Geocaching Sends Part-Time Adventures Exploring the Island for Hidden Finds
By Norman Kolpas

A Catalina moment: The day seems like any other in the charming town of Avalon. But you and your partner are on a secret mission. You stroll through town, dressed like any other just-off-the-boat visitors to Catalina. But, ever so discreetly so you don't draw attention to yourselves, you huddle casually together and, sheltering it from the view of passersby as if it were nothing more than a tourist map or brochure, you glance down at your secret electronic device. You've entered the codes you were given by headquarters. As you continue on your path past people unsuspecting of your mission, a shudder of excitement passes through you. You're closing in on the treasure.

And another: Beads of sweat drip down your spine as you climb a barely marked trail in Catalina's rugged interior. This is steeper than I expected, you tell yourself. But excitement drives you on. You check your coordinates to make sure you're still on the right track: Orbiting high above, a trio of satellites confirms that you haven't strayed. Your heart beats faster: Is it the challenge of the terrain, or the realization that you must be close by now. You're there. You scan your immediate surroundings, the trees and scrub and rocks, while also realizing that breathtaking panoramas of land and ocean have also suddenly revealed themselves. And there it is: a metal box, barely bigger than a school lunch pail. You wonder-What on earth could be inside?-as you lift off the tight fitting lid to reveal....

These dramatic scenes may seem lifted straight out of the latest spy or action-adventure novel or movie, in which ordinary men or women suddenly find themselves thrust into undreamt-of adventure through a set of extraordinary circumstances. Yet, they're taking place almost every day on Santa Catalina Island, and especially on weekends, thanks to a pastime that, while it delivers thrills on a par with ages-old tales of excitement, is nonetheless no older than the new millennium.

The hobby in question is called geocaching (pronounced "jee-oh-cashing"). It harnesses some of the latest developments in modern technology to bring its ever-growing legions of devotees-including burgeoning hordes of Catalina regulars-a wealth of good old-fashioned adventures.

Origins of a New Craze
Geocaching got its start through an unlikely confluence of events. As the second millennium drew to a close, GPS receivers-relatively inexpensive, small electronic devices capable of processing signals from 24 global positioning satellites (hence the initials of the devices' name) orbiting the earth-had increased in availability and popularity and decreased in price. Yet, the receivers could only deliver limited accuracy, because the U.S. government practiced a policy known as "selective availability"-in effect, restricting civilian access to the signals and thus sometimes making it difficult to get the three satellite readings necessary to triangulate a GPS unit's position.

All that changed, however, around midnight Eastern Time on May 2, 2000, when the U.S. government made the signals to 24 global-positioning satellites orbiting the earth available without limit to anyone. This move put to an end the previous policy of selective availability, which had significantly hindered common folks' ability to use a GPS device to determine their precise position on the planet's surface, a feat accomplished through triangulation-in effect, overlapping the signals from three different satellites to find the point at which they intersect.

According to some experts, at that moment when full signal access began, the accuracy of laymen's GPS devices increased by a factor of ten. And, though few could have predicted the trend then, the fun GPS owners could derive from their receivers was about to increase at least a thousandfold.

The very next day, Oregon computer consultant Dave Ulmer, a GPS enthusiast, announced what he called "The Great American GPS Stash Hunt" in an Internet posting to a GPS users' group. He had hidden a black bucket filled with small prizes-including software, videos, books, and a slingshot-in a woodland setting outside of the Portland suburb of Beaver Creek; and he posted the bucket's GPS coordinates, precise measurements of its latitude (degrees from the Equator) and longitude (degrees from the Greenwich Meridian)-or, in GPS terminology, its "waypoints." Use your own GPS to find it, he suggested, and come claim a piece of the treasure trove while replacing what you take with something of your own. Further, he challenged other GPS users to hide their own "stashes" and post their waypoints.

The game had begun, and has continued to grow in scope and popularity ever since. By June, the first finder of Ulmer's bucket, Mike Teague, began posting online the GPS coordinates of other stashes. His efforts were furthered that September by the launch of a dedicated site created by Seattle web developer Jeremy Irish, listing 75 hidden stashes around the world. Irish named his website geocaching.com.

That name came about as the result of another kind of search that had also begun among the GPS-owner online community-for a more wholesome term for this new activity, one that wouldn't have the hippie-style drug connotations of the word "stash." One enthusiast, Matt Stum, cleverly proposed combining the prefix "geo," from the Latin for "earth'; and "cache," which not only comes from a French root something hidden but also sounds like the English word "cash," connoting something valuable. The new name caught on quickly, only enhancing the vital growth of its eponymous website. Soon the New York Times mentioned the craze, and other publications-as well as the broadcast media-followed suit.

A Worldwide Phenomenon
Today, some seven years following geocaching's inception, the figures and facts are nothing short of astounding. Around the globe, the number of geocaches has shot past 350,000-and, by the time you read this, it may well be closer to half a million. Considering that each cache gets discovered-and that discovery is logged online at geocaching.com and other websites-many multiple times, practitioners of the sport must number well into the millions.

And their reach is quite literally global, with at least 222 different nations providing homes to the hidden little treasure troves. Many hide in protected wilderness lands, including those managed by the U.S. Forest Service; others are carefully tucked away in urban areas. And, by the latest count, some 50 geocaches now await discovery on Santa Catalina Island.

Like any specialized pursuit, geocaching has also developed its own special jargon beyond simple terms like "waypoints," and learning these is all part of the fun. There are "geomuggles," a term hybridized from the designation for non-wizard folk in the Harry Potter books, used to refer to ordinary folk who appear perplexed by the seemingly mysterious behavior of geocachers out on a hunt. "Virtual caches" are locations where no containers are hidden, places whose discovery alone is the sole point of the hunt. And there are all sorts of abbreviations that speak to the fairness, goodwill, and ecology-mindedness of geocachers, including CITO (Cache In Trash Out, summarizing the common habit geocachers make of leaving the trails to caches cleaner than they'd found them); FTF (First To Find, a written or online log entry by which someone indicates that he or she was the first to discover a particular cache); and the simple entry TFTC (Thanks For The Cache). You'll also hear tell of items called "hitchhikers" and "Travel Bugs," which journey from geocache to geocache, their travels tracked on the geocache.com website.

Join the Hunt!
So, how do you, er, cache in on all the fun. For a sport that has its start in high technology, the steps you need to take to become a geocacher yourself are relatively simple.

First, you've got to buy yourself a GPS receiver. But don't freeze up at the thought in a non-techie panic you've usually reserved in the past for buying software or programming the VCR. You can pick one up at outdoor/camping/sporting goods stores or buy one online (just Google "GPS" and you'll get lots of hits ready to sell you one). And even the simplest, least expensive ones, for around $100 or even a little less, will do the job quite nicely, putting you within about 20 feet of the cache you're seeking.

Next, read the instruction booklet of the GPS you've purchased, familiarizing yourself with how to enter the waypoints you're seeking for a particular cache.

But how do you know what geocache to seek? That's simple: Turn on your computer, open your web browser, and type "http://www.geocaching.com". You'll soon be staring at the home page of the now very sophisticated website begun by Jeremy Irish, a business he has run full time-yet another measure of the sport's success-since late 2005 with partners Bryan Roth and Elias Alvord.

At geocaching.com, you'll be able to sign up for your own free account, which enables you to enter any zip code in the U.S. , or pull down an alphabetical menu of any country where caches are hidden (30 of them in Afghanistan, for example), and get a helpful list of each cache in that vicinity, complete with its waypoints; comments and clues on finding it from the person who created the cache; and further comments from other geocachers who have subsequently visited it.

Then head on out GPS in hand, perhaps wearing one of the cute geocaching logo T-shirts available from Groundspeak, the parent company that sells merchandise on the site. Enter the waypoints and start the search, always trying to remain relatively discreet so that nearby Geomuggles aren't tipped off to the existence of the cache (or aren't so alarmed by your seemingly suspicious behavior that they call the cops on you). Bring along a few little personal trinkets with which you wouldn't mind parting, since it's proper etiquette to replace something you take from the cache with whatever you've brought along.

You'll find some caches far away in rough terrain that requires experienced hiking skills, others within an easy stroll; and some sequestered so well that you need real cunning to uncover their location, while others are almost hidden in plain sight. (The website includes a rating system of one to five stars each for difficulty and terrain, so you'll know what you might be getting into ahead of time.)

Once you find the cache, open it and become a fully participating part of the experience. Add your own personal observations to the logbook commonly included with the cache. Pick a prize if you like, leaving one of your own to replace it. Then return the cache to its hiding spot and head off in search of your next discovery.

And if you find yourself enthralled by the ingenuity that went into the caches you find, you might also want to consider creating a cache of your own. Pick a suitable container that isn't subject to the elements or the intrusion of wildlife large or small-whether a Tupperware container with an airtight lid (one of the most popular choices), a metal tobacco box or old-fashioned school lunchbox, or a plastic bucket with lid. Supply it with a logbook that you begin with your own message of welcome, a writing implement, and an assortment of prizes that won't spoil or attract critters and that are safe and appropriate for geocachers of all ages. And hide it away, taking note of its very particular waypoints with your GPS. Then post the information on geocaching.com, for other enthusiasts to head out in search of your geocache; and keep checking the website to read of their experiences going on the adventure you created for them.

And such adventures might very well send you trekking through the town of Avalon or the coastline or rugged interior of Santa Catalina Island, in search of hidden treasure!

How to Learn More
The best place to start learning more about geocaching is to visit Geocaching.com, the leading website for enthusiasts. You'll also find listings of geocaches at such sites as Navicache.com and Terracaching.com. The most comprehensive history of the sport, along with lots of detailed background information, may be found in the Geocaching entry at Wikipedia. And, not surprisingly, there are several helpful guidebooks to the subject, including The Complete Idiot's Guide to Geocaching by Jack W. Peters. Want a more random, endless sampling of info sources? Enter "geocaching" in Google.com: At the time of writing, a search yields approximately 5.6 million hits. Not bad for a subject just seven years old!