Berkeley County Resident’s Gadget Geocaches Put Native Tourism On The Map

Across Berkeley County, dozens of mysterious containers masquerade as easy birdhouses or wood bins that don’t warrant a second look. But for fanatics of the cultural phenomenon often called geocaching, these containers — and the problem of getting inside them — is much more attention-grabbing.

Geocaching is an outdoor activity wherein gamers use their telephones or GPS units to navigate towards hidden containers, much like a treasure hunt. Players obtain clues and log their finds on-line by means of the Geocaching website.

While geocaching usually ends when you discover a container, years in the past Berkeley County resident Tim Eggleston made the sport a bit trickier by pioneering what’s in the present day often called the “gadget cache.” And his one-of-a-kind creations have been a boon for tourism in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.

A Digital Treasure Hunt

Visit a city park, welcome heart or mall car parking zone and chances are you’ll move a geocache with out realizing it. The treasure bins are hidden in 190 totally different nations, with gamers leaving coordinates and clues to their location.

Prizes contained in the containers are sometimes scant, particularly when they don’t seem to be continuously maintained. But for Eggleston, who goes by the username “WVTim” on-line, the fund goes past any single reward. Instead, he sees geocaching as an exercise with attraction throughout areas of curiosity.

“If you like biking, you can bike to geocaches. If you like history, you can go find spots that have historical significance, and most likely, there’s a geocache there,” Eggleston stated. “That’s the beauty of geocaching. Whether you’re young or you’re old, it’s kind of got something for everyone.  And everybody approaches the game differently.”

Eggleston was launched to the sport by a church good friend in 2008 and rapidly grew to become hooked. But ultimately he grew uninterested in discovering the identical kinds of geocaches time and again.

“A lot of people have found 10,000 pieces of Tupperware under trees,” he stated. “But, after a while, they became so normal that I [went], ‘I don’t think this is for me.’ And I came up with the idea to put a geocache in a bird house.”

Eggleston rapidly realized the customized method that made the sport most enjoyable for him revolved round hiding geocaches for different gamers in artistic methods. And his hides are removed from odd.

The Advent Of The Gadget Cache

Eggleston’s containers are giant and sometimes hidden in plain sight. The catch is, getting inside shouldn’t be so simple as snapping open a lid.

He pioneered what’s now often called the “gadget cache,” which refers to geocaches that incorporate a puzzle or some sort of mechanical problem to get inside.

Geocaches can are available in all totally different styles and sizes, with the lone rule that they have to comprise some sort of logbook the place gamers who discovered the container can write their identify. The artistic liberty surrounding what qualifies has led Eggleston to cover greater than 300 geocaches in his years taking part in the sport.

Currently, “all my gadget caches that bring people to Berkeley County are all bird houses,” Eggleston stated. “So I can put them right in plain view and nobody even thinks anything about it.”

One container at a freeway relaxation cease simply south of the Maryland border requires gamers to tug rings tethered to a birdhouse in a selected method to launch a tube out the underside. At the native customer heart, gamers who dial their radios to a selected channel can hear a looping recording of Eggleston’s voice, sharing the coordinates to a container in Martinsburg.

Another conceal has a rainbow-colored xylophone hidden inside, requiring customers to play a selected tune to unlock a secret code. Eggleston even has hidden a birdhouse product of Lego items, requiring gamers to watch their sample to establish a sequence to unlock the field.

Tricks like these could be complicated and even irritating for some gamers, Eggleston stated. But for a lot of others, they add a component of intrigue that has drawn worldwide acclaim.

Eggleston is aware of firsthand that folks journey from around the globe to search out his dozens of hides throughout Berkeley County. Many of them shoot him messages for journey ideas; one household from the Netherlands even requested to crash at his residence.

“They came and we have now developed a great relationship,” he stated. “We’ve grown through our friendship [with] people that we’ve met through geocaching; people from other countries. It’s opened up a whole new world for us.”

Cornering A Tourist Niche

When gamers actually like a geocache, they can provide it a favourite level on-line. Thanks to Eggleston, Berkeley County has extra favourite factors than some other county within the United States. His geocaches alone have been discovered tens of hundreds of instances.

Eggleston says he’s impressed to cover geocaches as a result of he needs extra individuals to see Berkeley County, supporting native tourism and enterprise within the course of.

Many of his hides are intentionally positioned close to native companies and landmarks. Sometimes, Eggleston coordinates his launch with native tourism officers to higher highlight locations of curiosity to guests.

“We have people come in from Ireland, England, Australia, Germany — especially Germany — Denmark, from all over the place, as well as from across the country,” stated Mark Jordan, government director of the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “They come to Berkeley County specifically to geocache Tim’s trails.”

Jordan stated his bureau typically works with Eggleston to coordinate the discharge of a number of geocaches without delay, taking guests alongside preset trails or landmark excursions. The bureau usually creates rewards for gamers who full whole trails like these, usually within the type of a limited-edition, trackable coin.

Distributing cash like these is a technique Jordan sees firsthand how many individuals go to Berkeley County simply to geocache. But he stated that also doesn’t embrace the hundreds of different gamers who’ve traveled to the county with out paying the bureau a go to.

For some out-of-state vacationers, having a community of one-of-a-kind geocaches is the distinction between spending one other night time in Washington, D.C. and making the trek to West Virginia, Jordan stated.

“It’s such a great thing,” he added. “It’s great to showcase Berkeley County. It’s great to showcase Martinsburg. It’s great to showcase West Virginia.”

A Worldwide Phenomenon

Meanwhile, Eggleston and Jordan say group leaders throughout the state and even the nation have reached out, hoping to copy Berkeley County’s magnetism amongst geocachers.

“It’s caught on quite a bit. We have other counties in the state asking Tim how to do it,” Jordan stated. “Of course, he’s from Berkeley County and he won’t help them. But he offers great advice.”

Eggleston stated he will get invitations to occasions nationwide to point out off his creations and educate others how you can make related containers. While he stated he’s steadfast in his allegiance to supporting Berkeley County, he additionally takes satisfaction in serving to others study.

That is partly why he launched a YouTube page to point out how he builds the trick containers. To his shock, it has raked in additional than 1.7 million views.

“I’m just an old guy. I’m not a YouTuber. I’m not an influencer,” he stated. “I’m just about making the game better and showing other people how I do it.”

And whereas replicas could pop up around the globe, Eggleston’s hides are nonetheless broadly often called the true deal — particularly as a result of he’s nonetheless hiding new gadget caches, every time with an added twist gamers received’t see coming.

To study extra about geocaching in Berkeley County and WVTim’s hides, go to the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Convention and Visitors Bureau website.