Geocachers use GPS units to find hidden treasure

FLORENCE -- It was 2003 when Larry "Keymaker" Boroff was surfing the Internet for some software updates for his global positioning system unit when he discovered geocaching.

The retired Reynolds Metals maintenance supervisor had been using his GPS unit mostly for marking hunting and fishing spots.

On Saturday, Boroff was recognized by fellow geocachers at Florence's Veterans Memorial Park for finding more than 5,000 caches.

Geocaching involves finding a hidden treasure using a GPS unit and the navigational coordinates of the hidden item's location.

Caches can be as small as a half-inch diameter metal container to larger containers, such as ammunition boxes.

GPS enthusiast Dave Ulmer unwittingly created geocaching when he hid a container in the woods and posted the coordinates on a Web site to see if others could find it.

Today there are 372,302 active caches worldwide. There are 3,076 active caches in Alabama and 6,507 active in Tennessee.

All official caches have to be approved before they can be logged on the official geocaching Web site.

The first cache Boroff searched for was in a cemetery on LaGrange Mountain.

"I went to LaGrange and found that cache and it snowballed from there," he said. "I like the-challenge of finding something hidden and the-locations."

The searches, he said, might take him to-unique locations he never knew about, even in his hometown.

Since starting, Boroff has gone on cache hunts in 12 states.

Boroff is known around the region for being the first person to find newly hidden caches.

When a hunter finds a cache, he or she may find a treasure inside or simply a piece of paper with the name of others who found it.

If you remove an item from a large cache, it's customary to replace it with another item.

Boroff's exact number of finds stood at 5,329 on Saturday.

Joe Armstrong, of Nashville, Tenn., has more than 4,000 finds while his brother, Bob Armstrong, has 8,500.

They both started geocaching at about the same time in 2001.

"It got a true couch potato off the couch and outside," Joe Armstrong said.

The Armstrongs said they learned about geocaching from a newspaper article.

Jamie "Cacheburns" Burns, of Huntsville, said a friend at work told him about geocaching.

"I tried it and got hooked," said Burns, who has more than 2,200 finds.

"I like to get out and take walks in the woods," Burns said. "It takes me to places I wouldn't find otherwise."

Justin Leoni, of Florence, said geocaching is a good activity everyone in the family can participate in.

His 7-year-old son accompanied him to Saturday's event, which included a cache run, where the participants go searching for caches.

He said it combines two of his biggest interests, technology and the Internet.

Irondale resident Ed Manley, known as "Rambler" to his geocaching friends, said geocaching probably saved his life.

Manley had a leg amputated in 1999 because of an injury he received during the Vietnam War.

For years, he had been taking a variety of pain medication because of the infection that led to the amputation.

"I discovered geocaching quite by accident," Manley said. "It was my road mental and physical recovery."

Manley was exhausted after his first cache hunt, but it convinced him leave the pain medication behind.

"I was at a really bad point in my life, and it turned things around like you wouldn't believe," he said.

Manley said he could walk in to a similar picnic shelter in Missouri and be welcomed by the geocachers there.

"I've never found a group of people as generous, kind and open as geocachers," he said.

The group at Veterans Park included people of all ages from children and teens to retired cachers like Boroff.

At 60 years old, Boroff said he will continue to geocache.

"As long as it's fun and I enjoy it," he said. "That's what matters to me."

Russ Corey can be reached at 740-5738 or russ.corey@timesdaily.com.