I don’t need any incentive to go hiking. Point me toward a trail or a mountain and I’m gone, even if the weather is uncongenial. But some people need a little more persuading. Or maybe they love to hike, but want something to spice up the trek. Enter Geocaching, self-described as “a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices.” The idea, the official website says, is to locate geocaches (containers in which a logbook is stashed, along with any other treasures, trinkets, or traveling memorabilia other geocachers have left behind) hidden in forests, on hiking trails, or even in cities.

I like the geocaching practice for two reasons. The first is that its members adhere to a light footprint philosophy: carry in, carry out, don’t leave trash behind, treat the earth gently, etc.

The second is more crucial. In a world where Nature Deficit is actually being studied as a disorder akin to Attention Deficit, geocaching is a fantastic way for families to get outside together. I mentioned geocaching to a friend of mine the other day, and she said her sister in Boston does something similar, on a smaller scale. “It’s the only way the kids ever get outside,” she said, “so it must be a good thing.”

I grew up hiking all the time, and am grateful to my parents for instilling the walking urge in me, but as a child it could get pretty darn dull, no matter how many tree needles and animal poop I learned to identify. Couching the trek in terms of a treasure hunt would have made it a lot more fun.

Hiking in eastern New York State, and a couple places in Europe, I’ve been coming across these geocached boxes for a few years. My husband and I were hiking with a friend from Northern Ireland when another couple overtook us near Ithaca, New York, and stepped off the trail to uncover a geocache about a mile in from the trailhead.

That’s when I discovered this massive global community that has been using GPS technology in the world’s largest game of hide-and-seek. Users hide a cache, pinpoint its location using a handheld GPS, and upload the coordinates to the website, where other users can type in their location (such as a zip or postal code) to find huntable geocaches near them. At first it seemed a little silly, but when you check out the geocaching.com website, the game takes on new levels of depth.

There are currently 757,273 geocaches stashed around the world. People sometimes leave trackable items in the caches, which collect stories as they traverse the globe, and trekkers post their own stories on the Geocaching forums online.

Like I said, I don’t need a reason to get out and go hiking. But the world could use a few more fun and games, and this one might just be worth joining.

Related posts:

1. Eating Wild Montana: High-Country Huckleberry Hunting
2. Glass Beach Turns Trash into Treasure
3. “High Tea in Mosul,” Lynne O’Donnell
4. A treasure trove opens

This entry was posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 11:30 am and is filed under Adventure travel, Antonia projects, green travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.