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| What is Geocaching? In short, people of all walks of life are hiding (NOT BURYING) boxes in the wilderness, marking the exact coordinates on their Global Positioning Satellite Receivers and posting these coordinates on the internet at Geocaching.com for other people with GPS receivers to find. It's like using multi-million dollar satellite system to play Hide and Seek. These caches usually contain trinkets for trade. When a cacher finds a box, they can take something out of it, but they need to leave something in trade (like a Giant Swap Meet). There's also a log book to sign, and people are also pretty good about signing the virtual log on the internet for each cache. Then they leave the box there for the next people to find. What is Geodashing? Geodashing is an off-shoot of Geocaching and the Degree Confluence Project. No boxes, no permission from Park Rangers, no unfair trades. A person by the name of “Scout” programs his computer to spit out 31,000+ pseudo-random coordinates every month. You're job - find 'em. At least within 100 meters. Not as fun for the kids or the Mrs. but it makes a nice diversion on the way to a Geocache, or a suitable replacement during those freezing cold months - if you don't have to get out of your car to be within 100 meters. |
Aren't GPS Receivers extremely accurate since the release of Selective Availability? How is this challenging? To answer the first question, in the grand scheme of things, yes they are extremely accurate - usually down to about 30 feet. That means that my GPS could get me any where within a radius of 30 feet or rougly 2827½ ft². That's a pretty big area. Couple that with the fact that the hider's GPS could be off by that much and that's even more area to search (but not double). Then, people use devious methods to hide their caches. The GPS gets you to the grove in the forest. You have to find the exact hiding spot. |
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 Geocachers of Northeastern Illinois |
 My Thoughts and Wisdom (or lack thereof) regarding GPS Adventures |
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 Basics of GPS |