Hide-and-Seek Goes High-Tech in Durham
Remember playing hide-and-seek as a child? Ducking behind a trash can, camouflaging yourself with leaves, or climbing your favorite tree where nobody could find you?
Well, hide-and-seek has grown-up and gone high-tech with “geocaching” (pronounced GEE-o-cash-ing, like cashing a check).
Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for tech savvy Global Positioning System (GPS) users. A GPS unit can determine a person’s approximate location (within about 6–20 feet) anywhere on the planet or can be used to navigate from one location to another. But geocachers use them for fun!
Geocaching aficionados set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the Internet by marking the longitude and latitude coordinates. Other GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards, like breath-taking views, dramatic artworks, and unique gifts.
Definitely hide-and-seek for the 21st century! To learn more about geocaching in Durham, visit www.geocaching.com. Type the zip code “27701” in the box near the top-right corner of the page to find caches in Durham.
Can you find the waypoint “N 35° 59.51, W 78° 53.94”?
Last updated 10/28/04
