Geocaching: Another Reason to Travel by guest blogger, James Ridge

March 24, 2010

GPS

GPS

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.

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.

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. 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.

Geocache under rock

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.

Posted by Hike Bike Travel | Filed Under Gear reviews and tips, Guest Post, Miscellaneous travel tips | 4 Comments 

Insights, tips and good reading from travel blogs around the world – part VI

March 4, 2010

Enjoy this week’s list of insights, travel tips, good reading and photographs from travel blogs around the world.

10 of the World’s Best Desserts
Kindle for Travelers
Eco Travel: The Green List
The Top 10 Backpacking Travel Destinations for 2010
Work it baby, work it - as it relates to global tourism spending

Leigh McAdam

www.hikebiketravel.com

Posted by Hike Bike Travel | Filed Under Gear reviews and tips, Green Travel, Hiking, backpacking and walking tips and tours, Miscellaneous travel tips | Leave a Comment 

SPOT Satellite GPS

August 10, 2009

I haven’t used a SPOT Satellite GPS but they look like the type of gadget that will soon become indispensable in the outdoors. According to their website they can do four things for you.

  • alert 911
  • send messages to contacts to let them know how you are
  • send and save your location and allow contacts to track your progress via Google Maps and
  • ask for assistance from your contacts at a specific GPS location

You wil be looking at about $US99 per year to sign up for all the services but that may be inexpensive considering what peace of mind your family would get if you owned a SPOT GPS.

They work worldwide but some continents have less coverage. Northern Africa is covered but the rest of the continent does not appear to be and the same goes for South America. Parts of it are covered (though I don’t know which parts) and parts are not. However almost all of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia and Europe are covered as well as a large part of North-Eastern Asia. Lots of offshore area is also covered.

The Spot Satellite GPS garners high marks from respectable newspapers and important outdoors oriented magazines. It works in areas where a cell phone does not because it uses satellites. Add one more gadget to the must have list though experience, common sense and the knowledge and know how to use the GPS are equally important.

Have a great outdoors adventure!

Posted by Hike Bike Travel | Filed Under Gear reviews and tips | Leave a Comment 

Travel tips – ATM Hunter

April 21, 2009

You can download and find ATM locations with your iphone. The application is called ATM Hunter and it will find an ATM location by street and airport.

Posted by Hike Bike Travel | Filed Under Gear reviews and tips | 1 Comment 

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