Cache Up NB mention in Moncton Times-Transcript

As seen in today’s issue of Moncton’s Times-Transcript. Original article can be read here. HUGE kudos to Tiger Tracker for putting this together.

Dieppe hosts first event of its kind during the month of leisure
by jacques gallant
Times & transcript staff

It’s still treasure hunting, complete with the thrills and disappointment of locating or not locating the prize; only it’s adapted to the uber-technological era of the 21st century.

Geocaching has become all the rage since the dawn of the new millennium, when the American military liberated satellite signals to allow for the personal use of GPS among civilians. One such workshop on the activity was given over the weekend in front of experts and amateurs alike at Dieppe’s Rotary St-Anselme Park.

“You place some sort of object in a container known as a cache,” explains Jacques LeBlanc, who has been a geocacher for the past three years. “You hide the cache somewhere outdoors, and you go on geocaching.com, where you indicate the co-ordinates of the cache. Then, geocachers can download those co-ordinates in their GPS and go out looking for it.”

The rules of the game stipulate that once you have found the cache, you sign a piece of paper to indicate your find, you place the object back in the container and post on geocaching.com whether or not the object has been located.
“Geocaching is really starting to become popular,” affirms LeBlanc. “At the moment, there are over 1.1 million caches throughout the world. It’s really a modern-day treasure hunt. It’s good exercise and it’s even great for the kids. It gets them away from the TV and gives them that sense of adventure.”

The activity has become so popular that associations have been established around it.
“Here in the province, you have CacheUp NB Group, as well as the Atlantic Geocaching Association in the region,” says LeBlanc. “They serve as forums and chances for members to discuss points of interest and for more amateur geocachers to meet the experts.”

LeBlanc watched eagerly as the 20 or so participants took off into the vicinity to search for the two demo caches he had hidden.

“A lot of people plan their vacations around geocaching events. It brings them to places they might not have otherwise visited,” says LeBlanc.

Still on the topic of world travels, he indicates that some objects are deliberately placed in caches so that they continue to be placed by geocachers in other containers throughout the world. These are known as “travel bugs”.

“They have tags on them indicating that they are not to be kept, but to be placed in a cache somewhere else,” says LeBlanc. “You go on geocaching.com, and you can see who placed the travel bug and when, as well as the voyage it has made around the world. Once a travel bug has been found, the owner receives an e-mail letting them know as well as once the bug has been placed somewhere else.”

At the weekend workshop, participants spoke of finding travel bugs that had made it to such far away lands as Panama, South Africa, China and Iraq.

The activity was one of many organized this month by the City of Dieppe in honour of June being the month of leisure. Community agent Gabrielle Maillet admitted she was surprised at the turnout, and indicates that if interest remains high, it’s possible that geocaching events could become more frequent in Dieppe.

“One of the objectives during leisure month was to get people outside and moving, but in today’s time, people are always on their computer or BlackBerry, so this activity allows us to bring technology out into nature,” she says.