Scouting, Volume 98, Number 3, May-June 2010 Page: 32
56 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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kids, and they know what to do."
About six much warmer weeks
earlier, Mueller had spent an afternoon
devising four different hiking routes
for the Cub Scouts where he planned
to hide three caches each for this event.
He used his GPS unit to record coor-
dinates for hidden cache containers:
plastic food storage boxes, recycled
peanut butter jars, and tennis ball
tubes, stripped of labels, cleaned, and
covered with camouflage-patterned
duct tape for disguise. Treasures within
consisted of small toys and trinkets—
tops, rulers, plastic insects—that
Mueller had purchased for the entire
event from a novelty store for about
$60. A pencil and logbook or piece
Teamwork unites Jack Parry, Jimmy Fritzjunker,
Dominic Schwirtz, and Aaron Munson (below,
from left) in the task of learning how to read
the GPS device. At the end of the trail, Jim Parry
helps his son Jack grab an elevated cache
(opposite right).
of paper, which players sign and date
when they've reached it, accompanied
each cache.
"Caches can cost as little as you
want them to," said geocaching expert
Mary Stevens, volunteer coordinator
for Get in the Game! "You can do
it for next to nothing. You can use
plastic containers from home. Prizes
can be leftover patches or trinkets
that are crowding your council—or
child's—closet!' Anything but break-
able items or food, which may attract
unwanted animal visitors, are fair
game for the caches.
Back in the field, Mueller's coor-
dinates coincided with log piles, trees
with low Y-shaped trunks, and trail
signs—landmarks where he could
place the cache containers with a hint
of mystery. While public geocaches
can be maddeningly hidden, "We
have to make it a little easier for Cub
Scouts," said Mueller, strewing
leaves over a tape-covered Tupperware
container placed behind a tree stump.
"You want them to find it!'
BUT FIRST, THE BOYS—Other than
Jack—needed background on the
magic of GPS guidance. Using a
blow-up globe, Mueller explained to a
group of five Cub Scouts that a series
of 24 satellites arranged like a constel-
lation in the sky use the grid system of
latitude and longitude to tell us where
we are in the world.
"We're doing a scavenger hunt in
the woods, but with satellites provid-
ing the clues," said Mueller, moving his
pupils outdoors where the GPS unit
could receive unobstructed signals.
"This is radio reconnaissance. It's like
listening to the satellites!'
"That looks like a clock," one
second-grader remarked.
"A compass is like a clock," said
Mueller. "It tells you things. In this
case, it tells you where to walk!'
The group broke up for the field
hunt, two boys and their parents
paired with a GPS unit pre-loaded
with the course coordinates. Tracking
their first waypoint in an open field,
8-year-old Omeed Feshami of Pack 93
in Spring Valley and his father, Mo
Feshami, walked where the device
pointed: west toward the lodge.
When they approached the
porch where the cache was
hidden, they got confused
and wandered off around
the front of the building,
before returning to
the right spot several
minutes later. GPS
units are inaccurate
within 20 feet of
the coordinates,
and geocach-
ers must use
old-fashioned
detective skills
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 98, Number 3, May-June 2010, periodical, May 2010; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth299170/m1/34/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.