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Geocache Geocaching is a world wide “treasure hunt” experience. It is like a new version of an old activity called letterboxing. It can be virtual, but the vast majority are real time activities. A geocache is a container that is hidden in a special place with its GPS coordinates listed online at the official web site. Geocaching was made possible with the “turning off” of the selective availability Global Positioning System which allowed anyone to receive data from the 28 government satellites. The world’s first geocache was placed on May 3, 2000 by Dave Ulmer at Beaver Creek, Oregon. Approximately 255,056 caches are active in all but 2 countries and new ones are being created every day by people who want to share their adventurous experiences. Generally speaking, geocaches are hidden in special places often out in the countryside. For example we placed our geocache in a tree stump next to a river with a beaver lodge - it was named “Leave it to Beaver”. On November 12, 2005, National GPS day, our Geo/Ecology class was introduced to the world of geocaching by a veteran geocacher, Nanci Greindl. In the classroom she taught us everything that we needed to know about creating our own cache. That afternoon we journeyed out to the Preserve and hunted for the only existing cache (at that time) on the Cathance. After some difficulty we found it! We then searched for a location to place our own cache. Later, we converted it into a multi-cache which required us to go out and establish another set of coordinates. We did not activate our cache until this spring, because we felt the snow cover would make the terrain too difficult to manage. Within 2 hours of registering the cache online on April 26, 2006 LITB was discovered by a local Geocacher.
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