walking a digital plank - geocaching disasters
an excerpt

It started, and ended, at N 48° 54.350 W 121° 48.524. Nooksack falls, Washington. A special place for the locals. Many had lost their lives at this secretive location up the Mt. Baker highway since 1947. After June 16th, 2007, however, the deaths would not be attributed to the brutal fall, but what was released into the falls themselves.

Geocaching was still a relativly new hobby. I had purchased a Garmin eTrex Global Positioning System Reciever unit, or as geocachers call them a GPS’r, on sale at the Bellingham, WA REI. I used my dividends my REI membership card had earned me from buying a bike earlier in the year. A simple device. Before Bill Clinton was in office the universal Global Positioning was scrambled by government agencies. Before he left office he sneakily passed many bills that environmentalists cited as being ‘very good’ of him, but one in particular opened the hearts of nerds and geeks everywhere. Based on the Greek system of a latitudinal and longitudinal grid of north and south, and east and west, GPS will tell you your position, if you are a civilian with a few hundred to drop, up to 15 feet of accuracy. Some engineers and contractors have GPS units that are accurate up to the inch. The Cattapillar D10s that the isrealis use to mow down palistinian housing in the Gaza strip were sold to isreal by the american government, these tankified man killers were once equiped with GPS. However, the blades which made level roads now make level houses. That is besides the point, however.

Seven years ago I would have been unable to locate a coordinate. GPS was a thing of war, and movies, and secrets. Until May 1st, 2000. The Clinton Administration ordered the Department of Defense to descramble this system. A few days later some man in my state put a bucket in the woods, posted the coordinates on the internet, and the game of “hide and go seek for nerds” began. Personally, I like to think of it as modern day pirateering. A new kind of treasure hunt where “N 33° 52.503 W 118° 20.986” marks the spot! It became much more than that though. More than any cacher could imagine anyway. Sometimes, when I was out caching I would wonder why I never had the police called on me. People really can get away with a lot more than they realize. One would be surprised what kind of crazy shenanigans they could pull in bright daylight without anyone so much as taking a third glance. After a while, I would sometimes think to myself “wow, this would be a great tool for drug dealers or smugglers to hide things.”

In Washington, the usual urban cache consists of an altoids tin with a magnet in it, a log book, and a golf pencil. You find these behind guardrails, under newspaper stands, and the like. There is a small amount of play for creativity in the urban envrionment, but nothing like the rural caches. My first rural cache was an overturned 5 gallon bucket in the middle of a field with fake grass taped on it as cameoflague. tipped upright i found a book in a ziplock bag, and some goodies as a reward for the find. I started doing this last year in my free time. At first I would find them when I could, wandering around a field holding my GPS reciever going in circles like an eagle looking for fieldmice until i looked up and found the cache. Eventually, after a few months I could do the “cache ‘n dash” more quickly, signing the logbook, quickly replacing the cache, and leaving.

I even hid my own caches, after a while. I had one outside my gym in a fake sprinkler head. That was my first. I think it is still there, but I have not had a reason to check, as of late. On May 1st, 2008, the United States Department of Defense was forced to re-scramble the GPS sattalite series. While the general public was relieved, social circles of nerds like me were ripped apart. something that was supposed to be a fun stress relieving hobby was taken from us. All because of some kids who could not find their own hobby, except to ruin everyone elses. To put it lightly, that is.