Geocaching has been around for only eight years, but the number of hidden boxes grows daily. Nearly 100 geocaches have been hidden along the Greenbelt between Lucky Peak Dam and Eagle Island State Park.

Geocachers use hand-held receivers that read information broadcast to Earth from orbiting satellites. It's the same technology used in newer cars with mapping systems. A person using a GPS receiver can find his or her location anyplace on the globe. Better systems are accurate to a few square feet.

They find clues from fellow geocachers and from several Web sites that post latitude and longitude coordinates to thousands of hidden locations on every continent of the planet.

Each cache — usually in the form of a Tupperware bowl, military ammo box or coffee can — is hidden by fellow geocachers. The contents change daily as people visit the sites and trade items.

The game is a sport for the technology age, but embraced by anyone who loves the journey as much as the prize.

Stealth is key, and a loose set of rules governs the game. The treasure, as valuable as it may be, is never kept, but is shared and passed along from cache to cache for others to find.

For instance, when a geocache hunter finds a cache he or she opens the box, signs and dates a log book then trades one treasure for another. Some cache chests are very small and contain only a log sheet with no treasure. These micro-caches — usually the size of a 35 mm film canister or smaller — are more difficult to find and are considered more prized.

Other caches are disguised as common things such as large rocks, tree stumps or electrical boxes. There's even one cache in the Foothills disguised as a cow patty.

After a hunter finds a cache he or she records his or her find at geocaching.com where cache owners can then watch to see who has discovered their treasures.

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Some facts, key moments and history about the growing sport of geocaching.

• Creation: The sport, only eight years old, began in 2000 when a Portland man placed a bucket by the side of a road and posted its latitude and longitude coordinates on the Internet. Incidentally, the bucket was destroyed by a road crew lawn mower. It has since been replaced with a plaque designating the birthplace of geocaching. You can find the first cache at Waypoint GCGV0P.