Hidden Treasures and
Natural Gems
Geocaching brings high-tech to
old-fashioned hunts

Hidden Treasures

Tallahassee Area Convention Bureau
Press Release - Geocaching Contest Hidden Treasures
For Immediate Release

Ever heard of geocaching?

Bruce Ripley of Gainesville has, and he knows how to have fun with it all.  Ripley and Northeast Florida Geocachers Association (www.nefga.com) recently placed 13 caches to highlight the hidden treasures of the region known as North Central Florida - an area from Gainesville, west to Cedar Kay, up to Tallahassee and then east to White Springs.

On any given weekend, Ripley can be seen traversing the wilds of North Florida to track down his next adventure.  He says  "Others may fly a kite, I prefer to get lost in the woods."  He has been enjoying this high tech treasure hunt since 2003.

Ripley is geocaching, a hobby that uses hand-held Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems to seek hidden treasure.  The GPS units receive signals from satellites, fixing the latitude and longitude of canisters from as large as  a bread box to as small as a film canister.  They use coordinates provided by a geocaching web site such as www.geocaching.com., set up when the sport emerged in 2000 and following clues along the way.

If this sounds easy, please give it a try.  The caches are often creatively hidden right in public places.  In fact, an unsuspecting public passes them everyday. There are thousands in the region between Gainesville and Tallahassee, hidden in parks, on college campuses; or in any number of nooks and crannies.  Caches are rated from one to five, based on their difficulty.

Finding the "treasure" is only part of the lure.  Catchers find little-known spectacular parks, beautiful views and historic buildings.  The caches are being maintained by The Original Florida Tourism Task Force, a non-profit group looking to raise awareness of the natural and cultural destinations of the region.  The group felt it fitting to create a treasure hunt for the place traversed by one of America's first treasure hunters, Hernando DeSoto, a Spanish explorer who forged the DeSoto Trail through the region in 1532.  Natural North Florida is rich with Spanish, Native American, Civil War and "cracker" heritage.  There are some amazing  natural resources too, such an award-winning state park system that is highlighted in this series of caches.  The caches are listed under the heading Natural North Florida on the geocaching website.

Occasionally, caches get "muggled", meaning someone who isn't a geocacher steals the trinkets, but usually the treasures are creatively hidden.  The cool trinkets are generally a draw for kids, but hopefully adults can learn a bit of this region's diverse history as well while enjoying the great outdoors.

Tallahassee Area Convention and Visitors Bureau

Tallahassee Leon County Florida - Ecotourism, Geocaching

###