College Park is the latest stop on a statewide high-tech treasure hunt.
The City Council approved support in September for the Maryland Municipal League Geocache Trail Project, meant to promote awareness of and visits to Maryland’s cities and towns.
College Park was the 14th addition to the trail that also includes geocaching spots in Centreville, Charlestown, Cottage City, Denton, Greenbelt, Leonardtown, Luke, Middletown, Millington, Mountain Lake Park, Somerset, Sykesville and Thurmont.
Geocachers use a hand-held GPS (Global Positioning System) to plot map coordinates and locate the spot where the “treasure” is buried. Participants are encouraged to leave something in the cache container in exchange for anything they take, and there is frequently a logbook to leave notes.
Anyone can find the coordinates through the Official Global GPS Cache Hunt site, geocaching.com, by accessing the Maryland Municipal League’s account and downloading or manually entering the map coordinates for each cache on the trail. The site gives directions for getting started on trails at several levels of difficulty, including safety tips and how to record discoveries online.
Geocaching.com lists 661,996 active geocaching sites around the world, with 3,814 Maryland sites now listed on its rolls. The Maryland Geocaching Society Web site has more information about geocaching in the state, including message boards and forums and a blog with member spotlights and regular event updates.
Cities have until Oct. 30 to be listed on the current trail.
The next round of additions will begin in July 2009.
–By Maryland Newsline’s Laurie White