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Feature,
by Matthew Williams
Searching
for treasure in the U.P.
James and Judy Quirk use billion-dollar satellite technology to search
for Tupperware in the woods.
That’s how the retired Marquette couple like to describe their
hobby, an adventure game called geocaching (pronounced JEE-o-cashing).
It’s the world’s largest treasure hunt.
There are 324,000 geocaches—containers filled with goodies—hidden
around the globe; 680 of these can be found within a 100-mile radius
of Marquette. All of them are designed to bring the searcher near a
unique land form, historic site or scenic area somewhere off the beaten
path.
“It’s just amazing the places we’ve found while geocaching,”
said James, half of the Quirktoo team. “We’ve lived in Marquette
for more than thirty years and through geocaching we’ve found trails
and sites right here that we never knew existed.”
The hidden stashes and the plunder inside, vary in size and in value.
Some, known as “micros” in geocaching vernacular, are film
canisters or small candy tins that contain only a pencil, scroll of
paper and possibly a few coins or beads. Others are keg-sized plastic
tubs filled with T-shirts, music CDs and stuffed animals. Most caches
are quart-sized containers with a log book and small toys, key chains
or other knickknacks inside.
Some are hidden atop mountains or require bushwhacking deep into the
U.P. wilderness. But not all require such a physical challenge.
Indeed, sit on a pedestrian bench in downtown Marquette (or Houghton
or Escanaba) and you may be within inches of a well-camouflaged treasure
container.
The Quirks, who have discovered a little more than 100 caches, first
tried the adventure game about two years ago when their children were
visiting Marquette.
“My son and his wife were here and it was a nice day out, but they
were hooking up some kind of a computer game to play,” James said.
“Judy had read about geocaching, so she suggested we get out and
hunt for a few instead of staying inside. We’ve been doing it since
then.”
Like many avid geocache seekers, the Quirks make searching part of each
vacation they take. They’ve discovered hidden containers in places
as far away as Hawaii and Mexico. They’re so hooked that when they
recently went to Oshkosh (Wisconsin) for a wedding, they stopped to
find a cache that was hidden between the church and reception hall.
“It’s not only been a great way to find places we’ve
never been, it’s been an opportunity to get to know people,”
James said.
Marquette geocacher Lou Carr, a former teacher at Marquette Area Public
Schools, said he has as much fun creating geocaches as he does finding
them. Carr, who is known among local geocachers for his creative camouflage
methods—one of his treasure chests is a birdhouse, another a wasp’s
nest sans wasps—has seventeen hidden in the region and more coming.
“It’s just a blast getting the e-mail feedback after somebody
finds one,” Carr said. “I get lots of people thanking me for
bringing them to a place they’d never have stopped.”
Carr’s stepson, an engineer who lives in Huntsville (Alabama) first
introduced him to the game. Carr said he now uses it as a way to spend
time with his nine grandchildren.
“When the grandkids come through the door the first thing they
ask, even before they say hi, is ‘Grandpa, can we go geocaching?’”
Carr said.
One might suppose that a game using the same technology that guides
fighter jets, aircraft carriers and rescue vehicles would require an
advanced degree in electronics, but that’s not the case. All that’s
needed is a GPS receiver that costs as little as $75, and Internet access.
A GPS receiver reads the signals from global positioning satellites
orbiting earth. It shows the receiver’s current location in latitude
and longitude. Using that information, a person holding a GPS receiver
not only knows his or her current location on the planet, but also can
zero in on other places if they know the coordinates where they’re
headed.
That’s where the Internet comes in. When a player hides a cache,
he or she posts the coordinates at www.geocaching.com
Any person interested in playing the game may go to that site, enter
their zip code and get a list of all nearby caches. Each entry lists
the difficulty of the terrain and the difficulty of the hide, as well
as clues to help find the hidden treasure.
The only rules for seekers are that when you find a cache, you should
log your visit to let the cache owner know you’ve been there. And
if you take something from the stash, you should leave something so
there is a continuous supply of goodies for future geocachers.
Geocaching started in May 2000 when the U.S. Government removed error
codes in the GPS satellites that were first sent up for military use.
Those error codes kept ordinary users from receiving accurate information.
An Oregon computer consultant decided to test the system’s new
accuracy a day after the correction by hiding a black bucket filled
with videos, books and software in the woods near Portland. He posted
the bucket’s coordinates on an Internet newsgroup and waited to
see if others could find the stash using only their GPS receivers.
They did. They shared their experiences online and began hiding their
own containers. The sport grew from there.
Closing in on a geocache with a GPS receiver is easier than it sounds.
Most receivers will only get a searcher within ten to twenty feet, and
most caches are disguised cleverly. An open mind and discerning eyes
often are needed.
For example, James and Judy Quirk have hidden a geocache on the side
of a tree in a container that looks like nothing more than a bump in
the trunk. Other geocaches are hidden in fake bricks in a wall, faux
stones and even metal boxes attached to a light pole that appear to
belong to a utility company but actually are treasure containers—something
not discovered until the searcher reads the fine print on the metal
box.
And if the camouflage doesn’t present enough of a challenge, there
also are mystery caches where the searcher must solve a puzzle or break
a code to find a stash’s coordinates. Carr, for example, put out
a cache that requires the seeker to collect dates off historical markers
in Marquette and then solve a simple math equation to find the swag—a
term referring to goodies hidden in a geocache.
Besides prizes, some geocaches contain an item known as a Travel Bug.
This is a small toy or trinket with a specific travel mission. Geocachers
are supposed to help the bug along by retrieving it from a cache and
placing it in a different cache. A travel bug’s route can be followed
on a map at the geocache Web site.
Hiding a cache is as easy as finding one and, as Carr said, can be as
much fun. The rules are that it must be hidden in a unique location,
not too close to other caches, and it must be on property that is accessible
to all. Geocaches cannot be buried, nor contain food or anything harmful.
As a general rule, a cache should be family friendly. The sport is as
much a kid’s game as an adult’s. All posted geocaches are
reviewed by the Web site owners before they are made available to the
public. Other geocachers help police the sport by reporting missing
or inappropriate stashes.
For those interested in trying geocaching, below are the coordinates
for three stashes in the Marquette area. Each presents a different challenge.
Additional clues to finding these caches can be found at www.geocaching.com
Easy: Superior Hills is a small cache hidden off the paved bike path
near Superior Hills Elementary School. The coordinates are N46 31.877,
W87 25.095.
Moderate: Northstate is a cache hidden near the BMX track at River Park
Sports Complex. The coordinates to the first part of this multi-stage
cache are N46 34.455, W87 24.134. From here you’ll have to find
new coordinates to the next stage.
Hard: MTB Heaven is a cache located near the South Marquette mountain
biking trails. This is a two-stage puzzle cache. The encrypted coordinates
using a Caesar cipher are: Q79 63.142, Z10 57.090. Treasure hunters
will need to know what a Pigpen cipher is to find the final stage.
MM
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