On May 2, 2000, the U.S. government lifted restrictions that made GPS technology more accurate and accessible to the general public. This day became known as Blue Switch Day, and this decision inadvertently created a new outdoor hobby. Geocaching is an activity where participants use GPS and coordinates to hunt down hidden containers, known as geocaches or caches, often located in parks, forests and cities around the world. The first cache was hidden just outside of Estacada, Oregon, only one day after Blue Switch Day. Twenty-five years later, there are now more than 3.3 million caches hidden around the world.
PJ Hubbard is the treasurer for GEOregon, a nonprofit dedicated to creating a community for geocachers in Oregon. The group is holding a Block Party event in September at Champoeg State Park to celebrate this anniversary. Hubbard joins us to share more about the past, present and future of geocaching.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Twenty-five years ago today, May 2, 2000, the U.S. government lifted some restrictions on GPS, making the technology more accurate and more accessible to the general public. It became known as Blue Switch Day. It had profound effects on the way we navigate our world.
It also led to the creation of a new hobby, one that started right here in Oregon. The day after Blue Switch Day, someone hid a small container outside of Estacada, then shared the coordinates publicly, meaning that other people could look for the container in a kind of technologically-enabled treasure hunt. Geocaching was born. Today, on its 25th birthday, more than 3.3 million caches are hidden all around the world.
PJ Hubbard is a treasurer of GEOregon, a nonprofit dedicated to creating community for geocachers. PJ joins me now. It’s great to have you on Think Out Loud.
PJ Hubbard: Hey, Dave. I very much appreciate this opportunity to tell the story of geocaching and its beginnings right here in Oregon. And oddly enough it was started … I always like to say that geocaching was started by a dude named Dave. [Laughter] Dave is the first.
Miller: What are the chances? Such a rare name.
Hubbard: Seriously, Dave is the first guy. Dave Ulmer is the first guy who, after the switch was flipped on Blue Switch Day, wanted to test how precise GPS coordinates were. So he had a stash in the woods, as you’re saying, right outside Beavercreek, Estacada area and geocaching was born.
Miller: What actually happened on Blue Switch Day? What was the change, if you can explain it without getting too technical?
Hubbard: So, as geocachers, we refer to it as Blue Switch Day. But basically, the higher ups in government – and don’t get me to answer why they did this on this particular day – they decided to make GPS technology more accurate for the average citizen. Prior to Blue Switch Day, although we could use GPS technology, there was a built-in error. So, although it would get you in the ballpark, it wouldn’t get you to first base. It could get you in the neighborhood of your friend’s house but not to your friend’s house. There was a built-in error margin and that was due to national security reasons from when GPS first started way long ago. But on Blue Switch Day, the U.S. government decided that we no longer needed that and they made what now we get into our cars and put in an address, from point A to point B, available to all of us.
Miller: How does geocaching work?
Hubbard: Geocaching is basically a real-live treasure hunt. So we were talking about GPS … it is a location-based treasure hunt. So individuals that participate in this hobby or sport called geocaching, we hide geocaches, not cash dollar-dollar bills, but cache is in a stash of things. We hide these geocaches and we record the locations, the GPS locations of those, and we share that on a website. What we normally use is geocaching.com. And then basically you get your GPS, which nowadays is on your phone, but back when this first started, it used to be a huge technology that was expensive. And then you go out in the wild and you find the geocache.
Miller: So I understand that each cache is given a difficulty rating from one to five, but if you already have the coordinates – as you said before, it’s sort of like you now know what base to go to – what might make something a five?
Hubbard: Oh, geocashers are devious people. So we will take something that you see in plain sight and make that a geocache. And you would not even expect that to be a geocache.
Miller: What are some examples?
Hubbard: So, my husband actually introduced me to geocaching and he made me find my very geocache while he watched me find my very first.
Miller: He knew where it was?
Hubbard: Yep. He watched me look for the geocache and it literally was the back of a magnetic sign on a door. So it looked like it should just be a sign on a door. It said caution, don’t block the door.
Miller: Wow.
Hubbard: So it looked like it should be on the door, but the back of it was actually the log. And that’s what we have to sign as geocachers. So he spent over 20 minutes watching me look for the geocache that he knew exactly where it was.
Miller: How far along in your relationship was this?
Hubbard: Week two.
Miller: [Laughter] That seems like such … I don’t know, it seems like a real test.
Hubbard: Well, he introduced me to geocaching and I made him a camper, so we put the two things together. You camp where there’s a bunch of geocaches. We just celebrated our seven-year anniversary just last week.
Miller: Congratulations. Wow, so in those seven years, how many caches have you found together?
Hubbard: 9,262, working on our way towards 10,000 this year.
Miller: That sounds like a lot. In the world of geocaching, I was gonna say professionals, but I don’t know, super finders, is 9,000 a lot?
Hubbard: It is a lot. I mean, again, you can do the hobby or the sport to the level that you want to. So once we got into it, we were really into it. We plan entire vacations around picking up numbers to get those finds and get those numbers up. We’re trying to get towards 10,000 this year. But you can also just get one or two in your own backyard. Or, if you want to get a whole bunch of numbers, there are what’s called power trails that you can do where there’s literally a geocache hidden every 500 meters or so from each other, walking down a beautiful path in the woods.
Miller: In preparation for our conversation, I remembered something which I had completely forgotten, which was that in 2010 – so I guess that would have been the 10-year anniversary of the birth of this sport, this hobby, and this was when Emily Harris was the host of the show and I was the online host – I went out on a rainy day in July, in Laurelhurst Park in Southeast Portland, during the show to look for some caches. And actually, we had hidden one. I want to play some tape from that show. Let’s have a listen.
Emily has asked me, at this point … she asked me where I was.
Miller [recording from 2010]: I’m actually sort of cowering under a tree right now [laughter] because the rain just picked up even more. I’m in Laurelhurst Park in Southeast Portland. I can’t give any more specific coordinates in that right now, but I’m on the hunt for the first of two caches that I’m hoping to find in the course of the hour. And not too far from where I am, there is also a cache that we’ve hidden, that we hid last night. It’s now one of the official geocaches, so we’re hoping that somebody out there can go onto our site. The coordinates are there and find it. If they do, I will find that person and maybe we can even put that person on the radio.
Emily Harris [recording from 2010]: What do you know about what you’re looking for?
Miller [recording from 2010]: So I know the name. It’s called Tennis in Laurelhurst. It was hidden by Griffin Gonzales only about 10 days ago, so it’s a very fresh one. Apparently there’s a difficulty rating of from one to five stars. This is two-and-a-half.
Harris [recording from 2010]:You should be able to do that
Miller [recording from 2010]: Yeah, although then you look at the comments and people say, “I came twice. I didn’t find it.” One person said, “it was well done, but the coordinates were a little bit off.” So I wonder if that really is two-and-a-half stars of difficulty. But anyway, I’m on my way. I’m going to go out away from the cowering under a tree, and I’m going to see if I can find this thing.
Miller: So PJ, that’s from 15 years ago now. And to be honest, I don’t even remember if I found them. I think maybe I did. I think later in the day someone found the one that we had cached, but what do people actually put in these caches?
Hubbard: It depends. Caches can vary in all sorts of different sizes, depending on where you’re hiding something. It can be a little teeny, tiny thing that is difficult to find, and then there’s just a log, a piece of paper in there that you sign to say that you’ve been here, done that. In Buffalo, New York, there was a geocache hidden in an old toilet that was discarded in the middle of the woods, and they turned the cistern in the back into a geocache.
Miller: That’s better than the bowl itself?
Hubbard: So it can be anything, right? And yeah, it’s all about did you find it? So we have that moment, we’ve all lost something in our house, be it the car keys … I wear glasses and the worst thing about having glasses is not finding your glasses is not having your glasses to find your glasses. [Laughter] But when you find them, you have that one moment of, “oh, I found it!”
Miller: It’s such a hit of dopamine,
Hubbard: That is what geocaching is on steroids.
Miller: So if you like that feeling of having something, if that gives you a rush, you’re saying then you might be a candidate for geocaching?
Hubbard: You’re probably a geocacher because, as I said, 99% of you have walked past a geocache today. You just didn’t know it. We lovingly call you, in the “Harry Potter” universe realm, muggles because you don’t know that magic exists around you,
Miller: Hidden objects and magic.
Hubbard: Yep.
Miller: Of the 9,000-plus, do you have, if not a favorite, then just what’s one of the most memorable finds you have done? We have about a minute-and-a-half left.
Hubbard: Oh, that would be the original stash plaque, which is here in Oregon, because as I said, geocaching started right here in Oregon. It was hidden by a dude named Dave and there is a plaque that’s hidden that commemorates that first geocache that’s hidden. So, once we moved here from Buffalo, New York, that was one of the first things that we had to go to and ranks among our most memorable geocaches that we’ve logged.
Miller: Do you have plans right now to go hunt for something this weekend?
Hubbard: Oh, I have people coming over that are geocachers. We are gonna hide a geocache today.
Miller: Oh, you’re actually gonna be the hidee.
Hubbard: Yes, because it’s Blue Switch Day.
Miller: OK. Anything you want to let people know in advance?
Hubbard: Oh no,you’ll have to check out geocaching.com or georegon.com for more information.
Miller: PJ, it was a pleasure talking to you. Thanks so much.
Hubbard: Absolutely, I very much appreciate this opportunity. And hey, “stay the Dave” because, like I said, geocaching was started by a dude named Dave.
Miller: I will “stay the Dave.” It has brought me this far and I won’t change my name, but I appreciate that. And “stay the PJ.”
Hubbard: I will. [Laughter]
Miller: That’s PJ Hubbard, the treasurer for GEOregon – that stands for Geocachers Exploring Oregon.
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