Geocaching
Hunting hidden treasures in tucked-away locations
BY BILLIE HILL STAFF WRITER BHILL@LAWTON-CONSTITUTION.COM
Outdoorsy types, puzzle lovers, and treasure hunters rejoice: there’s a relatively new hobby that enthusiasts across the globe are participating in right this second. Geocaching is a growing trend and participants aren’t limited by age, gender or clique. Hobbyists can go it alone, in pairs or with a group — and it’s catching on quickly. Participants use Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to hunt down discreetly-hidden treasures in tucked-away locations as varied as the forest, mountains, or even on a light pole — but it’s the geocacher’s job to find these hidden gems. If you’re interested in getting into geocaching for financial gain ... you’ll be pursuing an unattainable goal. These treasure hunts’ riches lie in personal satisfaction one receives from a puzzle well solved. And make no mistake, for geocachers, the satisfaction is great. In 2000, the the United States government removed the selective availability that GPS equipment had, and greatly increased the accuracy of the devices. Shortly after that the game was on! Game is on world-wide Now, there are almost one million hobbyists all over the globe hiding caches all over the place ... one may even be in your back yard and you may not even know it. Such is the case for Lawton resident Rita Worthington — geocaching handle “OKLee.” Worthington said she discovered what geocaching was all about when she saw a tourist in Medicine Park discover a hidden cache. She said she asked him what it was all about, and once she got home ... she got to Googling. “My first geocache was near my backyard — and I never knew it was there until I saw the website,” she said. “Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt that brings you outdoors and shows you places and things you would never have known about any other way,” explained Worthington. “It gives you a chance to hone your route-finding skills (using a GPS navigator) by making use of billions of dollars’ worth of satellite technology,” she said. But, what happens when you find a cache using your GPS device? Cache log Usually what folks will find is a cache log: a small list that gives details about that particular cache — for example, the name of the cache, the URL of the cache, sometimes a little bit of history about the location or a trinket. Those who find the cache are then welcome to add a thank you note to the log, a little trinket, or simply the date it was found. “Kids love the hunt itself and the trinkets they might find in the caches, and families get to spend time together outside exploring areas they may never have visited,” said Worthington. According to the geocachers I spoke with, there are more than 200 caches in the Lawton area all available to hunt for free ... once you have a GPS navigator. “There are at least 20 caches in the Wichita Wildlife Refuge that bring you to places that are otherwise difficult to find,” Worthington said. “They include old mines, natural arches, and mountain peaks with magnificent views — geocaching helped me locate places on the refuge like the Arista in the Parallel Forest that I had wanted to visit but didn’t know how to find.” Geocaching for 3 years Lawton resident Bill Rae, aka RedJeepGuy, said he has been geocaching for about 3 years. He has logged in 378 caches in 14 states, and says it’s a good way to get him out of the house, away from the TV, and off to unique area locations. “Each cache has its own story and sometimes it turns into quite an adventure,” he said. “My most challenging cache was Pikes Peak in Coloradao. I must have tried five times to get to it but got snowed out every time,” he said. “I never did make it to the top.” He said his most painful cache was after he unknowingly walked into a field of stinging nettles in Wisconsin. Rae said there are a lot of geocaching events and get-togethers. The Tulsa Area Geocacher’s Group met recently for a threeday event attended by more than 200 people. He said Boy Scouts cooked the meals, everyone set up their tents, then were off on the hunt. At that event, Rae said there were prizes awarded for best caches and a raffle for prizes ranging from GPS devices to shirts, hats, geocoins, gift cards, etc. A geocoin is either metal or wooden and can be sort of a signature piece of a geocacher. Some coins are trackable and have their own bar code for searching on the internet, and they often either have the geocacher’s personal handle engraved on them or some sort of personal attachment — for example Rae’s geocoin signature has, you guessed it, a red jeep on it. Moving from metal dececting Bob Reeder, 76, got into geocaching after being a metal detector hobbyist. He said he and a member of a metal detecting group got to talking and it was then that he was introduced to the new hobby. At the time he said he had no GPS equipment, but once he got a device for Christmas ... he got to hunting. His most difficult find was in Arkansas where he said he found a cache hidden inside the hollow reed of a bamboo shoot. He said he saw the tops sawed off of some of them, pulled them apart and found his treasure. “At Elmer Thomas Park there was a cache hidden inside the Christmas deer,” he said. “Geocaching requires both mental and physical attributes, and you need both in order to find them ... it’s a hobby for all ages and great for families,” he said. “It requires the use of a computer so it’s a good mental and physical exercise.” Geocachers do their best to notify property owners before hiding a geocache on private property, and rarely are their hunts disruptive. Occasionally they will hunt for their caches with flashlights at night, and they search so hard that sometimes they have a
few false leads. Caches can be camouflaged really well, and come in all shapes and sizes. “I’ve found geocaches in silver bullets, tiny magnets, big buckets, hollowedout logs, owls in trees, fake water spigots in lawns, mailboxes in wooded areas, and fake sprinkler heads in landscape — I once disassembled some sprinkler heads only to find out they were real,” said Worthington. So, sometimes the geocacher’s quest to find the hidden location can put them in a bind. However, once these treasure hunters let folks know what they’re up to it’s usually taken all in fun and with a great amount of interest. Worthington says she is fond of caches that have puzzles attached to them ... in fact, she said she usually attaches a puzzle that needs to be solved in order to find her own caches. There also are virtual caches that have no particular physical items attached. Instead, it may be an online photo, description of a place, etc. For a geocacher to prove they found the virtual location, they might take a photo of themselves at the location or email the original “cache hider” to confirm that it is indeed the correct cache. Each of these geocaching enthusiasts is passionate about this new hobby on the scene ... and they pursue the activity every chance they get. The three have a warning, though — it is addictive! For more information about geocaching, visit www.geocaching.com. RedJeepGuy says the next large geocaching event is scheduled for April 2010 and is called “Spring Fling 2010: Ten Years of Geocaching.” It’s hosted by central Oklahoma geocachers (COG for short), and will take place at Red Rock Canyon State Park near Hinton. For more information about the event visit www.geocaching.com.
MICHAEL POPE/ STAFF From left geocachers Bob Reeder, Rita Worthington, and Bill Rae investigate a geocache hidden near a busy shopping area on Cache Road.The cache was discovered in a white PVC pipe that Rae holds in his hand. Geocaches aren’t that easy to find which makes hunting for them challenging. People probably walked by this cache every day without even noticing anything unusual.
MICHAEL POPE/ STAFF Pictured: A GPS navigator, crucial to finding a geocache; and geocoins, signature coins that geocachers use that often have special tracking bar codes. RedJeepGuy’s geocoin is a red jeep, of course.
