Geocaching: The new outdoor craze

By Jim Darnell

One of the fastest growing outdoor activities is a high-tech treasure hunting adventure called geocaching.

The word geocaching refers to geo for geography and to caching, the process of hiding a cache. It’s a world-wide game of hiding and seeking treasure. Some of my friends are head over heels into it and think it’s a blast.

Here’s how it works.

Someone hides a treasure (cache), usually in an ammo box or a plastic container and posts a set of Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates on the internet. Geocaching.com, the premier caching site, tracks more than 177,718 active caches hidden in 214 countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Download the coordinates from the internet, enter the way points into your GPS unit, travel to the designated location and following your GPS, take out through the woods or across fields and rivers on the hunt for the cache.

The game is deceptively easy. Sometimes you cannot navigate directly to a cache by going straight in the direction that your GPS receiver directs you.

Obstacles, like rock piles, cliffs and streams might be in the way. And the way points only determine the approximate location of a cache — within 6 to 20 feet. It’s up to a geo cacher’s wits and determination to uncover the cache.

A retired San Antonio school teacher on her first geocache adventure knew from her calculations that she was close to “the spot.” Quick searches inside old logs and thick brush turned up nothing.

“Finally, I spotted a big rock pile that didn’t look natural at all,” recalls the retired teacher. “I dug around a little bit and found a Tupperware container. I screamed so loud I think you could have heard me all the way to the River Walk. That’s when I got hooked. I went out the next weekend and hid a cache myself. I’ve been geocaching ever since,”

What is usually in a cache?

A cache always contains a logbook. The logbook contains information from the owner of the cache, notes form visitors and may contain any number of more or less valuable items.

These items turn the cache into a true treasure hunt. Generally, caches contain nonsensical trinkets, such as Happy Meal prizes, miniature toy cars or plastic soldiers. But others may contain new CD’s, or even cash.

After you make a find, follow these rules: 1. If you take something from the cache, leave something of equal or greater value. 2. Write about your find in the cache logbook. 3. Log your experience at www.geocaching.com. 4. Do not remove a cache form its original location.

People of all ages hide and seek caches, so think carefully before placing an item in a cache. Explosives, ammunition, knives, drugs and alcohol are no-no’s. Also, don’t put food items in a cache. Animals have good noses and may find and destroy the cache.

Geocaching is allowed in some of our state parks and historical sites. Actually it’s the hottest new activity in our parks among the youth.

If you desire to place a geocache in a state park, visit with the park superintendent. Discuss the site where you want to hide it. Some areas may be off limits due to sensitive environmental or archeology resources. If approved, obtain a geocaching permit and get on with the fun.

“You don’t do this for the stuff because a lot if it is junky,” says a 30 year old geocacher from Abilene, who geocaches with his wife. “You do it for the experience. Plus we’ve learned more history than we would from any textbook. There’s a historical marker about a mile from our home that we didn’t know about until we started geocaching.”

Give it a try. Sounds fun. Real outdoor experience and thrills.



Jim Darnell is an ordained minister and host/producer of the syndicated outdoors show, God’s Great Outdoors. His column appears each Thurdsay in the Daily Record.

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