The Angels Weekly

That’s right… my family and I were muggled. But it sounds worse than it really is. It is actually a very common phrase and occurrence heard about often in the world of Geocaching.

(The world of WHAT you ask? Read on to discover, as I have, the fascinating and super friendly universe of Geocaching.)

It all started when my husband got his new Samsung ‘Jack’ cell phone.  While doing an online search for available applications he stumbled upon a GPS app used for something called Geocaching. Often described as, ‘…using million dollar satellite technology to find tupperware in the woods.’ That’s the playful description, but after further research my husband had found that there was so much more to it than that. And he discovered that our own area was riddled with these so called caches that Geocaching enthusiasts have been finding, and leaving for others to find and enjoy, for years.

We also discovered that there was one hidden directly across the street from our house. DIRECTLY across the street! And people have been visiting it for FIVE years. And here I thought all these people driving through the parking lot were lost drug dealers trying to meet up with their buyers, when in fact they were simply geocache enthusiasts driving through on their business and vacation travels. You see, the instructions online indicate that one should hunt for this particular cache at night… thus the ‘drug dealer’ theory of mine.

A cache is simply a weather resistant container that can be as small as a film canister (aka a micro),  or large enough to crawl into. Most often they are lunch box sized tupperware types (aka regular) of boxes that contain at the very minimum a pad of paper to log your name and the date when you found it, and depending on the size they will also have a myriad of interesting (or not- and quite frankly useless) trinkets inside. But the treasure is not the draw. It’s the hunt. It’s the grown up element of Hide & Go Seek. It’s the purpose of one’s journey that takes you to the place of where ever your next geocache coordinates are. It’s a reason to be on the move and to discover new places, new ideas and new inspirations.

Not all caches are physical. There are virtual caches where you often solve puzzles online to figure out the ‘hidden’ location and only then do you actually go to that place, take a pic of yourself with your GPS unit at the discovered location and it’s considered a successful hunt.

Though truly anyone can make and hide their own Cache, or look for and find someone else’s hidden cache, there are of course guidelines that help make the game all of the great fun that it is.  It’s the most family friendly, community oriented and non discriminatory activity you could ask for. You can do it alone or with a herd of helpers. Other than a GPS unit or GPS capable cell phone and internet access, it’s extremely affordable. How much money does it cost to walk around town or go on a hike or take a short drive to any one of the thousands of hidden cache locations? If you truly get addicted, gas money would eventually be your biggest expense.

So let’s say you’ve gone online to www.geocaching.com, logged in and entered your zip to bring up a list of local and available caches. After going for the most interesting sounding descriptions and coming home empty handed you then decide to try for the ones that are listed as a 1 on the difficulty scale. Alas, finally you are successful. Well… your 10 year old daughter was actually the one who found it, but you hunt as a pack right? Once you’ve scoured over the contents and seen things such as a rubber lizzard eraser, a Starlite Mint candy, a bandaid, a postcard and a few calling cards from a couple of very organized geocaching fans, you can take any one of the treasures and replace it with one of your own. Or  you can choose to TNLN. (Take Nothing Leave Nothing) And then you want to be sure to sign and date the log. (If the log is full, or if water has gotten into the box, or the container has been damaged you’ll want to make a mental note of that so you can remember to post about it when you go back on line to share your experience.) you then tuck the box right back where you found it. The goal is to hide so that a muggle can’t see it but a geocacher can find it.

Muggles is a term taken from the Harry Potter series and is used by geocachers in reference to nosey people who don’t know anything about why you are poking around in the bushes. If you are too obvious and clumsy in your search you will begin to bring attention to yourself. And when you either find a cache and put it back, or never could find it, you may inadvertantly entice onlookers to come and see what the heck you were doing. That cache will quickly come to an end if persons unaware of the game happen upon it. Whether by innocent curiosity or pure unadulterated mischieviousness the cache is removed, plundered, destroyed, or simply not put back according to it’s logged coordinates making it impossible for anyone to find in the future. So being ‘muggled’ usually means that you were unable to continue looking due to onlookers and were thus unsuccessful in finding… for now. Taking into the considereation that this cache was suggested for a night hunt, we walked across the street at around 10pm. Two teenage boys were skateboarding in the deserted parking lot. We gave it a shot, reaching around the suspected hiding spot a few times and got nervous that we were being watched. So we left the area with a DNF (did not find) and tried again around midnight the next night. That was my first find. Now each of us, my husband, my daughter and myself all have one under our belts and are truly no longer ‘muggles’.

There will soon be a movie to hit theaters which portrays the sport of Geocaching. The caching community is somewhat worried that this will add to the numbers of those who wish to ruin the fun for others. As fun as it is to share, the risk is always that there will be those who go out of their way to prevent good clean fun. Once the movie Splinterheads hits the silver screens it will be more public then ever. And the risk multiplies. The best case scenario would play out like this: The movie enjoys great success while the geocaching element continues to fly mostly under the radar gathering faithful, responsible and respectable fans by virtue of it’s own greatness.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what you will discover once you dig a little deeper into the sport. For instance, some are especially for kids. Most caches have a theme and will relate to it’s location and or the person or geocaching group who owns the cache. And some caches contain trackable items such as Geocoins and items with a destination goal such as Travel Bugs. There are a plethera of events that create friendships by gathering the geocaching community in places all over the world. And the best part for some is that it’s a totally green kind of thing to do. The geocaching community encourages ‘Cache in Trash Out’. It’s the practice of taking a garbage bag with you on your expeditions (as many caches are in fact hidden in wooded or scenic areas) and being sure to pick up any bits of garbage that you find along the way. Some caches are lying on the ocean floor waiting for scuba diving cache enthusiasts. Some require extensive hikes and scavenger hunt type multilocational searches. And some are right across the street hidden in parking lots. And then even more are right around the corner from that. Some caches are library books in the library. Some caches look like fake rocks. Some are simple Altoids tins. Most are camo painted duck tape covered tupperware. And each and every one has a history that you can read about in the logs online.

There isn’t much wholesome fun to be had these days. Certainly nothing as affordable or accessible. So gather the family around the computer, log in, and prepare for mini adventures, bonding and fresh air around every corner. You may also want to think twice about tossing that Pog you found behind your teenage son’s stereo or that totally rad hotwheel that Grandma bought him on his 17th birthday.

Laura Leigh

by: Laura Leigh

Tags: find the cache, geocache, geocaching, GPS, muggled, navigate to treasure, treasures to find, tupperware container

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