Spring 2009 - Issue 5

The Silversword: Home > Features > Pirate beware, modern treasure hunters exist

Pirate beware, modern treasure hunters exist

By Sean Goo

Chaminade Silversword

 


The quest for treasure was always believed to be reserved for pirates, treasure hunters and Nicolas Cage from “National Treasure.”

But since 2000, the activity has grown to more than four million registered treasure hunters around the world. This type of treasure hunting is called geocaching and isn’t a hunt for precious metals or money, it’s for hidden containers called geocaches.

“The geocaching experience is all about exploring new places that you wouldn’t have noticed without the game,” said Noel Wegesend, who has been hiding and seeking geocaches for the past year.
Geocaching, as defined on geocaching.com, is a real-world, outdoor, treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.

Modern-day treasure hunters are called geocachers and are equipped with a handheld GPS unit like a smartphone or a purpose built GPS unit manufactured by companies like Garmin.

There are more than 1.4 million active geocaches around the world, and they can be as big as a World War II ammunition can or as small as a cylindrical container the size of a quarter. They often hold a log book, in which someone can write their name and date, and small miscellaneous items of little value that participants can keep as long as they leave something of equal or greater value. Geocache containers are hidden by any other geocacher who wants to lead others to an exciting or interesting place.

There are more than 500 individual caches in a 10-mile radius around CUH and more than 1,400 in the state of Hawaii.

Caches in Hawaii are located on hiking trails or in urban environments like Ward Warehouse or the Times Supermarket parking lot in Kaimuki.

Some of the best caches include riddles like “Urban Scrawl,” a two stage cache located in the heart of Kaimuki. It requires a geocaching hunter to travel around Kaimuki to look for the final container. The GPS coordinate given by geocaching.com leads a hunter to the first stage. Located at the corner of Koko head Avenue and Waialae Avenue a cacher is virtually transported back to 1938, when the first modern supermarket was built.

At that location, a little piece of history is written into a cement slab stating, “C.S. Crane Mayor Honolulu. A Dream Come True – Tuck Yee Yap. 9/1/38.”

The online description of “Urban Scrawl” gives a cacher another riddle stating, “It is not Tucked away and was moved by a Crane. Something came true and forget about an ‘a.’”

With that clue, a hunter must fill in the blanks and match letters with numbers lead to the location of the final geocacher container:

Stage 2: N 21 XX.XXX W 157 48.814

Key (go in the order of the found clue):
A=4, B=0, C=N, D=1, E=1, F=3, G=12, H=44, I=27, J=4, K=5, L=1, M=6, N=23, O=69, P=7, Q=5, R=7, S=63, T=6, U=7,V=8, W=2, X=32, Y=56, Z=00.

Most caches don’t have intense riddles and aren’t as complicated. Many don’t require intense thought like “Urban Scrawl.”

Geocaching often requires hunters to look for hidden containers in awkward public places. From the perspective of someone who doesn’t know about the game, geocachers may look goofy, funny and even appear suspicious. Guidelines for placement of caches forbid people from placing containers on military bases, government property or schools to avoid unnecessary concern.

“There is something about looking for a cache that someone else has hidden, or hiding something for other people to find,” said Wegesend. “It’s fun to be a kid again, like a huge, ongoing, scavenger hunt or Easter egg hunt from when we were little kids. And then knowing that someone is out there finding the same caches that you found, makes you feel like you’re a part of something.”