This year is supposed to be a big year for geocaching. Geocaching turns 20 in a few days.
According to a 2017 Geocaching HQ blog:
On May 2, 2000, just past midnight, the U.S government discontinued its use of Selective Availability in order to make GPS more responsive to civil and commercial users worldwide. Twenty-four satellites around the globe processed their new orders, and instantly the accuracy of GPS technology improved tenfold. Tens of thousands of GPS receivers around the world had an instant upgrade. Prior to this date, only the military had the ability to receive accurate GPS readings. Now, the world and all its wonderful people could pinpoint their precise location. For reasons unknown, this is often referred to as the flipping of the “Big Blue Switch”.
The next day the first geocache was hidden and the coordinates were published on a message board. Dave Ulmer, the computer consultant who hid a bucket full of treasure called it a stash. Bryon Roth, the president of Geocaching.com and one of the three co-founders of Groundspeak, the company that owns Geocaching.com, said they decided to change it from stash to cache to avoid illegal drug connotations.
Even though geocaching turns 20 in a few days, few will get to celebrate what was supposed to be a big year. The coronavirus pandemic has put everything on hold. First, Mingo Madness — an mega event scheduled for May 2 in Colby, Kansas, a few miles north of GC30 Mingo — was postponed until September. Then yesterday, Geocaching HQ announced that its 20th anniversary celebration in Seattle will be postponed for a year.
I think Geocaching HQ is making the right call. It would be awful if folks attending in Seattle came down sick and spread it to their loved ones and more got sick and died. I read a story in the IndyStar over the weekend about five people who attended an early-March basketball tournament and later died of coronavirus-related illness. One of the men who died was the athletic director at one of Indiana’s largest public high schools. Another was an assistant coach for one of the high school teams playing that night. Dozens more at the game got sick and survived.
The coronavirus is serious business. We have no natural immunity to it. Dr. Anthony Fauci says it’s 10 times deadlier than seasonal flu. I’ve greatly curtailed my activities away from home in the past month. It’s frustrating at times. I do go out with Capt TailWagger on walks around the neighborhood. Today we went out and saw just two or three people out and about. Yesterday the whole family went to Trine State Recreation Area and we saw nobody else on the trail. I even found a geocache, just my fourth find of the month.
I want to close by encouraging all of my readers to stay safe during this time of uncertainty.
Geocaching with Capt. TailWagger 