Geocaching draws 45 participants, provides adventure for all ages

When Saturday morning rolled around, the lawn at the Ritzville Public Library became filled with individuals anxious and ready to have a new geocaching placed before them.

The second annual Ritzville Small Town Cache Cow drew an estimated 45 participants to the event and provided them with hours of activities.

Two Ritzville individuals joined the crowd of participants who traveled from Spokane Valley, Richland, Coeur d’Alene, Spokane, Colfax, Moses Lake, East Wenatchee, Okanogan, Cheney, Quincy, Chattaroy, St. Maries, Idaho, and Arlington, Wash.

Sponsored by the Ritzville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Small Town Cache Cow event is geared toward attracting a new group of individuals to the town and providing them with an adventure throughout the local area. Geocaching is a real-life scavenger hunt where individuals use GPS units to locate the hidden caches.

Participants began to gather for the event just after 9 a.m. on Saturday. As a family friendly event, many youngsters tagged along with their parents or grandparents for the activity.

Chamber Administrator Jennifer Saunders provided the welcome and instructions for the event, as well as awarding door prizes. Individuals received door prizes for the longest distance traveled, the most caches recorded and the newest geocacher.

Geocachers log their caches on a website, and the information is available for others to view. The website also provides geocachers with a place to have a forum and learn about upcoming activities.

One of the most well known geocachers in the area because of the website attended the Cache Cow event and received the door prize for the most caches. Under the geocaching title of Mr. Gadget No. 2, this veteran geocacher had logged more than 7,700 caches prior to Saturday’s event. The geocacher who traveled the farthest was Agent Scully from Arlington.

Saunders remained onsite throughout the day and fielded questions from those passing by about geocaching, as the geocachers took to the country to locate the 15 hidden caches. Their journey led them from Ritzville, down to Lind by the back roads and back to the Ritzville community, where many enjoyed the opportunity to stop for a meal before heading back home or to more weekend activities.

The first geocachers returned after about three hours of searching for the caches. For completing the event, participants received a specially made path tag for the event.

In the future, Saunders discussed the possibility to extend the event to last longer, or to turn it into a two-day caching activity. The popularity of multiple day events is growing within the geocaching community, and it is a niche Saunders hopes the local area can expand on.

For more information about local geocaches or for more information about the event, contact Saunders at the chamber at 659-1936 or by email at [email protected].