Fort Myers Florida Weekly

Cache me … if you can

Why and how geocaching is catching on in Florida



Geocachers can hide and search far and wide with simple tools and apps.

Geocachers can hide and search far and wide with simple tools and apps.

IN 2004, PETE CORRADINO, THE OWNER of Everglades Day Safari in Collier County, was living in Vermont when an older gentleman asked if he would hike with him up to a waterfall. Given the man’s age and the bears known to roam the woods, his request for a hiking partner sounded a reasonable safety precaution. However, when they arrived at the waterfall, Mr. Corradino became concerned when the older man began fiddling around with an ammunition container that was hidden in the woods.

“I’m like, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’” Mr. Corradino said. “Then he says, ‘I’ll tell you what, I’m not supposed to tell you what I’m doing because you’re not a part of this — this is a secret thing.’”

Mr. Corradino’s alarm grew. “I’m thinking I was gonna get murdered in the woods of Vermont, but then he explains to me all about geocaching and how there’s these things hidden all over in the woods. He says, ‘But you really need to be a member, so what you need to do is you need to go home and you need to sign up for this if you’re interested in becoming part of this secret community.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, this is really weird.’ So, at the beginning, it really was this secret community of not a whole lot of people, and this was my first foray into it. This guy completely tricked me into hiking up a mountain with him.”

A group of geocachers seek a cache hidden in the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve. JIM FINCH / COURTESY PHOTO

A group of geocachers seek a cache hidden in the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve. JIM FINCH / COURTESY PHOTO

Mr. Corradino goes by the geocaching handle of “JunglePete” and has since found about 6,000 geocaches, and has hidden 200 of his own for others to find in the now not-as-secret global scavenger hunt game made possible by GPS satellite technology. Although related to an earlier map-and-compass hobby called letterboxing, geocaching traces its origins to two events that took place in May 2000. The first was when the U.S. Department of Defense suddenly stopped scrambling the GPS signals for non-military use, which improved the accuracy of civilian GPS receivers from 100 meters to within 10 meters. The next day, a GPS enthusiast in Oregon posted only the GPS coordinates of a trinket cache he had hidden in the woods to a USENET newsgroup as a challenge to test the accuracy of the new GPS signal — and from that, the game was born as more people began hiding caches.

Apps can be downloaded and the sport played without investing in a separate GPS unit.

Apps can be downloaded and the sport played without investing in a separate GPS unit.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the game remained somewhat a “secret thing” so long as it relied upon dedicated GPS units, but the advent of the smartphone with its built-in GPS opened the opportunity to participate to the masses via geocaching apps. Mr. Corradino is among the over 361,000 geocache owners who have hidden more than 3 million geocaches in over 190 countries. The dominant geocaching website, Geocaching.com, by itself counts 7 million people geocaching a year.

The geocaches themselves vary widely in form. Some are virtual caches that use the GPS coordinates to lead seekers to points of interest they might not have otherwise found. The kitschy Big John statue at Cape Coral’s first shopping center is an Earth cache. Other caches involve doing research to solve puzzles to find the location. Some are called water caches because they are accessible by boat only. The physical caches can range in size from steamer trunks to pill bottles, with ammunition cans being popular because they are waterproof and large enough to hold swag, which are trinkets that geocachers can take once they find the cache — so long as they leave other objects in exchange. Some trinkets are coded and registered as “travel bugs.” The owners of travel bugs want their trinkets taken, logged into the website and then placed into different geocaches so that the objects go on documented journeys over time.

GROUNDSPEAK INC.

GROUNDSPEAK INC.

“I think I’ve ruined geocaching for my son,” Mr. Corradino said. “When we took him for the first time, it was to Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Jupiter, and the first 10 geocaches we found were all ammunition containers with a Matchbox car in each one. So, his first impression of geocaching was you go into the woods and you find toys. If there wasn’t a toy in any of the geocaches after that, he wasn’t excited about it, so I think we kind of spoiled him.”

Geocacher Gabby Pearl shows a microcache and its log scroll. TAYLOR CLARK / COURTESY OF GABBY PEARL

Geocacher Gabby Pearl shows a microcache and its log scroll. TAYLOR CLARK / COURTESY OF GABBY PEARL

While many physical geocaches are simply a tiny container just large enough to hold a log scroll for which you have to bring your own pen to sign, some geocache owners stage elaborate caches making the destination well worth the hike back into the woods. Some players even plan vacations around interesting geocache locations.

“Whenever we go on road trips, I try to hit caches along the way,” said Devi Hall, a science teacher at Key Largo School who goes by the handle “Ocean_ blu” and has found over 250 caches and manages six of her own. “One of my favorite caches ever was a bit of a hike into the woods in Pennsylvania. We were taking the kids to see the grandparents, and in that area is a cache that has an Indiana Jones theme. It was really an exciting, unforgettable experience because it was almost nightfall when we got to the cache so it was getting a little sketchy there, but it turned out to be a really exciting adventure. True to Indy’s style, it’s in a cave. There were these big boulders surrounding the entrance, and there was this gigantic casket and fake snakes everywhere, so it was definitely sticking close to the story line of Indiana Jones. There was also a fake crystal skull and a goblet. It was one of our best geocaching experiences ever.”

Geocaches are sometimes hidden in urban settings, such as this geocache found by Audrey Pack in Colorado. GABBY PEARL / COURTESY PHOTO

Geocaches are sometimes hidden in urban settings, such as this geocache found by Audrey Pack in Colorado. GABBY PEARL / COURTESY PHOTO

The game provides a relatively inexpensive hobby that people of all ages and physical ability levels can do alone or in groups, to include as families. If one has a smartphone, geocaching apps can be downloaded and the sport played without having to invest in a separate GPS unit, although a real GPS improves accuracy and is more reliable in backcountry locations. While several geocaching websites and apps exist and offer geocaching for free, the predominate website and app, Geocaching.com, offers basic membership for free but premium features require a $29 yearly membership.

Some geocaches owners create elaborate caches, such as this geocache in a cave in Pennsylvania that is themed after the Indiana Jones movies. DEVI HALL / COURTESY PHOTO

Some geocaches owners create elaborate caches, such as this geocache in a cave in Pennsylvania that is themed after the Indiana Jones movies. DEVI HALL / COURTESY PHOTO

“I’ve seen geocachers from ages 7 to 83 years old,” said Brenda Brooks, executive director of CREW Land & Water Trust in Collier and Lee counties, a property that hosts geocaches. “We do a lot of events at CREW, but the geocaching events span the generations. The kids and grandparents bond. The kids take into the woods with their phones, while the grandparents do more of the compass and orienteering.” Ms. Brooks pointed out that not all geocaches take people into the wilderness. “It is a hobby that can be done anywhere, to include in urban settings. There are geocaches at places like 7-11 stores.”

After downloading a smartphone app and creating an account, the basics of the game are to look on the map for the basic vicinity of a geocache, read the clues to help you find the cache once you reach the site (which might include looking under objects at the location or even climbing trees), register your find on the app, sign the log in physical caches, trade for trinkets and put the cache back for the next seeker to find.

BROOKS

BROOKS

Many geocaches are placed on public lands, although national parks require that caches be virtual only. Florida State Parks have a webpage and a program dedicated to getting people started into the hobby. Physical caches are placed in locations where the cache owner has gained permission to hide the cache, or at least the owner is supposed to get permission, but occasionally those procedures aren’t followed. This failure to gain permission can lead to “LEO encounters,” as geocachers call interactions with law enforcement. Many geocachers have LEO encounter stories, although these seem to be happening less often now that the hobby is better known. Geocaching.com has an entire portion of its website devoted to educating law enforcement about the game.

“I was up in the North Port area, and there was a cache that was a 35 mm film container hidden in the crook of a tree,” said Jim Finch, general manager of the Charlotte Harbor Event & Conference Center in Punta Gorda. He goes by the geocaching handle “Jimbolaya!” and has found over 10,000 geocaches and has about 150 hides to his name. “I pulled into the side parking lot and could see it from my car, but there were people walking around. People who aren’t geocachers we call ‘muggles,’ like from Harry Potter, so I was sitting there waiting until I didn’t really see anybody. Then I got out, grabbed the container to sign really quick, put it back and drove off. The next day I was sitting in my car, and the news came on the radio. The report said that yesterday a drug store and gas station in North Port were evacuated due to a ‘suspicious individual in a green SUV putting a device in a tree.’ The bomb squad was called to detonate the ‘device.’”

Mr. Finch said he called the police tip line to leave a message informing them that all the bomb squad robot had detonated was a geocaching film canister with a paper scroll in it. He later figured out that the geocaches’ owner hadn’t asked permission to place the cache, which is why the stores didn’t know what the mysterious object was. “I stopped geocaching for a few months because that freaked me out.”

Beyond the fun of seeking and finding caches with trinkets, geocaching can be educational. Civil engineer Richard Gallant, who goes by the geocaching handle “kf4hvt” and has found over 1,600 geocaches, placed a series of caches around Wellington that guide seekers on a historical tour to learn about the village. He owns 22 geocaches total. In turn, a virtual cache another player placed in Delray Beach led him to a point of interest in his county that he had no idea existed.

“It’s in a park off Linton Boulevard, and it’s an exact scale replica of Fenway Park called Little Fenway, right down to the Green Monster, the buildings, everything,” Mr. Gallant said. “The guy who built it was Bucky Dent from the New York Yankees, who was World Series Most Valuable Player in 1978. When he left baseball, he moved here, opened a baseball school and built this field. If it wasn’t for geocaching, I would never have known it was here.”

Geocaching can be a way to make new friends; interestingly, many only know one another by their geocaching handles. Geocachers organize events to seek caches together. Many of these events are done as CITOs, which stands for Cache-In-Trash-Out, where the seekers will clean a place such as a park of litter while they geocache.

“We’ve done some extreme CITOs by airboat at Lake Trafford out in Immokalee,” Mr. Corradino said. “People would hop on the airboat to pull out garbage from the lake, but there was one geocacher who was just determined to get eaten by an alligator. That lake has 3,000 alligators in it, but he was not shying away from any piece of garbage in the water.”

Other events involve geocaching camping weekends at parks, hike-and-seek events, and some small towns host geocaching festivals as a way to bolster tourism. The events are listed on geocaching websites, and they also may be found in media dedicated to the game, including geocaching magazines and podcasts.

“It’s always better when I have a group of people because everyone can look in a different direction and have a different point of view, so that always helps when there’s more than one person looking,” said Gabby Pearl, a naturalist and guide with Tarpon Bay Explorers on Sanibel Island who has found 21 geocaches. “Once you do more geocaching, you can start to think like how the person who placed them might be thinking of where to hide it.” ¦

In the KNOW

Geocaching websites:

www.geocaching.com

www.opencaching.us

wiki.opencaching.us/index. php/Main_Page

www.floridastateparks.org/learn geocaching

www.project-gc.com

Geocaching history webpages:

www.geocaching.com/about/history.aspx

www.geocaching.gpsgames.org/history

www.guysnamedkim.com/geocache/geocache_history.html

3 responses to “Cache me … if you can”

  1. MEA says:

    Another fun fact about geocaching I did not see mentioned. Alot of the state parks are embracing geocaching. For example, Myakka SP, has over 300 caches and many are what we call engineering caches where you need to figure our “how” to open the cache. This is a wonderful game for all ages, that mixes the technology and outdoors. Enjoy! (Geo name: SkeeterBait319)

  2. Brian D. Wyllie says:

    Nicely done article on Geocaching. I am the Geocacher who was determined to be eaten by an alligator. I retrieved many old tires from the mud and was not eaten! It’s a little intimidating to walk between 15-foot gators, but they weren’t hungry that day. I go by Pilot searcher and have over 150 active caches in Lee County. I am in the Fakahatchee photo.

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