Game of 'geocaching' comes to Mat-Su

PALMER -- Somewhere in the Butte area is an ammo box containing a compass, can opener, log book, pencils, sharpener, hand warmers, silly putty, Bic lighter, emergency blanket, fire starter and a jingle bell necklace. Just the sort of pay dirt "geocachers" are looking for.

Geocaching is a GPS-twisted game of hide and seek that people all over the world are playing. The game began in the spring of 2000 when global-positioning-system units became accurate to within 20 feet. There are more than 7,600 caches hidden in the United States, and geocaching is going on in at least 85 countries, from the Netherlands to Namibia. Forty or so caches are hidden in Alaska, from Prince William Sound to Nome, and there are at least five in the Mat-Su Borough.

"Geocaching in Alaska is still relatively new," said Linda Imle, one of the founding members of the "Sisters of Nancy Who."

"The challenges are a bit different than most other places because of the weather and, especially the snow. When we went looking for our first cache, the snow was about 10 inches deep and the area where the cache was hidden didn't resemble the description given on the Web site," Imle said. "Fortunately, we were using two different GPS systems and we got within 4 feet of the cache! Our biggest problem turned out to be the fading light. We didn't think it would take as long as it did to find the cache so we didn't think to bring headlamps. It was dark when we finally got back to the car."

To set up a cache, a person hides "treasure" in a waterproof container, lists a hint along with the latitude and longitude online, and waits to see if anyone logs-on as having found it.

Cache names may provide a clue to the location, such as "Butte," "Windy Gap," and "Sisters of Nancy Who." Others infer the terrain -- "It's a Jungle Out There" and "Alder Weave Delight." Some include a disposable camera, so finders can take their photo and post it online.

To find a cache, all you need is a GPS, such as the popular Garmin eTrex or Magellan GPS 315. But finding a cache sounds a lot easier than it is. It's one thing to know where something is, and another to actually walk there. Caches may be hidden right downtown, or miles down some goat trail; in deep brush or high in a tree. And even though a GPS will get you within 20 feet, some stashes have yet to be found.

If you find a cache, the rules are simple -- Take something from the cache. Leave something in the cache. Write in the logbook.

Within these simple rules, the game has morphed. There is now a "Cache In, Trash Out" campaign to "help clean up our world's forests one cache hunt at a time." "Travel bugs" are items that travel from cache to cache to cache, such as the Beary Blue Hitcher Bear hidden at the "Sisters of Nancy Who" cache.

In "multi-caches," a clue is left to lead you to the next cache. The "Sisters of Nancy Who" decided to leave the first chapter of the story of Nancy Who, a partly fictitious character, in the cache, with clues to where Chapter Two could be found in the next cache. While "Nancy" is traveling, she is recording her adventures. Starting at Nancy Lake, she was seen in Goodsprings, Nev., last week.

There is an unfound "Virtual Cache" near Alaska Pacific University. Instead of a Rubbermaid container adorning the boughs of a spruce, a "cache owner" provides clues about an existing landmark, and finders answer questions to prove they were there.

Similar to geocaching is the Degree Confluence Project, started in 1996. The goal is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location.

The pictures, along with a narrative describing the adventures it took to get there, are then posted on this Web site. Pictures will document the changes at these locations over time.

On the Web site www.confluence.org, participant Tim Vasquez explains why he is involved.

"The confluence lattice work is an open defiance of the order our culture imposes on us, which frowns on tourists who abandon the traveled roads, the sanitized vistas and the stops designed to conjure up dollars for empty memories. Confluences are in curious places that embrace you in their history, character and ecology, surrounded by people who are locals in every sense of the word."

Only two of the 168 "primary confluences" in Alaska have been visited. If you are interested in geocaching, just go to www.geocaching.com, and plug in your zip code for the geocache nearest you.