to Saturday, December 31, 2016
Geocaching on the Sunrise Coast
Note! This geocaching trail has been active since the fall of 2015. Certain caches may have been removed. There are very limited pathtags left so first come first serve! Thanks!
A 200-mile long geocaching adventure!
Beginning the weekend of October 9, 2015, the US 23 Discovery Geocaching Trail will guide participants on a high tech scavenger hunt seeking places of importance from Standish to Mackinaw City. Near each interesting location in the counties along US 23, a geocache (container) will be hidden. Beginning October 9, 2015, a newly designed US 23 themed souvenir path tag will be awarded to the first 150 geocachers locating 25 of the 30 + newly placed geocaches. To be eligible for the path tag, geocachers must travel from cache to cache, discovering the US 23 sites and answering specific questions on the passport form. When the geocaches are activated on October 9th, the passport can be downloaded here.
Geocaching has become a very popular sport and family activity. This 15-year-old outdoor adventure game is similar to a treasure hunt, played with a hand held Global Positioning System (GPS) device or from a smart phone app. (iPhone app: Geocaching.com Android app: c:geo) Geocachers navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. Geocache containers come in all shapes and sizes and contain a logbook to sign. Sometimes the containers are large enough to contain special trinkets, called swag, for trading. Once the container is found, geocachers sign the logbook, trade trinkets of greater or equal value in return, and rehide the cache container in the same location as it was found. Then the geocachers share their experiences online at www.geocaching.com.
The oldest active geocache in the U.S. was published on May 11, 2000, and is located in Mingo, Kansas. There are an estimated 6 million geocachers worldwide. Over 2,500,000 geocaches can be found on all seven continents and there is even one on the International Space Station!
Getting started with geocaching is very easy. It requires the following 9 steps:
2. Register for a free Basic Membership at www.geocaching.com (This site also contains tutorials to educate the viewer about geocaching. Just click on “Learn”.)
3. Click on “Play” On the drop down menu, click on “Find a Geocache,” Locate “Take me to the old Search” on the bottom right corner of the top picture of mountains. Looking in the left column near the bottom locate: “Cache Starts with:” near the bottom of the page.
4. Enter “US 23 Discovery Trail” and click “go” (A cache that starts with US 23 is part of the new 2015 Discovery Trail)
5. Choose any geocache from the list and click on its name
6. Enter the coordinates of the geocache into your GPS Device
7. Use your GPS device to assist you in finding the hidden geocache
8. Sign the logbook and return the geocache to its original location
9. Share your geocaching stories and photos online
Once you have completed 25 of the 30 + caches in this geo-trail, you can take your passport to one of the following sites during business hours to pick up your souvenir coin called a path tag:
-McGulpin Lighthouse, 500 Headlands Drive, Mackinaw City
-Standish Historical Depot and Welcome Center, 107 N Main St, Standish
-Mail your passport to: Denise Cline, NEMCOG,
PO Box 457 Gaylord, MI 49734
Note: only one path tag per geocaching team name.
The US 23 Discovery Trail geocaches were placed by members and friends of the Straits Area Geocachers of Northern Michigan (SAG). For information about their meetings or their contact information, visit the web site: http://www.geo-cachers.com/