Up a steep stairway, through an ancient cemetery and along a winding nature trail, a plastic Lock and Lock container is nestled inside a hollowed-out oak tree. In it is a carabineer, a valentine, a plastic spider ring and a notepad signed by more than 80 people who have found it in the last four years.
It’s called a cache, and there are 1,371,785 like it around the world. These little boxes of trinkets offer a glimpse into the passionate subculture of high-tech treasure hunting, which has more than five million people hooked worldwide. Geocaching is the name of the game, and anyone with a GPS can play.
The official geocaching website, sponsored by Groundspeak, Inc., lists more than 80 caches in the city of Athens alone. With a growing interest in local caching, the Athens County Visitor’s Bureau will launch its first geotrail in June. Strouds Run State Park, Lake Snowden and The Dairy Barn Arts Center will be a few stops along the 10-cache trail. A separate series featuring eight caches will be the first handicapped geotrail in the country.
Lenie Holbrook – known as “illinitrekker” in the geoworld – is an associate professor of management systems at Ohio University and a local geocacher. Holbrook proposed a geotrail to former student and Marketing and Sales Manager Jenna Dill at the Athens County Visitor’s Bureau after visiting one in Spencer, W. Va., last September. Since it was approved, the geotrail has been the center of his creativity and innovation class.
“I think some of the most creative work that I’ve seen in the class has been through this project,” he said.
His students crafted the trail and designed the official Athens geocoin, which features the Ohio flag on one side and a Passion Works Studio flower on the other.
The trail will open June 18 on Geocaching.com, where every geocache is registered. Caches are listed with their GPS coordinates and a clue to where the treasure is hidden. Inside each cache is a logbook, which geocachers are required to sign and date by their handles.
“When somebody publishes a new cache, there’s a race to see who can get it first, and for me, it’s an incredible adrenaline rush,” Holbrook said. “There is nothing more exhilarating than getting to a cache, opening it up, pulling the log out and seeing that it’s empty and my name’s going to be on there first.”
Currently ranked 77th of almost 2,000 in Ohio, Holbrook considers himself a competitive geocacher. Of the 3,958 caches he has found, he has been the first to find 127.
“I’d go every day if I could. I’ll stay up all night grading papers and prepping for class so that I can go out caching in the afternoons,” he said. “My wife thinks I’m nuts. She thinks I’m obsessed, and she’s right.”
Although Holbrook prefers to cache by himself, he often goes on runs with cacher “Heavy Metal” — Don Hone, a computer systems manager at OU. Hone and Holbrook “talk cache” with a local group of geocachers every month at Donkey Coffee and Espresso.
Unlike numbers-obsessed Holbrook, Hone likes to cache for the adventure.
“I prefer a half-mile hike to a scenic destination and a cache find as a bonus along the way,” Hone said. “Visitor’s bureaus don’t tell you the best scenic view or the best hike. Geocaching does that.”
oy311909@ohiou.edu
@ThePostCulture
