Waymarking

During the first several years of the new millennium, a new outdoor hobby called "geocaching" sent treasure seekers armed with GPS devices scouring the countryside for strategically placed caches. From this new trend, another method of tracking down locations called waymarking was born. While the game of geocaching began in 2000 as one ingenious soul decided to hide a container, or commonly referred to as a "cache," out in the woods, note the coordinates with a handheld GPS device and record the numbers on a Web site for all to find. The GPS hobby of treasure hunting recently evolved about five years after its inception when Groundspeak introduced waymarking.

Waymarking is similar to geocaching as GPS is still the name of the game, but instead of searching for a hidden container, the prize at the end of the search is a special point of interest. In addition, waymarking encourages its visitors to photograph themselves at their final destination. The waymarking points of interests are categorized into a host of different lists, with some featuring rather unusual names, such as "free for your birthday," "natural sinkholes," and "independent pizza restaurants. In most cases with waymarking, you're going to find a place that you typically wouldn't visit or even know was there. The department of tourism recently entered the waymarking realm and entered destinations into the waymarking Web site to allow others to see what is typically unexplored territory. Waymarking has paved the way for a slew of new capabilities for the outdoor adventure community. Waymarking is also referred to as virtual caching and the activity can be enjoyed without emplacement of a physical cache. Waymarking provides GPS coordinates to existing points of interest, such as a geologic or cultural feature, wayside exhibit, or other object. It does not involve a physical cache. Instead, the participants answer a question or a riddle about the existing landmark or monument, or take a picture to let the waymarking cache "owner" know the participant was there. This type of activity generally directs participants to areas available to most visitors and can be designed to avoid unwanted off-trail hiking or development of social trails. For these and other reasons, this type of GPS activity, compared to geocaching, is less likely to have unacceptable impacts on the environment and more likely to be appropriate to a national or state park. Waymarking and AdventureDrop is the future of exploration outdoors armed with a GPS device and a sense of exploration and adventure.

AdventureDrop has taken waymarking to the next level with its drop point abilities. It essentially allows you to see the same thing as waymarking, specific coordinates; however once you are at a location you can see specific standout sites, features, trails, outdoor challenges, and routes for adventure enthusiasts. Waymarking has cemented GPS exploration enabling the adventure community to share and research additional GPS locations that are hidden to most of the community. We here at AdventureDrop promote a respect of the environment, safe ecotourism, and a real sense of community among the waymarking and AdventureDrop community.