Common Ground

Geocaching is a relatively new activity where GPS, Global Positioning Satellite receivers are used to locate "caches" hidden in publicly accessible areas. The GPS coordinates are then published on the Internet allowing "Cachers" to use their GPS receivers to locate the cache.

Historically, government parks department frowned upon the activity saying it was no different than leaving litter behind. That and the participants would trample the area and make paths. That all is an exaggeration and Waukesha is fortunate to have a Parks Department that recognizes Geocaching as a great activity. Again this year they are sponsoring a cache hunt this Saturday 8AM beginning at the Schuetze Recreation Center.

I became involved in Geocaching soon after it's inception when President Clinton ordered the Air Force to eliminate a confusion signal that made civilian GPS accurate to about the area of two football fields. Now they are accurate to a few feet. When this happened, a person in Washington hid the first cache and challenged people on the Internet to find it. Soon it exploded to thousands of caches around the world. I've hidden a few myself and have found several hundred.

My greatest enjoyment was being taken to interesting places that I would otherwise not have visited. My favorite caches are located in the Kettle Moraine Forest. Now I look for them occasionally and as an activity where my fuzzy companion, Kanook, and I can enjoy some outside time together.

A local geocaching team, The Tapps, have been prolific and have hidden caches in about every park there is in the city. Others have also hidden caches around the area. So if you have a GPS, visit a couple websites to check out Geocaching. One is www.geocaching.com and the local club is www.wi-geocaching.com . If you don't have a GPS, adequate ones for Geocaching can be bought for around $100. If you are just curious, show up Saturday morning at Schuetze and see what's going on. Maybe someone will offer to let you tag along.