Chris Jones looks to observers like any other outdoor enthusiast simply enjoying a leisurely hike on the trails at Clinton Lake State Park in west Lawrence. For Jones, Lawrence, senior, the thing that sets him apart from other visitors to the park is a small blue device no bigger than a cell phone. It is a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, and it is directing him to a location in the park that contains a modern day treasure chest.
The search for the treasure chest, in this case an old ammunition canister, is one of the world’s fastest growing outdoor hobbies called geocaching. The word is a combination of two terms, the prefix geo meaning “earth” and cache meaning “an area for storage.”
The origins of geocaching began May 1, 2000, when President Clinton issued a directive ending the decades old practice of distorting the broadcast signal of GPS satellites to civilians. Up until this time, civilians could own GPS receivers, but their accuracy was intentionally poor to prevent them from using the GPS system in ways that could be seen as harmful.
Clinton ended this practice by enacting the order to “encourage acceptance and integration of GPS into peaceful civil, commercial and scientific applications worldwide; and to encourage private sector investments in and use of U.S. GPS technologies and services.”
To test the newly upgraded accuracy of the system, two days after the passage of the act, a GPS user near Portland, Ore hid a bucket and posted its coordinates, measured in longitude and latitude, on a message board online.
Within days, others who owned GPS devices found the first cache and began placing their own. The game quickly spread across the country, so fast that it was necessary to launch an official Web site,www.geocaching.com, in late 2000 to house the coordinates of all caches placed.
Since 2000, according to geocaching.com, more than 150,000 caches have been concealed across the world, including more than 2,500 in Kansas and even a handful on The University of Kansas campus. The appeal of the hobby is quite simple, which explains its rapid growth.
“It’s just a great way to get outside and see things you normally wouldn’t see,” Jones said. The concept of the hobby may be simple, but the mechanics of the game are quite scientific.
KU professor of engineering Gary Minden says that in order for a GPS receiver to calculate its location on the Earth’s surface, a minimum of three satellites signals must be present. The more satellite signals a receiver picks up, the more accurate it will be.
Like Jones, Dr. Jay Kennedy is another local geocacher who has been active in the Lawrence geocaching community. For him, the enjoyment he gets from geocaching comes from his family joining him in the hunt.
“My kids really enjoy the ‘treasure hunt’ aspects of geocaching. My son Nicholas is five and my regular caching buddy. He also helps me build and hide caches in the Lawrence area,” Kennedy said. Kennedy says that his favorite cache that he’s found to date, and the most difficult, was one he found in January while spelunking in Kentucky.
“Its only been found twice, both solo efforts. I was the second to find it. The cache is at the bottom of a 93-foot deep pit and requires technical expertise in rope work and caving to reach it,” Kennedy said.
The rewards for finding a cache varies greatly, but the guiding principle is take something from the cache, and in turn leave something for the next person. Common objects left in caches include books, stickers, CDs and other inexpensive trinkets. For a few lucky cachers, however, iPods, sporting event tickets, PDAs and even $100 bills await those who locate these select caches.
Jones said for him, geocaching isn’t about these rewards; it’s about the adventure and simply enjoying the great outdoors.
“This was my 208th cache found and I never got tired of it,” Jones said.