The GPS leads Grey into the woods of Alum Spring Park. He and other geocachers say their sport is exercise with a purpose. rez

Fredericksburg resident J.R. Grey checks his GPS to find a trail that will lead him to hidden treasures. Grey is a fan of the new sport of "geocaching." rez

Halfway to his destination, Grey checks an opening in the trees to see if his GPS might be able to pick up a satellite signal. rez

What's at the end of the trail? Goodies. Grey chooses this Coleman lantern keychain and leaves a Hot Wheels car and a Pez dispenser for others to find. rez

Geocaching brings treasure hunting to the 21st century.

By LUCIA ANDERSON
The Free Lance-Star

Date published: 8/31/2001

REMEMBER that game where you tried to find a hidden object while the other kids yelled, "You're getting warmer" or "Now you're cold, ice cold"?

Twenty-first-century game players can now call on space satellites and atomic clocks to give them the same sorts of clues.

This modern version is called geocaching; it's played with hand-held global positioning system receivers. And it's way more fun than the birthday-party game.

"I found it! It's right over here," yelled Julie Martin of Fredericksburg, bounding excitedly through the leaf mold on the forest floor last Friday.

It was the third find of the day for Martin and her boyfriend and geocaching partner, J.R. Grey, also of Fredericksburg. But it was the first one that Martin had spotted.

The white Tupperware box was nestled at the base of a huge beech tree, about 50 yards off the nature trail in Northern Virginia's Fountainhead Regional Park. Partially shielded from view by carefully placed bark, sticks and leaves, the box required a sharp eye to spot.

Opened, it revealed a stuffed bichon frisé that made rude noises when squeezed, a movie video, a sci-fi paperback, a deck of playing cards, a Matchbook helicopter, a Beatles compact disc and assorted other questionable treasures.

It's the lure of the hunt that's addictive, not the loot at the end of the trail.

It works this way: Cache hiders pick a nice outdoor spot that's fairly easy to get to, but not all that obvious. They then post the latitude and longitude of their caches on an Internet site (www.geocaching.com), with directions to the trailhead and a couple of general clues to get the hunt started.

Those who have already found the cache usually post that fact at the bottom of the directions page with comments about how much fun they had doing it.

Cache seekers go to the Web page for a directory of nearby caches. Once they select one, they enter the latitude and longitude numbers in their GPS units and drive or walk to the starting point. Then they wander over hill and dale, through wood and swamp, guided by the little black arrow on the GPS screen.

When they find the cache, players may take something from the box as long as they replace it with something else. Most boxes are filled with inexpensive outdoor gear, small keepsakes and playthings. Some boxes also have disposable cameras that finders can use to document their discovery.

Geocachers also sign the logbook inside the box, using a "nom de geocache." They briefly relate their adventures on the way in.

Finding the cache is not a given. Heavy leaf cover in deep woods can interfere with the satellite signals, which causes problems. The GPS units are accurate only to within 50 feet or so of the destination, and those last few feet can be a killer.

Date published: 8/31/2001