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Geocaching

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A Geocache in Germany
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A Geocache in Germany

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache (pronounced /kæʃ/, or "cash") is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure", usually toys or trinkets of little monetary value.

Contents

Geocaches

For the traditional geocache, a geocacher will place a waterproof container, containing a log book (with pen or pencil) and treasures, then note the cache's coordinates. These coordinates, along with other details of the location, are posted on a website (see Websites for geocaching). Other geocachers obtain the coordinates from the Internet and, using handheld GPS receivers, seek out the cache. The finding geocachers record their exploits in the logbook and online. Geocachers are free to take objects from the cache in exchange for leaving something of similar or higher value, so there is treasure for the next person to find.

Microcache hidden and found beside the Roman Colosseum
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Microcache hidden and found beside the Roman Colosseum

Typical cache treasures aren't high in monetary value but often hold intrinsic value to the finder. Aside from the logbook, common cache contents are unusual coins or currency, small toys, ornamental buttons, CDs or books. Also common are objects that are moved from cache to cache, such as Travel Bugs or Geocoins), whose travels may be logged and followed online. Occasionally, higher value items are included in geocaches, normally reserved for the "first finder", or those locations which are harder to reach.

A Travel Bug
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A Travel Bug

Geocaches can range in size from "microcaches", too small to hold anything more than a tiny paper log, to those placed in five-gallon buckets or even larger containers.

If a geocache has been vandalized or stolen, it is said to have been "muggled" or "plundered". The former term plays off the fact that those not familiar with geocaching are called "geo-muggles" or just muggles, a term borrowed from the Harry Potter series of books. If a cacher discovers that a cache has been muggled, it can be logged as needing maintenance, which sends an e-mail to the cache owner so it can either be deactivated, repaired, or replaced.

Geocachers who have done the sport for a while often recognize small things out of place that the muggle will never see, and can find a geocache even without a GPS receiver. It takes practice to spot the more inventive geocaches.

Ethics

Different people have different ethics about geocaching. Without some rules geocachers could be a danger to themselves, other cachers, or society. Geocaching.com has guidelines for [Hiding your first cache]. Others like Terracaching have a much smaller set of guidelines. Still others have also developed the Geocacher's Creed, and [geocachingpolicy.org]

Sometimes, when there are a lot of muggles around geocaching can be like the old spy mysteries with message and item drops, secret coders, stealth, etc. The cache placer must take this into account so that both he/she and those looking for caches will be safe, and will not cause alarm. Due to thoughtlessness of cache placers, other cachers have been approached by the Police and questioned as to what they are doing as they were seen to be "acting suspiciously". In fact, on the Geocaching.com there is a geocache named ["Not a Bomb"] because a previous geocache had been destroyed by the Bellevue, Washington, bomb squad, who thought an ammo can labeled as a Geocache was a bomb. [link]

Although not dealing with geocaching specifically, the [Leave No Trace principles] are in the same vein on how many geocachers feel geocaching should be done.

History

Geocaching is similar to a much older activity called letterboxing. The major difference is its use of the Global Positioning System. Geocaching via GPS was made possible by the "turning off" of the selective availability of the Global Positioning System on May 1, 2000. The first documented placement of a cache with GPS assistance took place on May 3, 2000, by Dave Ulmer of Beavercreek, Oregon. The location was posted on the Usenet newsgroup [sci.geo.satellite-nav]. By May 6, 2000, it had been found twice and logged once (by Mike Teague of Vancouver, Washington). Today, well over 200,000 geocaches are currently placed in 220 countries around the world, registered on various websites devoted to the sport.

Origin of the name

The activity was originally referred to as GPS stash hunt or gpsstashing. This was changed after a discussion in the [gpsstash] discussion group at eGroups (now Yahoo!). On May 30, 2000, Matt Stum suggested to change the name "stash" into "cache" and also mentioned "geocaching" as the name of the activity.[link]

Variations

There are many types of caches. Some are easy enough to be called "drive-bys", "park 'n' grabs" ("PNGs"), or "cache and dash". Others are very difficult: [under water], [many staged multi-caches], [50 feet up a tree], [after long offroad drives], [on high mountain peaks], [on the] Antarctic continent or [above the] Arctic Circle.

Variations of geocaches include:

Websites for geocaching

There are a number of websites that list geocaches around the world. The first, which is by far the largest and best known, is [Geocaching.com], which began operating in 2000. This site has members worldwide, and hundreds of thousands of caches available. Caches are published by regional cache reviewers and the site stresses family-oriented caching. Its claim to be "official" and its commercial interests are often bones of contention.

Geocaching.com no longer lists caches without a physical object. This excludes locationless/reverse, virtual, webcam, and earth caches; however, older caches of these types have been grandfathered in. Groundspeak, Inc., the site's owner, has created a waymarking website, at [Waymarking.com], to handle non-physical caches.

The second best known site is [TerraCaching.com], whose goal is to have members place and seek caches that are somewhat higher in quality, either from the difficulty of the hide or from the quality of the location. Cache approval is handled by other members through a sponsorship system. Members peer review the quality of other members' caches. It is another worldwide game with caches numbering in the thousands. TerraCaching.com embraces virtual caches alongside traditionals, and has a large selection of locationless caches integrated into the web site.

A third site frequently used for geocaching is [NaviCache.com]. Navicache has pockets of popularity worldwide. Some of the Navicache listings can also be found at Geocaching.com.

In the United States, where most geocaching services are hosted, coordinates are not protected by copyright but cache data are. Commercial web sites listing geocache data are generally protective of their data. People scraping data from geocaching.com have been threatened with lawsuits by Groundspeak, Inc., owners of the site. One of the most notable examples of this is that of Ed Hall who in 2001 was threatened with a lawsuit. According to Hall, the threat was due to Groundspeak's request that he provide a copyright notice attributing Groundspeak as the owner of the cache data. However, Groundspeak claims the dispute occurred after Hall refused a request to remove a cache listing from his maps at the request of a cache owner. As a result, his site now acknowledges the various sources of cache data he uses, but after a disagreement about licensing, he no longer includes any data from geocaching.com. [link]

Geocaching's status as a sport

There is some debate among geocachers about whether to categorize geocaching as a sport, game, or activity.

Proponents for "geocaching as a sport" like to point out that dictionaries define sport as a "physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively." They think that geocaching meets all those criteria.

Others argue against geocaching as a sport, pointing out that there is no clearly defined ruleset for geocaching - most participants geocache in their own manner - which means that competition cannot be measurable. Competition is also highly discouraged by a small but influential group of cachers which seems to make the term hobby a more accurate description of the activity.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
[Special]

External links

Geocache Listing Sites

In alphabetical order.

Similar and related activities

Tools

Miscellaneous

 

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