Wichita area offers more than 1,000 hidden treasures in this GPS scavenger hunt
Geocaching is celebrating its 20th birthday this year, so I thought it was about time I give it a try. Besides the milestone anniversary, I have been looking for safe outdoor activities that I can do to break up the monotony caused by following stay-at-home orders.
I thought I might be the only person who by now didn’t know much about geocaching but as I mentioned it to friends and family, most were not sure how it worked. So I’ll start with the basics.
Geocaching, pronounced geo-cashing, is a combination of the words geography and cache, meaning items stored in a hidden place. It’s an outdoor treasure hunting game where you follow a specific set of GPS coordinates in an attempt to find the geocache hidden there. All you need is a GPS-enable device, like your cell phone, and an app so you can see the coordinates.
There are free apps like the basic version of Geocaching by Groundspeak or c:geo (Android only), though caching enthusiasts often graduate to paid apps like Cachly or the premium membership at Geocaching by Groundspeak, which provides coordinates to the entire database including more difficult to find caches.
The cache is typically a container that varies in size from micro (the size of a pencil eraser) to large (a five-gallon bucket, for example). There are also virtual caches that require you to answer a question about the location or take a photo rather than finding a container.
Physical caches contain a logbook for finders to sign, and if the container is large enough they often have trinkets or other small treasures. Cachers carry their own swag and leave something when they take something from the cache.
Looking for something hidden by a stranger might not sound like a good option during the pandemic, but those addicted to the hide-and-seek game say it can be safe if you take precautions. You can choose to find virtual caches, which don’t require you to touch anything, and you can also look for caches that haven’t been found in the past week or two by checking the activity log on the cache listing at geocaching.com.
For Dale LeBar, his wife Estelle and 12-year-old daughter Zoey, geocaching is a way to explore close to home, from caches hidden in their Derby neighborhood to areas of town they otherwise haven’t discovered, including coordinates that help them see local history.
“It’s nice to get out and do something as a family that doesn’t keep you housebound,” he said. “We take our hand sanitizer, we have soap and water in the car with us and we put on a pair of gloves before touching a cache, then we throw away the gloves after we’re done signing the logbook and putting the cache back.”
And with the most recent guidance from health experts, they are wearing masks when they venture out. The LeBars started geocaching in 2008 when they moved from New York to Wichita and have registered about 150 finds under the handle kansasdale. Dale also uses geocaching to keep in touch with his son and grandchildren who live elsewhere in Kansas and in Minnesota. He recently created four travel bugs, which are trackable tags that you attach to an item and assign a destination. The idea is that fellow cachers will help move the item around the world and eventually deliver it to the destination cache assigned.
A recent count from Geocaching.com, the operator and promoter of the geocaching community, shows nearly 11,200 active caches in Kansas among the 3 million worldwide. In 2019, more than 1.6 million geocachers found at least one cache and posted 92,200 “Found It” logs across Kansas.
There are about 1,000 to find in the Wichita area, from spots in local parks that are easy to find to those that require more of adventuring. The cache listing will show you a grade for difficulty and terrain so you know what you’re getting into. There’s at least one in the area that is rated at the top of the geocaching 5-star scale in both categories; the best way to access it is by using a 40-foot ladder.
Kent Volgamore manages that geocache, which is called “Sitting on a Spider” because it’s on the top of a concrete structure with eight legs. Volgamore started geocaching in 2001 after reading an article in The Wichita Eagle about this new activity.
Civilian GPS devices became 10 times more accurate on May 2, 2000, when the U.S. government removed selective availability, an intentional degradation of public GPS signals implemented for national security reasons. This made GPS more accessible to civil and commercial users worldwide.
A computer consultant in the state of Oregon decided to test the system. He created a game by hiding a navigational target – a black bucket – in the woods in Beavercreek, Oregon, near Portland. He posted the coordinates for what he called the “Great American GPS Stash Hunt” in an internet GPS users group on May 3 and three days later two different people used their GPS receivers to find the container. One of the finders logged his experience on his personal website and within the first month he had started publishing the online posts of coordinates as people around the world stashed containers for others to find. By September 2000, enthusiasts had formed a hobby website for the activity and adopted the term geocaching because it sounded more positive than stashing.
Volgamore read about this upstart, and as a pilot he had the GPS equipment needed. He started tracking the caches he found around the country and even started hiding some of his own. He has what is considered to be among the oldest active caches in the Wichita area. He placed “Sky King Cache” in September 2001 near South Lake in Haysville.
Volgamore’s handle is barondriver because he flew a Beech Baron for charter and for the Galichia Medical Group for many years. He logged 4,000 hours in the Baron and 12,000 total hours and now is a simulator and ground instructor for Flight Safety International. Flying helped him log finds in every state, though road trips are the best for geocaching.
“One geocache that I remember fondly was on a 2,400 mile geocaching trip from Wichita to Missoula, Montana, to Moorehead, Minnesota, and back home to Wichita. It was a half-mile hike up a hill along a wildflower-edged hiking trail to the top of the pass. The geocache was an ammo box chained to a pine tree with an awesome view.”
Through road trips he’s found caches in every county in Kansas, Oklahoma and Delaware. He’s eyeing Missouri for his next county challenge. He surpassed 13,000 caches in December 2019 on a trip to Hutchinson and is now up to 13,150. He says he’s hidden at least 500 over the years and estimates about 300 are still active.
He’s also hit some of the bucket list geocaches in the country, including one at Geocaching Headquarters in Seattle and the oldest active geocache in the world, just off Interstate 70 near Mingo, Kan. Just days after the original stasher in 2000, a land surveyor in western Kansas placed a container on May 10 and published its coordinates on May 11, making it the seventh known geocache. Simply called “Mingo,” this became the oldest active geocache in 2002 when the others were archived or deactivated.
“Mingo brings a lot of attention to Kansas within the geocaching world,” said Chris Ronan, a Kansas native now living in Seattle and working for Geocaching.com. “It has this place in the history of the game, it’s like a mecca for someone who is really into caching.”
Special events to commemorate two decades of geocaching were planned for May and have now been postponed or canceled. Mingo Madness, planned at Mingo and nearby Colby has been moved to Sept. 12, though keep an eye on mingo2020.com and facebook.com/MingoMadness for updates.
In the meantime, if you’re feeling good enough to get outside, explore the geocaches where you live. I tried and ended up needing help of the geocaching community, a friendly group that were eager to introduce me to their hobby. Ernie Cantu, a longtime geocacher who lives in Belle Plaine and goes by the handle cantuland, sent me tips and a list of caches good for beginners. LeBar and Volgamore both reached out with tips and offers to meet me for my first hunt.
I tried to go it alone, though. The first attempt was just blocks from my house, but the container the geocaching app described wasn’t under the bridge where the app told me to look for it. We’re thinking rain likely washed it into the nearby creek or kids who frequently play in the area displaced it.
So I took Volgamore up on his offer to take me to three of his hides around Haysville’s Dorner Park. The names all give clues for where they’re placed or what to look for: “All Quacked up at Dorner Park,” “Creekside” and “Early Bird.”
Armed with that experience, I tried another cache on my own in a park on Wichita’s west side. I needed my husband’s eyes to find the cache the size of a small jar of peanut butter. It was camouflaged laying among leaves and was about 30 steps from where the GPS in my phone was telling me to look.
We tried another cache while walking the nature trails at Cheney State Park and didn’t find it. Then I remembered one of the tips LeBar shared:
“You have to have a sense of adventure and not be too concerned if you don’t find it,” he said. “It’s still something fun for the family to do outdoors.”
Tips when looking for a cache
Use your eyes Your GPS or smartphone will only get you within about 30 feet of the cache location. When you’re close, use your eyes, hands and geo-senses to locate the cache.
Look for something that seems out of place Caches come in all sizes, shapes and colors. Look under rocks, in tree hollows, under park benches and look in that one spot you’re 100% positive is not the hiding place.
Geocaches are often disguised Many look like rocks, bricks, bird houses or other everyday objects.
Geocaches are never buried But they won’t always be on the ground.
Respect your surroundings Never trample on flower beds, scale walls or damage property trying to find the cache.
Check the hint Many cache pages offer hints that may help you figure out where to look.
Check the latest activity Recent logs from other geocachers may contain valuable information such as, “I had to look really low to find this cache!”
Be patient with yourself Developing your geo-senses takes time.
Use caution when probing an area If you’re in a nature area, using a stick will scare off critters as you’re searching. You can also use it to tap the container when you find it (in case of spiders). Be careful when opening the cache in case it’s full of water or dry and full of ants.
Always bring a pen You’ll want a pen to sign the logbook.
Sources: Geocaching.com and Ernie Cantu