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| Photo by Sean Sauro / Here I am climbing a tree to get a geocache hanging on a branch. |
*This blog post first appeared as a story in the Altoona Mirror's December 2016 edition of "Blair Living."
By Brian Yermal Jr.
For Blair Living
More than a decade ago, Sue Burket learned about something known as “geocaching” while attending a Girl Scouts leader training weekend.
She thought it sounded fun, so
Burket decided to try geocaching for herself. On Sept. 11, 2004, Burket found
her first geocache at the site where the statue of former Penn State head
football coach Joe Paterno once stood at Beaver Stadium in University Park.
Since then, Burket has located
about 5,000 geocaches.
Since its start in 2000,
geocaching has garnered global attention with more than 3 million active users
worldwide, according to the official geocaching website. Nearly 830,000
geocachers reside in the United States alone.
Many central Pennsylvanians such
as Burket – an Altoona resident who previously lived in State College and
Pittsburgh – have embraced the hobby.
Geocaching is an outdoor
scavenger hunt where people use coordinates to find hidden “caches.” Caches are
containers that store a logbook or a piece of paper that geocachers sign to
make their find official. Caches vary in size from magnetic capsules no larger
than a fingernail to Tupperware containers and ammunition boxes. Larger caches
are used like treasure chests to hide trinkets.
Geocachers are allowed to take
items from the cache as long as they replace them with something of equal or
greater value. Some caches contain “travel bugs,” which are objects that are
meant to be carried from one cache to the next. Travel bugs feature a tracking
code on them, which can be entered online to show where the travel bug has
been.
Geocaching can be a cheap hobby,
depending on how you play it. Players can find geocache locations on the
official website at geocaching.com. In order to virtually log finds, players
must create an account and a username for the website. Having a basic account
is free, but in order to have access to all geocaching locations, players must
pay a premium subscription that costs $5.99 a month or $29.99 for the year.
Some players use a GPS to find
geocaches, but the official phone app, which can be downloaded for free for
Android and Apple devices, can also track your location to find geocaches.
There are more than 2.8 million
registered geocaches in about 180 countries, according to the geocaching
website, meaning players can find them just about anywhere. Some examples of
geocache locations include state game lands, cemeteries, parks, libraries,
towns, parking lots and mountains, Burket said.
“There is a nice variety of caches
here. There are some caches which test brain power or physical strength, some
easy ones and some that lead to surprising spots,” Burket said. “There are some
you can find quickly and some you can spend hours to find. There are some to
find at night, underwater, in tunnels or caves, up trees and just in the ends
of guardrails.”
Some locations have high
concentrations of geocaches. Huntingdon County is home to more than 100
geocaches in places such as Lincoln Caverns, the Thousand Steps, Raystown Lake,
the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River, and downtown Huntingdon, said Matt
Price, executive director of the Huntingdon County Visitors Bureau. Price, who
geocaches with his son, said geocaching helps bring awareness to attractions in
Huntingdon County, and it can be played year-round.
“It’s a great way for people to
get out and explore the area,” he said.
Some areas are designated as “geotrails.”
The Main Line Canal Greenway GeoTrail has 22 active geocaches and coincides
with the 320-mile corridor of the Pittsburgh to Harrisburg Main Line Canal
Greenway, said Justin LaVelle, heritage education coordinator with Allegheny
Ridge Corp.
The Main Line geotrail was started
in December 2010 as a way “to offer a new and unique way for people to
experience the greenway,” LaVelle said.
“We have heard some amazing
stories from cachers who came specifically to our greenway just for the
geotrail and then discovered the bounty of history and recreation it has to
offer,” he said.
Some of the most popular caches
on the geotrail are located at the Cassandra Railroad Overlook in Cambria
County, the Lower Trail, Chimney Rocks Park and the Allegheny Portage Railroad
National Historic Site, LaVelle said.
Geocaches can be difficult to
find with just one person, so teaming up with other people can help. Burket
geocaches alongside her spouse, Terry, and their two dogs, as well as with
friends on occasion, she said.
People who are new to geocaching
or want to find fellow geocachers can join groups on Facebook such as the
Central PA Geocachers and the Johnstown-Altoona Geocaching Association, Burket
said. There are also geocaching-related events listed on the geocaching website
“where everyone is welcome,” she said.
