Feb 16, 2006

Geo What?


When people ask, "what's geocaching?", I ask if they want a short or long answer. A short answer is: "go ask your kids...or a neighbor's kids--it's likely they'll know". Below is a slightly longer answer.

Earlier this week a friend mused, "Celebs like Madonna are doing macrobiotic diets and yoga so everybody knows what "macrobiotic" and "yoga" are. Nobody knows what geocaching is because there are no movie stars doing it yet!" This may obviously be true on some levels but let's face it, Michio Kush and macrobiotics has been around for decades and yoga is an ancient science. So, it's no surprise that, with or without celeb influences, many people are already aware of something as fun and cool as geocaching and they're already set to enjoy this walk-based sport.

However, for the sake of proving my friend's point, let's assume the concept of geocaching (made possible in 2000) has passed you by while you were taking care of the necessities of life and now, you're slightly curious. Here's the basic geo- definition (direct from http://geocaching.com).

"What is Geocaching? - Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.

How do you pronounce Geocaching? - You pronounce it Geo-cashing, like cashing a check.

Are there any other names for Geocaching? - The GPS Stash Hunt, Global Positioning Stash hunt is interchangable. Geocaching has become the standard for the game, however. The word Geocaching broken out is GEO for geography, and CACHING for the process of hiding a cache. A cache in computer terms is information usually stored in memory to make it faster to retrieve, but the term is also used in hiking/camping as a hiding place for concealing and preserving provisions."

One last thing: It's true that joining Walktopia on March 26 for the Geoteaming.com demo/cache hunt will turn you into an instant celebrity but I refuse to guarantee you'll be the first one on your block to participate in the sport of geocaching--it's really popular!

Photo Credit: Walktopia

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