What is Geocaching? Hidden Treasure or Trouble?
The new sport of geocaching offers high-tech fun but poses new challenges for the state's land managers
by Andrew Engelson, Washington Trails Association Managing Editor
There's hidden treasure in the mountains of Washington.
And in the foothills. And in city parks. And in downtown Seattle, Vancouver, and Spokane.
The "treasure" is part of the new and rapidly growing sport of geocaching. For those who haven't heard of it, geocaching is a high-tech game of hide-and-seek. Geocachers hide small caches of trinkets in locations around the world, record the coordinates of these hidden goodies using a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit, and then post those coordinates on a website for all the world to find.
The sport is growing quickly among all age groups, especially families with kids. To find a hidden geocache (most of which consist of a Tupperware box filled with trinkets such as trading cards, key chains, plastic dinosaurs, etc.) all a prospecting geocacher has to do is go to a web site to find a series of longitude and latitude coordinates, plug them into his or her GPS and head out. Each geocache usually contains a logbook, in which those who've found the little treasures mark their names. Often, the cachers trade a signature goody for something else in the hidden box.
Washington state, with its combination of tech-savvy inhabitants and abundant outdoors, is a hotbed for geocaching. The most popular website for the sport, www.geocaching.com is run by a Seattle-based company. The Washington State Geocaching Association (www.geocachingwa.org), a non-profit group, is growing, with members scattered throughout the state.
But the popularity of the sport has some land managers concerned.
Steve Williams, manager of Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park, reports that there are hundreds of active geocaches in the Issaquah area. Williams is worried about what he sees as increased off-trail activity, which is prohibited at Cougar, a King County park.
"It's a problem if we have people bushwhacking in the woods for an hour to find one of these," says Williams. "The minute you're off the trail you're disrupting wildlife. We have to protect the habitat here, including a variety of ground-nesting birds, bobcats, and coyotes."
Safety is another concern for Williams. If a geocache is stashed in remote corner of forest far from established trails, hikers could potentially fall into the caved-in mines scattered throughout the park.
According to Bryan Roth, a spokesperson for geocaching.com, the company always recommends that geocachers request permission from land owners or land managers before placing a cache. The company also issues a series of guidelines for safe and legal caching, which include never burying caches, never placing caches in sensitive, historic, or military sites, and never hiding them near dangerous areas such as highways or railroad tracks. All national parks and U.S. Wildlife Refuges prohibit geocaching, and the company urges geocachers to obey these regulations.
"We have worked with land managers throughout the country (and world)," says Roth, "to resolve issues where caches have been placed without permission."
Cindy Wambeam, president of the Washington State Geocaching Association, says her group actively promotes low-impact geocaching, but doesn't set guidelines. The association refers members to the recommendations on geocaching.com. "Whether face-to-face or on-line, we do our best to encourage that all cachers consider the impact on an ecosystem before hiding a cache."
In addition, the WSGA has a Parks Advocacy Committee that has begun to meet with State Parks and other land managers to represent geocaching interests. Both the WSGA and geocaching.com are big promoters of "cache-in trash-out" programs that help clean up garbage from parks. WSGA members have recently helped remove invasive ivy from a park in Olympia, and some members were involved in trail-clearing work on Cougar and Tiger Mountain this winter.
Still, Williams is cautious about the growth of the sport. "It's a fine activity, but we're going to have to make some compromises," he says. He notes that to his knowledge, no one has asked permission to hide any of the caches currently on Cougar Mountain.
Do you think geocaching has a place in Washington's backcountry? Are you concerned about the possibility of increased off-trail travel, or the prospect of new GPS-wielding hordes hiding Tupperware boxes along the shores of Snow Lake? Or are you an avid hiker and a geocacher who practices both activities in a low-impact manner? Washington Trails Association would like to hear your thoughts on the issue. Email Andrew (andrew@wta.org) or write to WTA at: Washington Trails Association, 1305 Fourth Avenue, Suite 512, Seattle, WA 98101
