Video: How Big is Geocaching? Check Out 2 Million Geocaches in 1 Minute

Have you ever gone on a treasure hunt? If you were ever an 8-year-old the odds are that you have.

Geocaching is basically the same as the pretend treasure hunts you went on in your back yard. The exception: the treasure is real.

The exception to that exception: the treasure isn’t worth more than about five bucks. Depending on how you look at it, that’s either a lot less or a lot more than you were excepting.

The sport of geocaching first got started in 2000. Participants use Global Position Systems (GPS) to track down “caches” which are generally tough, waterproof containers like ammo boxes or Tupperware. Inside the caches are usually a few trinkets (cachers usually take something and leave something for the next guy/gal) and a log book signed by everyone who has found that particular cache.

Cachers get the coordinates of various caches from listing sites like http://www.geocaching.com/ (more of an all-purpose geocache site) and then go out and track down their treasure. Learn more in our introductory geocaching how-to guide here.

Which is where this video comes in. It begins in 2000 and shows a record of over 2 million geocaches as they were registered. Enjoy.

httpv://youtu.be/IfU3blexL7o

Benjamin T. Lambright

I'm a poet and and author. I received my BA in Creative Writing from Central Michigan University and I am pursuing my MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. My work has appeared in The Greatest Lakes Review, The North Central Review, Dexter magazine, Open Palm Print, newspapers, magazines, bathroom stalls, the backs of highway billboards, under bridges and other, stranger, places.