CachingCentral

Geocachers use GPS units to find hiddle trinkets and treasures

By MELANIE M. SIDWELL

Like all migratory fowl, Squirt is a well-traveled duck.

He began his journey in North Naples, just off Interstate 75, more than a year and a half ago. After more than 14,000 miles, the little green rubber duckie has toured places like Idaho and Washington, and even crossed the big pond to Germany before finally arriving back in Florida in April at Cape Coral.

Squirt is a “travel bug,” a hitchhiking item in an adventure called geocaching, a type of worldwide scavenger hunt growing in popularity.

When geocaching started six years ago, there were only about 2,000 people involved worldwide. Now, there are more than 200,000 geocachers in 200 countries.

“I don’t know if you would call it a game, sport, hobby or what,” said Naples geocacher John Pistor. “It’s absolutely crazy, but it’s a lot of fun.”

Full story…

By:CHRISTIE CAMPBELL, (Washington) Observer-Reporter
WASHINGTON, Pa. – Call it a high-tech scavenger hunt.

Geocaching is a new game (some call it a sport) to find hidden treasure by combining the Internet and Global Positioning Systems with a good pair of walking shoes.

Unlike scavenger hunts, which are confined to small areas, geocaches can be found anywhere in the world.

Since its beginnings four years ago, geocaching is gaining momentum among out-of-door enthusiasts and computer geeks. Today, the official geocache site, www.geocaching.com, lists 107,000 caches in every country.

“I guess speechless would be a good word for it,” said Jeremy Irish, chief executive officer of Groundspeak in Seattle, which operates the game’s Web site. Irish thought geocaching activity eventually would slow but instead sees it growing. He notices an upsurge every January _ after people receive GPS units for Christmas.

Full story…

High-Tech Treasure Hunts
GPS adventures get noticed

Modern day treasure hunters, with access to satellite technology, are roaming the landscape in search of their next find. Geocaching is skyrocketing in popularity.

They rely on GPS systems used extensively by the military and even found in many of today’s newer cars.

Sean Kurfman and Josh Albright joined a recent treasure hunt with a satellite showing the way. With coordinates loaded into a GPS machine, the search began.

Sean, Josh and other 4-H students are taking a giant leap into the technological world.

Sean says, “It tells you how fast you are going and it estimates how long until you get there. This is a cool thing.”

Thrill of the chase aside, this is a learning experience for the kids.

Extension educator Mark Simmons says, “We talk a little bit as the day goes on about different applications these GPS machines can have in farming, camping, other careers or hobbies.”

Full story…

High-tech hide-and-seek lets families explore outdoors

By ERIK A. CARLSON

When technology is talked about in reference to entertainment, the first thing that comes to mind is children wasting the day away on video games.

But through the use of geocaching, a number of Milwaukeeans are finding treasures outdoors.

Geocaching is a high-tech scavenger hunt utilizing a hand-held global positioning system device to find a hidden cache just off the beaten trail in public parks.

The caches are full of trinkets and small goodies that are often associated with toy surprises found in grocery store vending machines.

Tami Mauland and her husband, Wade, of West Bend started geocaching with their 4-year-old daughter, Tait, and 7-year-old son, Dane, on Oct. 10, and since then the family has logged 840 finds

Full story…

By BARRY ABISCH
THE JOURNAL NEWS

CROSS RIVER (4114.565 N, 7336.189 W) As Perfect Tommy leads the easy climb to the Leatherman Hill overlook, he is being watched. Every step he takes is tracked from 12,500 miles overhead.

Were it not for that, Perfect Tommy says, he probably would be at home in Chappaqua sitting in front of the computer, playing games. Instead, here he is on an overcast Saturday morning out in the woods at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, playing games.

Perfect Tommy is the screen name of Tom Curtin, a 44-year-old trademark lawyer who lives in Chappaqua with his wife and 5-year-old son. Until he found geocaching on the Web three years ago, he said, he was pretty much an indoor guy. But in July 2001, he tried geocaching for the first time. He took his family to find a cache hidden in Saxon Woods Park.

“We didn’t find it,” he said. “We were on the wrong side of the Hutch.”

The game, or sport, Perfect Tommy plays is called geocaching. It’s part hiking, part orienteering, part scavenger hunt, part hide-and-seek. It’s as low-tech as the walking stick in Perfect Tommy’s left hand and as high-tech as the compact global positioning system (GPS) receiver cradled in the palm of his right.

Full story…

Geocaching, a worldwide scavenger hunt that uses global positioning system devices to search for hidden trinkets, is the latest craze in globetrotting hobbies

By JANE YOUNG
Saturday, June 26, 2004

Tim Radder isn’t a conspiracy buff, but he did spend part of his summer last year skulking around the desert near Nevada’s fabled Area 51 wielding a high-tech satellite device. It sounds like something out of The X-Files, but the difference is that he wasn’t looking for evidence of aliens — he was searching for Tupperware.

Radder is part of the latest craze in travel hobbies: geocaching, a modern-day, worldwide scavenger hunt that utilizes global positioning system units to search for hidden caches of trinkets. Like many fellow geocachers, Tim, 48, and his wife, Mary, 47, plan trips around their newfound interest. “It’s a great destination creator,” Mary says.

The Calgary natives have gone geocaching in places from Vancouver Island to Quebec City to Los Angeles, and last year Tim decided to incorporate a hunt in the Nevada desert to spice up his vacation. “Often, the people who hide the caches put them in their personal favourite places. It can’t be beat as a method of finding new places that others have shared.”

Full story…

‘Cache Her If You Can’ GPS Adventure Offers Family Fun and Big Rewards This Summer

SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 24 /PRNewswire/ — Throughout the summer, thousands of friends and families in America will enjoy fun and adventure in the great outdoors — hot on the trail of a fictitious criminal mastermind and searching for secret locations where treasures await. The Magellan? “Cache Her If You Can” GPS Adventure is a geocaching game that sends amateur crime-solvers on a weekly quest for clues in 30 cities across the U.S., competing for grand prizes from June 24 to September 1, 2004.

Found exclusively at www.magellangps.com, the second annual web-based contest hosted by Thales, global provider of Magellan GPS consumer products, is an ideal outdoor recreation activity that gets kids, families and friends of all ages out of the house to enjoy some fun and adventure while taking in the natural beauty of the great outdoors.

Full story…

Nearly the same satellite technology that allows cruise missiles to hit targets routinely appears in most rental cars. Admittedly, the flurry of new commercial GPS devices do not benefit from the Defense Departments near-centimeter accuracy. Happily, todays public-use GPS navigating tools are accurate to about 12 feet which is good enough to find your way back home. Even better, functional GPS-enabled devices are moving out of the auto and are being combined into personal digital assistants, radios, phones, and even watches. With any of the new GPS devices described below, there is no way you can stay lost for long. Think Fathers Day here folks

Reviews of the Uniden Mystic, Garmin’s GPSMAP 60CS, Garmins Foretrex 101 Personal Navigator, Suunto X9, PalmOnes GPS Navigator by TomTom, ALKs CoPilot Live, Version 5 & Navmans PiN Pocket PC.

Full story…

By Tony Parra

The intrigue of Heritage Days are attracting people from across the United States to Portales with events such as GeoCaching, the Portales High All-Class Reunion, the Pioneer Reception and the Rough Rider Relay Challenge.

GeoCaching is catching on across the United States, according to Doug Lynch, the GeoCaching coordinator for Heritage Days.

Once you start doing it, you get hooked, Lynch said. Its a lot of fun. There are over 100 caches within a 100-mile radius of Portales. There are teams from Texas, New Mexico, California and even one team from New York, which will participate.

In GeoCaching, individuals and organizations hide items (a.k.a. caches) across the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. Global Positioning System (GPS) users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards.

We frown on digging, Lynch said about hidding the caches. The caches are hidden in urban areas, such as downtown Portales. GeoCaching people are great people. The whole thing works on trust.

Full story…

By: Matt Neznanski, Staff Writer

McFarland Park was just a stopping point for about 50 people from around the Midwest scribbling on puzzle sheets and following compact electronic devices like divining rods during the Great Plains Geocaching “Cache Bash” on Saturday.

The 21 teams of puzzlers were competing for bragging rights among Midwest geocachers, treasure hunters who use global positioning technology to track down hidden goodies.

“Each has a point value, and the team with the highest points wins a prize,” said Jennifer Goodenow, facilitator of this weekend’s event and founder of Great Plains Geocaching. “There is a team from Chicago here who has won each year. They’re back to maintain their title.”

Another team hailed from Omaha, Neb. Most were local hobbyists who endured stormy weather in area campgrounds.

Full story…