Many Manitobans are discovering the fun of a treasure hunt by geocaching at locations throughout the province with many caches to discover in southeast Manitoba.

Monique Chenier is the Economic Development Manager of Sunrise Corner Tourism, the joint marketing organization for the RM of Piney and Stuartburn. She manages the geocaches hosted by the organization in the area.

‘It's kind of a global treasure hunt for people looking for hidden caches of objects, so it's kind of a series of hide and seek games. Hiders provide online clues for seekers. And the seekers use their GPS devices to find these hidden caches.’

According to Nathan Kachur, president of the Manitoba Geocaching Association, geocaching is growing in popularity across the province.

‘I ran the numbers and overall, we've seen a 30 percent increase in the amount of people in Manitoba that are caching and the number that those people are finding.’

Geocaches in Southeast Manitoba as per Geocaching.com

"Geocaching is an online-based location game. People that choose to play go out and find containers that were hidden by other members of the geocaching community using GPS or their cell phone" says Kachur.

Containers come in all shapes and sizes, but according to Kachur, they must meet a few requirements in Manitoba. ‘Normally it's a large Tupperware container. Lots of containers are not super weather resistant. At least heavily weather-resistant is a huge bonus.’

According to Chenier, the treasure hunt doesn’t end when you find the cache, but when you open it. ‘One of the guiding principles of geocaching is to take something, leave something.’

And Sunrise Corner has stocked their caches with plenty of good things to find. ‘In each of our caches we place a number of goodies in a container and we have things like key chains, drink cozies, Sunrise Corner pens, and different little items as people come and find the cache.’

An exchange takes place where the finder takes a treasure and leaves a treasure in its place and Chenier says, some things left behind can be very interesting. ‘You never know what kind of treasure you'll find in one of our geocaches. We've seen business cards, little jewelry pieces, little toy cars, or something natural like pine cones and painted rocks.’

In addition to the little treasures, the caches also contain logbooks where people can sign their successful discovery and completion of the search and leave a message.

Chenier says reading the comments in the logbooks and on the geocaching.com website, where members can track their finds online, has been encouraging. She explains about reading a comment from the geocache located at the baseball diamond in Vassar. ‘Someone wrote that their husband had played baseball there when he was a little kid, and so it was really a walk down memory lane for them.’

The Sunrise Corner geocaches also include some art from some local artists. ‘Each of our geocaches has a metal sculpture that was created by the Pineland Hutterite colony, with unique designs specific to that location.’

For example, the cache in South Junction has a locomotive engine as the sculpture. Highlighting the time when South Junction was the southernmost junction of two railways. Each cache in Sunrise Corner has a little bit of history around it.

Kachur says his life changed when he started geocaching.

"I went caching every day for a year and a half as a distraction from life. It's a lot of fun, there is a community, within the province, North America, and even the whole world. It's an interesting activity that is good for a solo person right through to a whole family."

With 17 different geocaches spanning over the 3600 square kilometers in Sunrise Corner alone, a lot of local communities can be explored. And southeast Manitoba has countless caches to discover.

 Chenier says a lot of families are out geocaching, making it a great day trip. Families are heading out and hitting up three or four caches in the region. With stops including ice cream at a local shop and visiting different playgrounds and parks. ‘It just becomes a really great family day out that doesn't have to be super expensive. It’s free to find all the caches. Bring a picnic lunch and it makes for a great day.’

Learn more about the Sunrise Corner geocaches and start geocaching by setting up a geocaching account to search for local treasures.

Hear more about the geocaches in Sunrise Corner.