There are 308 within twenty miles of the Boone area. They can be found off State Farm Road, in the local McDonald's parking lot, and even on the
Appalachian State campus itself. Hidden objects lay where one may never notice, even in broad daylight. It's the world's largest scavenger hunt, and it's called Geocaching.
Geocaching first emerged in 2000, initially coined “GPS Stash Hunt” by Matt Stum. Completely free, it’s a recreational hunt that can be done in just about any location, especially in the United States. The search takes participants throughout parks, forests and parking lots, and must always be done inconspicuously.
The essential goal of geocaching is simple: use coordinates and a GPS to hunt out thousands of hidden "caches" all over earth.
The concept seems generally easy as you are provided with specific coordinates to plug into a GPS system. However, these coordinates do not always guarantee a straight shot to the destination.
There may be obstacles along the terrain where the cache is positioned, making it harder to pinpoint the exact location of an object. Most entries of coordinates include clever clues or hints as to the relative placement of a cache and perhaps its size.
While searching for little-known objects, it is not difficult to appear odd as you casually look around a specific area in mostly public locales. Those who are still in the dark about the world of Geocaching are referred to as “muggles” according to the organization’s official website.
While many newcomers may believe they are actually searching for a reward or item of worth, this is not completely accurate. A traditional cache as described on Geocaching.com is "at a bare minimum, a container and a log book. Normally you'll find a Tupperware container, ammo box, or bucket filled with goodies, or smaller container ("micro cache") too small to contain items except for a log book."
In my personal experience with Geocaching, I’ve encountered everything from miniscule magnets stuck to the back of road signs to a bison tube suspended on a thread of fishing line over a freeway (accessible only from a pedestrian bridge).
Although cache-hunters do not receive anything per say, Geocaching is definitely rewarding. Each new cache found comes with a strong sense of victory followed by a thirst to discover more. Upon finding one of the hidden containers, protocol is for one to record their Geocaching user-name on the provided log. It’s incredible to see how many others have found a cache so close to a Boone staple, such as Daniel Boone gardens.
While this particular activity is still on the rise and yet to be widely recognized, caches exist all over the United States.
Whenever you may find yourself with a GPS and some free time, try saving a couple coordinates to some close-by caches (easily found online) and explore your city while participating in a worldwide hunt.
You may or may not find what you’re looking for, depending on how hard you try, but you will surely be introduced to some new areas of Boone that you may not have considered visiting before. Happy hunting!
In order to access coordinates on the official Geocaching website, you’ll need to create an account (easy and spam-free). But if you’re interested in just giving it a try, here are some near-by caches to get you started:
-Drain Monster #9…I got Yoself: N 36˚ 13.476 W 081˚ 38.901 -A Walk in the “Park”: N 36˚ 13.046 W 081˚ 41.083 -Welcome to App State! : N 36˚ 12.760 W 081˚ 40.562
