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'Modern-day treasure hunting' Geocaching is catching on around Yellowknife
Laura Busch
Northern News Services
Published Friday, August 23, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
They're hiding all over the city in plain sight.
They're lurking under rocks, obscured in brush off the side of your favourite trail and there is even one smack in the middle of downtown - you probably pass by it unaware every day.
Marlee Currie, left, Dawson Currie, 11, and Madison Anthony, 12, show off a cache they located near the McMahon Frame Lake Trail on Tuesday. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo |
Those in the know about these hidden treasures have a word for the rest of us - they call us "muggles."
There is nothing otherworldly about geocaching but the pastime is catching on.
"It's like a modern-day treasure hunt," said Marlee Currie, who has been geocaching around Yellowknife for the past four years.
Geocaching combines the classic scavenger hunt with modern technology. To try it out, one needs either a GPS device or a smartphone app. Caches hidden all around the world are logged in a central website, geocaching.com, where co-ordinates and hints are provided to lead you to your prize.
"I just think it's fun. You can go out hiking and you can do it as a family - it gives you a reason to be outside," said Currie, who recently started the Facebook group Geocaching Yellowknife to draw the city's geocachers out of the woodwork.
According to the geocaching website, there are more than 60 caches hidden within city limits, with dozens more scattered along the Ingraham Trail and along lake shores.
A cache is usually a small, weatherproof case filled with trinkets. The aim of the game is to locate a cache, sign the log book and swap one of the trinkets inside to one you've brought along with you. By this honour system, geocachers have moved items all around the world.
However, not all caches are created equal. Some ask you to solve a riddle instead of exchange trinkets, while others are made for a specific purpose. For example, a cache near Fortress Island in the East Arm, called the Great Slave Lure Exchange, comes with the description: "If you have a lure that is just not catching any fish, leave it here. The next cacher might have better luck with it. If you take a lure please leave one in exchange."
The City of Yellowknife is also catching on to the trend.
This Sunday it hosting an introduction to geocaching course from 1 to 5 p.m. where participants will first learn the basics and then head outside to seek out caches for themselves.
"Out of this program, they'll get first-hand knowledge of how to make your own cache and how to find one," said Brian Kelln, program manager with the city.
Geocaching appeals to residents and tourists alike, said Kelln. The appeal of the activity is it's active but not restrictive - anyone of any age or fitness level can participate.
For the second year in a row, the city is also releasing special Yellowknife geocaching coins to be used as treasures exchanged in the cache boxes.
Last year, one of the special coins ended up in Great Britain, he said.
Tracking where your trinkets end up is one of the most entertaining parts of geocaching, said Currie. The most interesting cache she has found yet was a coin called Project Blue Sky, which had a stated mission of travelling as far around the world as possible. The last time she checked, the coin was in South America.
Not all geocaching trinkets are traceable, but those offered for sale by the city are. This year, artist Robbie Craig was commissioned to design the coin.
"It's a great way to promote our city to tourists," said Kelln, adding once visitors bring the coins back south with them, they will "leave a little bit of Yellowknife in some of those communities."
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