Global growth
Smarter technology has made geocaching accessible to more enthusiasts
Smartphones propel geocaching
H idden around the metro area are little treasures and sometimes all it takes to find them are a good pair of walking shoes, a pen, a GPS and a sense of adventure.
Geocaching has been around since 2000 but it’s only recently that it has become more accessible to the wider population, according to Maere McNamara, who took up the hobby in 2004. She said as cellphones have gotten “smarter” the activity has become accessible to more people. Most phones have GPS technology, making it unnecessary to buy a hand-held GPS, and the geocaching app has made it less necessary to plan outings.
“When it became possible to do this by phone, the participation rate probably tripled,” she said. “It’s easier now too. You can pick up your phone during lunch and see if there is a cache nearby.”
Geocaching is essentially a treasure or scavenger hunt. Traditionally someone hides objects at a specific location and provides the GPS coordinates on the geocaching.com website. Some caches also come with clues to give people an idea of what type of object they are trying to find.
Geocaching was started accidentally in 2000 when a computer consultant, celebrating the release of GPS technology to the general public, decided to hide a black bucket in the woods in Oregon. He then posted the coordinates on an online community. Three days later, two different people had found the bucket. Others picked up on the idea and started hiding their own stash and posting the coordinates online.
Evolving game
Albuquerque enthusiast Suzanne Harris McConaghy said the caches can range from small plastic pill bottles to larger trinkets or items. The intent, she said, is to put the item somewhere that will not be accidentally discovered by a passer-by. Once it’s discovered, the participants can log or claim the find under their user name on the website or the app. There also is usually a log to sign at the cache location.
Access to the caches can range from easy, such as right off a normal hiking trail, walking path or in an urban area, to difficult, like underwater or over rough terrain.
There are several different
types of cache hunts and the game, McConaghy said, has continued to evolve. The traditional geocaching game was straightforward. Someone hid an object, provided coordinates and people would go searching for it. Now some people will provide coordinates at one location that will take searchers to another spot. For mystery caches, searchers must solve a riddle or puzzle to discover the coordinates of the caches.
The latest trend are EarthCaches and have been created in cooperation with the Geological Society of America. Instead of an actual physical object, the cache is a geological site. Some of the EarthCache sites in New Mexico are at Sandia Crest, the petroglyphs, Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands. The cache owners will provide instructions, such as measure the distance between two rocks or describe the rocks at this site. Once an individual emails the correct answers to questions, the owner of the cache gives him or her permission to log the cache as a find.
Around the world
McConaghy, once an active volunteer with the Girl Scouts, discovered geocaching on a trip to Oregon with the group. During the trip, she signed up for a GPS class because she said it sounded the least boring of the offerings. The group learned how to use a GPS and then the instructor took them geocaching.
“I said ‘This is cool. We don’t have this at home,’” she said. “They laughed at me and said to put my zip code to the (geocaching) website.”
What she found was geochaces not only close to home, but around the world. McConaghy said her goal is to eventually geocache on every single continent and now does the majority of her geocaching when she travels. So far she’s gone geocaching in 10 states, France and Spain.
“It allows me to explore an area really well,” she said. “Some people hide them in some place that’s really interesting.”
When in California once, she found a geocache near a waterfall that was feeding into the ocean, something she said she never would have found had she not been playing the game.
Both women said they have come to enjoy the social aspect of the hobby almost as much as the actual activity. There are monthly “event caches” for people in the metro area, including a happy hour the third Tuesday of every month and dinner the last Wednesday.
McConaghy, a research scientist in the school of medicine at the University of New Mexico, said her social circle has grown since she began playing the game.
“I have made such good friends through this,” she said. “With this, you can network with people around the world.”
Later this year, McConaghy will go on a cruise to Antarctica with someone she met at a geocaching event. Her friend, Dan Chaney, grew up in New Mexico and is now a geologist at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Chaney said he has traveled to Antarctica for work and one of the reasons he chose the destination was a chance to find EarthCaches in one of the most interesting places on the planet. It was his job that led him to geochacing.
“I got a GPS for work and there was a geocache function on it,” he said. “Geocaching has given me a good excuse to go to different places and see different things.”