Abstract
The role technology plays in outdoor recreation is evolving and of ongoing interest. One technology-related activity in particular emerged at the start of the 21st century: geocaching. Geocaching involves using a handheld GPS device to find hidden caches in areas based on clues posted on the Internet. Geocaching.com, the primary source for geocachers, provides information and guidelines for participating in the activity. In 2010, geocaching celebrated its 10th birthday heralded by nearly 100,000 geocaching. com members and nearly 1,000,000 active caches around the world. The current estimate of the percent of population of people in the United States of age 16 and older who participate in geochaching is 3.5 percent (based on sampling for the NSRE described earlier). This is roughly 8 million participants of this age in the United States based on the Bureau of Census population estimate for 2008. Since this is an activity popular with youth, there obviously are many more participants than this 8 million.
Parent Publication
Citation
Schneider, Ingrid E.; Chavez, Deborah J. 2012. Geocaching: form, function, and opportunity. In: Outdoor recreation trends and futures: a technical document supporting the Forest Service 2010 RPA Assessment. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-150. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station, pp. 55-58.
