Geocache.com

When the kids were little and GPS units were still a gee-whiz novelty, we went geocaching a few times. (That’s the hobby where people hide trinkets outdoors and post the coordinates online, then you try to find them, leaving a trinket or notebook comment of your own when you do.) It was fun -  particularly hunting for one under three feet of snow in Joe English Reservation, even though we never did find it - yet the novelty quickly wore off.

Not for lots of people, though: The screen shot above shows the first four geocaches that come up at 03061 zip code (Nashua’s downtown) at geocaching.com. There are at least 5000 caches listed in New Hampshire, although I don’t know how many are still active.

The hobby has a drawback, however: Law enforcement gets nervous when folks stumble across mysterious cans or containers (ammo boxes are favorites because they’re water-right) tucked away behind rock walls or under park benches, and tends to call in bomb squads. The Washington Post has a story today about it. As Geocaching.com puts it: “Please use common sense when choosing a location for your cache. Do not design your cache such that it might be confused with something more dangerous.” The company has even started a system where police departments can get alerts when new caches are placed in their jurisdiction.

The National Park Service has gone so far as to forbid geocaching on federal parkland, largely because of concerns that people will stomp all over fragile ecosystems, looking for cool places to hide their cache. On the other hand, the number of people involved in outdoor activities is fading nationwide as we become a land of pudgy suburbanites, so anything that lures folks out of cars or buildings should be encouraged.

Tags: geocache