TECHNO TREASURE HUNTING

Dallas Smith leads a double-life.\nIn Bloomington, she's a graduate student in the School of Education, working toward a master's degree in instructional technology. But on the weekends and in her spare time, Smith is a treasure hunter -- and her discoveries are often right under the nose of the average pedestrian.\nSmith's "loot" is hardly Aztec gold or priceless gems though, and instead of a parchment map with a faded "X" marking the spot, she carries a pocket-sized electronic device -- which leads her straight to her treasure by global coordinates, rather than by a cryptic code. Hardly the romanticized treasure seeker, Smith is instead an updated, 21st-century technologically-savvy treasure hunter: a geocacher. And after a year of being involved in this techno treasure hunting game, Smith has found all the thrills of the plunder that childhood pirate adventure fantasies are made of -- even though the "spoils" that she typically finds are usually dusty Mardi Gras beads, action figures, rubber balls and logbooks.\nThis "grown-up" version of a treasure hunt, known as "geocaching," is just now approaching its fourth year of existence. Spawned from the marriage of the far-reaching Internet and newly available global positioning technology, the game requires a Global Positioning Service unit and the knowledge of one of thousands of longitude/latitude coordinates which mark the spot of a hidden "cache" -- or treasure -- in the same way that a looter's map would. \nThe "geo" in the name of the game comes from "geography," and "cache" is a term used for a hiding place where campers or hikers conceal and preserve provisions. Lists of the coordinates of these caches are available online, most widely at geocaching.com, and a geocacher intent on finding one simply enters the waypoint into his GPS device and sets off towards the spot. Clues about the exact location of the cache are usually given online -- as the hidden stashes are obscured to be invisible to oblivious passersby or curious animals. Upon finding a cache, a geocacher is free to take any item found inside, which range from small trinkets to cold, hard cash and most leave something else behind in its place. Experienced geocachers like Smith often "recycle" a fair amount of their small treasures by moving them from cache to cache -- allowing them to make their way across the nation. \nAs the game has grown in popularity, it has become hard to be anywhere within the United States in particular without finding a cache within 50 miles. In fact, just by typing a Bloomington ZIP code into the cache finder program at geocaching.com, over ten pages of different caches pop up -- two of which are in high traffic areas like Bryan Park and the Monroe County Courthouse, often unseen by local passersby. Smith herself was surprised to discover a cache practically in her backyard when she moved from North Carolina to a house near Cascades Park last year. \n"I just moved in, unpacked and then went to find it," she recalls.\nThe cache she eventually found, called the "Cascades Park Waterfall," is a microcache (or very small cache) hidden in a tiny film canister behind the waterfall. Her local find is recorded in her geocaching online journal, and joins the list of nearly 62 other caches she's found from at least five states. Smith's future goal is to find an internationally hidden cache -- and since over 197 countries have caches hidden within them according to statistics kept at geocaching.com, her options are open.\nStill, as far as the sheer amount of caches that Smith has found to date, she's on the low-end of the spectrum. With over 1,200 caches hidden in Indiana alone, and over 83,000 caches placed worldwide, many geocachers celebrate their finds by the hundreds, or compete against others and set yearly goals for themselves. Avid cacher Gary Burgan of Indianapolis has over 800 discoveries under his belt after two years of active caching -- and plans to hit his 1,000-cache goal within the next few months. In addition to finding caches, he also maintains about 50 of his own. The 53-year old's passion for caching is such that he will even leave his office during lunch break to quickly find a few caches to add to his list. On a serious caching day, Burgan can find 25-30 caches within a 12-14 hour period. \nIn addition to the thrill of the hunt, Burgan also enjoys the health benefits of geocaching. \n"After my first full summer of putting out caches I lost about 30 pounds from walking up and down all those hills," Burgan says. "It's made me a lot healthier, and it got me interested in backpacking. And I love being out in nature; I'm not keen on just doing the microcaches in the city."\nSmith also prefers the rural caches over the urban finds, as she's a self-described "outdoorsy" person who also loves camping, road trips and nature photography.\n"Some microcaches are near malls or outside stores," Smith says. "I always feel like I'm trespassing when I look for them."\nThe continued addition of new caches may be a future problem for geocachers, as the unregulated placement of them literally everywhere in the world (including malls, coffee shops and other public places) could take away some of the thrill of discovery that is central to the high-tech game. Smith feels that regulation may be necessary at some point, as she believes that caches placed on every block could take a lot of the fun away for her.\nStill, the future of GPS is not fully based in entertainment, though other personal uses may someday become commonplace. Joggers are already starting to incorporate them into their routines, as they can download maps and calculate their exact distance using the GPS technology. GPS devices installed in cars like the Oldsmobile Bravada and several sport utility vehicles can help average drivers find their way through unknown terrain. Novice cacher Gerry Inks of Indianapolis has used his GPS unit for aviation purposes and mapping for years -- and is only just starting to see the potential for other uses. \nHe's particularly interested in the fact that GPS devices have started to do double-duty for both work and pleasure. And he loves techie devices.\n"I've got everything -- Palm pilots, pocket PCs, a GPS unit. You name it, I've got it," Inks says. \nEven Smith's father has personal plans for the available technology. As an avid golfer, he wants to plot the coordinates of his golf tees in order to calculate the perfect shot -- and hopefully improve his score. \nWhatever the future of GPS, its multifaceted uses are only beginning to be explored by users, and the serious and entertainment values of the technology are limited only by the creativity of its users.\nIn the game of geocaching alone, several states have created online games revolving around global coordinates and finds, and many players use their imaginations when placing a cache. One of Smith's personal favorites was a "night cache" where a nighttime hike led her to the start of a path marked by reflective tape leading to a cache almost impossible to find during the day.\nParticipants in geocaching will undoubtably continue to reinvent the game, as more "geeks" (as Smith and Inks describe themselves) join in the fun. And those involved already are quite happy with their quirky hobby. For Smith, two of her favorite interests, technology and nature, are combined in the game. As for Inks, he's just having fun.\n"It's a geek scavenger hunt," he says. "Its perfect for me"