Geocaching combines technology, treasure for fun for all
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You may have heard of it, but to most people, the term is still foreign. Since its creation in 2000 by a computer consultant in Portland, Ore., geocaching has grown to involve more than 5 million participants worldwide. So what’s all the fuss about?
According to geocaching.com, all you need to get started in the high-tech treasure-hunting game — or sport, for you serious geocachers — is a GPS device and a sense of adventure. Using the website geocaching.com, you can find caches hidden near you, program the coordinates into your GPS, and then the hunt begins. Caches can range from a tiny cylinder containing only a log book for geocachers to sign as proof that they found it, to large ammunition boxes filled with trinkets and small prizes, known as “SWAG” (stuff we all get).
Geocachers measure their successes in “finds,” counting how many caches they’ve located, but for most, the real thrill is the hunt. You never know where the search will take you, and it’s often to a scenic or interesting out-of-the-way place.
“(Geocaching) gets you outdoors; you find places that you never knew were there,” Polson geocacher Kaley Radermacher explained.
Radermacher, who moved to Polson from Minnesota nearly two years ago, first learned about geocaching from a friend’s uncle who explained that he used his handheld GPS to find caches hidden by other people. The game sounded too specialized and elite to involve ordinary Minnesotans, Radermacher thought, but she soon learned how wrong she was — more than 300 geocaches were listed in her college town alone.
“In all honesty I was shocked; at first I couldn’t believe that there would be geocaches in Mankato, Minnesota,” she said.
Radermacher was hooked; soon she bought her own GPS and geocached during her move to Polson. Two years later, she’s logged more than 300 finds and “owns” around 10 caches herself, meaning she hid and maintains the caches. She’s found Polson to be a great geocaching town, with a dedicated group of enthusiasts — you can find them on Facebook under Polson Geocachers — who’ve placed around 50 caches in the Polson area.
Montana seems to be the perfect geocaching state, with endless beautiful scenery and hidden gems to discover while searching for caches, but Radermacher and fellow geocacher Kayla Kaupa have found that wherever they travel, geocaching enhances the experience. Geocaching during road trips is the perfect excuse to stop and stretch your legs, and it keeps you excited about driving as you get closer to the next cache, Kaupa explained.
“It relieves the stress of the road and brings you to new places off the highway that you would never discover without geocaching,” Kaupa said.
From “park-and-grab” caches conveniently located at rest stops, highway pullouts and scenic points to extreme adventure caches requiring overnight hikes, geocaching has something to offer for every age and ability. Each cache is rated between one and five stars on terrain (how strenuous accessing the cache location is) and difficulty (how tricky it is to find once you reach “ground zero”). In addition to the traditional cache that’s just a container of any size hidden in one spot, there are a variety of other cache types. Multi-caches bring geocachers to an initial location where they must follow hints to reach successive locations and finally, the physical cache itself. Mystery or puzzle caches require the geocacher to solve a puzzle or riddle, sometimes very complex, to get the coordinates for the cache. And the newest form of geocaching brings together several caching elements and puts the geocacher in the dark with night caches. For these caches, you’ll need a headlamp or flashlight along with a GPS. The coordinates given take the geocacher to the first of a series of small reflective tacks placed on trees, posts, rocks, signs or anywhere else they won’t be easily noticed in the daylight. Once you’ve found the first tack, you’ll use a light to try and spot the next reflective marker, and so on until you reach the final marker, usually signified by a three tacks in a stoplight or triangle formation. Then the hunt for the actual cache begins, made even trickier under cover of darkness.
“It’s definitely more adventurous,” Radermacher said of night-caching.
While winter isn’t prime geocaching season, as many caches, especially those in remote locations, get buried with snow, there are still plenty of caches easily accessible year-round. For a listing of caches near you and to learn more about getting involved with this ever-evolving activity, visit www.geocaching.com.
