GPS brings 'gold'

Geocaching has become a real treasure hunt for some people who love to use a GPS, go hiking and find some treasure at the end of the trail.

According to www.geocaching.com, geocaching is a high-tech game played throughout the world with GPS devices.

"The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors, and then share your experiences online," according to the Web site. "Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment."

Geocaching is a hike or walk to a location that brings fun and adventure and finding items in a container that someone has left. The person or people who find the cache can take items, but they must leave something in return of what they took as well as signing their name on a paper which is called a log.

Also as part of logging their name in the cache itself, names can be recorded at the page of the cache on the geocaching Web site for record keeping.

On this site geocachers around the world record their findings and their adventures in finding and hiding caches. Also on the site, people can search for where caches have been placed by coordinates from a GPS or a zip code for any area.

There are 933,945 geocachers active around the world, according to the Web site.

Steven McCarthy, intergovernmental internship cooperative agency coordinator, said Braden Yardley, a senior outdoor recreation in parks and tourism major from Cedar City, proposed to his wife by hiding a cache for her to find.

Yardley was unavailable for comment, but others that enjoy geocaching are SUU teachers.

Rob Myers, coordinator of outdoor recreation and education, said he enjoys geocaching because it is fun to go to different locations and have the mesh of technology a long with it.

"There's a uniqueness in the location," he said.

Myers said he takes his kids geocaching and they carry something with them to leave in the cache they find.

David Maxwell, GIS/GPS lab director/specialist, said in the GPS theory, tech, methods class he teaches his students a little about geocaching.

"(The students) learn how to navigate a GPS," he said.

Enoch Residents Dave and Jenny Julander take their children geocaching.

Jenny Julander said she first learned about geocaching in a scrapbooking magazine and her husband, Dave Julaner heard about it from some coworkers at Bradshaw Chevrolet.

Jenny Julander said Dave Julander was not too excited to try it at first.

"?'Seeing we had no equipment and everyone at work did,'?" she said her husband said. "?'So why not be like everyone else.'?"

She said they decided to use their Christmas gift money from 2005 for a mail order GPS, which they received in January 2006 and found their first cache the day after they got the GPS.

"Looking back on how we entered in the info (for our GPS) and what we used to take with us, makes me smile," Jenny Julander said. "We have learned a lot since then."

Their kids, who's ages range from 4 to 12 years old loved going to look for "hidden treasures" with a satellite receiver as Jenny Julander explained it to them.

She said she told them about the small treasures and big treasures that could be found.

"The kids always enjoyed the big treasures because they could trade for something cool,'' she said.

The Julanders have found 1988 and hidden 40 caches since they started in 2006.

Paul Otterstrom, a 32-year-old Salt Lake City resident and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Tabernacle Choir has been geocaching for about four years.

Otterstrom has searched for caches when he had free time in different areas on the Choir's summer tours.

He said he has also had several experiences when he had been traveling for work or with the choir that he had to kill time.

Geocaches are hidden in places that people have no idea something could be there.

"The great thing is that your first cache may very likely be within a short walking distance where you are right now," he said. " Some people cache during every spare moment."

He said geocaching is like a high tech game of "hide and seek."

"Caching provides people who are traveling with an unusual method of seeing the world," Otterstrom said. "Often it takes people off of the beaten path where they might have the opportunity to experience things that others might miss."

He said some caches were easy to find while others he never found.

"I often search and search for a cache and never find it," Otterstrom said. "I return to the computer and read log after log from people who found it just fine."

He said he has a difficult time finding caches but he still enjoys the challenge

Otterstrom said when he first started geocaching he met a woman who just found her 1600th cache in less than a year.

"I am very moderate cacher," he said. " I have probably found about 20 caches in several years while some will go caching for day and more than double that number."

For any one wanting to start the adventure of geocaching and get a free account on the geocaching Web site.

There is good information at that site on how to get started, Otterstrom said.