As I was walking with a rail-thin Army Reserve sergeant along the way to Murietta Falls awhile back, we got to talking about what his overweight preteen son thinks of hiking. In two words: hates it.
Army Dad’s solution: give him a game controller unit he can take out in the woods — a GPS receiver.
“He complained the whole way,” the dad said … right up until they found a geocache stashed somewhere. Then he was Mr. Excitement, and all suffering was forgotten.
Can’t say how many other youngsters would go for this, but it strikes me as a sane compromise for outdoorsy grownups whose dread at the prospect of dragging their kids outdoors is exceeded only by their kids’ dread at hearing Dad say “Pack up, we’re going camping!”
Lucky parents have kids who are into whatever the grownups are into. Everybody else (99.957 percent of the population, from what I hear) has to tear them ’em kicking and screaming away from their domestic cocoons full of comforting electronic devices.
Geocaching may be littering, as Fedak said the other day, but caches are out of the way and not hurting anyone. You can’t find stuff without going for a healthy walk, usually of several miles. There’s a hand-held electronic device requirement. Can anybody think of better bridge to the outdoors for the Xbox generation?
(Naturally, somebody has already thought of this).
We have been Geocaching for about a year now and our kids love it. Around Thanksgiving our four year old asked if we could could do it every day for 50 days (I think that this is the highest number that she could comprehend at the time)… anyhow our streak extended well beyond that and we broke 100 consecutive days. I think that the key is starting them young… we’ll see if they feel the same way when they hit their teens.
Actually that is an interesting idea. A GPS device is techy enough to be interesting to the internet generation, ie cool, sick, whatever. Using the geocaching game as a hook to add some fantasy genre to the mix could add just the right amount of distracting fun so they don’t really realize that they are doing something that promotes health. Kind of like an educational game. Stealthy. I wish I could have tried that with my son when he was young enough. He hated to camp and hike, but he’s never been overweight.
My young son and I love to go geocaching together. It’s not only a fun way to get out and enjoy the outdoors but you can make it educational. We have a few travel bugs that when they move we look on the map and see where they are.
My primary issue w/ Geocaching is that there is no logical limit to it. How many caches is too many and who’s job is it to keep track of them and possibly go clean them up? Who makes sure that the caches aren’t placed in a unsafe location? One mans “out of the way location” is another man “scenic destination”. Nothing spoils the feeling of undistrubed wilderness like some piece of civilization lying on the ground.
I understand the appeal of turning hiking into a big Pokemon game, but I think this is both unnecessary and sending the wrong message. You can have a GPS targeted destination w/o there being a trinket reward (i.e. http://www.confluence.org) and (IMHO) the journey itself and sense of discovery upon reaching a destination should be enough.
There is a similar argumant about summit registries, but I tend to have less an issue with them.
1) You rarely accidentally stumble across a summit registry. (And when you do see one its usually obvious what it is and why its there)
2) The summit itself is the destination, not the cache
3) These tend to provide some sense of history and community among climbers.
My kids and I enjoyed geocaching while hiking for a couple of years til they got to be teenagers. I’ve abandoned it myself as it interferes with my hiking and seems somewhat trivial. I would recommend it for families with younger kids.
Cachers are sensitive to the geocaching = littering crowd and the general ignorance about the sport. Of all of the outdoors people that I’ve met, cachers are among the most responsible. They regularly participate in volunteer activities in the parks, much more so than any hikers or backpackers I know. I’ve seen caches placed with the specific reason to bring attention to a trashy area in a park where the owner asks that every visitor help clean up.
Geocaching has a great relationship with local parks. Cachers have done everything from hauling out dumped dishwashers to leading nature walks and teaching navigation courses. When a cache is placed the hider agrees to certain rules and regulations put forth by geocaching.com and the land manager. The local caching community is very good at self-policing and if for some reason a cache becomes unwelcome or deteriorates it is dealt with.
Caches exist for many different reasons. I’ve seen caches placed with the intention of pointing out an often overlooked spot, to teach the history of a location, or to simply share a great view. I’ve found countless hidden gems all over the Bay Area thanks to caching, and I would never have discovered them otherwise.
I have some caches out there and I’m proud that my silly little containers in the woods have gotten people contributing to and enjoying local parks. There are a lot of people who have become active in the outdoors with their kids only because of caching, like Tom describes in the post.
I encourage everyone to visit http://www.thegba.net to see what kind of activities are going on in the local geocaching community. Local hikers may find it to be a great resource for information, especially the page that has links to all the available park maps.
Oh, if anyone is at Pinnacles this weekend, look for a large group of cachers doing volunteer cleanup/maintenence activities and feel free to join us.
Rebecca,
1) I just don’t buy the argument that the cacheing community is somehow inherently more socially responsible than other groups or the public at large. Are you really positing that there something about caching that attracts the “most responsible” people? Like most groups, I suspect that the early adopters will be model citizens and as the group grows it will begin to more resemble the population at large. Hunters, Mountain Bikers, Equestrians, ORV enthusiests, and (to some degree) climbers all make the same arguments, which are all probably valid for select populations or where the local enthusiast community is able to police the populace at large.
2) I still fail to understand why the cachers need to actually leave artifacts in the wilderness. Take a picture, capture the waypoint, have people go look for the spot. What about any of this requires that you leave manmade objects in the wilderness?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leave_No_Trace
1) I’m not making any statistical claims, but based on personally observed behavior in the many outdoor communities that I’m a part of, I can say that without a doubt I’ve seen more positive impact from cachers than any other. I think this is precisely because of the negative perceptions; cachers are constantly working against it and do everything they can to prove that they are a responsible group of people. This involves a lot of volunteer time and work. I’m sure it is the same in other groups with negative perceptions like you name: equestrians, ORV enthisiasts, etc. Here is a good article that helps remind us that it’s usually the few that ruin it for the whole: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0123/p09s01-coop.html?page=1
2) You just can’t explain it, but it’s there. Sometimes that tupperware or ammo can is all that is needed to get someone out to that park, and the only way we’re going to keep our parks is to keep people visiting them. And just to clear up something: Not every cache *is* a box in the woods. There are a lot of ‘virtual’ caches, which are exactly what you describe – take a picture, observe something, sign a visitor register, etc. Pinnacles National Monument is swarming with caches – without a single box. They are all “Earthcaches” which exist to teach the visitor about the geology of the area.