IU Geocaching Club braves rain for challenge

Despite persistent rain Saturday and memories of broken phones and fake dead rats, members of the IU Geocaching Club participated in the “1st Annual Reservoir Ramble Geocache Challenge.”

The event was organized through the Department of Natural Resources and took place around Lake Monroe.

There were 12 hidden caches, each with GPS coordinates. Each cache was worth a certain amount of points, and a team successfully completed the challenge if it received at least 15 points and returned to the starting point before 4 p.m.

Caches are objects participants try to find during a geocache, which is essentially a scavenger hunt. Geocaching is a worldwide event with about a million and a half caches hidden, said senior Alex Lemont, co-president of the IU Geocaching club.

The group planned their route beforehand. This specific challenge involved much driving, but the challenges usually involve more hiking, Lemont said.

Alumnus Jess Falkenthal, with junior and Webmaster Jeff Dunfee, navigated while Lemont drove. Falkenthal founded the club in fall 2009.

“Despite the number of arguments about directions, geocaching is a team builder,” Lemont said.  

“I just really wanted a group of people to go geocaching with,” he said.

The group once participated in an event that required canoeing to the middle of the lake. Once they arrived, Lemont tried to use his phone to solve a puzzle and ended up dropping it in the water.

Caching is an activity that can be done any time, not just for event. There are different types of caches,  including multi-stage one and caches that have to be done at night.

Lemont likes to geocache when he travels. He said the caches in other cities are put there by local people, so they usually put them in spots worth seeing.

Falkenthal has found more than 2,500 caches and once found a cache every day for 100 days straight. IU has 45 caches, with one attached to the School of Informatics and Computing Building.

Anyone can hide a cache. The only requirement is that it have a log sheet in it for
people to write down when they found it. Sometimes, people put items in the cache that can be traded for something of equal or greater value by those who find the cache.

At Pine Grove State Recreation Area, one of the locations, the group decided to take a break from the challenge to find a cache not affiliated with the event.

They were looking for a locked ammo box and a nearby PVC pipe with the key in it. Sophomore and Business Manager Emma Hatten found the ammo box in a rock crevice. The box contained a clue with further hints to the key’s location. Dunfee found the key, and the group opened the box and recorded their names.

“This huge geocaching community is underground,” Lemont said. “No one really knows about it, but it’s all over the place.”

Lemont said during another trip, the group found a cache that was a fake dead rat.

Dunfee participated in a multi-stage geocache the first time he tried it. It took four or five hours.

“That’s what got me hooked on it, and I’ve been geocaching ever since,”
he said.