Caching In

What's in the box?

After a slow start, Summer seems to have finally arrived in Australia. For many it's holiday time which is a great opportunity to get to leave the house and enjoy the great outdoors. Some of you may be on holidays, good for you! If you are lucky enough to be away, be it an old haunt or new spot, it's great to be able to explore your surrounds and see what the area has to offer.

Today I'll be looking at the GPS driven treasure hunt known as Geocaching and how you can utilize this recreational outdoor activity to get out amongst nature, find some new and interesting locations in your area and an opportunity to have fun and adventure with all the family. There's nothing worse being cooped up inside when the weather's nice outside and this is a pretty easy way to get out, get some exercise both physical and mental and be immersed in nature.

I had previously tried Geocaching a few years ago as a birthday gift. Earlier this year I had the pleasure of spending 5 months overseas, mostly in Germany. With all this spare time I took up Geocaching again as a way to explore my surroundings. It was a great way to check out a new area I was staying in or finding a few new spots in places I had been before. Ambling through forests is one most relaxing things I can think of, coupling this with a treasure hunt helps engage the senses further by making you take in your surroundings and look for more detail.

The history of Geocaching originated in a game called "Letterboxing" where players used clues and references to landmarks to find hidden objects. Letterboxing originated in Devon, England in 1854. During it's early beginning's hikers left letters and postcards in a wooden box, then the next person to discover the box would collect these items left and post them. 

Letterboxing combined aspects of orienteering, art and problem solving to lead players to find small wooden boxes. These wooden boxes contained a small rubber stamp (most often hand made) and stamp pad which finders could use to record their personal notebook. Finders would also use their own stamp to leave an imprint in the log book of the found box.

The term Geocaching was first coined on May 30th, 2000 by GPS Stash Hunter (the term for Geocaching previously) Matt Stum. The word is made up of two separate words: Geo - of earth, which describes its outdoor nature and cache - a French word that means a temporary hiding place to store items. In more recent times, cache is more connected to computers as a means to quickly retrieve frequently used information.

But it was 4 weeks earlier on May 2nd that Geocaching hurtled into the new millennium due to the selective availability function on GPS being switched off. 

What's your frequency Kenneth? A GPS satellite above earth

Up until this date, the U.S. developed Global Positioning System was degraded, meaning the public had limited or sometimes no access to GPS. Then came along saxophone playing President Bill Clinton who ordered selective availability to be switched off.

One day later on May 3rd, Stash Hunting enthusiast David Ulmer wanted to test the new found GPS accuracy by hiding a container in the woods and recording it's location with a GPS device. The hunters would then have to find the container by using their own GPS device. So off David went, hiding his container - which was a bucket, that was half buried, containing: a pencil and note pad and various prizes such as videos, software, a slingshot and a can of beans in the woods near Beaver Creek, Oregon (near Portland).

Up until May 3rd, 2000 Beaver Creek was most famous for being a one time residence of former ice skater/baseball bat wielding Tonya Harding, so I am sure the people of Beaver Creek were happy to have Geocaching come along. 

Within 3 days of David hiding his stash and posting the location two different players found his container of goodies. And what happened to that can of beans I hear you say? Well eventually Dave's container was destroyed by a lawn mower, only the beans survived and now has been turned into a trackable item, a physical game piece that can travel from geocache to geocache.

Beans, beans the musical fruit

So now I have hit you with a bit of history, you're probably wondering how you get involved in this exciting activity? Well if you're an owner of a smart phone you are in luck, as it is as simple as downloading the Geocaching app . If you are a well experienced outdoors type who has a GPS devise, that will also come in handy. Once you have set up a user profile you're almost good to go.

Like many apps these days there is a basic, free version or a paid premium version. Unless you're up for a bigger challenge or previously experienced, the basic version will be a good start as you find your feet (and hopefully a few caches too). It is easy to get into Geocaching quite quickly and with limited caches to find, the paid app might be something for those who want a bit more difficulty in their hunt. 

Image 1

Above in image 1 you will see the initial page once you set up your profile. This view is similar to GPS navigation app you have to find your way around, except these will have green pin icon containing a box - this is good, as you'll have a cache in your area to find. If you ever lose your spot you can click on the map center icon (top right) to find your position again.

Once you find some nearby cache/s select one to hunt for and a rectangle box will pop up giving an overview of the cache (bottom of image 1). Pressing on that rectangular box will expand the overview and provide more information, including difficulty to find, terrain surrounding the cache and size of cache. There is also other helpful info such as description, activity (when people have searched/found it previously), hints and attributes - see Image 2.

Image 2

So now you've decided on the cache to find, click on the green "Navigate" button and this will expand the map to show the route to the cache (image 3). This works much like google maps when you select direction, and much like maps, as you move closer the distance measure will shorten. When you get within in 10m of the cache you're phone will alert you by pinging or vibrating depending on your phone.

Image 3

Now depending on your service and GPS accuracy the next bit will be a bit more up to you. Now what do you look for? My advise is check the the hints and view the activity on the expanded overview (see image 2) this insight can be very helpful. Most users are a little cryptic and hopefully as problem solvers/treasure hunters you'll be able to figure it out - having other people with you is of great value to.

Cache's come in all sizes and shapes. Basic cashes are test tubes or old film canisters (for anyone old enough to remember camera film). Small to medium plastic, Tupperware like containers are also used. More elaborate caches may be old ammunition boxes, fake rocks or pine cones (like the ones used to hide a spare key and the then those that are made out of more natural elements such as hollowed out branches of trees. Some examples are shown below:

All caches great and small

Once you find the cache make sure you record the find, either via the logbook inside the cache and/or on the app. Also if you don't find it you can record that too via the app. If you notice any issues with cache, e.g. damage or missing items, not in the right spot - please send a message on the app for the owner so they may rectify the issue.

Tips when looking for and finding cashes:

• Keep your eye out for things that might seem a little out of place
• Check the hints, recent activity and description in the cache summary
• Look for trampled or disturbed ground, the tracks of other might help lead you 
• Put the cache back as you found it, you might think there's a better hiding spot but that's not your property. If you want to hide a cache create one, log it and let others find it
• You are in the outdoors, dress appropriately and slip, slop, slap
• Again, you're in the outdoors! Check the weather forecast and keep an eye on where you're  walking
• Generally cache's aren't left on private property, so there shouldn't be any need to trespass
• Some caches may be in more public urban environments so take stock of your surroundings and assess for any possible danger
• If it's a large cache with goodies to take it's also nice to leave something behind that someone else might like to keep for a souvenir (obviously plan ahead in this case)
• Plan a cache session with friends and family and make a fun day of it, it gets quite addictive
  

With the holidays upon us it is a great time to give Geocaching a try, or like me, pick it up again if you've had a go before. It's a great way to kill a few hours while exploring and most of the time you'll be amongst nature and that's a pretty good feeling too. 

It such an easy go-to activity you can pick up anytime, it can be done by various age groups and is super handy when you're struggling to find things to do. Once you get the hang of it you'll find it easy to chase down a few caches in your spare time. There's really not much to lose, give it a go and hopefully it'll kick start your sense of adventure - good luck!