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Geocaching celebrates 25 years of tracking down treasures
Anne Mitchell’s geocaching experience started at a small park in Albuquerque at Constitution Avenue and Pennsylvania Street NE. At the time, she had no idea just how far the hobby would take her.
“It was called ‘Pegasus’ and it was just caching a tree,” she said. “But that was our very first one.”
She recalls another particularly creative geocache, near Rio Grande NW, named “Periscope.”
“The guy made this little periscope that you pull up through a pipe, and then you look through the pipe and it takes you like four or five blocks away,” she said. “Gosh, there’s just so many. There’s a bunch.”
Mitchell isn’t kidding.
In the Duke City alone, Mitchell estimates that she and her husband, Fred, have found more than 25,000 geocaches since they picked up the activity in 2011. Operating under the username fam2go — “Fred and Anne Mitchell are ready to go,” she says — the couple has cached in all 50 states and 23 countries.
“I did it throughout my life in Albuquerque, and it took us to parts of Albuquerque that I never even knew existed, which was really cool,” she said. “But it’s taken us all over the world. Places that we would never, ever have thought of going.”
The Mitchells are far from alone. This year, the geocaching community is celebrating its 25th anniversary. According to Geocaching.com, the game launched with 75 locations in September 2000. Today, it’s spread to more than 190 countries, with more than 3.4 million geocaches hidden throughout the world.
For the uninitiated, geocaching is a different kind of treasure hunt, where participants attempt to locate not only trinkets and various items, but also places and landmarks they might not have otherwise discovered. The player that hides the geocache posts the location and coordinates on geocaching.com or the geocaching app, and then the hunt begins. The person who finds it signs a logbook before putting the geocache back in its hiding place. Some geocaches contain items that can be traded for a different item. Participants can also document their experience.
“The geocaching community shares one common characteristic, they’re explorers. Beyond that uniting through spirit of adventure, geocachers span the socioeconomic spectrum — teens to retirees from nearly every cultural and national identity are enjoying geocaching,” Chris Ronan, Geocaching HQ senior public relations manager, said.
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“New Mexico has always been a prime spot for geocaching. It’s such a great state for outdoor recreation that the natural environment lends itself wonderfully to exploration. For those who aren’t already experiencing the outdoors, geocaching gives them a reason to get out. And for those who are already hiking, climbing, and participating in other outdoor activities, geocaching can be added in to provide more direction to the adventure.”
To commemorate the quarter-century milestone, a number of celebrations known as block parties — which can be mega-events and giga-events depending on size — are being held throughout the country. At the moment, the closest one to New Mexico is at the Douglas Country Fairgrounds in Castle Rock, Colorado, known as the Rocky Mountain Geo-Rendezvous. Mitchell says she and her husband will attend those festivities on Aug. 16, but there should be one taking place closer to home in the near future.
“We were awarded what you call a community event to celebrate the 25th anniversary. So we’re going to have one of those,” Mitchell said. “It’s got to be at least two hours instead of just a half hour. We haven’t got that scheduled yet, though.
“… Mega are events that have at least 500 people. And a Giga event, which we just got back from (in) West Virginia, has 5,000 people.”
The best way to stay up to date on any 25th anniversary celebrations is to create an account on geocaching.com, Mitchell says. While the Mitchells would rightly qualify as diehards at this point in their geocaching tenures, one doesn’t need to be an expert to get started.
“It gets you out,” she said. “It gives you a reason for, say, just getting out and walking or just getting out and hiking instead of doing (only) that. It’s so much nicer when you have little stops along the way.
“There’s something in it for everybody … They can make it as hard or as easy as they want.”
