Drive and go seek

Captain Flint and his cut-throat crew,
Had a great big pile of treasure on board!
Paid for with the blood of innocent men!
These buccaneers of the very first class,
Had made a massive mighty hoard!
They murdered once, they murdered twice, they murdered again!

What to do with this booty,
To keep it safe and sound?
Stuff it under the mattress?
\Or keep it in the ground?
It’s safer in the ground! Yo!
        -- Fifteen Men


Here I sit, alone and far from home (N 37° 19’53.61” W 120° 28’38.69”).

It’s impossible to become “lost” anymore – as long as your GPS device is in working order, that is. Between Navigator™, Google Earth™ and Mapquest™, there’s little excuse for not knowing where I am and where I’m going – in very specific terms.

is the longitude and latitude of the building I’m occupying right now. Yesterday I hopped over to N 49° 51’11.69” W 099° 58’28.48” to meet with a group of geocasters who were gathered in a Brandon park to celebrate their hobby.

Variations of Hide and Go Seek have been popular since the start of time. The thrill of finding something is one of life’s great joys. No doubt a hungry cave dweller invented the game while trying to keep a neighbor from absconding with some tool or morsel of food.

21st century treasure maps used in GeoCaching are little more than a set of coordinates plus a clue or two. And the treasure is often just a trinket of no real value plus the chance to add your name to a list of those who have managed to find a hidden container, or cache.

Armed with one of many available models of GPS devices, cachers venture forth in search of one or more of hundreds of thousands of hideaways. Locations vary from easy-access roadside sites to challenging nooks and crannys in settings way off the beaten path.

Veteran hobbiests boast having uncovered dozens, even hundreds of jars, cans, refrigerator boxes and other containers.

Rules exist, varying a bit between organizations or events. One need only search for “geocaching” on the net to find an opportunity to get involved. But don’t try this without a GPS device – without help from outer space, searching is impractical.

I learned about this hobby before leaving California and felt the appeal of leaving a trail of Wandering Dave business cards in my wake as I travel from state to province to state.

With the challenges involved in maintaining a multi-channel web site, I decided to pass on caching. But yesterday’s assembly nearly changed my mind.

Like most people who are drawn together by shared interests, the folks I encountered near Brandon’s Assiniboine River were friendly and eager to share tips and tricks of the geocache game.

There were plenty of children and animals in attendance. This is clearly a great family activity, involving outings into natural settings. The kids probably don’t see the irony in the fact that their parents are excited about playing high-tech hide-and-go-seek, but they certainly come in handy combing the area surrounding coordinates and finding the hidden treasure.

I met travelers like myself who combine road trips with caching; and others who focus mostly on locations near home.

Despite the appeal, Wandering Dave is going to avoid getting too excited about this hobby. I have trouble finding my keys when they’re in my pocket; I’ve already “lost” my PDA four or five times – fortunately only temporarily, so far.

I may seek some roadside sites along my path for the next few weeks, just to test the waters; but if my previous efforts are any indication, I’m not going to be very good at this game. And I tend to get frustrated when I can’t find something that is apparently right under my nose.

Geocaching notwithstanding, I’m completely sold on GPS technology for navigation. And I’m always interested when someone invents a new game that exploits new technology, particularly when combining it with activities that have already survived the test of time.

. . . 98, 99, 100. Ready or not, here I come!