do next? Start by logging onto www.geocaching.com. This is a great website. In the upper right hand corner you’ll find, “search for caches.” You can enter your zip code, state, or country. I started with my zip code (47591). This search produced several pages of caches hidden in and around Vincennes, IN.

One was hidden at the Sonotabac historical site. Another was at the William Henry Harrison mansion on the VU campus. There was one at the George Rogers Clark Memorial, and one at Kimmel Park, and Quabache Trails Park. They were everywhere. When you click on one of the cache listings, it will bring up a page with additional information. Here’s an example from the cache hidden by the Sonotabac Indian mound less than a mile from my house.

The cache is located at N 38 40.213 and W 087 30.431. These are the GPS coordinates and can be converted to UTM if needed. There’s also a street map showing the general area where the cache can be found. If needed, additional “hints” are provided. A difficulty and terrain ratings give you a good idea if this cache is easy or hard to find. Once found, people leave comments on the website letting others know what they thought of the cache and the surrounding area. Example: “This is a great cache! Took quite a while to find the container - it is extremely well hidden. The Indian Mound was great to see.”

I noticed that this person had found 412 total caches. Two other posters had found 250 and 317 respectively. As I said, the “fun” is in the hunt. Reach me at randy@randybenjamin.com.