The pandemic revives the world's largest treasure hunt
Why a new generation has pushed geocachers to swap the GPS for a new app and hunt again
It may sound unpleasant, but Megan Maloney says one of her fondest geocaching memories was when she and a friend found themselves knee-deep in swampy water, in the middle of nowhere, on what they thought would be a dry path to treasure.
It turns out the co-ordinates on the old GPS led them straight through murky waters. Undaunted, the soaked pair trudged through, hauling themselves out on dry land to discover a small capsule containing a piece of paper, where they triumphantly logged their names.
For Maloney, exploring the unexpected makes geocaching so much fun.
"It's just a really good way to go and find new areas," she said. "I've been able to find really cool trails ... that I had never even known existed until I started geocaching."
An early 2000s phenomenon, geocaching has been called the world's largest treasure hunt where people hide capsules of varying sizes in all kinds of locations around the world, each with a small token inside.
To find one with a GPS, mobile device and other navigational techniques, cachers are provided with one thing: a set of co-ordinates. If they find the cache, they can take what's inside, and replace it with something of their choosing.
Maloney was a student when she first tried the outdoor hobby, and 10 years later she suddenly found herself out of photography work during the pandemic. This gave her time to dust off her hiking shoes, and she's not the only one.
"I was surprised to see how many people were still participating and how many new geocaches there were," she said after downloading the Geocaching app.
"Every other day there are new ones being put out, which was kind of crazy to me."
As Maloney discovered, the pastime has gone through a technology upgrade, with GPS devices replaced by a more precise mapping app, making it that much easier to spontaneously hunt.
"It's weird. I could be driving somewhere and just be like, 'I wonder if there's any geocaches around,' and open up the app," she explained.
She used to have to input the GPS co-ordinates before leaving the house.
Like daughter, like stepfather
That accessibility has helped people like Marc Steigerwald try geocaching almost daily.
After his stepdaughter Sarah Boucher introduced him to it last year for a school project, Steigerwald started heading out on hunts. For him, half the fun is figuring out how to get to the cache once you've located it, no matter the obstacle.
"I got to a spot and saw the cache sitting about 15 feet up a tree. I realized there's no way that I could get to it from where I was," said Steigerwald, 38.
"So I came back and found a stepladder and I managed to crawl up the last couple of branches and got to it."
Steigerwald says during the pandemic it's been a good way to spend time outdoors with his stepdaughter and young son. Though for the kids, showing off the hidden treasure was more exciting than the hunt.
"My son who is three years old will straight up ask me on a Saturday morning, 'can we go walk in the forest to find a geocache?' He always wants to get his picture taken with it.
"It's something fun and I have around 100 caches now," added 12-year-old Boucher.
All day treasure hunting
For Coreen D'Angelo, a 76-year-old retiree, the pandemic has created the motivation to level up her geocaching interest.
When she was introduced to geocaching in 2014, she would head out occasionally with her husband. Since finding themselves cooped up indoors they've turned their geocaching outings into day-long trips with a dinner out at the end.
"It's become quite an expensive hobby," laughs D'Angelo, who's now logged over 1,400 caches.
For her, these outings have become a good way to relax and reconnect.
"Definitely going out in the country away from all the city, the noise, the construction ... you have these peaceful drives in the country, you see places you've never seen before."
Just because it's relaxing, doesn't mean she doesn't take it seriously.
On a recent outing with her sister Darlene, D'Angelo found herself barrelling head first down a hill, then tripping on a fallen branch. Luckily she escaped with just a few scrapes.
"My sister had asked 'are you okay?'" she said with a laugh.
"The first thing I said was, 'log the cache!'"
