[Az-Geocaching] Sunset Magazine Geocaching Article

[EvilFISH]

Thanks


gotta love the positive press and a full size cache......
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "SquishyGecko" <squishygecko@yahoo.com>
To: <listserv@azgeocaching.com>
Sent: Monday, June 07, 2004 6:52 PM
Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Sunset Magazine Geocaching Article


>
>
> High-tech
> hide-and-seek
> Discover the joys of geocaching: using a GPS device to find something
> stashed by someone else
>
> Gear up: Geocaching details
>
> By Mike McQuaide
>
> On an overcast afternoon, my wife, my 4-year-old son, and I, along with
> another family, find ourselves on a tiny rock island on the edge of
> Washington's Puget Sound, staring into berry brambles and chuckholes,
> picking up logs, and kicking leaf piles. We're on a high-tech treasure
hunt,
> searching for a watertight plastic container stuffed with toys, trinkets,
> and assorted tchotchkes. Our handheld, cell phone-size GPS unit tells us
it
> should be right...about...here!
>
> But we haven't found it yet.
>
> We're indulging in the relatively new sport of geocaching: using a GPS
> device to find a cache stashed by someone else. Enabled by the U.S.
> Department of Defense's decision to discontinue scrambling GPS signals,
> geocaching has exploded in popularity. In just three years, enthusiasts
> stashed more than 58,000 caches in 177 countries.
>
> Geocaching appeals to people's instinct for exploration, says Jeremy
Irish,
> who founded the pastime's popular website, www.geocaching.com, about four
> years ago. The site is the sport's bible, dictionary, and atlas all in
one.
>
> "We're all explorers who want to discover something new, and what has
always
> frustrated me is that you can't really do that anymore - these days,
people
> even climb Mt. Everest on their vacations," Irish says. "What you have to
do
> is create your own adventures, and geocaching is a great way of doing
that."
>
> HIKING TO FIND HOT WHEELS
>
> Every great adventure requires planning, and geocaching is no exception.
> With my friend's GPS unit in hand, we go to the geocaching website and
enter
> the zip code for the town nearest Deception Pass State Park, a scenic area
> close to home.
>
> On the website we find clues as to exactly where we'll find the booty we
> seek (under a log) and, most important, the exact coordinates of the
cache's
> longitude and latitude. These we plug into my friend's GPS unit, which
will
> pick up signals from satellites 12,500 miles overhead and lead us straight
> to the Deception cache.
>
> Back on the overgrown, glacier-scrubbed rock island, beneath the 180-foot
> steel trusses that support Deception Pass Bridge, we start to close in on
> the prize. After we've hiked about 1/2 mile, the GPS unit tells us we're
> within a yard of our goal.
>
> My friend's wife Jessica spots it first: a corner of a Rubbermaid
container
> poking out from under a log tangled in some salal. "Why don't you check
> under that log?" she says, deftly guiding the boys so they can discover it
> themselves.
>
> When they do, they scream and squeal with delight. Inside the container,
we
> find Hot Wheels cars, an oversize plastic penny, a miniature baseball, a
> yo-yo, a deck of cards, a cassette tape of the Police, and more.
>
> We also find a Travel Bug, a small stuffed rabbit with a tracking tag that
> enables geocachers to track its progress online as it makes its way from
> cache to cache. This one, called Baltimore Bunny, started in Maryland and,
> by the time we discover it, traveled throughout the Northeast before
making
> its way to California and then Washington.
>
> In keeping with geocaching's protocol - which states that finders can be
> keepers as long as they leave one new object for each one they take - my
> son, Baker, takes a balloon and leaves a toy horse. His friend Kai takes
the
> oversize penny and leaves a toy locomotive.
>
> Finally, in a logbook that's also stashed in the cache, we detail what
we've
> seen, what we've taken, and what we've left. Then we seal up the
container,
> place it back where we found it, and leave it for the next lucky seeker.
>
> Gear up
> All you need is access to the Internet, a map, and a GPS unit. Fancy units
> include internal electronic map databases and can cost as much as $500. A
> good entry-level one lacks map databases but displays coordinates that can
> be used in conjunction with paper maps. Try Garmin's Geko 101 ($113; 800/
> 800-1020).
>
> Call the public park or private lands you plan to visit before heading out
> in order to obtain authorization to leave a cache there. While the
National
> Park Service does not allow geocaching on any of its lands, other parks
have
> their own policies on this form of recreation. Washington's Deception Pass
> State Park stipulates that geocachers are not permitted to hide objects
> off-trail or below ground (no beating back of brush or digging is
allowed).
>
> Throughout the West, several geocaching clubs and organizations are set up
> to help beginners learn the ropes. Visit www.geocaching.com for additional
> resources.
>
> NORTHWEST
> Central Oregon Geocaching
>
> CALIFORNIA AND HAWAII
> Southern California Geocachers
> Hawaii Geocachers and GPS Enthusiasts
>
> MOUNTAIN STATES
> Idaho Geocachers
> Utah Cache Games
>
>
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