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It’s Caching On
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| Justin Ellis of Yankton displays some of the “swag” he has collected while indulging in geocaching — a sort of high-tech treasure hunting that employs a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. Geocaching is one of the fastest growing activities in the country, and Ellis is part of a local group dedicated to the recreation. (Kelly Hertz/P&D) |
High-Tech Intrigue Keeps Local Geocaching Group On The Go
BY RANDY DOCKENDORF
randy.dockendorf@yankton.net
It didn’t take Justin Ellis of Yankton long to find an interest in geocaching, a form of high-tech treasure hunt using a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver.
“We did our first one with a friend at Bismarck, N.D. We started July 3, 2007, and bought our GPS on July 4,” the Yankton man said. “At first, when I heard about it, I thought, this didn’t sound very good. Then we tried it, and I was hooked.”
Meanwhile, Greg and Jan Putnam of Yankton fell into geocaching without realizing it about four years ago.
“We have dogs that we always like to walk, and we will follow a path in Nebraska by the (Gavins Point) dam. We also collect golf balls, and we were walking by the Crofton golf course,” Greg said. “We saw a can hanging behind a tree. We found our first geocache without a GPS. When we opened up the container, a print-out page explained what this was all about and what to do.”
Geocachers can purchase a GPS at any sports store as well as other stores, Ellis said. The GPS generally runs from about $80 up to $600. Coordinates can be downloaded free from www.geocaching.com, although some people pay for a membership, he said.
Ellis poured out a container of various trinkets that he has found as caches. The stash includes small toys, a four-leaf clover, a pink John Deere, a homemade cross, playing cards, key chains and a matchbox container.
Geocachers come from all backgrounds. Ellis works at Wilson Trailer, while his wife, Carol, works as a physical therapy aide at Avera Sacred Heart Hospital. Greg Putnam works as a project engineer for the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) office in Yankton, while Jan works part-time at the Days Inn motel.
The Ellises and Putnams are two of the growing number of area residents who eagerly embrace geocaching. In fact, area aficionados have formed “Yankton Area Meet, Greet and Eat” as a way for other geocachers to get together, usually for a meal and conservation about caching.
The group, which is about two months old, meets the first Saturday of the month and has drawn 30 to 40 people. The group has taken a break for the holidays but will resume in February.
“You meet people you would never expect,” Ellis said. “During our first meeting, we had somebody from Columbus, Neb., and from Omaha. They go on the Internet to find the location of meetings.”
While they come from all walks of life, geocachers share something in common, Ellis said. “People like to be outdoors. They like adventure, and we all get along. With the geocache, we have something in common,” he said.
Putnam said he likes putting faces to familiar names at the “Meet, Greet and Eat” gatherings.
“You see the same name on (geocache) log books, and you wonder who they are,” he said. “We started meeting, and now we know these people.”
The Yankton group formed as an outgrowth of similar meetings in other communities, Putnam said.
“In Sioux Falls, they had a group that was always meeting on the second Saturday of every month where they would eat and talk caching. But it’s hard to get up to Sioux Falls all the time,” he said. “When we started having them in Yankton, we got a lot of new people. We had people who were new to it, and we had people who had been caching for a long time.”
The meet-and-greet gatherings are informal and entertaining, Ellis said. However, some geocachers are quite serious about their pursuits, with one man finding 5,000 caches, he said.
“It’s a friendly group. The last one, we met the cacher in South Dakota with the most findings,” Putnam said. “We have some guys who get 40 or 50 at a time. They like to run, grab and go. We like to look around. We don’t try to get 50 at once. We try to get 15 or thereabouts. We are at 1,260-some (caches).”
The Yankton meetings are much smaller in nature than in some parts of the United States, Putnam said.
“Many places, they have what they call bashes, which are big meetings,” he said. “They might have them for the southeast United States, so you meet other cachers.”
Cachers don’t use their real name for their activity. They can log onto www.geocaching.com, enter their geocache name, a ZIP Code and a radius. In turn, they will download coordinates of caches in that area.
But even when the cacher finds the location, he doesn’t always easily find the object, Ellis said. The objects can be cleverly disguised or placed in a very small container, but they can never be buried or placed out of sight, he said.
“I found one on a cannon in a park in Marshall, Minn.,” Ellis said. “We were visiting my mother-in-law and father-in-law’s house, and we would go out to look, then come back to the house for a while. We spent six hours total by the time we found it.”
However, geocaching becomes easier with experience, Ellis said. “You get to know the language and the manner of hiding,” he said, noting that “GZ” stands for Ground Zero.
“In Yankton, you find a lot of (caches) in the state park,” he added.
Geocachers should receive permission from landowners before placing caches on their property, Putnam said. For safety and security reasons, caches can’t be placed near a post office or airports or within 100 feet of active railroad tracks, he said.
Putnam has heard of caches in fake golf balls, fake security cameras, fake birdhouses and tree knots or cored-out trees.
“(Cachers) usually take a stuffed animal and put it in a (knot) hole,” he said, but noted one woman became “traumatized” when she reached inside a tree and pulled out an animal.
Ellis heard of a similar incident in another part of the country. “Someone looked inside a tree and had a family of opossums look back at him,” he said, noting some cachers use a tube or other device for reaching inside trees.
Putnam said his grown children enjoy caching, and he has branched out with his own geocaching.
“We like to be going to different spots. This summer, we spent a week in Rapid City. We cached and went into Wyoming and Montana,” he said. “We download all the caches around that area. What we do is query — we call up a ZIP Code and have the sites. We were doing some sightseeing. For some caches, you had to climb up rocks. Some you had to climb up trees.”
Other sites are a little less adventurous, Putnam said.
“It’s pretty interesting, the small towns in Iowa and Nebraska, they maybe have 300 or 400 people, and they have pretty arboretums. They have a lot of neat things,” he said. “We went up to Brookings, into a nice area with gardens and parks.”
Ellis has found caches and coordinates that take the form of treasure hunts.
“There is a map, and it says take so many paces. Then, you have a treasure box like a pirate,” he said. “There are a lot of (caches) on Goat Island (downstream from Yankton in the Missouri River), but you need a boat. You can follow the road or off-road caches. The off-road are (located) as the crow flies.”
The Putnams not only search for caches but also have placed about 15 caches around Yankton. The caches include large plastic jugs and smaller tins, with the James River as a popular site for them. Geocachers are expected to help maintain their containers and objects.
“We have lunch boxes that kids have spray painted for camouflage,” Greg said.
Geocachers also trade toys, called “swag,” as well as travel bugs, which are silver tags from caching sites, Putnam said. He took a travel bug to Pierre that was in turn taken by someone to England on vacation. The bug then went to Spain and Denmark. Putnam has seen caches end up in Florida and California.
“I like the travel bugs. My wife likes to collect things related to geocaching,” he said. “We have some neat little key rings that have a geocaching symbol on it. And we have a lot of other things related to geocaching.”
While geocaching is fun, Putnam said his family also sets a goal for each year.
“Last year, we had a goal of 300 caches,” he said. “This year, we wanted caches in every month. So far, we are good to go.”
“We did our first one with a friend at Bismarck, N.D. We started July 3, 2007, and bought our GPS on July 4,” the Yankton man said. “At first, when I heard about it, I thought, this didn’t sound very good. Then we tried it, and I was hooked.”
Meanwhile, Greg and Jan Putnam of Yankton fell into geocaching without realizing it about four years ago.
“We have dogs that we always like to walk, and we will follow a path in Nebraska by the (Gavins Point) dam. We also collect golf balls, and we were walking by the Crofton golf course,” Greg said. “We saw a can hanging behind a tree. We found our first geocache without a GPS. When we opened up the container, a print-out page explained what this was all about and what to do.”
Geocachers can purchase a GPS at any sports store as well as other stores, Ellis said. The GPS generally runs from about $80 up to $600. Coordinates can be downloaded free from www.geocaching.com, although some people pay for a membership, he said.
Ellis poured out a container of various trinkets that he has found as caches. The stash includes small toys, a four-leaf clover, a pink John Deere, a homemade cross, playing cards, key chains and a matchbox container.
Geocachers come from all backgrounds. Ellis works at Wilson Trailer, while his wife, Carol, works as a physical therapy aide at Avera Sacred Heart Hospital. Greg Putnam works as a project engineer for the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) office in Yankton, while Jan works part-time at the Days Inn motel.
The Ellises and Putnams are two of the growing number of area residents who eagerly embrace geocaching. In fact, area aficionados have formed “Yankton Area Meet, Greet and Eat” as a way for other geocachers to get together, usually for a meal and conservation about caching.
The group, which is about two months old, meets the first Saturday of the month and has drawn 30 to 40 people. The group has taken a break for the holidays but will resume in February.
“You meet people you would never expect,” Ellis said. “During our first meeting, we had somebody from Columbus, Neb., and from Omaha. They go on the Internet to find the location of meetings.”
While they come from all walks of life, geocachers share something in common, Ellis said. “People like to be outdoors. They like adventure, and we all get along. With the geocache, we have something in common,” he said.
Putnam said he likes putting faces to familiar names at the “Meet, Greet and Eat” gatherings.
“You see the same name on (geocache) log books, and you wonder who they are,” he said. “We started meeting, and now we know these people.”
The Yankton group formed as an outgrowth of similar meetings in other communities, Putnam said.
“In Sioux Falls, they had a group that was always meeting on the second Saturday of every month where they would eat and talk caching. But it’s hard to get up to Sioux Falls all the time,” he said. “When we started having them in Yankton, we got a lot of new people. We had people who were new to it, and we had people who had been caching for a long time.”
The meet-and-greet gatherings are informal and entertaining, Ellis said. However, some geocachers are quite serious about their pursuits, with one man finding 5,000 caches, he said.
“It’s a friendly group. The last one, we met the cacher in South Dakota with the most findings,” Putnam said. “We have some guys who get 40 or 50 at a time. They like to run, grab and go. We like to look around. We don’t try to get 50 at once. We try to get 15 or thereabouts. We are at 1,260-some (caches).”
The Yankton meetings are much smaller in nature than in some parts of the United States, Putnam said.
“Many places, they have what they call bashes, which are big meetings,” he said. “They might have them for the southeast United States, so you meet other cachers.”
Cachers don’t use their real name for their activity. They can log onto www.geocaching.com, enter their geocache name, a ZIP Code and a radius. In turn, they will download coordinates of caches in that area.
But even when the cacher finds the location, he doesn’t always easily find the object, Ellis said. The objects can be cleverly disguised or placed in a very small container, but they can never be buried or placed out of sight, he said.
“I found one on a cannon in a park in Marshall, Minn.,” Ellis said. “We were visiting my mother-in-law and father-in-law’s house, and we would go out to look, then come back to the house for a while. We spent six hours total by the time we found it.”
However, geocaching becomes easier with experience, Ellis said. “You get to know the language and the manner of hiding,” he said, noting that “GZ” stands for Ground Zero.
“In Yankton, you find a lot of (caches) in the state park,” he added.
Geocachers should receive permission from landowners before placing caches on their property, Putnam said. For safety and security reasons, caches can’t be placed near a post office or airports or within 100 feet of active railroad tracks, he said.
Putnam has heard of caches in fake golf balls, fake security cameras, fake birdhouses and tree knots or cored-out trees.
“(Cachers) usually take a stuffed animal and put it in a (knot) hole,” he said, but noted one woman became “traumatized” when she reached inside a tree and pulled out an animal.
Ellis heard of a similar incident in another part of the country. “Someone looked inside a tree and had a family of opossums look back at him,” he said, noting some cachers use a tube or other device for reaching inside trees.
Putnam said his grown children enjoy caching, and he has branched out with his own geocaching.
“We like to be going to different spots. This summer, we spent a week in Rapid City. We cached and went into Wyoming and Montana,” he said. “We download all the caches around that area. What we do is query — we call up a ZIP Code and have the sites. We were doing some sightseeing. For some caches, you had to climb up rocks. Some you had to climb up trees.”
Other sites are a little less adventurous, Putnam said.
“It’s pretty interesting, the small towns in Iowa and Nebraska, they maybe have 300 or 400 people, and they have pretty arboretums. They have a lot of neat things,” he said. “We went up to Brookings, into a nice area with gardens and parks.”
Ellis has found caches and coordinates that take the form of treasure hunts.
“There is a map, and it says take so many paces. Then, you have a treasure box like a pirate,” he said. “There are a lot of (caches) on Goat Island (downstream from Yankton in the Missouri River), but you need a boat. You can follow the road or off-road caches. The off-road are (located) as the crow flies.”
The Putnams not only search for caches but also have placed about 15 caches around Yankton. The caches include large plastic jugs and smaller tins, with the James River as a popular site for them. Geocachers are expected to help maintain their containers and objects.
“We have lunch boxes that kids have spray painted for camouflage,” Greg said.
Geocachers also trade toys, called “swag,” as well as travel bugs, which are silver tags from caching sites, Putnam said. He took a travel bug to Pierre that was in turn taken by someone to England on vacation. The bug then went to Spain and Denmark. Putnam has seen caches end up in Florida and California.
“I like the travel bugs. My wife likes to collect things related to geocaching,” he said. “We have some neat little key rings that have a geocaching symbol on it. And we have a lot of other things related to geocaching.”
While geocaching is fun, Putnam said his family also sets a goal for each year.
“Last year, we had a goal of 300 caches,” he said. “This year, we wanted caches in every month. So far, we are good to go.”
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Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of yankton.net.
5-4-Fun wrote on Dec 1, 2008 6:55 PM:
" Hey Yankton cachers...we've had lots of fun with this sport/hobby. We've met lots of great people and been to some very cool places since we started geocaching a little over a year ago. Glad to hear you are going to keep up the Yankton Area Meet and Greets, we were a little concerned when there wasn't one posted for December. We are going to try and get to as many as we can. We were in your area this past Saturday and we only have a few left to grab sometime next summer!
Keep on caching...5-4-Fun "
Keep on caching...5-4-Fun "
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