So far I dont have any finds listed for caches.. have a few benchmarks under my belt (2 or 3).. I only really started this sunday... already have 65 local waypoints for them loaded into my GPS II+ thoughHenryJ wrote:BLT Lehman, we have been dormant for a while, but should add up a few finds next week
and that was a search just for 10mi radious of Lemoore.. not even counting Hanford yet.
If you have kids, they'll love it! My 5 year old son can't get enough of it. He wants to go out today but it's 91 outside and I'm thinking A/C.top_sgt wrote:guess i better check this out!!!!
Where are your priorities?top_sgt wrote:AC..............and cold beer!!!!
top_sgt wrote:wellllllllllllllllllll....................i guess the cold beer first!! what good is the
AC without the beer!!!!
Tulare Advance Register newspaper wrote: Catch the cache GPS gives treasure hunters an eye in the sky
By Mike Hazelwood
Staff writer
That new hobby leads a retired judge of 20 years into bushes along an In-N-Out Burger drive-through, searching for ... who knows what?
"You kind of feel like an idiot with people looking at you," says Dave Allen, 74, the retired Tulare County judge.
What hobby has a 29-year-old man tracking a SpongeBob SquarePants keychain that has hitch-hiked from California to Hawaii to Colorado?
"It's traveled about 6,000 miles now," says Robert Berge, the 29-year-old from Porterville.
What new hobby has fans of all ages chasing blips on a screen, roaming the globe for small goodies and the thrill of discovery?
It's called geocaching, an electronic treasure hunt done with Global Positioning System coordinates.
And if you haven't heard about it yet, you're quite frankly ... lost.
The hobby
Geocaching (pronounced "cashing") is all about the thrill of the hunt.
The basics of this simple sport:
# A geocacher hides a "cache" -- from keychains to refrigerator magnets to even cash, along with a journal -- and posts the GPS coordinates at www.geocaching.com.
# Prizes are hidden everywhere, from downtowns to rural fields to national parks. Berge even tracked one down in an old gold mine.
# Other geocachers are alerted to nearby caches via the Web.
Cache
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iÝArmed with GPS units, they triangulate the coordinates and try to hunt down the cache. If they find it, they sign the journal. Then they either trade the cache or, in the case of Berge's SpongeBob, hide it elsewhere.
Recent caches led geocachers to the College of the Sequoias giant statue, the Tulare Welcome Center at the Horizon Outlet and Aero Dogs in Tulare.
Some cache stories spread like legend, such as the $100 bill still waiting somewhere in Kings Canyon National Park.
The cache isn't the only reward.
"You feel satisfaction when you find something you're looking for," Berge says.
But it's not always easy.
Sometimes a non-geocacher finds the cache and snags it.
Sometimes a new fence or some obstacle is erected after the cache is stashed.
Sometimes a geocacher can't take the odd looks from passersby who think they're a nut for snooping around parks, alleys, courthouses, pastures or elsewhere.
And sometimes you'll search high and low, only to find nothing. Then you return home and, according to the Web log, everyone else found it easily.
Call that the Geocacher's Lament.
Though he has found almost 300 caches in nearly a year, Allen still knows that feeling.
"You think, 'What the hell's wrong with me? Why can't I find it?' " Allen says.
The people
There isn't just one type of geocacher.
They're students, lawyers, housewives, househusbands, retirees and more. Often, they find the same prizes without running into each other, communicating mostly via the Web site.
"It's kind of secret society," says Berge, who shares his hobby with his wife, April, 27.
They keep coordinates and caches in their cars, in case they pass a good place to hide or seek.
They all enjoy a good hunt -- wherever they can find it. Many fans use geocaching to spice up a vacation.
Allen's family took a trip to Great Britain and Ireland recently. And before they left, they looked up caches waiting near their planned stops. They found about 10 in places like London and Dublin.
For geocachers, the sport is more than technology.
It's about a game that never ends. It's about playing a secret sport under mainstream America's nose.
That's why you may find geocachers like Allen, our retired judge, happily searching through the bushes. Or creeping around an alley, hiding a magnet cache under fire escapes.
Allen doesn't mind the strange looks he gets.
"People just assume you lost something," he says.
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Originally published Saturday, September 25, 2004
Geocaching game triggers bomb squad alert in Bethlehem.
A PennDOT worker salting roads about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday saw a woman in dark clothes walk down a Bethlehem hill, pause at a tree along Hellertown Road near the Interstate 78 overpass, turn around and get on a bus.
Sidney Reph followed the woman's footprints in the snow, and beneath the tree found a tarp hiding an ammunition box with a combination lock.
He told police he ''got away as fast as possible'' because he thought it could be a bomb. Firefighters, police officers and bomb squad technicians secured the area while investigating the mysterious box with ''This is a game'' written on the front.
They eventually determined that the box was part of a treasure hunt in which players use coordinates and a Global Positioning System receiver, or GPS unit, to determine where hidden objects are.
Enthusiasts say the game — geocaching — inspires people to get off the couch, grab a GPS unit and tramp through the great outdoors.
Dean Guth of Bethlehem, who had hidden the ammo box, said millions of caches are scattered throughout more than 200 countries.
An avid player, Guth said he's only heard through the grapevine of one case where the game ran into trouble with the law — the arrest of a California man who had hidden a cache near an overpass.
Now Guth worries Bethlehem police might arrest him over the incident Tuesday in the 1100 block of Hellertown Road.
''I understand their position, but I think they completely overreacted,'' he said. ''If they would have taken five minutes to investigate, they could have found out this was certainly nothing to worry about.''
Guth said he's hidden about 30 caches ''in various cities'' but wouldn't be more specific. When police asked him where else in Bethlehem he had hidden them, he refused to say, arguing it would ruin the thrill of the game.
Police wouldn't say whether Guth might be charged or with what crime. But they and fire officials fear it could cost thousands of dollars for bomb squad technicians to examine mysterious packages hidden in the city.
Police Capt. John Sarnicky said the department wants to know where the caches are. If police knew the locations, he said, they would still have to investigate calls about suspicious packages but could possibly tailor their response.
''Just because something is marked as being a game doesn't mean that's what it is,'' Sarnicky said. ''Bad people have a tendency to try and disguise things, and we have no choice but to treat it like it could be a bomb.''
Two technicians from the Bethlehem Fire Department's bomb squad were called to investigate the box Tuesday, said Lt. Joe Chernaskey. As they inspected the box and tried to determine what was inside, a fire official went to the Web site listed on the box: geocaching.com.
The lock was broken and inside were stuffed animals, toys, notebooks and maps, according to police.
Geocacher Tyson Sprandel of Bethlehem said he arrived at the site to look for the treasure shortly after emergency crews left. A state Department of Transportation employee told him he ''had just missed all the excitement'' and told him what had happened. Sprandel called Guth because he knew Guth had hidden the box, and told him to call police and explain.
Guth said he told police about the game and said he had permission from Charlie Brown, director of the city Parks and Public Property Department, to hide the box.
Brown said he did give Guth permission, but he thought the box would be buried, not hidden beneath a tree.
Guth used the metal box because it is waterproof and durable, he said. He doesn't like to refer to it as an ammunition box because it no longer holds ammunition and is painted over to eliminate any military markings.
The geocaching Web site lists 150 hidden caches within 10 miles of Bethlehem. The packages could range from as small as a film container to 5-gallon buckets.
''[Police] just have no concept how widespread this game is, and I'm not the only one involved,'' Guth said.
Bethlehem will absorb the cost of Tuesday's response, said Fire Commissioner George Barkanic, but if calls about suspicious packages continue to come in, the costs of investigating them will be paid by the people who hid the caches.
Each call for the bomb squad costs thousands of dollars, he said.
Chernaskey added, ''From the bomb squad side of it, it's something we really frown upon, because all these calls could cause havoc throughout the city. In this day and age, with people worried about terrorists, this isn't the smartest thing to do.''
Police are still investigating the ammo box incident and said anyone caught in city parks after hours will be cited.
Sprandel said he's been addicted to the game since 2004. He said fellow enthusiasts who play it follow the rules, which include getting permission from the proper authorities to hide objects on their land.
''Kids are too wrapped up in their electronic games and television, and this is something that gets everyone out of the house and into nature,'' he said. ''This isn't something to be alarmed about. This is something people can have an absolute blast doing.''
That is beginning to make sense if, and it is a very big "if", all agencies know about the locations. Knowing federal, state and local agencies, as I do, I would be surprised if all are aware of the caches.snocat1 wrote:For the forest preserve you have to call and register the box and give the location of the box and it is good for one year.
Internet game leads to bomb scare
By Samantha Sommer Staff Writer
Monday, December 29, 2008
URBANA, Ohio — The Internet-based geocaching game led to a bomb scare in Urbana on Sunday night, Dec. 28.
Employees from Tim Hortons, 759 Scioto St., flagged down Urbana Police Department officers about 5:46 p.m. Sunday after seeing a man lifting up the metal base of a lamp pole, Urbana Police Lt. Matt Lingrell said.
The man drove off when officers arrived. Police found 35-mm film canisters with a metal plate and electrical tape in the post, Lingrell said, and considered it suspicious-looking.
"It didn't look like anything good," he said.
Tim Hortons and the nearby Save-A-Lot and Odd Lots stores were evacuated and cordoned off. The Wright-Patterson Air Force Base bomb squad was called to investigate the items.
Police also checked the man's license plate and an Urbana detective went to his Enon home with Enon police.
The man told the detective that he was playing geocaching, a game that calls for finding hidden objects sometimes using GPS devices to track coordinates listed on Web sites.
"It's like a treasure hunt," Lingrell said.
The bomb squad used its robot to check the items in the post and declared them safe. Upon opening the canisters, investigators found paper with numbers and the names of players who had found the object written on it.
Investigators also tracked down the man who placed the canisters in the lamp post in early November.
The stores reopened about 8:40 p.m. Sunday.
Urbana police will present the information to a prosecutor, possibly today, to determine if any charges should be filed.
The state patrol and Champaign County sheriff's deputies also responded.