Geocaches are being discovered in Sisters

Have you been downtown recently and noticed someone suspiciously combing through the branches of a tree or turning over a rock, one hand holding what appears to be a cell phone?

You've probably witnessed a "geocacher," GPS device in hand, trying to find a hidden treasure.

"Geo-cashing," as it's pronounced, is growing rapidly in the Sisters area.

A new adventure game for GPS (Global Positioning System) users, participating in a cache hunt is a great way to use the wonderful features of a GPS device.

The name comes from "Geo" for geography and "caching" for the process of hiding a "cache." Hikers and campers use a "cache" as a hiding place for concealing provisions. Mountain men created hidden caches to store their beaver pelts.

Geocaching began in 2000 when the U.S. government released GPS signals for civilian use. The very first cache was hidden right here in Oregon by Dave Ullmer, a computer consultant, who stashed his cache in the woods near Beaver Creek.

The "sport" of Geocaching is simple. Individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the Internet. Geocaching.com, established in 2000 and the sport's largest Web site, has become the primary information site for worldwide cachers. GPS users log on to the site (basic membership is free), find the longitude and latitude of caches in their area of interest, and set out to find the treasure.

GPS devices can put you within six to 20 feet of the location of a cache. Local geocacher Jerry Mohler, who goes by the caching name "Jermo" on the Geocaching Web site, has found 258 caches to date and enjoys the sport immensely.

"What attracted me to geocaching is it shows the way to interesting places that we would not otherwise know about," he said. "As a traveler I love to go into a new town and search for caches as a way of getting to know the city and see sites that are not on a tourist map."

Obtaining the location coordinates is only the beginning of the adventure. Cache stashers have come up with thousands of innovative ways to hide their caches. Some use small pill containers disguised in camo colors and hung in trees, others are hidden in fake rocks in plain sight right in the middle of a town. Some are tucked beneath park benches or even at highway rest stops.

Most are in watertight containers like metal ammo boxes or covered plastic pails to keep the contents safe and dry. It frequently requires "stealthiness," a term coined by cachers, to find a cache and not look like a terrorist while searching.

Ric and Lin Carlson, who go by the caching name of "West Coast Weenies," like the varied challenges presented by cache hunts.

"Virtual caches are also sometimes fun because they bring new knowledge to the finder by having to answer questions (or solve a puzzle) to claim a find," said Ric.

Right now there are 49 caches hidden within the 97759 area code. Worldwide, Geochaching.com reports there are 581,283 hidden caches to date.

The cache in the photo is hidden downtown, within a half-mile of the post office, and is named the "Welcome to Sisters" cache because it contains tourist maps, Sisters Chamber information, as well as a myriad of "treasures" that both adults and young people will enjoy collecting and trading.

The rules are pretty simple. If you take something from the cache, leave something in the cache, and write about it in the logbook which is also provided.

When cachers arrive back home they log their finds on their Geocaching.com account with a message to the cache stasher that they found it, what they took, and what they left.

Cache treasures include inexpensive small toys, silly putty, action figures, CDs, gift cards, money (generally for local charities) and disposable cameras with which cachers take their own picture, leaving the camera in the cache. The cache holder develops the pictures and places them on their geocaching Web page for others to view.

Other interesting treasures found in caches are "travel bugs" and "geocoins." A travel bug is a tag with a tracking number that you attach to an item in a cache.

This allows you to track the item on Geocaching.com, following its worldwide travel and even giving the item a travel "goal" to attain.

The item travels from cache to cache (or person to person) and you can follow its progress online.

Geocoins are special coins created by individuals or groups as a kind of signature item or calling card and function in much the same way as travel bugs.

The one fear that geocachers share is "muggles." This Harry Potter-inspired term refers to the civilians who stumble across caches.

Unaware of the sport, muggles will take or move caches, sometimes even reporting suspicious ammo boxes and plastic containers to authorities.

"First finds" for geocachers are a very big deal. The Web site will alert an account holder when a new cache has been located within their area of interest.

It's not unusual to witness cache hunters with flashlights searching within an hour of a new cache being posted online.

"The most interesting cache here in Central Oregon that I have found is the cache high on top of Cache Mountain overlooking the Santiam Pass," said Jerry Mohler.

If you're interested in learning more about the sport, the Geocaching.com Web site is a good place to start. And you can have a "cache hunt walking tour" for at least six caches without ever leaving the Sisters city limits.