Posted on 08/10/2003 3:48:25 PM PDT by John Jorsett
Walking through soggy grass amid a late afternoon drizzle, Nicole DiFede consulted the readings on her handheld GPS device. She walked north, going up a hill in Vista View Park in Davie, then veered slightly west. Soon, she came to a patch of bushes and sabal palms. Her GPS (Global Positioning System) device indicated she was within a few feet of the cache, or treasure, she was trying to locate. Poking around the browned palm fronds around the base of the sabal palms, DiFede found a large plastic jar stuffed with a variety of goodies, including a notepad, a pen, a plastic shark and a blue squirt gun. Welcome to the world of geocaching -- a high-tech version of the age-old scavenger hunt. Using a handheld GPS device about the size of a cellphone, players pick up the coordinates (given in latitude and longitude) from one of several websites that maintain information on hidden stashes. They punch in the coordinates and off they go -- on highways, city streets, park trails and sometimes off the beaten path. ''It combines a little bit of smarts, outdoor adventure and excitement all in one day,'' says DiFede, 31, of Pembroke Pines, who discovered geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) less than a year ago. She asked her husband for a GPS device last Christmas. The thrill is definitely in the hunt. ''You get to go treasure hunting with a $12 billion satellite system,'' says Bryan Roth, one of the cofounders of Geocaching.com, the quasi-official website for this new sport. ``Everyone gets to be Indiana Jones for the day.'' DiFede is among the tens of thousands of people around the United States and around the world who are fans. According to the Geocaching.com site, there are caches in 183 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Australia, South Africa, Falkland Islands and French Guiana. The website lists at least 157 caches in South Florida. The caches are hidden by folks who participate in this adventure game. HISTORIC SITES There are caches on Virginia Key and in Oleta State Park in North Miami Beach. Some will take you to historic sites like the Venetian Pool in Coral Gables. There's a cache in downtown Miami, rated most difficult. There's even one under water. There are many variations of the game, including virtual caches, puzzle caches and multistage caches. A virtual cache, where there is no treasure hidden, usually leads to an interesting place to visit. One such cache leads to a Weston tavern housing two important pieces of South Florida sports memorabilia. Roth said geocaching was initially seen as a way of getting techies away from their computers. But in the last three years, geocaching has attracted an array of fans. DiFede often goes geocaching with her 5-year-old daughter, giving the two special time together. DiFede lets her daughter pick out a trinket from each cache they find, and they always leave behind something. Andy Wenzel of Miami says geocaching, which he does when he travels on business, gives him a chance to visit parks, go on hikes and get to know areas that he might otherwise have never discovered. The best spot he's visited: an overlook on a ridge near Hartford, Conn., that offered a spectacular view for miles. Pete Brumbaugh, senior media specialist for Garmin, one of the leading manufacturers of handheld GPS devices, said some teachers are using geocaching to help teach math and geography. The game has caught on quickly. In May 2000, the Clinton administration stopped scrambling GPS signals for civilian use. That improved the accuracy of GPS readings, making it possible to pinpoint a location to within six to 20 feet rather than 300 to 500 feet. The first cache was buried by a Portland, Ore., man interested in testing whether the GPS signals were really accurate. He posted the cache coordinates on the Internet. The person who found it began a website to post the results of his finds and those of others. Roth and two buddies took over that website. Today, Geocaching.com lives off merchandising and advertising. Playing the game is free. Users have to register so they can post caches they hide, log ones they find and participate in the forums. Of course, there are some park entrance fees and the cost of a GPS unit. Prices range from $100 to nearly $1,000. `WAYPOINTS' You don't have to be super tech-savvy to play. All you need to learn is how to enter the ''waypoints,'' or coordinates. Geocaching.com is working on an explainer. Barbara and Matt Kriesler got lucky when they started. A week after a friend suggested they check out Geocaching.com, they noticed a newspaper story about a series of regional hunts sponsored by Magellan, another major manufacturer of GPS devices. Three weeks ago, Magellan posted clues and then coordinates for a cache located somewhere in South Florida. From the clues -- ''A park where robins fly and horses roam free'' -- the Krieslers identified Robins Park, an equestrian park in Southwest Broward. They hit pay dirt when the coordinates became available. The cache, a small plastic treasure chest, was hidden in a clump of trees near the park's entrance. Matt Kriesler says the couple, who bring along 3-year-old daughter Courtney, is hooked. ``It's a lot of fun and something we can do as a family.''
No need to bother doing that as a geocache. You can set up a booby trap where any random passerby triggers it.
I think those people all drove off cliffs and died. :-)
LOL. Nice comeback. My dad is into this and it really sounds fun (but no GPS for me so I'm out - unless I could learn to use a Sextant really really well.)
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