Treasure Hunting Comes To Life
By: Alicia Strusa
BANGOR -Fishing, canoeing, rock-climbing and many more outdoor activities are involved in the spring and summer seasons.
There’s another popular activity added and students who take part in it regularly have spread the word.
It’s called geocaching.
Geocaching, pronounced geo-cashing, is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure.
The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online at www.geocaching.com This high-tech treasure hunting game is played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. It has been around for years and is becoming a huge hit with all kinds of people.
The hobby is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community, support for the environment and a knack for adventure. The game is fun and is all about locating different kinds of treasure that people leave behind purposely for others to find. If someone finds it and wants to keep it, they must put something of equal value into the container for the next person to find and hide the geocache in the exact location they found it.
“Once you start doing it, it’s addicting,” said Kara Chester, a freshman at Unity College. “There are a bunch of hidden locations near my campus and it’s gotten to be such a fun hobby that I’ve told all my friends and family about it!”
A “geocacher” can place a geocache anywhere in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache’s existence and location online.
“Maine is probably the best state for this kind of thing because there’s so much land,” said Jeff Caisse, a junior at the University of Maine who was introduced to the hobby a few years ago. “I’ve done it in other states too and I love finding the neat things people leave for others to find. I did a nighttime geocache once and someone left a book with all kinds of encouraging quotes in it. I felt like I found treasure, it was so cool.”
Anyone can take part in it with a GPS device to try and locate the geocache.
According to the geocaching site, there are more than a million active caches and an estimated three to four million geocachers worldwide.
By visiting the home site and typing in a specific location, the hunt for real treasure is on and the adventure begins.
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