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Geocaching
Geocaching is an outdoor sport that involves the use of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to find a "geocache" (or "cache") placed anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small, waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure". Geocaching is a unique take on a traditional Easter-egg hunt in that it uses two recent technologies, the GPS and the Internet.
In Bloomington, there are more than 90 caches to find and more started every day. The number has grown quite a bit in the past 2 years. In 2004 there were only about 10 caches around Bloomington. Several of these caches are on the Indiana University campus. There are 200 caches within a 10 mile radius of the center of Bloomington.
The activity not only draws people from Bloomington to search for caches, but also people from around the U.S. and the world. Some people who go cross-country searching for caches, have made visits to Bloomington, leaving "tokens" in some of the caches. Some of the caches in Bloomington are even maintained by people outside the local area.
The Bloomington Geocachers is a community group that goes geocaching together. It is filled with members of all experience levels, some of which don't even have GPS units. There is also a Geocaching Club at IU as well for IU students.
Past Popular/Interesting locations of caches
- Highway 46 Pedestrian Bridge archived link - People claim that while searching for this one, cars would honk at them.
- Untitled 2001 archived link - Magnetized to the bottom of the park bench.
- Seminary Park archived link - This one was put in a bad location because it interfered with homeless people who stored stuff under trees here.
- There are more than 17 geocaches that are cleverly hidden on the Indiana University campus.
