- 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. Yahoo! Mail Stay connected, organized, and protected. Take the tour: http://tour.mail.yahoo.com/mailtour.html **************************************** Our WebPage! Http://WWW.GeoStL.com Mail List Info. //www.freelists.org/list/geocaching Mail List FAQ's: //www.freelists.org/help/questions.html **************************************** To unsubscribe from this list: send an email to geocaching-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field