OK. “What”, you may ask, “is all this Geo-whatever stuff doing in the pages of a 4WD magazine? Do we crawl over them little cache thingies?” “What is a geocache (pronounced gee-oh-cash), anyway?”

Have no idea what I am talking about? Click here for a brief history of Geocaching and how the GPS system made it possible and then come back ready to learn more.

Back already? Good. So what gives, anyway? Why does C4x4 care about running around town with what looks like a cell phone, peeking under bushes and stuff? Well, part of this reflects our editorial slant toward family oriented wheeling activities. That may be hard core crawling, but likely it will be less extreme Jeepin’ in the classic sense. Jeepin’ happens outdoors. Camping, fishing, exploring, hiking, and yes, especially geocaching, happen outdoors too. All of these outdoor activities can be made possible by the access that a good 4WD can supply to remote areas. But, above all the others, geocaching brings with it one thing that adds a tremendous amount of value to wheelin’, that being the technology of the modern GPS unit.

Aside from Geocaching, a GPS is ready made for 4WD exploring. Need to find that trailhead or remote campsite you can never locate in the dark or when your memory fades? If you set a waypoint when you were there last, your GPS unit could direct you back and even create a point to point route to follow. Like to explore away from camp and, well, all those roads do look alike when it is time to head back to home base? You could have created an electronic trail of breadcrumbs with your GPS unit. How about downloading software into your GPS that lays over a topo map on the screen and locates you on it in real time? See what I mean?

Now, geocaching. As you read in the history of the sport, once the technology was there, it was just a matter of time that someone made it into some kind of game and or competition, even if they were only competing with a few other geeky friends around the country who had picked up the same technology. Kind of like a cross between ‘Hide and Seek’ and ‘X Marks the Spot’, geocaching can offer ton’s of fun for individuals, groups of friends or especially families, and is something that combines getting outdoors, hiking around, the fun of finding the hidden object, the joy of discovering new places and seeing new things, and best of all, is a great reason to get everyone off the couch, away from the TV, and out for quality time. Most caches are in town at local parks, hiking areas, shopping centers, and…well, the possibilities are endless. There are micro caches and virtual caches too.

A 4WD just adds to the places one can geocache. There is already one group local to me, socal4x4geocachers.org, that is scheduling get-togethers and trail runs centered around cache hunting and is actively hiding caches in areas that are only accessible by a rugged, high clearance vehicle and/or 4WD. This does not necessarily require a highly modified rig, so a stock or slightly built rig is often just fine for the task. It depends on the intent of the cache placer and where they put it. Caches are rated as to the difficulty of the find and it is important to read the notes written by the cache owner as to what the demands are for hunting the cache. Eventually there will be Black Diamond 4x4 caches…only a matter of time. Even Jeep corporation has a contest where it has enlisted folks around the country to hide Jeep JK Travel Bugs. 4WD and Sport Utility magazine has a contest that gives away swag to the lucky finder of hidden plaques, the GPS coordinates being listed in the magazine but hidden among the contents somewhere.

So picture this. This is you. This is your Jeep. The same old 4WD trails have become kinda’ old hat and the Jeep just sits there, looking forlorn. But what if you knew that, along the trail or at the top of that mountain you know so well, were several geocaches? Now you have another reason to lock-in the hubs and get out there. The kids have something to do besides just watch dad shift gears and if the kids are happy, mom is happy, and, more importantly, if mom is happy, everyone is happy. Once at the cache area, you exit the Jeep and begin the ground work. Like a pack of pirates looking for the hidden loot, you search the area following the GPS info on the screen, the notes and clues from the cache owner, and any other comments that previous finders can add without giving it away. Once you are victorious, you open the cache, sign the log book, and usually you take an item from the cache container, typically a rugged, water tight can, box, or tube that is discreetly painted to match the surroundings, and add one item of your own. There are themed caches with trading cards in them, sci-fi books, wind-up toys, action figures, etc. How about creating a cache that has nothing but Jeep badged items? How about one with nothing but little toy 4x4s in it? You get to name your cache and can announce it to the world on Geocaching.com. by becoming part of the geocaching community.

Geocaching.com is a hub for this kind of activity and it is quite simple to create your own membership identity and begin logging finds as you go. Think of all those places you like to wheel that would make great cache locations?

So, as time goes along, we will add any GPS info we have to our articles and post up fun stuff we did that was 4x4 and geocache related. We are having a blast so far and we have not even gotten off road yet. We have been finding local caches that we are using to sharpen our skills before we get out there in the hills and forests of the backcountry. Honestly, it is all about time spent with family and friends for us at C4x4. For us, it is not just about the biggest rock, the most breakage, the gnarliest roll over….even if those are kinda’ cool too.

If you have any great links, articles, stories, pictures, great cache locations, waypoints, etc, that are 4x4 related, let us know. Just email them to 4x4geocachefun@c4x4.com. If we don’t respond right away, be patient. We are out somewhere in our rig with the wind in our hair, our feet in the dirt, and our eyes looking for the well hidden cache.

A partial history of geocaching as explained on www.geocaching.com:

The History of Geocaching - GPS Users get an Instant Upgrade

Based on excerpts from the Complete Idiot's Guide to Geocaching

On May 2, 2000, at approximately midnight, eastern savings time, the great blue switch* controlling selective availability was pressed. Twenty-four satellites around the globe processed their new orders, and instantly the accuracy of GPS technology improved tenfold. Tens of thousands of GPS receivers around the world had an instant upgrade.
The announcement a day before came as a welcome surprise to everyone who worked with GPS technology. The government had planned to remove selective availability - but had until 2006 to do so. Now, said the White House, anyone could "precisely pinpoint their location or the location of items (such as game) left behind for later recovery."

How right they were.

London, Paris, New York, Beaver Creek?

For GPS enthusiasts, this was definitely a cause for celebration. Internet newsgroups suddenly teemed with ideas about how the technology could be used.

On May 3, one such enthusiast, Dave Ulmer, a computer consultant, wanted to test the accuracy by hiding a navigational target in the woods. He called the idea the "Great American GPS Stash Hunt" and posted it in an internet GPS users' group. The idea was simple: Hide a container out in the woods and note the coordinates with a GPS unit.
The finder would then have to locate the container with only the use of his or her GPS receiver. The rules for the finder were simple: "Take some stuff, leave some stuff."

On May 3rd he placed his own container, a black bucket, in the woods near Beaver Creek, Oregon, near Portland. Along with a logbook and pencil, he left various prize items including videos, books, software, and a slingshot. He shared the waypoint of his "stash" with the online community on sci.geo.satellite-nav:
N 45 17.460 W 122 24.800

Within three days, two different readers read about his stash on the Internet, used their own GPS receivers to find the container, and shared their experiences online. Throughout the next week, others excited by the prospect of hiding and finding stashes began hiding their own containers and posting coordinates. Like many new and innovative ideas on the Internet, the concept spread quickly - but this one required leaving your computer to participate.

Within the first month, Mike Teague, the first person to find Ulmer's stash, began gathering the online posts of coordinates around the world and documenting them on his personal home page. The "GPS Stash Hunt" mailing list was created to discuss the emerging activity. Names were even tossed about to replace the name "stash" due to the negative connotations of that name. One such name was "geocaching."

The Origins of Geocaching

Geocaching, first coined by Matt Stum on the "GPS Stash Hunt" mailing list on May 30, 2000, was the joining of two familiar words. The prefix geo, for Earth, was used to describe the global nature of the activity, but also for its use in familiar topics in gps such as geography.

Caching, from the word cache, has two different meanings, which makes it very appropriate for the activity. A french word invented in 1797, the original definition referred to a hiding place someone would use to temporarily store items. The word cache stirs up visions of pioneers, gold miners, and even pirates. Today the word is still even used in the news to describe hidden weapons locations.

The second use of cache has more recently been used in technology. Memory cache is computer storage that is used to quickly retrieve frequently used information. Your web browser, for example, stores images on disk so you don't have to retrieve the same image every time you visit similar pages.

The combination of Earth, hiding, and technology made geocaching an excellent term for the activity. However the "GPS Stash Hunt" was the original and most widely used term until Mike Teague passed the torch to Jeremy Irish in September 2000.

The Birth of Geocaching.com

For the first few months, geocaching was confined to existing experienced GPS users who already used the technology for outdoor activities such as backpacking and boating. Most users had an existing knowledge of GPS and a firm grasp of obscure lingo like datums and WGS84. Due to both the player base and the newness of the activity, players had a steep learning curve before going out on their first cache hunt. Tools were scarce for determining whether a cache was nearby, if one existed at all.

As with most participants, Jeremy Irish, a web developer for a Seattle company, stumbled upon Mike Teague's web site in July while doing research on GPS technology. The idea of treasure hunting and using tech-gadgets represented the marriage of two of his biggest interests. Discovering one was hidden nearby, Jeremy purchased his first GPS unit and went on his first hunt the following weekend.

After experiencing the thrill of finding his first cache, Irish decided to start a hobby site for the activity. Adopting the term geocaching, he created Geocaching.com and applied his professional web skills to create tools to improve the cache-hunting experience. The cache listings were still added by hand, but a database helped to standardize the listings. Additional features, like searching for caches around zip codes, made it easier for new players to find listings for nearby caches.

With Mike Teague's valuable input, the new site was completed and announced to the stash-hunting community on September 2, 2000. At the time the site was launched there were 75 known caches in the world.

If You Hide It, They Will Come

Slashdot, a popular online magazine for techies, reported the new activity on September 25, 2000, introducing a larger group of technology professionals to the activity. The New York Times picked up the story and featured it in its "Circuits" section in October, starting a domino effect of articles written in magazines, newspapers, and other media outlets around the world. CNN even did a segment in December 2000 to profile the new hobby.

However, because there were so few caches in the world, many would-be participants discovered they didn't have a cache listed nearby. Many wondered whether anyone would bother looking for a cache if they hid one in their area. The growing community chanted the mantra "If you hide it, they will come" to the newer players. After some reassurances, pioneers of the hobby started placing caches just to see whether people would go find them. They did.

Through word of mouth, press articles, and even accidental cache discoveries, more and more people have become involved in geocaching. First started by technology and GPS enthusiasts, the ranks of geocachers now include couples, families, and groups from all walks of life. The excitement of the hunt appeals to both the inner (and outer) child. Today you can do a search on just about anywhere in the world and be able to walk, bike, or drive to a nearby hidden cache.

*there is no actual blue switch

The Groundspeak Geocaching Logo is a trademark of Groundspeak, Inc. Used with permission.

 

Tons of GPS and Geocaching links on our links page. Click here.