Worldwide Treasure Hunt: Geocaching

Across the globe “there are more than two million active geocaches located in 184 countries” (Boys et al., 2017).

Geocaching is a “modern-day version of a treasure hunt in which participants use location coordinates or clues to locate a “geocache” using a GPS device or a mobile app” (Boys et al., 2017). Cache sites can lead the participants to a variety of sites including national forests, historic areas, cultural areas, notable urban locations, or even on the side of the street (Boys et al., 2017) (Figure 10).

Figure 10: A porta potty that is actually a geocache in the middle of a forest (Photo by MH).

Figure 11: Geocache hidden hanging in a tree (Photo by MH).

Figure 12: Geocache hidden inside a grasshopper toy (Photo by MH).

Figure 13: Geocache log located inside the porta potty cache (Photo by MH).

Figure 14: Geocache log with written names (Photo by MH).

A ‘cache’ is usually in a box, container, or they can even be disguised (Figure 11 & 12), and a ‘cache’ will normally have a log to register that it has been found (Figure 13 & 14), but it could also have some small trinkets to trade (Figure 15). Across the globe “there are more than two million active geocaches located in 184 countries” and “[t]he United States is the leading country in hosting geocaches with more than one million active sites. Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia are also major hosts of geocaching sites” (Boys et al., 2017). There are extensive participants within the geocaching program, and it requires “the participation of interesting and varied organizations and businesses” (Boys et al., 2017).

Figure 15: Geocache trinkets that I have accumulated over time (Photo by MH).

Geocaching is a form of urban and rural exploration with the added component on a treasure hunt. It allows the explorers to “seek to re-create the dangers that, on some deep level, we secretly miss” (WG & Potter, 2011). Geocaching extends both urban and rural exploration by encouraging explorers to enter an alternative space before they even leave the house by checking GPS locations which “takes part physical and part psychological. You can’t enter Narnia by intending to do so. You have to find the entrance by accident” (WG & Potter, 2011). Geocaching also displays a sense of ‘machine in the garden ‘with the connection to nature, culture, and future which “invoke[s] a whole host of other emotions including awe, aesthetic pleasure, and spiritual transcendence” (Marx, 1996). So don’t question the urge to explore, do like Nike says – just do it.