Fans of geocaching have multiplied in recent years, with local enthusiast Gia Rassier leading the way. Participants use GPS via a smartphone app to locate hidden targets. (Photo/Nancy Hanson)
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
Millions of hobbyists around the world are on the hunt for hidden “treasure” – and now some of them are following clues and the GPS on their smartphones to uncover hidden jewels in Moorhead.
They are geocachers, devotees of a new pastime developed 20 years ago to bring mystery lovers out of the house and into the world outside. Gia Rassier of Moorhead is one of the sport’s most enthusiastic boosters.
“What’s not to love?” Gia asks. The hobby she discovered a dozen years ago, she says, combines every aspect of enjoying the outdoors she adores – the historical element, cool views, public art and the joy of discovery. “Geocaching brings you toplaces you’ve never been or never noticed before,” she says. “With social distancing so important now, it’s a perfect way to safely enjoy our beautiful parks and city.”
Initiation into the hobby is easy, and it’s free. It begins with downloading the Geocaching app to your iPhone or Android smartphone, with its built-in GPS ability. After registering at www.geocaching.com, the player can choose where to begin among thousands of geocache sites – 551 in Fargo-Moorhead alone – that have been placed in parks and mostly public locations all over the community.
Following maps on their phone, they’re guided to the general area of their target. Then the app points the way to the hidden cache – as large as a lunchbox or as little as a lipstick – with a compass-like arrow and an estimate of how many steps to reach it.
Some caches, Gia says, are quite easy to spot. Most, though, require careful examination to uncover. “You develop a sort of ‘geosense’ over time. With experience, geocachers begin to see the world in a totally different way,” she explains. “There’s so much magic to it. It’s fun to find something that other people would walk past and never notice.”
Geocaches – placed and registered by avid fans like Gia – range from the relatively massive to the minuscule. Each contains a log that players sign and date when they finally uncover them. She leads the way to two that she’s secreted at Minnesota State University Moorhead – one a tiny cylinder hidden at the base of a streetlight, another a flat oblong that resembles an electrical outlet that’s attached magnetically to a utility box.
Both contain only a rolled up slip of paper signed and dated by numerous people who’ve found them before. Larger caches may hold small “treasures” that may delight their discoverers, especially the young – stickers, coloring books, plastic toys, beads and the like. When they find these treasure chests, visitors can take one of the gifts, leaving another surprise in its place.
In this summer of COVID-19, Moorhead Parks and Recreation has been looking for safe new ways to help visitors enjoy its properties. That’s when Gia, a member of the park board for several years, brought up a variant of geocaching called Adventure Lab.
“It’s a little different,” she says. While the Geocaching app has been downloaded 5 million times, Adventure Lab is much newer. It guides players on a tour of the locale using maps, GPS and a series of clues. As each spot is discovered, players answer a question it poses with information they find at the site – a historical marker, artist information on a sculpture and other posted explanations that require no hunting beneath benches or decoding visual camouflage.
The Moorhead Adventure guides players to 10 significant spots Gia has chosen around the city. “We have so many amazing spaces even Moorhead people don’t know about,” she says, mentioning everything from the Heritage Garden at Woodlawn Park to the historic Bergquist Cabin.
To celebrate National Parks and Recreation Month, Moorhead Parks is offering prizes to those who successfully identify all 10. To redeem, call the parks office.
It’s not the first local discovery path put together by the woman whose handle is “Giacaches.” Last year she developed a 24-part GeoTour of Fargo-Moorhead on behalf of the F-M Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It’s the first tour registered in either North Dakota or Minnesota,” she says. “Hundreds of geocachers have found the caches and signed the logs.” When they’ve found 20 of the 24 hidden containers, they can receive an F-M geocaching coin from the visitor center.
Geocachers are easily overlooked, but their numbers are blossoming. “Geocachers are an interesting group. They plan their travel around it,” she says.
“Nationwide, we’ve seen a huge increase in the number who use the app since the pandemic began. Before, I think most of us tended to be adults. Now there’s a boom among families, with parents and children searching for hidden treasure together.”
To get started with the Moorhead Adventure Tour, download the Adventure Labs app, then scan this QR code with your smartphone. It takes you to a map and clues to send you on your way.
