Do you geocache?

While there are quite a few savvy folks in our Valley, if you’re like me, you’ve never heard of geocaching.  So when the unfamiliar term crossed my desk, I did what any civilized 21st century woman would do – I googled it.  What I found on the geocaching web site sounded like equals part snipe hunt and treasure adventure and all fun.

Quickly responding to the email I was sent mentioning the word, I set a date to go and try the, er, sport.  So it was on a recent Saturday that my children and I were initiated to geocaching by Sonoma local Sally Hilliard and her daughter Lynn of Woodland, California.  The experienced pair have been geocaching since January 2008.

By way of definition, geochaching is best described as a high tech game of hide and seek in which participants use a Global Positioning System or other navigational techniques to secrete and find containers – known as caches – anywhere in the world.  The cache consists of a waterproof container, ranging in size from tiny to 5-gallon-bucket large, that always includes a logbook and many times trinkets or toys for trading.  According to the geocaching.com web site, there are 1,172,838 active geocaches located around the world. They are currently hidden in over 100 countries on all seven continents including Antarctica.

Getting started closer to home is easy and fun.  Hilliard encouraged my family to first sign up on the web site and choose a “handle,” which turns into more than just a user name as you sign log books in the various caches you find.  She and her daughter are BeagleBudE and BeagleBudD, named after their two Beagles, Tracker and B.G.  We chose a moniker that suited our family.  Once registered, we searched for caches in the Valley by typing in our local zip code.  Sonoma’s 95476 yielded quite a few choices with cute names like, “Got Milk,” and “Hyde and Go seek.”  We printed out the clues and prepared to set out, GPS unit in hand.  (While excessive printing is a no-no for today’s environment, there are helpful hints that accompany the GPS coordinates since the navigational devices can only take you so far in your search.  A notebook dedicated to geocaching could serve the same purpose and save paper and ink.)

With the Hilliards help we located five separate geocaches in a two-hour window.  Two had been hidden by the pair, which turned out to be our “training” caches.  One of these was what is known as a multi-cache, or two-stage cache, where the first container, or waypoint, holds a clue as to the location of the second – making it more challenging but also more fun.

While in every instance it was easy to get to the location dictated by the coordinates, it was definitely trickier to find the actual cache and the Hilliards were invaluable for their accumulated years of experience.  Not only did they put us on the right track more than a few times, they helped us be successful in our first foray into geocaching with tips about equipment and so forth.

One important side note is geocaching’s environmental bonus:  trash collection.  Called “Cache In, Trash Out,” the idea is to get geocachers to clean up trails and outdoor areas while they are on the hunt for caches.  The Hilliards always take along a plastic garbage bag and rubber gloves for picking up trash.

“Geocaching is fun and it helps us keep our brains and bodies active,” said Hilliard.  “My granddaughter, August, visits every year from North Carolina and we spend hours out hiding and seeking caches.  We pack a picnic and make a day of it.  It’s a great way for us to connect.”

The Sonoma Valley Sun has joined in the geochacing fun, hiding a cache and logging it on the web site.  Do you think you can find it?  Let us know if you do at feedback@sonomasun.com.