A new club on campus is giving the scavenger hunt a high-tech update.

David Vavra, international undergraduate in computer science, started the Geocaching Club, a sport where players search for "caches" using GPS technology. The club has already had its first geocaching trip and is quickly gaining popularity. Currently there are four caches on K-State's campus.

Geocaching began in the U.S. but is most popular overseas, especially in Vavra's native Czech Republic. The sport is a worldwide scavenger hunt of sorts that uses technology to bring people closer to nature. To play, all that is necessary is a portable GPS, which many people already have on their phones or in their cars.

At Geocaching.com players can create a free profile to gain access to coordinates of caches. This is the official geocaching Web site and the most reliable place to find the locations of caches, details about them and any geocaching events going on around the world. Players just need to plug the coordinates into the GPS and let it lead the way.

The site provides helpful information about the level of difficulty of the cache, which is basically a prize, what the cache contains and any additional supplies, like flashlights, that might be useful. The coordinates often also come with an encrypted clue that will lead one step closer to the cache.

Each cache is different. Some are as small as a film canister, while others are large bins, and the contents vary just as widely. Almost all caches include a log so the geocachers who find them can sign their names and the dates they were there. Others have themes to them — a cache planted right here in Manhattan has only purple things in it.

Caches are generally small so they are easy to hide, meaning the things in them have to be small. A general rule about caches is that when the finder takes something out of it they must put something in.

"The most popular caches are travel bugs, geocoins and just miscellaneous things that are interesting," Vavra said.

Travel bugs and geocoins are created by companies specifically for geocaching and work as a tracking device, according to Geocaching.com.

The bugs or coins are planted into a cache, and when someone finds them, he or she takes it and enters the tracking number into the geocaching Web site. There they can log the story of where they discovered the coin or bug and see where else it has been. Then, they can keep the coin for a while or put it in the next cache they discover so that it can continue its travels.

Caches are planted all over the world, from the K-State campus to Europe and Africa. They are so hidden that most K-State students probably walk by at least one daily without ever realizing it.

"The best part is not the prize," Vavra said. "It is the challenge, the landmarks you see and being able to follow the stories. Sometimes you have to decipher a code or climb a tree and the best part is the nice views along the way."

He said he has traveled all over the world, the farthest he has geocached is Egypt and throughout Europe.

"I just started geocaching, but the coolest place I could think of to geocache is Europe," said Christine Ebert, junior in nutrition and kinesiology. "There are probably a lot of interesting places there that a lot of people don't know about. That's one of the coolest things; finding caches can take you places you never would have found otherwise."

Ebert became involved in geocaching through Vavra and found her first cache during the club's first meeting.

"My dad always did scavenger hunts with me, and I was intrigued by something that can be done anywhere and that you can do while traveling," Ebert said. "I talked to my friends and found out that a lot of them already knew what it was and had done it and that made me even more interested."

Another part of geocaching is finding a remote place that others would appreciate and planting a new cache. Vavra has planted two caches in the Czech Republic and enjoys going back to them to see who has found them and signed the logs.

Caching can be done alone or in large groups, with friends or family and in almost any place. The K-State club meets Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m.