Hundreds to gather for geocache bash Sunday

Yuma will play host to hundreds, possibly thousands, of adventurers and modern-day treasure hunters Sunday during an annual geocaching event at West Wetlands Park.

Geocaching, a phenomenon that spawned out of the proliferation of GPS technology, involves geocachers hunting down hidden objects in far away places using smartphones and handheld GPSs, and logging their adventures along the way.

Put on by the Southwest Arizona Geocachers, or S*W*A*G*, Sunday’s event will see geocachers from all over come to Yuma to socialize, eat and participate in fun activities.

The attractions include a special version of poker in which participants go around to 5 different cans hidden around the park and pick up a card from each. Whoever has the best hand wins.

There is a game that King calls “x marks the spot,” where participants have a flag with a number and everyone has to try and place it at the same location.

“After about a hundred people have done this, it’s gonna look like somebody with a big blunderbuss shotgun fired a bunch of flags,” said King. “It’s gonna really bring home that phones and GPSes are not that accurate.”

Yuma has quite the community of geocachers, many of them winter travelers coming through from out of town. And according to King, it’s because Yuma is a prime place to go for those who enjoy the hobby.

According to geocaching. com, there are hundreds of hidden objects for adventurous geocachers to find hidden all around the city and county.

“If you are a really cache-crazy person, you can probably get two or three hundred caches a day in Yuma,” said King.

Rated in difficulty from 1 to 5 on both how difficult it is to get to it and how difficult it is to find, the objects could be right off a roadway, or out on an island in the middle of the ocean. Though the objects are never buried, they can be pretty hard to find sometimes.

“A five, generally speaking with five you’re going to need something like a boat,” said King. “A boat, climbing gear, a canoe, scuba gear.”

Geocaching, while primarily an outdoor activity, is also a community.

Mina Ostergard, who is from Woodland, California and has been geocaching for over eight years, said that in addition to seeing new places, the people are also part of the experience.

“We like the social part also, going to events and geocaching in a group,” she said in a message.

Gean Norenberg, another geocacher, said that there is a strong community among geocachers, and that “running into friends we’ve met other places” is part of what keeps her coming back.

SWAG’s event will see many from this community reunited, and Norenberg says she’s looking forward to “meeting up with a lot of friends that we haven’t seen in a year.”

The event will take place at West Wetlands Park from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10. There will be food trucks and merchandise for sale, among other attractions.

To learn more, visit yumaevent.com/2019/events-19.html