Geocaching

Geocaching is an outdoor sport that involves the use of a Global Positioning System ("GPS") receiver to find a "cache" placed anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small, waterproof container full of "treasures". Geocaching is a unique take on a traditional Easter-egg hunt in that it uses two recent technologies, the GPS and the Internet.

One participant will place the cache and note its coordinates. These coordinates, along with other details of the location are posted online. Other players obtain the coordinates from the Internet and, using handheld GPS receivers, seek out the caches, hoping to record their exploits in a logbook contained therein. Geocachers are free to take objects from the cache, in exchange for leaving something in return, so there's always a "treasure" for the next person to find.

Typical cache treasures aren't especially high in intrinsic value, but often make interesting souvenirs. Aside from the Logbook, common cache contents are:

Two Dollar Bills or other unusual coins or currency
Small children's toys
Ornamental buttons
CD's or Books

The sport of Geocaching is ultimately a competition against yourself. For many cachers the hunt is its own reward. However friendly rivalries will arise prompting cachers to attempt to find more caches than ones "opponent" or rush to be the first to find a newly posted cache.

The sport of Geocaching was made possible by the "turning off" of the Selective Availability of the Global Positioning System on May 1, 2000. The first documented placement of a cache with GPS assistance took place on May 3, 2000 by Dave Ulmer.

There are several variations on the basic geocaching theme. Some caches require the seeker to solve a puzzle or visit one or more intermediate points to determine the coordinates of the actual cache (multicache). Some are "microcaches", too small to hold anything more than a logbook. A very few are virtual caches, with no container at all, usually at a site which is interesting in and of itself.

Geocaching is growing rapidly in popularity all over the world. As of April 28, 2004 there were 96214 active caches in 202 countries posted on Geocaching.com.

Geocaching and Where's George

The use of dollar bills stamped with the Where's George URL in geocaching has resulted in a conflict of interest. Where's George intends to track the natural flow of money, which geocaching is not representative of. Therefore the Where's George site currently discourages the tracking of bills used in geocaches.[1]

Geocaching and Where's George

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