Geocaching: Who, what,

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Geocaching Who, what, why
Ingrid Schneider, Ph.D. University of Minnesota,
Department of Forest Resources Deborah J.
Chavez. Ph.D. USDA Forest Service, Pacific
Southwest Research Station Todd
Powell University of Minnesota, Department of
Forest Resources
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Overview

• Introduction
• Purpose
• Methods
• Results
• So what?!

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Introduction to geocaching
Geocaching

• Initiated 2000 in OR
• geo for geography caching for the process
  of hiding a cache
• individuals set up cache share coordinates on
  the Internet, use GPS (global positioning system)
• 199 countries, 90,345 caches, gt100,000
  participants worldwide
• Geocaching.com, the primary source

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The rules of geocaching are simple

• Take something from the
• cache
• Leave something in the
• cache
• Write about it in the logbook

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Purpose
Identify geocachers demographics preferences
perceived benefits
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Methods

• Questionnaire via internet
• EUH
• Benefits
• Demographics
• ER Behavior
• Sample sampling
• 221 geocachers in MN
• Response rate 60.2 (n133)
• Analysis
• Descriptive
• Factor analysis
• ANOVA w/ LSD

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Results Who?!

• Age Ave 39.9 years
• Sex Male (85.6)
• Employment
• Fulltime (82.4)
• Education
• College degree (47.7)
• Advanced degree (14.4)
• Group
• Family (48.1)
• Alone (24.8)
• Family Friends (19)
• GPS use
• 25 also use for navigation, fishing, hunting
• ER Behavior
• Pack in-out
• Remove dog remains control
• Stay on durable surfaces

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Results What?!

• Experience
• 1.5 years
• Finding caches
• Ave 74.2
• Median 25
• Range 0-550
• Hiding caches
• Ave 3.7
• Median 0
• Preference for caches
• 87 ½ mile within trail
• 74 in parks
• 4/9 important find cache, maintenance cache
  area, clear policies

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Results Why?!

• Perceived benefits
• Enjoy scenery (1.3)
• Get exercise (1.5)
• Exp new different (1.5)
• Experience nature (1.6)
• Test skills (1.7)

• Factor analysis results
• 6 factors, 71.3 variance,
• Physical fitness
• Nature experience
• Learn
• Stimulation/skill
• Relaxation
• Autonomy
• Social
• Differences among
• Family vs alone
• None for hiding/finding, found, sex

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So what?

• Management implications
• Increased visitation
• Contradiction in ER behavior Off-trail
• Need desire for clear policies
• Programming opportunities
• Importance-performance

• Future research
• New or expanded visitation?
• Other states/countries
• Social cohesion family leisure
• Health benefits
• Other technology connections
• Performance on preferred attributes
• Conflict within/ between activities

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