Caching Cachet

What do you call game that gets a nerd out of his cave and whacking the bushes with nature-loving technophobes? Iron Nail Nirvana? Yes, but another name for it is Geocaching.

The first attraction of the game is that it gives us all that long-sought excuse to go out and buy a GPS unit. "GPS" stands for Global Positioning System. It's a collection of satellites - currently 27 of them - that orbit about 12,000 miles above the earth transmitting ranging signals, but the acronym is also used for an increasingly inexpensive hand-held device that tells you very precisely where you are, down to 10 or 20 feet, by interpreting the satellites' signals.

Now, what's the fun in that? Well, for the nerds, it's great fun to be able to give their precise longitude and latitude to anyone who should make the mistake of asking their whereabouts. But for all of us, there is Geocaching.

"Cache" is one of those boundary-crossing terms that brings us all together. To computer programmers, a cache is a store of data tucked away in memory where it can be quickly retrieved. But outdoor-types might think, instead, of a hiding place for food and provisions in the wilderness. To both, it is a place where something is kept until you have a need for it.

Geocaching in a nutshell: People hide things in caches all over the world. They publish the precise coordinates of the things on the web. Other people use GPS units to find the caches. A few simple rules make it a bit more interesting:

1. Take something from the cache
2. Leave something in the cache
3. Write about it in the logbook

Hopefully, a) the person placing the cache puts it somewhere interesting in its own right, and b) they leave something in the cache that is at least mildly entertaining. But most of the time this is, primarily, one of those getting-there-is-its-own-reward kinds of things.

If you're like the Iron Nail family (one 10-penny, one 8-penny, and a tack), some Saturday morning after breakfast, you will all sit down in front of the computer, navigate to http://www.geocaching.com, and pick a cache in a place you would like to go. You can start by providing a zip code of the general vicinity, or even a country, if you have a private jet. (Note to self: future column?)

In my experience, not all the caches have logbooks, but I definitely like most the ones that do. The logbook provides a little history of what was originally left, who has been there, what they left, and what they took. (Finding out what has been in the cache in the past sometimes makes you wish you had gotten there sooner.) The logbook may also give you coordinates to other, unpublished caches.

The web site is a great guide for obtaining information about things like:

• Different kinds of GPS devices, how much they cost ($100 - $1,000+), where to get them, and how to use them
• Where the published caches are
• How to prepare your own cache
• What kinds of things you should/shouldn't put in a cache
• Where you should/shouldn't store a cache
• An on-line form for publishing the location of your own cache
• Etc.

There are lots of variations on the game, such as leaving a "hitchhiker" item that has instructions about its ultimate destination. You take the item if you can move it to a cache closer to the destination. Hitchhikers have traveled all over the world this way.

If you're a nerd, get out of the house. If you're a Luddite, get over it. Hey, if you have fun, don't thank me. Just send cache.

T.I.N.