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Wsj Reporter Asks For Help


WalruZ

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Posted

I've exchanged a few emails with a WSJ reporter who contacted me a few days ago. Below is the text of the last one (excuse any formatting issues). His last question for me was "is there anything new to write about geocaching?" -- I figured I would ask here. I intend to forward the replies back to him, so please stay serious and on-topic. Try.

 

---------------------------------

 


Thanks!

I did some additional research in the WSJ story archive, and actually found
a story. That´s too bad, since my chances of writing about GeoCaching are
not as large anymore because of that. But the story (below) is two years
old. Since this is a newspaper, we can however print new stories, if
something interesting has happened. So, except for that the number of
GeoCachers have grown, are there any new techniques, approaches or some
other funny thing that I can use to convince my editors?


[text of previous article in 2002]



LEISURE & ARTS 

Pinpoint GPS Spawns a Global Treasure Hunt 

By Susan G. Hauser 
1,036 words 
19 March 2002
The Wall Street Journal 
A20 
English
(Copyright (c) 2002, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) 

Portland, Ore. -- GEOCACHING, the international pastime that got its start
in a bucket hidden in the woods here, has reached (at last count) 111
countries. There were a mere 105 countries involved when I went cache
hunting for the first time on a recent Saturday morning, but things happen
fast in geocaching, which is what you'd expect from a sport based on
satellites and the Internet. 

The official Web site, www.geocaching.com, hails this as "the sport where
YOU are the search engine." All you need is a Global Positioning System
(GPS) receiver (which costs about $100 for a basic model), Internet access
to learn the longitude and latitude of the caches, and the brain of a dog. 

If you can behave like the type of mutt who leaps without looking, runs full
tilt into hornets' nests, rolls in manure and scares the stink out of
skunks, then you are cut out for this wildly popular sport. The reward for
putting one's safety and sanity at risk is accolades on the Web site and a
collection of silly toys taken one at a time (there's an honor system here)
from caches hidden by fellow geochachers deep in the woods, high in the
trees or even buried in sand at low tide. 

I owe my introduction to geocaching to an otherwise intelligent young man,
Ben Higgins. He is happily employed as a software engineer, but on the
weekends -- well, actually every spare waking moment -- he can make a
tail-chasing hound look downright catatonic. 

He has located and logged more caches than any other hunter in the
Northwest. On the morning he took me along, his total rose from 214 to 217,
which is nothing really, since he's accustomed to finding up to eight caches
in one day. With me following at a safe distance, he lumbered through the
woods to find two separate caches. At a third location, he scrambled up a
tree in high winds just to be able to sign his name in the cleverly secreted
logbook. 

Some guy back East holds the national record with about 450 finds. But Mr.
Higgins's number is impressive because he's been active just eight months in
a sport that's nearly two years old. It came into being when somebody set
out a cache on May 3, 2000, just two days after the government began
permitting civilian-owned GPS receivers to pick up more accurate satellite
signals. Previously, only the military could pinpoint exact locations;
signal degradation prevented civilians from zeroing in closer than about 100
feet. 

The new sport's very first cache, just a bucket containing a logbook, was
found outside Portland on May 6, 2000, by Mike Teague, using his GPS
receiver and coordinates posted to an Internet newsgroup. A few months later
Mr. Teague and Jeremy Irish, a Seattle Web developer, launched
www.geocaching.com. Mr. Irish continues to maintain the Web site, currently
the official hangout of hordes of geocachers seeking more than 14,000 caches
hidden around the world. 

Mr. Higgins has put 21,000 miles on his truck by driving to cache sites. On
the day I joined him, he added another 40 driving west of Portland into the
Coast Range Mountains to find the first cache of the day. After we parked
along the highway, it was a hike of a couple of miles into the woods before
his GPS receiver indicated that we were close. 

The cache, which turned out to be a plastic bin containing trinkets and a
logbook, was hidden in the crumbling remains of a rotten stump. I would have
continued hiking, oblivious to the waiting cache, but Mr. Higgins's trained
eye spied it. 

"Sometimes you find it right away," he said. "Sometimes you walk around for
a half hour sticking your hand down stumps." 

Inside the cache were toys, knickknacks, lottery tickets and various other
offerings. To play fair as a geocacher, one must put back as many prizes as
one takes. Mr. Higgins took a toy alien for himself, and I chose a small
jewelry box. He replaced those items with a box of crayons and a pack of
baseball cards that he pulled from his backpack. 

He made an entry in the logbook, noting the date and time that he came
across the cache. He said one is expected to write at length on noteworthy
features of the hunt. He wrote about the beauty of the birdsongs we had
heard as we hiked deeper into the woods. 

"People are missing so much!" he said, expressing his bewilderment that the
woods were not full of nature-loving geocachers. Through his new hobby he
has come to know western Oregon and the Portland area better than most
denizens. "Oh, and I finally know where all the nude beaches in Portland
are," he noted. 

Sadly, his former girlfriend broke up with him because he didn't share her
love of hiking. That was before he came to associate physical activity with
high-tech obsession. "All I needed was a GPS receiver, and I wouldn't have
complained," he said. Since his conversion to geocaching he has tried to win
the hiking ex-girlfriend back. But she kept on hiking without looking back. 

At 24, Mr. Higgins is the youngest of the 50 or so active geocachers in the
Portland area. "Most of the people I know want to go partying," he said.
"They're not into hiking out in the wilderness and looking for a Tupperware
container." 

The second cache was hidden just off a path in a city park -- easy pickings
for Mr. Higgins, who could save his strength for the third cache. It was
strapped to a tree trunk about 50 feet off the ground. 

Mr. Higgins climbed the tree without mishap, which made this a breeze
compared to the time he tumbled down a forest embankment, or the time he got
lost in the woods after dark with no flashlight. But he'll keep on
geocaching unless things change. 

"I might get a new hobby," he mused. "Or a girlfriend." 

Posted

There are several things.

 

1. The expansion around the world. 190 countries.

2. The International Cache Exchange. Now several between the US and Canada as well as Europe. This would spin the "international" aspect of the game.

3. The rather bizarre limits on geocaching placed by the NPS/FWS which seem unusually restrictive compared to the laisez faire view towards other sports that are obviously more ecologically threatening. The WSJ is heavily into these kind of stories and might be the angle your reporter could use to get this one past her editor

Posted

The above list but also rather than how geocaching contributed to a break-up, how aobut a couple geocachers who got together? Use them as the thread in the story to wrap CITO, cachers with over 1000 finds, NPS/FWS mess, etc.

It has grown alot in 2 years.

Posted

I agree with bigredmed, the number of places that are banning geocaching while allowing other activities that they know to be much more harmful to the ecosystems is an interesting topic.

 

What Geocaching needs is a lobby. :lol:

Posted

I second some of those concepts:

 

1) Exponential growth. 2000-2003 my state had 200+ active caches. 2003-2004 there are now 400+!

 

2) Geo_Ho & Mopar might be willing to be a love story vis-a-vis caching.

 

2b) Other social aspects: locally we had 4 events last year and already one this year--all at least a full day if not all weekend, all featured at least 1/2 dozen caches to do.

 

3) Addressing the NPS ban compared to the benefits of caching is a great idea.

 

4) Innovations in the hobby: night geocaches, handicapped-accessible, puzzle geocaches, geocaching in education, etc.

 

In terms of the NPS issues, an appropriate representative should handle that PR rather than just anyone.

 

The dating aspect is topical to this time of year.

 

The others would obviously be follow-ups to the original article.

 

hth,

 

Randy

Posted (edited)

I am incorperating CERT Training with the GPS,and Fire Mapping as well.

There are many advantages for it in Homeland Security,it all started with a similar article here for us.

There are many Geocachers getting more involved in their communities due to the rise in the interest in the Sport.

The main fact in my opinion being that we are getting out there and getting approvals,talking more in the communities and bringing in others from their respective communities and tying it all together.

We all have a common goal to protect and preserve our Planet and will continue to do so.CITO>.>>>>>

There are so many new things that has occured since the last article it merits a update.

 

Some where here in the Forums a while back I posted The WSJ article that stated the top 3 Technologies for the next 7 years and These Technologies were there in the top 3.

One Being International Communications Systems.

Edited by GEO*Trailblazer 1

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