Geocaching in Gainesville paper


The kids weren’t searching for books, but for buried treasure Monday at the Spout Springs library.
A dozen kids participated in "I Spy," a free geocaching class held for students at the library.

A high-tech outdoor treasure hunt, geocaching engages people around the world using handheld GPS devices and their wits to discover hidden treasures, or geocaches, often located off the beaten path.

Participants learned the basics of the activity before going out to try it themselves. Gail Hogan, a library assistant with the Hall County Library’s Youth Services, taught the class.

"The hope is that the kids will become more interested in their surroundings," said Hogan, for whom geocaching is a hobby.

Three separate geocaches, or small containers, were hidden in different locations around the library campus. To find them, participants had to follow the longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates they plugged into the handheld GPS device.

But the GPS did not lead them right to it, which is where the real hide-and-seek began.

John Fiorentino, 14, said he and siblings Catherine, 11, and Joseph, 12, wanted to "have a good time and learn how to use the GPS."

Typically, Hogan said, a good GPS device will navigate to within five to 20 feet of the geocache.

Then, it’s up to the individual to find its exact location, whether it’s in a duck pond or behind a bush. For "I Spy" participants, a bit of searching led them to their geocache’s hiding spot at the base of a tree.

After finding the geocache, participants put it back in its hidden spot for the next intrepid geocaching individual to discover.

Those who find the geocache make a note of their discovery by "logging" the find online as well as in a small note pad typically enclosed within the geocache.

Hogan said potential geocachers should register an account on an official geocaching Web site, such as www.geocaching.com, to gain access to a map of nearby geocaches.

With more than 5,000 geocaches sprinkled around Georgia and some 370 in Gainesville alone, geocaches can turn up just about anywhere.

Now that geocaches have led Hogan to different places, she plans to lead geocachers back to Georgia. After the class, Hogan hopes to place a permanent geocache on Spout Springs Library property.

And when a recent geocache contained a request to be taken to "exotic places," Hogan said she took it from Texas to Jaemor Farms in Alto. Since then, she said, other geocachers have followed in her footsteps.

By now, "it’s been all over Georgia," Hogan said

Very Nice Article, especially since it has been written toward children becoming interested in geocaching. Might very well spark interest by more kids who get their parents interested as a family activity.

Cool! Thanks for sharing.

~erik~

I bet I could take a few of these kids to "Rock Creek", they might be able to find that elusive cache

quote:

I bet I could take a few of these kids to "Rock Creek", they might be able to find that elusive cache

I can remember being a kid and really enjoying shooting bottle rockets.

quote:

Originally posted by LZ33:
I can remember being a kid and really enjoying shooting bottle rockets.

What are you smokin'?

quote:

What are you smokin'?

Splenda, because I have no equal.

quote:

Originally posted by LZ33:

quote:

What are you smokin'?

Splenda, because I have no equal.

quote:

Splenda, because I have no equal.

Aaaaaah yes! This is true.

and.... drum roll please.... here's a follow-up article by the same reporter:

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/article/7477/

(yeah, that's me)

~erik~

Erik representin'! Nice!

What a great article - thanks for sharing! It is one of the best written ones I've seen and also happens to involve a local celebrity!

Groovy cool Erik. This one even had rotating pictures. I recognize some of those backgrounds and I happen to have one of those coins. BTW, looks like you're heading for another cool cache up there in N. Gwinnett.

Great ambassador Erik. Thanks.

Nice work! What was that paper you were holding though? I haven't seen one of those in a long time.

Very nice article...thanks, Erik.

Mtn-man asked:

quote:

Nice work! What was that paper you were holding though? I haven't seen one of those in a long time.

I didn't want to overwhelm them with PDAs and CacheMate and GSAK and other esoteric things, so brought a printout.

It turned out to be a good thing that I brought it along. Slayerette had moved the cache about 30 or 40 feet from where I remember finding it, and what should have been an easy hunt wasn't. To stall the reporter and photographer a bit I asked the reporter to decrypt the hint. She worked on that for awhile while I hunted, then called out the hint. The photographer was uphill from where I'd been searching and right where the hint said to look. So she spotted it first. Otherwise I might still be there in the woods lookin'

~erik~

Ha! Very cool to hear the story behind the story.