Geocaching: Another Reason to Travel

March 24, 2010

I hesitate a bit before telling people that my wife and I are geocachers. The simple explanation of geocaching, (using a GPS to find hidden stashes of worthless trinkets), does not sound like a suitable hobby for anyone over 14. I was 14 in 1972, the year Jim Morrison died, and I can attest that geocaching is a ridiculous amount of fun at any age, especially if travel is an important part of your life.Yes it is a kind of treasure hunt, but it’s one you can take part in close to home or in Mumbai. There are now slightly over one million geocaches, all hidden in publicly accessible places. The caches themselves range in size from very small (a film canister for those of you who remember such things) to large sealable boxes. Most that we have found are sandwich box size. Some are hidden in remote places, others in urban parks, a few deep in the wilderness, but the vast majority are easily accessible. Typically they contain a log-book for finders to sign, some dollar-store trinkets for the kids, and perhaps other goodies. Newly placed goecaches usually have something special for the first person to find it.

GPS 002 Geocaching: Another Reason to Travel

A GPS

Geocaches are created and hidden by other geocachers who, using their GPS, record the latitude and longitude of their cache and log it on the Geocache website. This website allows you to search for geocaches any number of ways, the most handy being a map view. From map view you simply connect your GPS, click on the geocaches you want to hunt for, and the details are transferred to your GPS. Then off you go. You can have many hours of fun looking for caches. Your GPS will normally get you within a dozen meters or so, but then your powers of observation and problem solving kick in. Sometimes it means poking in holes with sticks or crawling under things with flashlights. Each cache has a unique name, and many of the names are themselves clues. For those who need more help, you can often download more clues or outright spoilers.

Geocache ratings

Each geocache is rated by accessibility, family friendliness, difficulty to find, and whether your dog can come along. Trust me, your dog will want to come along. When you find a cache you return to the website, log your find, and it is customary to log a note thanking the creator of the cache. The website keeps a list of your found and unfound caches and allows you to check out how others are doing. Feel free to visit us on Geocaching.com at our spectacularly unimaginative user name ‘ridges2′

There are hundreds of thousands of Geocaches in Europe and Asia and a growing number in Africa, including one in central Tripoli. There are even half a dozen hidden on Easter Island. My wife and I found one a hundred meters from the Eiffel Tower, and another tucked in the wall of a castle on the shores of Lake Geneva. We found yet another behind a Paris tomb close to the grave of, as it happens, Jim Morrison. I’ve tracked them down near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and another in a quiet laneway shrine in Kyoto. And I’m going to Mumbai next month and will be hunting for some there. Geocaching when you travel is wonderful fun and often gets you to spots you wouldn’t otherwise see. Even if you don’t make it a formal part of a trip, just load a few dozen on your GPS and check now and then to see if you are close to one. It is wise to keep in mind that in some parts of the world poking about secretively in odd places with a flashlight might attract unwelcome attention. The map shows a number of geocaches relatively close to the North Korean border. I personally would not go poking around after dark for those. However I expect you’ll be fine on Easter Island.

Hiding geocaches can be an art.

Hiding geocaches can be an art. They must be sufficiently hidden that the cache won’t be found by somebody who is just passing by, but can be found by somebody who is actively looking for it. Many are simply hidden in hollow logs or other nooks and crannies. Others are cleverly hidden in plain view or camouflaged, often very cleverly. In the woods near our home in North Vancouver there is a cache hidden in a carefully converted stump. The cache owner took a small birch stump, sawed off the top, hollowed out the interior, and hinged the top back on as a lid and glued on lichen and moss. The cache is inside the stump, which sits feet from a busy trail, unnoticed by the vast majority of passersbys. It took my wife and me several minutes of standing and observing to notice the very slight saw line revealing the lid of the stump. Other caches are under (or in) fake rocks and others still are cleverly attached to the underside of park benches with magnets.

Obviously this is a hobby with great appeal to families with kids, but many of the most fanatic geocachers are adults. We recently ran into a retiree who has made geocaching his life and has found over 5,000 all over the world. Incredibly fit, he spends a portion of most days hiking about searching for new geocaches including hikes deep into the local mountains. There are certainly worse pastimes to fill one’s retirement. Golf jumps to mind.

cache under rock 01 300x225 Geocaching: Another Reason to Travel

Geocache under rock

So why not give it a try. All you need is a handheld GPS, which are now very affordable. Many have features specifically for geocaching. If you have an iPhone you can get started just by downloading a $20 app. With the iPhone app you don’t even need to connect to a computer to download the cache locations, nearby caches are pushed to your phone. Once you get hooked, and you will, you can get deeper into the hobby by finding and creating trackable items, objects moved from cache to cache with unique identifiers so you can follow their progress around the world.

We took one such trackable a small plastic skeleton called Mr. Body (look it up on Geocaching.com) and left it in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, behind that tomb. And if you go looking for that geocache….say hello to Jim.

Blog kindly written by James Ridge, the Registrar at the University of British Columbia – who has many interests and talents including travel, photography and cooking.

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Comments

7 Responses to “Geocaching: Another Reason to Travel”

  1. Dave and Deb on March 26th, 2010 8:30 pm

    Sounds like a cool hobby. I remember reading about this in Outside Magazine (I think it was that magazine anyway) last year. Some guys take it very seriously and try to find the most obscure places. I am sure that they even had some sponsorship. Wild stuff. Dave would be great at this I think. I am a technological idiot so I would not be very good. I remember when General Motors invited us out for the Chevy Equinox Adventure last year. We had a full GPS in the truck to navigate and I was afraid to use it. I used the map instead. I really have to join the 21st century:)
  2. Matt on March 27th, 2010 8:56 am

    Easter egg hunts for grownups…love it. Pretty nerdy, but pretty cool way to add some adventure to a hike.
  3. marta on May 4th, 2010 4:52 am

    I want to be a geocacher too! Could I used a tom-tom instead?? ummm
  4. Kevin on May 22nd, 2010 9:02 pm

    We are avid geocachers, love it. You should definitely check out our blog! we have had some insane adventures geocaching. We just started it, but it will be updated daily
  5. Bethany on December 6th, 2010 10:10 am

    Cool write up! Honestly this is something I have always wanted to try. It looks so fun!
    Bethany´s last [type] ..Unique experiences in Petra that you’ll never forget!
  6. Hike Bike Travel on December 6th, 2010 12:19 pm

    I keep meaning to try it too. I have a GPS now (though still have no clue how to use it) so I really don’t have any excuses except lack of time. It’s going on next year’s to do list.
  7. jayjcee on February 17th, 2011 8:17 pm

    I tried geocaching for the first time this past Christmas in Nice. Spent a lot of time pacing back and forth, searching and scratching my head at a couple of sites.
    No luck, couldn’t find the damn stash haha. I’m not giving up though. As you said, it takes you places you wouldn’t normally go to – little hidden treasures.

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