Spokane was an early adopter in geocaching, the quirky tech-meets-outdoors hobby about to celebrate its 25th anniversary

From the twisting sidewalks of Riverfront Park to the rocky forests of the Palisades, Spokane is filled with hidden treasure. But it’s not the kind that would attract a pirate.

Geocaching, the modern-day treasure hunt where users search for hidden containers using a GPS app, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

Though it now boasts caches on all seven continents, the activity had humble beginnings in the Northwest, with some of the first users and geocaches ever placed originating in Spokane.

In the early days of the platform, geocaching was confined to users with existing knowledge of GPS. Users would choose coordinates posted on geocaching.com, then head to the wilderness with bulky and expensive GPS devices that had limited precision.

One of those was Spokane’s own Jon Stanley, or as he’s known in the Geocaching community, Moun10Bike.

Stanley is a “Geocaching Celebrity” of sorts. Besides being the 24th person to create a Geocache account, he created the Geocoin, which are collectible tokens with tracking codes so users can follow them as they move from site to site.

A mountain biking enthusiast, he picked up the hobby as another way to satiate his hunger for exploring the wilderness around him.

He decided to hide his first cache in a location dear to his heart: Priest Lake. That’s where his family had a cabin growing up, and where he met his wife.

“I wanted to hide it up there because it’s still to a lot of us, especially the old-timers, it’s about location. It’s getting to see cool spots like this,” he said. “I picked that spot because it’s the place I would always motorcycle with my brother and friends and my dad, and it had a beautiful view.”

Not only was it the first geocache he created, but it was also the first cache ever placed in Idaho. Now 25 years later, he’s still at it, working as a senior data analyst for geocaching.com and traveling to find caches around the world.

“I think there is something in our instincts that it appeals to,” Stanley said. “Like someone hid something, I want to go find it, or I want to go place something and hide it so that the normal person will walk right by, but this certain group will know about.”

Geocaching exploded in popularity in 2008 once the app launched, expanding access from just GPS enthusiasts to anyone with a cellphone. While there were spikes in 2016 due to the rise of similar apps like Pokémon Go and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the userbase has generally plateaued, Stanley said. Although there are more than 3 million geocaches around the globe, there are still a lot of people who are unaware the hobby exists.

Although it happens much less nowadays, Stanley has had his fair share of cops and bystanders approach him with questions about his suspicious snooping in random areas.

“There are frequent big events where people come together in the city and go caching together in the local area,” he said. “The original guy who organized all of those would actually call the police department ahead of time saying, ‘Hey, you’re going to have a bunch of weird people running around your town.’ ”

Geocaching isn’t for everyone. It generally appeals to someone who is of the quirky sort and unafraid to get their feet dirty, Stanley said.

“Someone who doesn’t mind walking into the woods alone or with just a friend and maybe even looking under benches in a park where people are going, ‘What the heck is that person doing?’ ” he said. “I always say that we’re the nicest strange people you’ll ever meet.”

If you’re looking for valuable prizes to take home, this also might be the wrong hobby for you.

“It’s about getting out, finding what is hidden in nature that’s fun. If you don’t like that, then you’re not going to enjoy the game,” he said.

Today, there are nearly 900 geocaches within 10 miles of Spokane. The city’s abundance of parks and outdoor recreation opportunities makes Spokane an ideal place to geocache, said Geocaching Senior Public Relations Manager Chris Ronan.

“It’s a game that’s happening all around us. It’s right under our noses,” Ronan said. “Getting to tell people about it and seeing that surprise moment for them where they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I walked by one every day and didn’t even know,’ is a cool thing.”