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{"id":1693,"date":"2015-03-17T14:35:56","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T14:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/urban-plains.com\/2016\/?p=1693"},"modified":"2016-03-09T08:14:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T08:14:21","slug":"geocaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urban-plains.com\/2016\/culture\/geocaching\/","title":{"rendered":"One High-Tech Treasure Seeker\u2019s Thrill of the Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nWords by Marissa Daily | Photography by Michael Wendlandt | Design by Nicole Kasperbauer | March 17, 2015<\/p>\n

\"1\"<\/a>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a Sunday afternoon, Des Moines\u2019s Beaverdale Park is empty. It\u2019s a cool 50 degrees, and snow still blankets the brittle grass in a few places. Trees stand bare against the blue sky. A dog breaks the silence with distant barks as geocacher Scott Mills parks his red sedan and steps out of the car with a GPS in hand. The cache he\u2019s chosen to find is called \u201cAnchors Away,\u201d part of a series of caches in Mills\u2019 latest scavenger hunt. Bouncing around on blue and white sneakers, he clashes with the dull environment, almost as if he\u2019s there to wake it up.<\/p>\n

High-tech treasure hunting is Mills\u2019 obsession. Although he prefers to go alone \u2014 that\u2019s \u201cjust how I\u2019m wired,\u201d he says \u2014 he\u2019ll take advantage of any geocaching opportunity: on business trips, on family vacations, and on dates with his wife. A Forklifts of Des Moines employee and father of three, Mills makes time for geocaching three times a week by pairing it with his other hobbies, like running or biking.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Geocacher<\/a>

Geocacher Scott Mills uses his GPS to search for a cache while geocaching.<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But non-geocachers (or \u201cmuggles,\u201d as geocachers call them) always have the same question for him: What does he get out of spending hours outdoors looking for something, only to put it right back? \u201cNothing,\u201d Mills says. It’s not about actually getting his hands on the hidden item, but about combining the frustration of the hunt with the exhilaration of the find and the much awaited \u201caha\u201d moment. In the 10 years he’s been geocaching, Mills has found over 8,100 caches, mostly in Iowa and some in states like Kentucky and Illinois, and has hidden 1,300 caches in Iowa. \u201cThe best part about geocaching,\u201d he says, \u201cis that it is whatever you want it to be. You can make it recreational, competitive, complicated, puzzle-finding. You can do it on a bike, in a kayak, in a canoe \u2014 it\u2019s only limited by what you can think.\u201d<\/p>\n

First to Find<\/h3>\n

Brad Olk, president of the Iowa Geocachers Organization, estimates that there are around 1,200 cachers in Iowa. Mills, Olk says, \u201cis probably one of the best finders I know [and] one of the earlier cachers in central Iowa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mills started geocaching in 2005, at the suggestion of a friend. After he found his first cache \u2014 an empty ammo can \u2014 he filled three full pages of the ammo can\u2019s logbook (where geocachers record their name and the date of the find in a notebook accompanying each cache) with his story. He was instantly hooked. He began geocaching seven days a week, with a goal to become the \u201cFirst to Find (FTF)\u201d newly hidden caches. In the geocaching community, being FTF means getting your hands on something no one has found yet and being the first name in the logbook. \u201cMy phone would go off and tell me there\u2019s a new cache within 50 miles of the house, and I would drop everything and go,\u201d Mills says. \u201cThat gets a little obsessive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Des<\/a>

Des Moines\u2019s Beaverdale Park, where the Anchors Away cache was found.<\/p><\/div>\n

An Endless Cache Supply<\/h3>\n

His dedication to hiding the caches is what makes Mills different from others. He spends hours making, maintaining, and strategically hiding caches of all shapes and sizes. His favorite? \u201cOne in a Minion,\u201d a 6-foot barrel painted to look like a minion from Despicable Me. \u201cIt\u2019s got the goggles, the whole nine yards,\u201d Mills says. \u201cI really like giving somebody a smile on their face when they find it.\u201d He\u2019s even created a tribute trail on the Raccoon River Bike Trail leading up to Panora, Iowa, where he\u2019s hidden dozens of caches named after each geocacher he\u2019s ever met. \u201cIt\u2019s just paying back to the people who are part of your group,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Mills<\/a>

Mills discovers a hollow place in a tree trunk, where the Anchors Away cache is hidden.<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mills estimates that there are 500 caches in Des Moines he hasn\u2019t found \u2014 plenty to feed his frenzy for years. But for now, finding \u201cAnchors Away\u201d in Beaverdale Park is his focus.<\/p>\n

Walking fast, he heads for the ravine where he hopes to find it. He stops to turn off his GPS. \u201cThe key to geocaching,\u201d he says, \u201cis that when you\u2019re within 50 feet of your target, you want to turn off this machine\u201d \u2014 he motions to the GPS \u2014 \u201cand turn on this<\/i> machine\u201d \u2014 he points to his head. Leaves crunch underfoot as he approaches a tree that seems to fit the GPS coordinates. He circles it once, scanning for oddities. His trained eyes quickly spot an out-of-place piece of concrete at the foot of the tree. He picks it up to uncover a hollow space in the trunk and reaches in. He pulls out a small anchor with numbers written in black Sharpie on its side: the coordinates for the next cache on his scavenger hunt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To geocacher Scott Mills, it\u2019s all about the \u201caha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[4],"tags":[106,107,108,109,135],"yoast_head":"\nOne High-Tech Treasure Seeker\u2019s Thrill of the Hunt | Urban Plains<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To geocacher Scott Mills, it\u2019s all about discovering the \u201caha\u201d moment.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/urban-plains.com\/2016\/culture\/geocaching\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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