A new hobby is cropping up around the country, and some enthusiasts are taking part in it here in Baton Rouge.
Geocaching, pronounced geo-cashing, is a new take on scavenger hunting. Using a Global Positioning System device, participants search for a hidden cache. The cache, or treasure, usually consists of small items such as trinkets, music or books.
According to www.geocaching.com, the sport’s official Web site, geocaching began in May 2000 in Oregon, when the first cache was hidden. Since then, people have begun hiding caches around the world and using GPS devices to find them.
DeWitt H. Braud, director of the University’s Remote Sensing Lab, said GPS devices can be very accurate, depending on the capabilities of the device.
“The longer the device is in one place, the more accurate the reading will be,” he said.
Meghan Radtke, a graduate student in plant biology and an avid geocacher, said the GPS handheld unit communicates with a satellite to give the searcher latitude and longitude coordinates. Using these coordinates, geocachers search for the treasure.
Radtke currently is working on a geocache called the LSU Historical Tour.
“A lot of caches will sometimes have themes, and I tried to pick places at LSU that had historical significance,” Radtke said.
The historical tour is a multi-cache, meaning that each cache contains coordinate information to the next site. The caches also give a brief summary about why the location is historically significant.
According to the Web site, the rules of the game are simple. The only requirements for players is that they take something from the cache, leave something in the cache and record it in a logbook.
The GPS unit can cost between $100 and $1,000, depending on the sophistication of the device. However, Radtke said most GPS units needed for geocaching are on the lower end of the scale.
Geocaching can be a team or individual sport.
“I generally go out with someone else,” Radtke said. “But a lot of it is competition with yourself.”
Currently, there are more than 100 caches in Louisiana, with new ones appearing frequently.
“There are some pretty dedicated people in the Baton Rouge area,” Radtke said.
The Geocaching Web site contains more information about the game, its history and where caches currently are located in the area.