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Sugarloaf Get-Together - May 8, 2004

From the Campbellton Tribune, January 2004
'Gadget, are you sure you gave me these right?' says the voice from the walkie-talkie. The body connected to the voice is deep in brush on the opposite hillside.

Stephen Berthelot, or 'Inspector Gadget', chuckles and barks some numbers back in reply. 'I can't even see you,' he says. 'You must be off for sure.'

Eventually, two people approach, looking down at a small hand-held device about the size of a cell phone. They start looking around them very carefully, peering up into the trees. Suddenly one says, 'There it is!' and grabs a plastic bag tied tightly to a tree limb.

Inside is a Tupperware container, in which is a small notebook. This they quickly sign with the pencil provided. There are also trinkets like cards and pins. Another geocache has been located and the visit logged. Consulting a printed web page, the visitors punch information into their small device, and are off again in search of another one.

This is an outing of Geocachers at SugarLoaf Park. Geocaching is a new game or sport that is rapidly becoming popular all over the world. If you think it is geeky, think again. While it relies on high tech equipment, it is definitely not for people who prefer to spend their lives in front of a computer screen. It is an outdoor pastime.

The sport involves using a handheld set called a GPS receiver. When longitude and latitude are set into it, it connects to a Global Positioning System satellite run by the US Military, the same satellite guides missiles with such deadly accuracy. It can then tell you how close you are to those coordinates. Some GPS units provide maps, but the simpler ones may just have a pointing arrow. No matter that a mountain or river might be in the way -- that's your problem to solve!

The first civilian use was by outdoor enthusiasts and forest rangers to avoid getting lost. In 2000, people in Seattle decided to make a bit of a game of their hikes in the wilderness. They started hiding "caches" for their friends to find.

Whereas old-time trappers hid food and supplied in their caches for use over the winter, the 'geocachers', as they call themselves, mainly hid common trinkets. All of the caches, however, hold a logbook for visitors to sign. The caches are hidden in such a way that it is nearly impossible to merely stumble across them, although each contains information for a chance finder in the event that it does happen.

Knowing the coordinates of the cache, the GPS device can then lead you to it to within about 10 metres, after which you have to use clues posted on a web site. It might be a few kilometres through thick brush in Sugarloaf Park (where there are 8 hidden) or up Dalhousie Mountain -- or it might be a three-day canoe trip. Some out west require mountain gear to reach, and some are at the bottom of the ocean.

The goal was to lead friends and strangers to scenic, often secret spots. They would in turn leave comments behind in a logbook. There are now about 80,000 such caches over the world. Most are documented on the Internet, where each geocache enthusiast, using a nickname, keeps track of caches hidden and found. There are about 75 caches on the North Shore so far, of varying degrees of physical difficulty. Each has a title. One in Dalhousie called "Coffee Break" purports to reward you with a free cup of Tim Horton's!

Berthelot, a provincial inspector who lives in Flatlands, says that he is one of the pioneers of geocaching in the province. He hid its first ever cache near the village in 2001. There are now caches all over the county, some requiring extreme effort to reach. He has sought caches as far away as Germany and Europeans sought caches here.

The equipment ranges in price from about $200 to $1000, although he suggests $100 as a starting price for decent basics. Shops sell the devices but he says most Canadian enthusiasts buy from an online company called GPSCentral.ca.

Colette Clowater, aka Team-CLOH20, had driven up to Sugarloaf from Bathurst. 'It's a good family thing', she says. 'We did two or three as a whole family, on the way to Fredericton.'

Bob Roy of Dalhousie, aka 'GoGo Gadget Copter' says it gives him good exercise. He had recently visited a cache near Morrissey Rock that required a three-hour trip on show shoes. He has also hidden caches around Dalhousie, although he had only taken up the pastime in November.

Enthusiasts can keep in contact and learn of new caches, including many on the north shore, at www.geocaching.com, where interested parties may also learn the basics and the caches hidden in our area. Berthelot also encourages interested persons to email him at NB_Geocachers@hotmail.com

'With this, you're never lost!' he says with a laugh.