CachingCentral

As of Sept. 26, in the state of Wisconsin, there are 3,065 caches registered through www.geocaching.com.

Three-hundred seventeen of the caches are within a 50-mile radius of the 53583 Zip Code.

There are three caches hidden somewhere in Prairie du Sac, one out on Blackhawk Ridge, one between Sauk Prairie and Mazomanie and dozens in Devil’s Lake State Park.

Some caches are humorous, like the Batman cache, hidden by Jeff and Bonnie Little, near Gotham, or one of the Littles’ other caches, near Dr. Evermor’s and Delaney’s Surplus, along U.S. Hwy. 12.

The Littles now maintain the Dr. Evermor cache as a courtesy to the person who placed it � another rule of geocaching.

For those who place caches, they must be in a location in which they can maintain the cache and check on it from time to time.

If a person cannot check on it periodically, it is possible to ask another cacher to look after it.

The Little’s go by the handle, “Hotdogs_Off_Trail,” and often times they leave a plastic hot dog behind inside the caches they find and the caches they’ve created.

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Tuesday’s closure of Highway 55 has brought a lot of attention to something called geocaching.

This was not the first time that a geocache has been mistaken for a possible bomb.

Police say it was the third or fourth time the Boise bomb squad has responded to a false alarm.

For people who participate in Internet treasure hunts known as geocaching, there are very specific rules and guidelines to follow.

But just about every one of those rules was broken when this geocache was placed underneath the Rainbow Bridge.

“It’s not illegal to play these games, but the bridge is state property, just use common sense, put it by a tree or something,” said Scott Tollersen, Idaho State Police.

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This article starts with the typical “What is geocaching?” segment, but the 2nd half of the article talks about Canadian parks working towards a formal policy regarding geocaching.

Part of the Parks Canada mandate is to review recreational activities in terms of their potential impacts and benefits.

When it comes to geocaching, Parks did recognize several of its positive aspects, but also identified a number of drawbacks.

“We did have some concerns about the protection aspect. They were primarily related to the potential for caches to be placed in areas that could be sensitive, in areas that could increase visitor use off trails, and that there would be associated impacts,” said Claire McNeil, Parks Canada ecosystem management specialist.

Parks began looking at geocaching in late 2003 and came out with an interim policy for public consultation in February 2005. The interim policy limits geocaching to the virtual form of the hobby, on trails with educational messages associated with it.

A virtual cache is one where destination co-ordinates are the true treasure – such as an amazing scenic point, a physical landmark, geological or historical information, etc.

A moratorium on the placement of new physical caches is in effect and physical geocaching is, for now at least, a prohibited activity in all Parks Canada-administered and protected heritage areas.

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Alek Joyce, geocaching enthusiast, has searched the Colorado wilderness to find caches, tech-speak for what are basically hidden treasures.

But last Tuesday, the Central Junior High School student’s latest geocaching adventure took him to an urban setting: downtown Lawrence. Outside Central National Bank, people are milling about, perspiring in the aftermath of a surprise thunderstorm; drivers are trolling Massachusetts for parking spots.

Alek stands on the crowded sidewalk, examining the small yellow GPS unit in his hands. It gives him a latitude and longitude for a cache that should be within about 20 feet of where he’s standing.

“We’re close,” he announces.

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With a keen sense of observation Lynn Reeder keeps her eyes focused on the possible muggler who just drove up, while her husband, Kurt, rummages through the bushes at the edge of the parking lot.

The Myrtle Beach couple are part of a network of thousands of modern-day treasure hunters throughout the U.S. and in more than 100 countries.

On this hot Grand Strand day the couple find their prize – a small prescription medicine bottle wrapped in camouflage tape hidden in a bush next to a street light at a famous Myrtle Beach landmark along Kings Highway.

To say what landmark the Reeders visited would give away too much of the clue because the hunt is part of the fun for this technology-savvy group of treasure seekers. The sport is called geocaching and the Reeders are geocachers.

Reeder heard about the sport while listening to a morning report on National Public Radio and decided to try it. The Reeders were hooked and now geocache while on business trips to the West and vacations with family down south.

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Once a person gets hooked on the hobby it’s hard to stop until she’s found all the caches hidden in her area, Cooley said. The Web site’s organizers send out a list of newly-hidden caches every week, but some people are so eager for new ones they comb the site every day looking for the latest before the list comes out.

The game appeals to outdoor enthusiasts, history buffs and adventurous souls in general. Cooley said one aspect she likes best is the opportunity to discover off-beat places or to lead others to special places she’s found.

For history buffs, there are plenty of caches that point out historical markers, forgotten sites or ruins. Fisher said one of his caches leads to a military road built during the Cold War so the government could move military equipment in case of a “commie invasion.” No one would come across the road today unless she was looking for it, Fisher said, which is why he thought it would be the perfect spot for a cache.

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Imagine sitting on a park bench, minding your own business, when a couple of people start hovering around you, peering into a small Walkman-size device and pointing in your direction.

Strange? Probably.

But then again, it may just be the father-son team EvilFISH of Chandler. The pair – EvilFISH is just a fun nickname they also use in the online

“There are so many caches out there that if you are on vacation anywhere, you’re guaranteed to have one nearby,” said Regan Smith, 39, who started geocaching with 12-year-old son Alex three years ago. “It’s a lot of fun and there’s a big society of people who are doing it.”

In the Chandler and Ahwatukee area, caches are hidden in malls, under park benches and throughout South Mountain. But once in the preserves, geocachers must tread lightly, said Jeff Spellman, South Mountain park ranger.

“As long as they are not disrupting the trails or venturing too far off the paths, we have no problems,” he said. “I know there are some places where they are not welcomed.”

Since 2003, Scottsdale officials have outlawed geocaching in the McDowell Mountain Preserve, citing preservation ordinances.

Smith and his son said they are very aware of their surroundings when outdoors. The geocaching community as a whole also works to improve outdoor paths. Every April since 2003, geocachers hold a worldwide service day called Cache In, Trash Out. Last year, there were 160 cleanup events held in 41 states and in 10 countries – all determined by online coordinates.

Since they started the game, team EvilFISH has located more than 850 caches between California and Arizona. The hardest? Try the bottom of Saguaro Lake under 30 feet of water – one of the few underwater caches in the country.

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Sally Connell
The Tribune

A suspicious-looking container hidden under greenery in a park pond in Paso Robles was retrieved by the county bomb squad, which determined the package was a place for global positioning system hobbyists to leave trinkets and notes for each other.

The package caused excitement in the department for the better part of a day, from when it was spotted by a citizen at 8:25 a.m. until the incident ended at 1:30 p.m.

“The package was retrieved, X-rayed and breached by the bomb squad,” said Sgt. Nicky Woods. She said the package was approximately the size of a large camera bag, and it had been partially submerged with a wire attached, possibly for retrieval.

She said it was determined the package was used by geocaching enthusiasts, individuals who use their global positioning systems to locate items in various locales. GPS users can use specific coordinates to find the cache, which in many cases is something as simple as a plastic container with a visitor log, and trinkets people have left behind.

“Some of our own officers actually play this game. They say it’s real fun when you travel,” she said.

– Sally Connell

Original story

When I first wrote about geocaching in this column two years ago, GPS devices were still relatively expensive. A GPS device that I reviewed at the time sold for about $350. Since then, the prices of GPS devices had dropped noticeably, greatly expanding the pastime’s appeal.

Ready to give geocaching a try? I’ve recently refreshed the geocache that I planted two years ago along the Vernon Rail Trail, about 12 miles east of Hartford. Park in the Rail Trail lot off Church Street in Vernon and walk or bike the roughly half-mile distance to the cache.

You’ll find the cache itself under a rock at coordinates 41 degrees, 49.368 North and 72 degrees, 29.547 West. As of last weekend, it had a T-shirt, a CD, a pen, a mousepad, a note-holder, and a cellphone sticky pad for your car.

If you find it, take an item and leave an item. Drop me a note via e-mail or write on the pad that’s also inside the cache. You can also post your experience to the Web. Find the listing by typing the Vernon area code (06066) into the search box on the top right-hand corner of the geocaching.com home page and scroll down to the Vernon Depot rail trail cache.

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From a local Suffolk VA newspaper…

Traipsing across the grassy areas of the KidsZone playground behind the Main Street Farm Fresh, Ann Walters is on a treasure hunt.

“Objects can’t be buried,” she said. “They can’t be on wildlife refuges, within a certain area of military installations, or near railroad tracks.”

Since catching geocache fever in Dec. 2003, Walters has hunted through “seven, eight, nine states,” she says. On a trip to Jacksonville, Fla. in May, she attended Geocache Woodstock, where more than 600 people from four countries (some had come from Germany and Ireland strictly for the event) hunted all over the area. There’s currently about 260 “geocachers” across the area.

“I found over 100 objects that weekend,” she says.

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