Geocaching
is a growing sport for the motor home vagabond who nurtures
an interest in traveling and fortune hunting. Wanderlust
has been given an injection of urgency for these people,
who are for the most part map-addicted, GPS worshipping
ground hounds out to defeat Heisenberg's Uncertainty
Principle by knowing at any given moment exactly how
fast they're moving and precisely where they are. The
geocacher is an adventurer, slashing and hacking across
hostile terrain to draw near a hidden destination. Somewhere
near the GSP coordinates, somehow, a cache (geocache)
of novelties has been hidden by a (hopefully) clever
person who has mastered the art of making something
invisible that's hidden in plain sight.
Cachers have handles --nicknames, that is. Like truckers,
they can be called anything from Apeman to
Wonderwoman. These ID's appear in
logs found on the internet at geocaching sites
as well as SIG (Special Interest Groups) sites and even
personal web pages. The logs describe in detail the
various caching trips, the terrain, GPS reception in
the area, and the difficulties involved in actually
finding the cache.
Geocaching expeditions are rated by difficulty. Someone
with the handle of Brokenwing has web-enabled
an interactive form that will rate your particular geocaching
adventure. Just answer the on-line questions, click
the Rate
Cache button and it generates the rating number.
The number is often seen in log entries on the internet.
San Felipe has entered the Geocaching craze recently.
A group of enthusiasts have hidden several caches in
the area. The town has thrown its hat into the ring
and added its tokens to the already over 50,000 caches
hidden in over 170 countries. For more information on
the San Felipe caches, especially the webcam cache,
CLICK
HERE. For the latest image from the San Felipe Geocache
Cam, CLICK
HERE.
For more information about Geocaching, visit its unofficial
principal
web site. There you'll learn nearly everything you'll
need to know to get started in this sport that combines
equal measures of hiking, exploring, map reading, GPS
aptitude and ingenuity, including a brief
history of geocaching. If you are unfamiliar with
GPS technology and how they are used, visit this
site.
If you'd like to learn what other people think of geocaching,
visit the largest online geocaching
community on the internet.
If you are embarking on your first geocaching expedition,
there is also an online Guide
to Finding a Cache. So what are you waiting for?
Fire up the 4x4 or rail and tackle some of those hard-to-reach-except-with-two-burros-and-a-flashlight
caches.
