When the GPS’s were first invented they were destined ultimately for military use and therefore, the civilians could only receive a signal that would go out to about 100 meters. A GPS is “A system of satellites, computers, and receivers that is able to determine the latitude and longitude of a receiver on Earth by calculating the time difference for signals from different satellites to reach the receiver” On May first 2000, President Clinton decided to abolish the scrambling of the signals and that anyone could benefit from the signal at any range. Ordinary people could now know their precise location or the location of their destination or even an object.

To commemorate this historical date, Dave Ulmer hid a bucket of trinkets in a wooded area just outside of Portland, Oregon and announced its emplacement on a website. This characterized the beginning of the hobby we now call Geocaching. From there people have started to hide more and more caches all around the world and registering them online for other people to find them. There are over 800 000 registered caches hidden today and the numbers do not cease to increase.

Geocaching is defined as “a type of scavenger hunt for waterproof containers bearing treasure using the containers' exact geographic coordinates and Global Positioning System devices”. The basic rules to this game are that you first fill out the logbook and if you take something from the cache you leave something of similar value. Then you proceed to returning the cache to its original hiding place. Some caches have a special item fot the First to Find (FTF).

Caches can be hidden anywhere, including; in the woods, on top of mountains, at the bottom of lakes, near artifacts, and more. You could walk by them everyday and never know they were there for they could be hidden in a box disguised as a rock or a shrub. Some caches can be just a basic waterproof container containing the strict minimum; these are called the traditional caches. Some are more complex and contain clues to another cache’s location; these are called Multi-Caches. Caches are placed by individuals, organizations, and events.

By Stephanie Jauvin
Tourism Student Ambassador, Quinte West Tourism

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