Have GPS, will travel
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.”