GEOCACHING – New GPS Adventure Game Catching on in Ramona

Junior geocacher Aidan Ritter, 3, shows off a special card found in a cache near Julian. Photo by Jamey Ritter

By Jim Evans

Geocaching, an exciting new adventure game for GPS users, has been growing in popularity since it was initiated in Portland, Ore., in May 2000.

Pronounced “geocashing,” the sport has grown rapidly to include all 50 states and more than 100 countries, and it has an active following in Ramona.

Also known as Global Positioning Stash hunting, geocaching can be defined by its two parts: geo — for geography — and caching — information stored in a computer’s memory to make it faster to retrieve. The term “caching” is probably more familiar to people with camping or hunting experience who might hide — or cache — food in high places away from the reach of hungry bears and other critters at night.

Tiffany, Jodene, Branden and Jerry Larson with family dog “Toby.” Photo by Jim Evans

Jerry Larson of Ramona was introduced to geocaching by his father-in-law and has been an avid player for the past two years.

“Geocaching takes you places you may not have gone to otherwise,” said Larson, 42. “It’s probably a great view from the top of that mountain, but now there’s actually something up there to go and get. We’ve been to parks we didn’t know were there and have seen historic and interesting places that we wouldn’t have bothered with before.”

The idea behind the game is to “hide” something — anything — in a “cache” anywhere in the world and then share the location of the cache on the Internet so others can try to find it using a Global Positioning System device.

A GPS device is a relatively inexpensive electronic device that can pinpoint your approximate location anywhere on Earth within about 6 to 20 feet by longitude and latitude. The device usually costs about $100, although more extravagant units with greater capabilities can cost as much as $1,000.

Samples of geocaching containers.

“Even the cheapest models work great,” Larson said.

Many camping and sporting goods stores carry GPS devices, and almost any boat store.

It isn’t necessary to have a lot of technical knowledge about a GPS to play the game. Players simply enter a “waypoint” to identify where the cache is located (instructions come with the unit).

There are three simple rules for playing:

• Take something from the cache.

• Leave something in the cache.

• Write about it in a logbook.

What’s in a cache or should be in a cache? A logbook should always be the first and most basic item in any cache to record the names of visitors and, of course, visitors should always leave something behind — even if it just the date and time they visited the cache. However, anything goes, and logbooks might contain a variety of different entries such as local attractions or points of interest, personal observations or comments, directions to other caches, etc.

Additional items left in the cache are usually stored in waterproof containers (buckets and/or resealable plastic bags) and might include anything from photographs and books to even money (if you want to make it a real treasure hunt). The purpose is to leave something in the cache for the next visitor to enjoy, and vice versa.

Although most items should be left in the cache, sometimes there will be a note or instructions for the next visitor to move a particular item to another cache — aptly named a “hitchhiker.” There are lots of other variations, as the game constantly reinvents itself for the enjoyment of the participants.

Geocaching is a real family affair for Larson, his wife, Jodene, and their children: Tiffany, 17, and Branden, 12. Even their golden retriever, Toby, joins in the fun — hence their geocaching name “Toby’s Gang.” (They know who’s the boss!)

“Some of the more interesting caches we have found have been those disguised as rocks or bird nests,” Larson said. “We’ve hidden 11 different caches ourselves — most of them around Ramona — and we have participated in at least four geocaching events.

“They weren’t competitions but were organized as a get-together for geocachers to meet each other and swap stories. They are usually picnics or potlucks and sometimes have raffles. Sometimes the theme of the event is learning about the technology itself. We’ve even been geocaching in Hawaii, and all of those were interesting — how could they not be?”

According to Larson, his family’s most difficult cache was one they found at the top of Stelzer Summit, off of Wildcat Canyon Road.

“There are many geocachers in Ramona, several of them starting in the last few months, and I know several other people outside of Ramona who geocache,” he said.

In fact, as of this writing, there were 182,419 active caches in 216 countries, and in the preceding seven days, there were 131,127 new logs written by 23,255 account holders, reports show. Somebody’s having some fun out there!

For further information about geocaching, Larson recommends www.geocaching.com (a major source for this article); www.todayscacher.com (an online geocaching magazine); and www.socalgeocachers.com (a group of geocachers based in Orange County).

Photos by Jamey Ritter