For those interested in braving the wilderness and traversing different terrains in search of treasure, geocaching provides the perfect opportunity.
Anyone can sign up to participate through the international geocaching website. By doing so, people gain access to the coordinates of more than 3 million physical “caches” hidden around the world. There are currently 1,800 active caches in the St. Louis region.
Geocachers use coordinates and GPS to find each cache. The physical containers range in size, and inside is a log book where participants sign their name and the date as proof that they successfully found the cache.
The St. Louis Area Geocaching Association was founded in 2001, just a year after the first cache was placed in Oregon in May 2000. The association’s treasurer, Nan Dabler, first got involved in 2009. She purchased a GPS unit and brought her daughters along in search of her first cache. “It was a peanut butter jar under the steps of a retail establishment in downtown Kirkwood,” Dabler said.
Geocaches can be placed just about anywhere. New caches are registered and vetted on the main geocaching website and app owned by Groundspeak Inc. There, they receive a rating based on difficulty.
“The difficulty and terrain ratings go from 1 to 5,” Dabler explained. “One should be wheelchair accessible. Five usually means that you need special equipment. As far as the difficulty of the hide, 1 [means] it's pretty obvious. A 5 could be a gadget cache that requires some real thinking skills in order to figure out how to get to that log sheet inside.”
St. Louis is home to a multistage cache called “The Architect.” John Layman, vice president of the St. Louis Area Geocaching Association, said the cache owner added lore to make the special cache.
“It's a very big endeavor,” he said. “You start at a library to find a book that he's placed, and [by] reading a story and solving some puzzles, [you] get to the next stage. … Many of the stages are within storm drains, so you have to actually go into storm drains to find some information to get the next stages along the way.”
Such geocaches require skill and community, and are usually conquered by groups of cachers. St. Louis’ association encourages connection between geocachers with annual events and picnics.
Another major part of geocaching is “cache in, trash out.”
“Most of the early caches were out in the woods,” Layman said. “So there was obviously a connection to being outdoors, and we like to keep the ‘game board’ clean. We like to clean up the Earth as we're going along.”
This weekend, the organization will host a “Cache In Trash Out” event at Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum.
“We have a great relationship with them, and we do have several multiple-stage geocaches in the cemetery,” Dabler said. “The caches are focused around the history of people who are buried there.”
To hear more about geocaching and its reach across the St. Louis region, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
Related Event
What: Cache In Trash Out at Bellefontaine Cemetery
When: 9 a.m.-11a.m. Sept. 27
Where: 4947 W. Florissant Ave., St. Louis, MO 63115
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
