Published: August 06, 2008 05:32 pm            

Geocaching: High tech hide-n-seek

Geocaching proves to be popular pastime in the Wabash Valley

TERRE HAUTE — When does a tree cease being merely a tree or a fence post merely a fence post to a sensible man, woman, or youth?

Seeing physical objects as potentially something other than at first they appear might be an indicator a person has taken up geocaching — passing spare time seeking, with the aide of a Global Positioning Unit (and keen eyes), enjoyable “treasure” troves hidden in woods or cached in or onto commonplace city objects such as light poles, billboards, large bolts, sign posts and even storm sewer grates.

More than 100 Wabash Valley residents are so intrigued with this fast-growing international pastime that they hunt weekly for new cache (pronounced “cash”) sites and hundreds — maybe thousands — more people have been in some way connected with geocaching.

Within 10 miles of downtown Terre Haute, 167 caches have been established. At least as many await finding within 50 miles of the city.

Successful geocachers have a bit of Sherlock Holmes in their souls, plus patience, and ability to conduct hunts without attracting the unwanted attention of every geocacher’s dreaded foe — a muggle or non-geocacher. (Harry Potter novels describe people who cannot understand magic as muggles.) Muggles lurk everywhere and often get curious what a geocacher is doing when they see one looking in a roadside shrub or crawling on hands and knees near objects like shopping mall signs in a quest of a cache. Nefarious muggles have been known to take caches for themselves.

About midnight on May 2, 2000, geocaching soared into the stratosphere as a global phenomenon, for at this time the U.S. government began allowing its satellites to be used by global positioning technology by private individuals. From that point on, hand-held Global Positioning Units receiving beams from satellites could triangulate exact locations within 25 feet of a given set of coordinates anywhere on the planet.

The following day, Dave Ulmer, a computer consultant in Oregon, tested the accuracy of his GPS by taking into woods near Beaver Creek, Ore., a cache in a black bucket containing a log book, a pencil, a slingshot, videos, etc. He then posted on the Internet the location’s coordinates: N 45 17.460 W 122 24.800.

Within three days, two Internet surfers read about Ulmer’s stash, discovered his treasure bucket, and swapped objects. As finders shared their experiences on the Internet, the hobby began captivating human imaginations.

Mike Teague, first to discover Ulmer’s treasure bucket, started collecting info on the worldwide coordinates of caches and posting them on his Web site. Many Web surfers found Teague’s site and chatted on the Internet about what to call the new activity. Geocaching was the name that caught on.

A few months later, Seattle Web developer Jeremy Irish accidentally came across Teague’s Web site while researching GPS technology. The concept of treasure hunting using a new tech gadget intrigued him. He came across an Internet-listed cache near his home and went hunting for it as soon as possible. Thrilled after making his find, he decided to create an Internet hobby site.

During the past eight years, Irish’s Geocaching.com has expanded into the headquarters for transcontinental techies interested in exploring the activity. It lists cache coordinates and sometimes hints as to their hiding places at location on all of the Earth’s continents (Antarctica has two Web pages of caches, China eight pages. Additionally, Web pages have multilingual log entries for lands diverse as Iran and Greenland, plus underwater caches for scuba divers).

Terre Haute geocacher Steve Burris went on his first hunt in 2006 while taking a trip to Las Vegas with a group of friends from the Wabash Valley. A woman in the group had a husband (aka ICALLGEESE) who didn’t like gambling; however, he did like geocaching. She asked Burris if he would go with her husband. As fate had it, Burris’ son had given him a GPS unit that year for Christmas.

“I got hooked right away,” said Burris. “To get to the site where a set of GPS coordinates indicated a cache would be, we walked across a railroad bridge with a guard rail and took off hiking out into the desert and found a cache smack dab in the middle of nowhere.

“When we came back into Las Vegas, instead of returning to the casinos, we went to look for a cache near a school. Kids at the school had established it, and they enjoyed looking out of the window at geocachers from around the world as they tried to locate it. The students could then get a fun geography lesson by going to the Web and finding the countries of the people who had found their cache.”

Burris (aka Seburr) said he easily learned how to navigate Geocaching.com when he decided to take up the pastime because the Internet site has a self-guiding tutorial.

“Some geocachers are more interested in establishing caches and others in finding them, but everyone is encouraged to do both,” said Burris. “On the Web navigation site, in addition to stating coordinates, it also describes the difficulty both of the terrain and of the concealment of a cache on a scale of 1 to 5. Each cache has an identifying waypoint number like GCXO3P. Often clues are given, and sometimes these come in the form of riddles. Caches are everywhere: from cemeteries to shopping malls and parks. Physical cache sites have a container of some kind. These range from small Altoid tins to large metal containers used in woodland caches. Real caches have log books to sign and maybe little trade items. A few caches are virtual sites set up to direct people to an interesting destination in an area they would otherwise overlook.”

During a trip Burris took to the Virgin Islands, he visited his first virtual cache. Geocaching.com’s description had read, “This virtual cache is located at the most easterly point of the United States. … Some people try to get there for the sunrise, some at noon. … On the way there is a great beach. To complete your visit … send me an e-mail indicated what initials are on the center pole.”

To access the site, Burris rented a car. “It was a beautiful, historical place I would never have seen had I not been into geocaching,” he said. “The virtual cache had no log book, but I did log my visit into the waypoint for the Virgin Islands site: GCH9ZXID. Since my visit to the Virgin Islands, I’ve gone geocaching in places like Mexico, Aruba, Croatia, Turkey and Tuscany. By using the Web site, my eyes have been opened to some fascinating side trips.”

Geocaching has also led Burris to engage in international caching while in Terre Haute. In March of ’07, he found a cache hidden near Dixie Bee Woods in a 50 caliber green ammo box. The ammo box contained a number of trade goods. Included among them was a “travel bug,” an item trackable by an assigned number. (Travel bugs come in all shapes and sizes, from coins and stuffed animals to bowling balls — one legendary travel bug was an airplane propeller so big it took a truck to move it.) The travel bug Burris found was a small “Etch a Sketch” art piece. He swapped for it and went home to log his find.

At the time, he had a 25th wedding anniversary trip planned for Paris. When he went a few months later, he took the travel bug. He found a cache site for it in the Jardin des Nymphs on the banks of the Seine River. After duly logging his activity with Etch a Sketch online, Burris then kept a periodic eye on his cache’s history by looking up Etch a Sketch through the “Trackable Items” feature on Geocaching.com.

It came to pass that the day after Burris dropped Etch a Sketch, a geocacher found it and took it to France’s Alsace region near the German border. Since then, the traveling bug’s cache-to-cache journey has taken it through 20 European sites in Germany and Cyprus to Norway. Since May 10, Etch a Sketch has been awaiting a new finder at its current Bergen, Norway, location in a park honoring the accomplishments of playwright Henrik Ibsen.

Jerry Greenwell of Terre Haute (aka Dieseldoc.) had a life-changing experience after he discovered geocaching.

“I obtained a GPS unit a few years ago to assist me in my deer hunting,” said Greenwell. “With one, I could mark my kill if I couldn’t get it out of the woods right away. About five years ago, a Tribune-Star article discussing geocaching as it began taking place in this area stirred up my interest. I decided to try it and found that I liked geocaching more than deer hunting. It gives me a purpose more than just wandering around in the woods. The oddest thing I ever came across on a hunt was by accident. I came across a small meth lab.

“I’ve found all of the caches in the Terre Haute area. Now to find new caches I need to drive to Hutsonville or Kansas in Illinois. I’ve cut back on my hunting this summer because of the price of gas, but it’s still worth the drive to find a new cache.”

Geocacher Clay Cooke (aka ClayC) is also continually intrigued by the hobby and reports finding caches in all sorts of places within a few miles of his home in Terre Haute, including at Cheeseburger in Paradise. He often goes to car shows. Before leaving home, he downloads coordinates of caches in the area where he intends to visit.

“Puzzle caches are my favorites,” says Cooke. “Sometimes I have to solve a riddle to figure out a cache’s coordinates. Other times I need to figure out a riddle to locate an especially well concealed hide.”

One local brain tickler — key number GC1CRH2 for those who might be interested in a geocaching adventure — is located near the two railroad towers that are in the Wabash Valley Railroaders Museum near 13th Street and 8th Avenue.

Geocaching.com’s site description offers a hint to help unearth this well-concealed little gem: “Quote Anthony McAuliffe.” (The Web site does not explain that the general was the commander of the 101st Airborne Division during World War II’s Battle of the Bulge. His famous reply to the German general requesting his surrender can be found on the Internet or in history books.)

        

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