Soundslide: Geocaching, a high-tech treasure hunt

What sort of treasure hunt has six million members worldwide, is played across the globe, and employs both the internet and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to let participants hide, seek and report their finds from any place at any time?

The answer is geocaching, a high-tech form of treasure hunt wherein players hide a "cache" - often a small container filled with a logbook and other small items - in a relatively obscure location, and post its geographical coordinates online at www.geocaching.com. Worldwide members can then use GPS-enabled devices to access the locations and background information behind each cache, and can decide to "hunt" for them at their own convenience.

Many local geocachers are members of the Geocachers of Eastern Ontario group, including Hawkesbury-area resident Ian Mitchell, who met with The Review for a geocaching hunt around Vankleek Hill this spring. See below for a soundslide on the experience.

Aside from the fun of treasure hunting, a main purpose behind geocaching is to share interesting or historically relevant locations amongst veteran players and new members alike. Furthermore, players often gather together to geocache in the best interests of the environment; for example, over 100 members from the Ottawa Valley took part in a geocaching-themed cleanup of the South Nation River this past April - an effort jointly organized by the South Nation Conservation Authority and the Geocachers of Eastern Ontario.

Mitchell said one of the rewards about this high-tech hunt is discovering something new about an otherwise familiar spot: "I've been to so many caches where it's a place I've driven by, time and time and time again. And then a geocache get placed there, and I go in and learn something about that area."

A brief look at a geocaching map of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec unveils a scattering of caches in the local region, along with an intense concentration of items buried among the trees of Mont Rigaud.

Several of the Vankleek Hill-based caches are the work of Mitchell, whose afternoon tour began along the town's Main Street. Following an "easy" find nearby the Higginson Tower, the next stop involved a search amongst the many trees and tombstones of Greenwood Cemetery, located at the corner of County Road 10 and Cassburn Road.

Mitchell noted there are caches hidden in about 258 cemeteries across the province, adding that respect plays an important role in such areas. "To be respectful of an active cemetery for geocaching, you have to be subtle."

The benefit of hiding caches in cemeteries, he continued, is that they offer visitors a unique experience to learn something about the history of the community, either the one they reside in or that they are visiting for the first time.

"Hopefully they are cemeteries that tell a story, and explain some of the history in the area. [...] People come in and they may spend an hour in here - reading gravestones and some of the stories - and it's interesting what you can learn from the community."

The level of difficulty would prove to increase at the next stop, despite its relative familiarity: Herb's Towing and Travel Plaza, at Highway 34 and Highway 417. This particular geocache has proven very popular amongst travelers between Montreal and Ottawa, Mitchell explained, adding it has also "frustrated" many of them because the item happens to be very well hidden.

In fact, the Cessna 150 and other small airplanes now permanently parked outside the Herb's are a testament to its other function as a local landing strip. And somewhere among the dusty, old interior compartments of one of those planes, there is a geocache to be found - hidden there since late 2007 - yet whether it can be found or not is an entirely different matter.

"What makes this geocache so tricky," Mitchell mused, "is there are so many places to hide the cache."

Of course, the GPS device can only provide so much assistance: it will bring a geocacher to the location, even with one metre of the item itself, and provide hints on where to look (i.e. eye-level), but the nature of geocaching - just like treasure hunts - implies the inherent challenge within.

The reward, concluded Mitchell, is the ability to share one's favourite places with the world: "The bottom line is we want everybody to have fun, so we want to have good quality geocaches. [...] We'd rather have people write in their logs, and instead of saying, 'Thanks very much,' we want them to say, 'Gee, never knew this place existed, learned so much, rich history, thanks for bringing me here.'

"The ultimate complement in a log when someone finds your geocache is, 'Thanks for bringing me here.'"

To learn more about geocaching, read more and register at www.geocaching.com. To contact the Geocachers of Eastern Ontario, visit www.geocachersofeasternontario.com.