The Universal Game Of Hide & Seek That Allows You To Travel More
State Parks Have Embraced A Trend That Gets People Of All Ages On Their Feet And Scouring The Outdoors For Geocaches That Always Surprise
It really is a fun game. A modern day treasure hunt, Geocaching has been around since 2000 when the Global Positioning System (GPS) became more accurate. The origins for the game goes way back to the 1800s in England with the game of Letterboxing - where people put boxes in public areas and "Letterboxers" find them via clues from word of mouth or magazines, then they leave their stamp on the logbook. Geocaching is similar - many "caches" have logbooks inside a weatherproof container where a geocacher leaves their record of finding it. Clues are provided via the geocaching website. One simply gives their location and the app shows the nearest geocaches. According to the geocaching website, there are approximately 3 million geocachers and about 2.8 million caches hidden throughout the world waiting to be found.
State Parks have embraced the trend and many provide guidelines, tours, and information on their websites, as well as at visitor centers. The state of Florida has a two tours designed in collaboration with Geocaching.com - Operation Recreation GeoTour and Operation Recreation Kids GeoTour. Both these tours are designed to have geocachers, young and old, visit each of the state parks and, as stated on the website, "help to strengthen families, educate children, and foster community pride." Florida is just one example of state parks with specific tours for geocachers. A cursory glance on Google, reveals State web pages dedicated to the activity in Texas, Virginia, California, among many others.
There are organizations dedicated to Geocaching as well. Geocaching Colorado is one such organization that, according to the website, exists to "promote relations with land managers in Colorado and increase communication in the geocaching community." Serving on the board is Jason Winder, whose story coming in to the geocaching community is really interesting. Winder was hiking Castle Rock in 2010, taking pictures of Plateau Lizards. "I accidentally stumbled across a geocache, the Castle Rock cache hidden by RocketMan. There was also a Dog Tag with a website and instructions on it. I didn't know what either of these things were at the time, but they intrigued me," Winder recalls. He contacted a friend about it and his friend explained geocaching, and from then on, "I was hooked."
Winder says that geocaching is popular and growing. In Colorado, a place with strong urban centers, as well as beautiful, diverse landscape, the caches are everywhere and provide many, like Winder, a place to start when thinking of exploring. “Where I go greatly depends on my mood and how much free time I have,” Winder explains, Many times he found new hiking areas by looking for caches on the map and seeing a string of them going up a mountain. To find caches, geocachers use their phones or a standalone GPS unit. “The younger crowd almost exclusively caches via their mobile phone apps,” Winder says. Winder has both, but generally uses his phone.
Winder says there is a learning curve with geocaching, but offers some tips to newbies. “We have our own lingo such as DNF (Did Not Find), LPC (Lamp Post Cache), TFTC (Thanks For The Cache), and many more,” he says. He also says that after caching for a while, one develops “geo-sense,” where one can sense where the cache is without using GPS to get as close as possible. “You get to an area and have a 'where would I hide it if this were my hide' kind of feeling,” Winder explains.
Like many communities, members start off exploring on their own, eventually wanting to meet up and exchange ideas and stories. The geocaching website has an email/messenger service that helps people exchange information, as well as comments below each cache. There are facebook groups, such as the public group GCCO, and they have events throughout the state where people can get together and chat about adventures and go geocaching together. Interesting side bits, are statistics offered on the Geocaching Colorado website. The person with the most geocaches in Colorado, by far, is mondou2, currently finding 164,573 in every state in the United States, as well as 26 different countries. Mondou2 provides statistics on what states he found the most in, what counties in each state, etc.
Though generally thought to be mainly found in natural areas, cities have a plethora of caches, as well. Winder and his friends teamed up with the Denver Public Library and hid caches in each of the 26 libraries in the city, where geocachers can get a Public Library Geocoin after finding all the caches.
Both independent organizations and state organizations recognize the benefits of geocaching. It provides a fun, interactive, way to get outside and explore. Winder tells The Buzz there is a cliche saying found in many geocaching logs that says something like, "Thanks to this cache, I have found an area I never would have discovered otherwise.” And that makes the game so worthwhile.
Andrew Malo
A graduate of Northeastern Illinois University in Education, Andrew has taught for the past decade in Chicago, New Mexico, and Japan. He enjoys tinkering with trucks and motorcycles, woodworking, reading and computer programming.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, offering a wide variety of natural resources including 3.2 miles of secluded, white sand beaches with majestic dunes over 25 feet tall. Three rare coastal dune lakes provide excellent freshwater fishing. And of course geocaching.