Geocaching Gives Back by Saving Lives

Geocachers come from many walks of life, and people geocache to either enhance their existing outdoor experience or they use it as an excuse to get outside in the first place. When geocachers and others go into the outdoors they place themselves at risk. There are many dangers that most geocachers and outdoor enthusiasts understand and mitigate though equipment, training and experience and they have proven that they can save lives while they are treasure hunting.

Take the two women that took their mini-van a bit too far into the remote desert area known as the Delores Triangle, south of Grand Junction on the Colorado-Utah border and getting stuck. The two women were unable to free their vehicle, stranded and unable to call for help.

Two days later, Ray Joseph and Paul Fox where geocaching in the same area. After finding two caches and contemplating their third,they nearly left the area because of the same rain that had gotten the two ladies stuck. Instead of searching for the third geocache they opted to drive down to the river.

"As we came over a hill, here's this Dodge van," said Joseph. "It had towels covering the windshield." As they approached the van, one of the women came running toward them. Both women had been stranded for two days. They were dehydrated and had no food or water. The geocachers gave the women water and fed them fed them lunch before pulling the women out of the ravine with a Jeep.

Geocaching is a world-wide outdoor adventure game played with GPS receivers. Players hide waterproof containers, such as an ammo-can, called geocaches, then log the GPS coordinates on the Geocaching web site. Other players can then enter the coordinates into their GPS receivers and try to find the cache, then post their adventure online.

This most recent geocacher assisted rescue is not the first hand the sport has had in saving lives. In 2008, two men that had become lost on Mount Hood, Oregon during a winter whiteout, were able to help rescue teams find them after they had accidentally found a geocache. Rescuers were able to use the container's known coordinates to pin-point the climber's location, enabling the rescuers to lead the climbing team to a known trail head.

There are also cases where geocachers have been injured and were able to assist in their own rescue because they had a GPS receiver, such as John Murphy of Pierce County, Washington in 2009 when he fell 30 feet, injuring his knee severely enough to prevent him from walking out. He was able to call for help and tell the King County Sheriff his exact location with the help of his GPS.

Geocaching is a recreational activity enjoyed in often remote locations. With today's technology that includes cell phone and GPS technology, often combined, and caches being placed in hidden, remote locations, not often visited by others, geocachers can be placed in situations that can save lives, and sometimes it may be their own.

References

Denver Channel 7 News: Geocachers Save Two Women Stuck In Desert

Associated Press: Climbers rescued on Mount Hood aided by treasure hunt box

SnoValley Star: Modern treasure hunt ends with nighttime rescue