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Tips for new geocachers
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Geocaching
Countless times a year, Amber Tyree's family heads out on an adventure that could be likened to the stuff of which movies, such as "Indiana Jones" and "National Treasure" are made.
They, too, are looking for treasure — although none of it particularly valuable — in an outdoor hobby that is best described as a high-tech game of hide and seek: geocaching.
The best part? Anyone can do it, anywhere.
How it works
A geocacher places a trinket box or cache (a film canister, a medicine bottle, an Altoid tin) in the woods or an urban area hidden from view. He or she uses a hand-held GPS unit, which ranges in cost from $100 to $400, to record the exact latitude and longitude, then posts it at www.geocaching.com.
Another geocacher can log on, go to the section of the website representative of areas he or she plans to visit, and download coordinates of any caches in those areas.
Using a hand-held GPS unit of her own, she then can hit the trail to find a cache, and, if successful, enter her name in the logbook inside. Some caches offer SWAG (Stuff We All Get) to those who find them and, in return, a geocacher may leave his or her signature item (bottle cap, tiny plastic figure, lapel pin).
Tyree, who participates with her three girls, ages 7, 10 and 15, and her husband, said it's the perfect outdoor activity for any age and any ability.
"I discovered there was a cache one-quarter mile from my house," said Tyree. "The thought of hidden treasure so close was exciting. I love the fact that no one else knows about the caches, and they just drive or walk right by and don't even have a clue. It's like a fun, secret society!"
The Tyrees camp throughout Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, so they concentrate most of their geocaching in state parks.
"We have found some great ones, but the ones that really are memorable are the ones that are a challenge to find, like those that look like electric switches, or are logs with secret hidden hinges, or birdhouses — we even found one in an outhouse in the Flint Hills," Tyree said.
Other memorable caches are those that have an international connection, such as one in a small southeast Kansas town that held a coin from the Netherlands.
"Now we make [geocaching] a part of every trip we take, and it adds a little adventure to long stretches of road," Tyree said. "In doing so, we've discovered lots of areas, some close to home, we didn't even know existed."
Some geocaches are hidden almost in plain sight in urban areas, including university campuses and large superstore parking lots — one cache was a large gutted out air conditioner!
Where is the most remote geocache? There's one on the International Space Station.
"Not that we can ever find it," said Tyree. "But it's cool to know it's there." — Andra Bryan Stefanoni