Hike Leader Steve Clark demonstrates use of a GPS to participants. See more photos below.
It’s a fact. Now 15 more people are sure of it. Young or old or in between, we never grow tired of finding hidden treasures. Recently the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy invited members and friends to join them on their Ventura River Preserve for a rare opportunity to learn the sport of Geocaching. Leading the way was Steve Clark and his friend Claudia of VenturaCountyTrails.org and Brian Stark, Ojai Valley Land Conservancy’s Conservation Director.
Participants from age 6 to 76 were enthralled as they took turns locating several of the hidden “caches” on the Preserve. Caches can be anything from a small pill bottle to an old army storage box, and are disguised to look like their surroundings. They have names like “don’t fence me in” which offer clues to their location and are hidden in trees, on fences, in pipes, among rocks, and even sometimes in things like mock bee hives. The caches all contain a log sheet for people to log that they were there. Many also contain “schwag”, little treasures like small toys, coins, even packs of sunscreen. The finder of the cache decides whether to take one of these treasures, which then must be replaced by something of similar value. Schwag known as “travelers” have a small tag identifying where they would like to go and the finder, if they are going towards that destination, takes the traveler to a cache closer to it’s destination to help it get there someday.
A GPS or Iphone is used to locate caches, after downloading the geographic coordinates online. There are caches just about any place you would like to visit. The Ventura River Preserve, for instance, has over 70 caches hidden throughout. The GPS unit acts as a compass, leading the way to each cache. Once the location is found, then human imagination has to take over to actually find the cache. “I just pretended I was a parent hiding an Easter egg and asked myself, where would I hide it?” said one of the moms. Of course most of the caches were found by the kids who’s hunting instincts have not yet been dulled by time. Hike leaders had to slow the kids down to give the grownups a turn.
There is of course ediquite involved in the sport, and a hearty respect for the environment is observed. The most serious of “rules” is not to let “the muggles” see you with a cache. Muggles are those unitiated to the sport who may be inclined to find and remove or destroy a cache.
“We love caching in new areas” said Steve Clark the hike leader, “it’s a great way to see things that only the locals know are there.” To date they have located almost 6,000 caches throughout the western United States, and will likely log many more.
To learn more about the sport, check out www.geocaching.com. To learn more about Ojai Valley Land Conservancy’s hikes, tours and similar programs, visit www.ovlc.org.
Cachers replace schwag taken from the geocache.
- Geocaching is for all ages.
- A cache hidden in a mock wasp’s next.
- Participants learn to use a GPS.
Saturday July 24, 2010, 8 am