The Northwest Voice

All > Columnists > Outdoor Life
The Outdoor Life with Dick Taylor: The Sport of Geocaching
Topics:
Posted by mlfulton Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:12:00 PDT
Viewed 300 times
0 responses 0 comments What do cruise missiles and the sport of geocaching (pronounced "geo-cashing") have in common? They both use global positioning system (GPS) technology. Geocaching is a good excuse to go out and buy one of those cool GPS units for yourself or your spouse.

The overall idea is for people to set up caches and then share the coordinates (remember latitude and longitude from high school?) of these locations on the Internet. Then, GPS users find the location based on the provided coordinates. Getting involved in finding a cache is a great way to explore the capabilities of a GPS.

The GPS system was designed for and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense and consists of approximately 24 satellites orbiting about 23,000 miles above the earth. The closest four satellites are used to compute the location of the GPS receiver. Even though there are now thousands of civilian GPS users worldwide, the system initially was designed to give the military a precise method of determining one's location within just a few feet, anywhere on the planet. It's used for troops on the ground, ships at sea and aircrafts. That is how cruise missiles are targeted so accurately.

In May 2000, the U.S. military removed the built-in signal degradation called Selected Availability from the entire system. Prior to that, only the military and our allies could receive data from the 24 satellites pinpointing a location within a few feet. Civilian accuracy was in the 100 meters accuracy range.

There are now more than 116,000 caches hidden in 210 countries. There are a pot load right here in Kern County, with about 20 or so close to Bakersfield. There are some basic rules that you need to be aware of in geocaching, especially always respecting private property boundaries and fences.

Geocaching is a great side distraction while off-roading. Most caches are accessible via street-legal vehicles and some may require some hiking to reach.

There are several categories of caches: Regular caches are usually hidden in a container such as an old military ammo box or a Tupperware container. Micro caches are small, hidden within things like a 35mm film cannister.

Virtual caches involve no actual container, but require the geocacher to answer questions online that can only be correctly answered if one visits a particular site.

Regular and micro caches contain a log book in which you can log your find, in addition to recording it online. Virtual caches work great in locations where an actual container would look too suspicious to non-geocachers in the vicinity.

For instance, my wife, Cheryl, and I recently visited Washington, D.C. and looked up several caches while there. It would be a really bad idea to have an ammo box stashed on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol building or the National Cathedral, so most in Washington are the virtual type.

I did visit one regular cache within D.C., right across the street from the Vice President's home. I even saw seven deer in there while walking through this heavily wooded area. Hunting caches can really make you take notice of things around you. Plus, you do need to be rather stealthy in retrieving caches while people are nearby.

Several companies manufacture GPS receivers. The two most well-known are Magellan and Garmin. Receivers range in price from $100 up to $1,000 for a super-fancy one that has lots of memory and other options. Most GPS units will mount right on the handlebars of your motorcycle, quad or bicycle.

To find out more about this rapidly growing sport, log onto http://www.geocaching.com. Happy Trails!

Send to a Friend

Report a Violation