~by Mary Weaver, special to GreeneCountyNewsOnline
This writer discovered a 21st century, outdoor version of “I Spy” recently at Squirrel Hollow Park. ESKO CLIMBER 2014 (his geo caching name) came into the park on Sunday, with Minnesota car license plates and began to unload his bike as I was parking and letting my dogs trot into the woods.
He greeted me cordially and informed me he was a geo cacher from northern Minnesota. He had taken a two week vacation to get away from the snow and cold in his neck of the woods. He told me there was a geo cache hidden at Squirrel Hollow.
To orient the reader, geocaching.com describes this hobby as an outdoor treasure hunting sport using GPS (global positioning system) devices. The very first placement was May 3, 2000 in the state of Oregon. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find geocache (containers) hidden at that location. There are an estimated 2.3 million sites and 6 million players. A cache is usually a small waterproof container containing a log book, where the finder enters the date and signs his or her code name.
Geo-cachers have their own jargon. For example, Squirrel Hollow’s latitude is 42.036240 and longitude is -94.396835. Antipode for Greene County is -42.03624, 85.603165. Antipode is the point on the Earth’s surface which is diametrically opposite to it, two points that are connected by a straight line running through the center of the Earth. Other terms include myself as a non-geo cacher in the proximity of the cache as a “muggler”, from the Harry Potter series, or if a cache has been vandalized it has been “muggled”.
ESKO CLIMBER 2014 seemed to take his hobby seriously as he had found caches as far west as Idaho, and numerous other states in the Midwest. He cautioned that sometimes caches are placed on private property, and searchers have to be cognizant, particularly in rural areas, of no trespassing signs and or livestock. He seemed to be using his phone as his GPS system, and said several applications were available for purchase for use on Android phones or iPhones.
The Iowa Geocachers Organization use CITO frequently on their web site. This means to Cache In/Trash Out and encourages participants to pick up trash during their “I Spy in the 21st century”.
Mr ESKO CLIMBER 2014 found the cache in Squirrel Hollow and headed to his next search at Sportsman Park in Dallas County, near the town of Dawson.
