Hows my little article writer?

I have to write 4 articles about Geocaching in my advanced comp class and since I haven't posted lately I'll give you the pleasure of reading my first one, suggestions welcome.

A Beginners (In Depth) Guide to Geocaching

Geocaching is a term I am very well in tune with but when nice weekends come to a close and I head back to class most of my friends balk at the meaning of this activity I do for fun. Out of necessity I am here to fill in those who have a general idea about geocaching and those who don't have a clue.

Geocaching began shortly after the US government unlocked it's global positioning satellite system for public use in may of 2001. The first cachers used a popular GPS forum to post where they had hidden caches for others to find and log their visit. This eventually evolved into the main geocaching website used today geocaching.com.

Using this website a user can find the coordinates for caches anywhere in the world. The coordinates are reported using latitude and longitude measurements that can pinpoint a particular area on the planet down to the foot. Once the coordinates are programmed into the GPS the hunt begins. As long as one knows how to operate a GPS unit they could begin caching.

There are several types of geocaches that can be found around the world, I'll cover the basic ones here. The first and most popular type of cache is the traditional cache which is a waterproof container of some sort, in varying sizes. The next type of cache is a multi-cache these caches are more adventurous and take longer to find. Multi-caches are a series of two or more traditional caches with clues leading one from cache to cache to reach the final. Often times there are puzzles that must be solved in order for one to decipher the coordinates for the next find. Another type is for the less adventurous soul is the virtual cache, which brings cachers to areas of interest or that are important to the hider for various reasons. A spin-off of virtuals are earth caches where one can learn about the history and formation of the particular area they have been brought to. The last of the main types is the puzzle cache, these caches generally require some thinking or problem solving in order for one to decipher the coordinates of these types of caches.

There are many variations to the containers which caches are stored, some of the most popular are ammunition cans, but they can vary from film canisters, coffee bean containers, to rubbermaid tubs. There are some others that have shown more imagination such as inside dolls (or their parts), stuffed animals, fake rocks, and hollowed out logs or stumps.

To make a geocache official the container must hold, at least a log book for the finder to sign their name. The container is generally large enough to store a multitude of other trinkets that can generally be found in a dollar store. The best prize of all (I think anyway) are Geocoins and Travel Bugs, which are little objects with unique numbers that can be tracked from cache to cache. These are exciting finds because the finder can see where it has traveled, then hide it in a new cache to continue it's journey.

If you begin this new hobby make sure to watch out for Muggles! This is a term borrowed from the Harry Potter series describing people who are ignorant to wizzards who use magic or that it exists. Just like geocaching, curious people who don't know of the sport might take the container (having it Muggled) or just not replace it correctly.

Geocaching has many advantages for people of all ages and education. The first one is it gets people outside and exercising. It also takes people to places that they wouldn't know have existed otherwise. The best way I have decided to sum up the sport is that it is a treasure hunt with a GPS. Now that you have a background on the sport get out there and go hunting!


Here are a bunch of the caches in Duluth by my house, The smileys are the ones I've found either by myself or with help of great people.