Seattle firm's GPS scavenger-hunt game stirs controversy

Aaron McCain and his 9-year-old son rifled through a battered box containing rubber balls, napkin holders and plastic army men high on a pass near Mount Baker.

Using a handheld Global Positioning System device, the two had hiked miles to Excelsior Pass to find the hidden loot as part of a global scavenger hunt run by Seattle-based Geocaching.com. Players post coordinates on the Web site telling where they have hidden objects and challenge others to find the "caches" using GPS devices.

The adventure game, called "geocaching," started six years ago in the Pacific Northwest and now counts more than 328,000 caches in 222 countries, the Web site says. The activity pushes people outdoors, although some parkland managers say they worry about its impact on sites ranging from sensitive forestlands to historic cemeteries.

Geocaching.com is the brainchild of Jeremy Irish, 33, a computer-software programmer who went on GPS scavenger hunts as a hobby. He quit his job at Savishopper.com, an online clothing store, to start the Web site in 2000.

His company, Groundspeak, employs 12 and has 500,000 registered users. He charges $30 a year for membership access to detailed, interactive maps that help gamers navigate rough terrain and rivers.

The closely held company is profitable, though Irish said he isn't getting rich.

"I'm still living a meager lifestyle," he said. "We put the money back into the company."

GPS devices only recently have gone mainstream. The satellite navigation system was developed by the U.S. Defense Department, with the first launch in 1978. The U.S. Air Force disrupted signals for civilian users until 2000.

U.S. sales of the GPS units were $42.3 million last year, compared with $16.7 million in 2002, according to the Boulder, Colo.-based Outdoor Industry Association's Web site.

Geocaching has stirred some controversy, however.

"If it's done right, it's actually a pretty good tool to introduce people to hiking and learning navigational skills," said the U.S. Forest Service's Gary Walker, lead climbing ranger on Mount St. Helens. "But I've also seen caches put on private property and people tromping all around looking for them."

The 242,000-acre Three Sisters Wilderness Area in Oregon banned geocaching in 2002. South Carolina has proposed fining people $100 for placing caches without permission in cemeteries or at historic sites.

"Land managers get nervous about people wandering around in wilderness and want to keep them on trails," said Robert Speik, 78, a Bend, Ore., climbing instructor who fought a proposed ban in the nearby Badlands forest. "They lose sight of the fact that wilderness is where you wander."

McCain, a 32-year-old engineer who lives in Bellingham, said his family is responsible when hunting for caches.

"Finding the actual cache was pretty low on the list of exciting things that day," McCain said of his recent Excelsior Pass trip. "I got a six-mile hike with my son, I saw the first colors of the fall and a peek at Mount Baker."

But geocaching bothers those who say satellites and computer screens interfere with the outdoors experience. The race to find caches sacrifices the slower pace needed to appreciate nature, said Scott Silver, director of Wild Wilderness, a nonprofit group in Bend.

Custodians for public lands in the Pacific Northwest wrestle with how to accommodate both sides.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management proposed closing the 32,000-acre Badlands to geocachers in 2003, then yielded after enthusiasts complained. Recreation manager Greg Currie says the bureau may revisit the issue.

"It places a big demand on the land managers to police these things, and we don't have staff or time for it."

Irish's Web site encourages geocachers to "Cache In, Trash Out" — that is, collect litter on trails. Manuals that come with some GPS devices include such tips as respecting private property and staying on trails.

Irish said he isn't worried about outdoor purists curbing the game's growth. Every January he doubles his computer-storage capacity as people receive that new handheld Christmas present.

"The idea of being a tech geek outside seemed like a good idea to me," he said. "I don't think I'm alone there."