[GeoStL] story in Columbia about Geocaching

  • From: "M. Bollinger" <lazylightning3@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: ozark <ozmtngeocachers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, SLAGA <geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 12:21:49 -0700 (PDT)

-
The Columbia Missourian's EmPRINT (
http://digmo.com/emprint/ ) wrote an article and shot
a video on geocaching which is supposed to run this
weekend.  You have to fill out a free subsciption to
get the story - but I've added the story below and
attached a link to the video through the P&R website -
 so you won't have to suscribe.  There might be a few
changes in the final story that goes to 'print', but
here's enough to let you see what's happening over
here.

Here's the link to the video. If you have problems
getting it to work, go to www.jeffcitymo.org and go to
the Geocaching link.  At the bottom of that page is a
link called 'Geocaching Video', that's it!

http://www.jeffcitymo.org/jeffcityweb.nsf/WebFiles/geocachingvideo/$File/geocaching%5B2%5D.mov

By BRENDAN WATSON

While his children Mark and Jessica sort through a
collection of compasses, magnets, buttons and other
odds and ends, Mike Bollinger reads the log of people
who have been here before.
 
?A guy from Dallas, someone from Freeburg, Ill.,? he
said, reading people?s names and hometowns. ?A lot of
people say that this is their first geocache.?

 A geocache is a small box - usually an army-style
ammunition box - that is hidden in the woods by hikers
and listed by its map coordinates on the Internet, at
http://geocaching.com. Other hikers, known as
geocachers, then download this information and hunt
for these boxes using hand-held Global Positioning
Satellite units.

These computer units, which cost no more than $150
dollars for simple models, use satellite signals to
pinpoint a person?s exact location, and direct them
towards a programmed destination, in this case a
geocache (Video: Go on a geocache hunt).

Each geocache contains various trinkets, which
geocachers exchange, as well as a written log of
everyone who?s found the cache, such as the one the
Bollingers discovered on a recent visit to Columbia?s
Hinkson Woods.

 ?It melds two of my favorite activities,? said
Bollinger, a Jefferson City parks and recreation
manager.  ?One, I love the outdoors and seeing the
outdoors, and I love playing with computers and
technical gadgets. This really brings those two worlds
together.?

This sport, a high-tech scavenger hunt, has grown over
the past several years, since President Bill Clinton
ordered the military to unscramble GPS signals in May
2000. This paved the way for civilian uses of the
technology.

When geocaching celebrated its fifth anniversary this
week, there were more than 160,000 caches in 214
countries. 

The sport has also grown in Mid-Missouri, in part due
to the support of the Missouri Department of Natural
Resources, which initially resisted the /sport/ on
state parklands. The department worried that
geocaching would conflict with its core conservation
mission. 
The department quickly realized, however, the speed at
which the sport was growing without official sanction,
started a permitting process about a year ago for
placing geocaches in state parks.
 
Sue Holst of the state Department of Natural
Resources, said though she couldn?t give an exact
number, the department has issued hundreds of permits
for almost every state park and historic site, about
83 in all. Many of the larger parks contain several
geocaches.
?We now have a cooperative relationship with the
geocachers, and that relationship continues to grow,?
Holst said.

In April, the Department of Natural Resources helped
host a Midwest geocaching competition at Meramec State
Park. Geocachers are also well known for their ?Cache
in Trash Out? ethic, which emphasizes picking up
garbage along the hike and leaving the parks in better
condition. Holst said this has benefited many parks,
not just those overseen by the Department of Natural
Resources. 

On his recent geocaching trip in Hinkson Woods, for
example, Bollinger had a large backpack that he filled
with discarded plastic water bottles and other trash
he found.

Mike Griggs, a manger for the Columbia Department of
Parks and Recreation, said geocaching has been a
positive addition to city parks, and has the full
support of his department. The department has drafted
a set of policies and rules regulating geocaching, but
they have not been implemented because Griggs says the
geocachers have been respectful of parks and have been
helpful in working with his department.

Geocachers have certain guidelines they follow. They
do not put caches in high-traffic areas, in
environmentally or historically sensitive areas or in
places where geocachers could be injured looking for
the boxes. They also refrain from filling the boxes
with any items which are not family friendly. 
The Columbia parks department also provides its
employees with training on geocaching, mainly so that
employees don?t throw out one of the boxes if they
stumble upon them. But there are additional concerns
since September 11.

?Seeing an ammunition box in the parks doesn?t cause
the same alarm as seeing that box in front of the
courthouse,? Griggs said. ?But it may still cause
alarm, and we want our employees to be aware of what
these boxes are.?  

 There are many people in town, however, who still do
not know what geocaching is, and even among outdoor
enthusiasts the sport has its detractors. 

?You want a challenge? Orienteering is an intense
sport that takes such skills,? said Ben Williams, an
employee at Alpine Shop, a Columbia outdoors shop. ?I
agree with Earnest Hemmingway, who once said something
like there are only three sports, motor racing,
mountaineering and bull fighting. The rest are merely
games.?

Bryan Roth, who works at Groundspeak, the West Cost
Internet company that maintains geocaching.com, said
Williams is missing the point. Not only are there new
forms of geocaching, such as virtual caches that
involve not only GPS coordinates, but also clues to
find a particular site, and multicaches, which require
finding caches in sequential order to arrive at a
final destination, but Roth, who met his wife at a
geocaching event, says the social aspects of the sport
are most valuable and are the driving force behind
geocaching.

?I frequently hear stories about fathers going
geocaching with their 15-year-old daughters and saying
things like we weren?t talking, but now we?re
geocaching and reconnecting and feel like a family
again,? said Roth. ?You can?t put a value on that.?
Bollinger agrees, saying that it?s been a great
activity for his family, that has met dozen of other
friends while geocaching. 

?It gives you a reason to get out and enjoy the
outdoors,? said Bollinger. ?The people who place the
geocaches know of and lead you to amazing places that
you wouldn?t otherwise visit. When you?re traveling,
it?s like having dozens of expert local tour guides.?
For more on geocaching, you can visit
http://geocaching.com. 




                
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