Geocaching Feature In The Washington Times

[+Last Lap Gang]

Jeremy Irish, CCCooperAgency, and the Maryland Geocaching Society was featured in the Washington Times Washington Weekend section today. It was a 5 page cover story with 10 photos. The story was actually written by a reporter who orienteers and spends a lot of article space sending newbies to the right sources before they start caching. I know there is a LOT of worry about this mass exodus to caches but over six months was spent on this article between the Times and the MGS to get the right message out there. A lot of time has been spent on the Parade article also. This is from the National scene with Jeremy and Groundspeak, to the state level with the Maryland Geocaching Society, to the veteran cachers telling the story of how to cache. My hopes are the sport grows but in a controlled and educated manner. When I started I read quite a bit about the rules before I ever stepped out the door to geocache. I am hoping the same will occur now. People either like it instantly or ignore it instantly (why I don't know). So with all that said here is the on-line version of the Washington Times feature:

 

http://washingtontimes.com/weekend/20041103-104838-9975r.htm

[+TotemLake]

That is one of the best written articles that I've seen on the sport.

[Jeremy]

That is one of the best written articles that I've seen on the sport.

I agree. I'm actually surprised to see myself interviewed in there. It has been a while since I spoke to them.

[+Anonymous']

That was a very good article.

[+LSUFan]

That is a great article which I'm sure will certainly add to the growing number of geocachers. I plan to use this article along with all the other positive attributes of geocaching at a meeting I have scheduled with our local law enforcement bomb squad guys. I am certain this article will help reinforce our position on the sport for the Sheriff's Department to see how this game works. The more publicity the sport receives, the better it is, in my opinion. Thanks for posting the link to it in the forums.

 

LSUFan

[+mtn-man]

A really good article, but it seems that every time there is one line that makes you want to choke...

They can be found both above and below ground, inside buildings or underwater, and can be either permanent or temporary.

 

Since this was cross-posted I though I would post here too. Great to see so many well known cachers and caching teams featured!

[Jeremy]

In context it could mean the cache is removed in a year, or never. Depends on what you mean by temporary.

[+Cache Viking]

Nice to see a positive article for a change instead of another Bomb Squad article indicating that we should find better things to do.

[+robert]

we've been working with these folks for a while and it really showed in the final piece. last lap gang did a bang up job getting this set up for us and the effort the Times put into it shows through.

 

glad everyone likes it.

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

Very good in my opinion.

Thanks.

[+BeachBuddies]

Strangely enough, the Prince William County section of the Washington Post also had an article on geocaching today.

 

Here's a link (you may have to register to get to it though): Article

 

Here's a cut-and-paste:

 

Cache, Not Money, Is the Prize for Some GPS Enthusiasts

 

By Ellen Crosby

Special to The Washington Post

Thursday, November 4, 2004; Page PW01

 

Two days after President Clinton granted civilians access to a Defense Department network of satellites in 2000, a man hid a notebook inside a watertight ammunition container in the woods near Portland, Ore., and posted the longitude and latitude coordinates on the Web.

 

Before you could say Lewis and Clark, the game -- or sport -- of geocaching was born. Players around the world were investing in a hot, new high-tech toy, a hand-held Global Positioning System receiver, checking clues on the Internet and searching for the hidden container and similar treasures.

 

According to www.geocaching.com, that single Web posting has morphed into a worldwide scavenger hunt encompassing more than 127,000 "caches" in 210 countries, including dozens in Prince William County. Some hiding places are almost predictable. Others would frustrate Indiana Jones. Most of the stash in the cache is straight out of a cereal box or the Dollar Store, so the thrill of the hunt isn't about searching for the Holy Grail. It's about the thrill of the hunt.

 

"You get so used to looking at that indicator that you get to your destination and realize you don't know where your car is," said Ray Pfaff, a software engineer from Chantilly. He is speaking from experience.

 

The rules of geocaching are simple. ("Geo" comes from geography; a "cache" is hunting and camping lingo for a hiding place for provisions or in computer terms refers to information stored in memory.) A waterproof container, such as Tupperware, an ammunition can or even a film canister, is filled with trinkets or items to trade and a logbook for recording visits. It is hidden but can't be buried. The information is registered on the official Web site. Geocachers download longitude and latitude coordinates into their GPS receivers after locating caches by Zip code, state or country, and they're off and running. Or climbing. Or swimming.

 

"Within 100 miles of here, there are more than 2,600 caches," said Bill Tobalske, a retired Air Force chief master sergeant from Reston whose geocaching "handle" (many geocachers use an alias) is 2Wheel'in.

 

"We tease him that he can't spell," said his wife, Bonnie, a Fairfax County firefighter and paramedic who goes by the handle MooseMaMa. "And he repairs bicycles now that he's retired."

 

The Tobalskes went to Sterling recently to look for one of two caches hidden in Claude Moore Park.

 

One cache, Claude's Vestals Gap Cache, belongs to the park, said park manager Pam Sheets, a new and enthusiastic geocacher who goes by the handle "iplay."

 

"It's a mishmosh of items from Claude Moore Park and the Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum, including pencils, key chains, rubber spiders, rubber snakes -- even a rubber cow," she said. "And a logbook, of course."

 

The park's other cache, a private one called "Cat's Meow," is filled with toys for cat lovers. Cache owners who want to use public land must get permission, Sheets said, so they aren't placed where people might stomp on wildflowers or disturb endangered species, for example.

 

"The way people are hiding things is becoming more interesting," Bonnie Tobalske said. "Some people leave a cryptic message that you have to figure out."

 

One person took a series of two-sequence words from the Declaration of Independence after numbering all of the words.

 

"You had to go back and find out which number words were selected in order to obtain the longitude and latitude," Bill Tobalske said. "Some people are demonic," Bonnie added.

 

The Tobalskes decided to search for Cat's Meow. Bill knew where it was, but for Bonnie, it was her 101st cache. Bill plotted the location coordinates, known as a "waypoint," on a sophisticated color GPS receiver.

 

"The trick to finding the cache is to follow the direction of the arrow on the screen -- and to keep moving -- or else the arrow disappears when the tracking satellites can no longer ascertain the direction of travel," he said.

 

A GPS, however, knows only how close the cache is as the crow flies -- that is, in a straight line -- meaning it has no clue about altitude or terrain. To avoid surprises such as the fact that you need to cross the Potomac River to find your cache, some geocachers purchase topographical maps. And for the ultra-ultra-serious enthusiast, the information is available on CD-ROM, as long as the GPS has computer-download capability.

 

"Remember the direction of that arrow when you get within 30 feet of the cache," Bill Tobalske said. "Because after that, you rely on your wits to find it. The GPS can't help when you're that close."

 

"I always look for 'UPS,' " Bonnie said. "That's an Unusual Pile of Sticks. Or tromped-down leaves."

 

They're not all tangible, either. Ray Pfaff placed what is known as a "virtual cache" at a Civil War marker commemorating the Battle of Chantilly in the Second Battle of Manassas. Anyone who finds the marker in a small park at the corner of Monument Drive and West Ox Road in western Fairfax County reports his or her visit on the geocaching.com Web site.

 

"The reason I find it so important is if the Confederate forces had been just a little bit faster, they could have stopped the Union forces from retreating back to D.C. and made them surrender," Pfaff said. "That would have left D.C. more or less undefended and could have changed the whole outcome of the war."

 

"It's a good way to learn about history," agreed Scott Allen of Herndon, a geocacher whose work for the Air Force involves combat search and rescue. "It's educational and interesting." Allen often goes geocaching with his 10-year-old daughter, Samantha, and his wife, Susan.

 

The Cat's Meow, which has been around since Aug. 21, 2002, turned out to be an ammo can containing a logbook, pen, several cat toys, a small truck, assorted odds and ends and what was generally determined to be Mr. Potato Head. Bonnie Tobalske removed the truck, signed the logbook and left two yellow erasers in the shape of a firefighter's helmet and a fire hydrant.

 

"Geocaching takes me to places I probably wouldn't go to," she said. "That's my goal in life -- to see as much as I possibly can."

Edited November 5, 2004 by BeachBuddies

[+Last Lap Gang]

Yep Ironic and pretty wild. Great press in both papers. Oddly I had sent three different departments in the Post inquiries early this year, on behalf of the Maryland Geocaching Society as there PR representative, for an article and no response until the Washington Times decided to FEATURE Geocaching!

 

I bet that may be a first. The two major papers in one city cover Geocaching on the same day. I am glad to see the positive press. It kind of rebalances some of the recent scare articles about caching.

[+Stunod]

Two days after President Clinton granted civilians access to a Defense Department network of satellites in 2000, a man hid a notebook inside a watertight ammunition container in the woods near Portland, Ore., and posted the longitude and latitude coordinates on the Web.

Wasn't it a buried 5 gal bucket?

[+wimseyguy]

Great article. But isn't this the paper owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church?

Would that make us all moonies?