In public spaces all over the world, there are over 3 million cleverly hidden containers just waiting to be found. They are part of the world’s largest treasure hunt, called geocaching.
To join in the fun, you can start by looking in your own neighborhood.
The containers vary in size. Each contains a log to sign to prove you found it, so bring a pen. You can also log your find in the app to keep a record of all the caches you’ve found.
Some geocache locations have larger containers in which you might find small items to trade. The idea is, if you take something from a cache, then leave something, the website says.
There are also items with a tracking code. These are meant for you to move to another geocache, and they can be tracked with the app as they travel the world.
But it’s not about the items you find; it’s about the experience and adventure, Dave Rinard, who has geocached with his three daughters, told The Epoch Times.
“It’s all about the hunting, and finding, and hiking, and being outdoors,” he said.
Mr. Rinard said he has geocached a lot in his own neighborhood in Walnut Creek, California, close to Mount Diablo, while hiking the ridge lines.
“[Geocaching is] a reason to get out either in the early morning or late afternoon with the kids, and you’d see wildlife, even rattlesnakes,” he said. “So we’d always bring a stick with us or a hiking pole, and so before you go flipping over rocks or sticking your hand in a hole, you want to poke around a little bit and make sure that there’s nothing in there.”
He said that he called geocaching “hiking with a purpose,” because hunting for caches encouraged his daughters to get outside and start exploring.
“It gave us a destination and a reason,” he said.
The Geocaching app has a free version with plenty of caches to get anyone started. The paid version costs $6.99 monthly or $39.99 a year and unlocks all locations with caches. The app says the charge is to maintain the app and the website to make sure the information is up to date regarding the over 3 million caches hosted on the app worldwide.
The website states that you can start the adventure by choosing a location in the app, and it will start navigating you via GPS to within 30 feet of the cache. To find the cache, the website says to look high and low and for something that seems out of place. The caches might be hidden in plain sight or just out of reach, the app says.
Mr. Rinard said that if you’re struggling, you can sometimes find hints in the app, ranging from simple to very detailed.
The app says that if you can’t find a cache, just try another location.
“If you were to pull the app up now and search in your neighborhood, there’s probably several close by,” Mr. Rinard said.
He added that if you take a picture of yourself with the cache, you’re supposed to take the picture in a way that does not give away its location.
Additionally, some caches on nature trails are containers hidden in the brush. They might be ammo boxes or Tupperware containers, Mr. Rinard said.
He said that you can create your own caches, but you have to maintain them and keep them accessible and clean. He said there is a feature in the app to notify the owner if the cache needs maintenance.
He noted that just like hiking and mountain biking, geocaching can take you to places that you might not normally go. For his family, it led to some fun side adventures while they were on vacation.
“We took a road trip around California all the way up to Eureka and back down through Shasta,” he said. “One of the things we did was when we stopped by the ocean or something, we’d pull up the app and we’d find a cache, and we’d go hike to find it.”
Mr. Rinard was introduced to geocaching by a friend in 2006, and his friend still encourages him to go find a cache when he’s traveling.
He said he was in Finland recently on a business trip and had some extra time, so he pulled up the Geocaching app and went looking for a cache down by the water under a wharf. Unfortunately, on that occasion Mr. Rinard was unable to find the cache.
His wife, Daniela Rinard, said geocaching was a good activity for her daughters to unplug and just be kids.
“It got them out in the sunshine, breathing fresh air, seeing butterflies and flowers, getting muddy, and chatting about life. It’s good, wholesome, and thrilling—thrilling because it’s a treasure hunt, and wholesome because it doesn’t involve a screen with games or shows or websites that are possibly PG-13 or for mature audiences only. It was a refreshingly beautiful, non-competitive activity,” she told The Epoch Times.
She said they once found a Gumby figurine in a cache, and to this day they keep it as a memento atop their TV.
The Beginning
According to the Geocaching website, in the year 2000, when the U.S. government granted access to its GPS system to civil and commercial operations, a GPS enthusiast and computer consultant, Dave Ulmer, wanted to test out the accuracy.He hid a black bucket in the woods near Beavercreek, Oregon, filled with prizes and a logbook. The prizes included videos, books, software, and a slingshot.
He posted the coordinates of his bucket on the internet, calling for other GPS users to come find it. He called it the “Great American GPS Stash Hunt.” He created the rule that if you take something, you should leave something.
Soon after, a few people used their own GPS receivers to find Mr. Ulmer’s hidden bucket and shared about it online. With that, others were inspired to hide their own containers and share their coordinates.
The concept of geocaching continued to spread on the internet, gaining more participants and growing to what it is today.
