CHATSWORTH, Ga. -- Lyle Petry proudly displays his booty at Fort Mountain State Park.
The Ellijay native holds up a basketball-sized wad of key chains he and his wife, Ann, collected at some of the 1,450 geocaches they've found around the country.
"It takes you places you never see," said Mr. Petry, a remodeler and home builder.
Now, thanks to a new program launched by the state, geocaching will be taking people like the Petrys into Georgia state parks.
Last week marked the opening of the Georgia State Parks Geo-Challenge, in which volunteers hid caches of small items at 42 state parks and logged the GPS coordinates into a website for other cachers to find.
Mr. Petry, who hid the caches at Fort Mountain and Cloudland Canyon state parks with his wife, said both had already been found a handful of times in the first week.
"The geocaching nation got out there," Mr. Petry said.
Which is exactly what the parks staff wants to happen.
"We see it as a way to reach a whole new group of visitors," said state parks spokeswoman Kim Hatcher. She said all the caches were found at least once in the first week.
Geocaching began 10 years ago when global positioning satellites were opened for commercial use. Users log onto www.geocaching.com and find a cache near them. They punch the cache coordinates into their GPS units and check the difficulty rating before setting off.
The ratings range from 1 to 5, with 1 being wheelchair-accessible. With 5, "you really feel like you need a rope or a canoe," Mr. Petry said.
Seekers who reach their targets can take a trinket someone else has left but are supposed to leave one of their own behind. Mr. Petry said most people leave key chains and toys from kids' meals or cereal boxes, but he knows of one where cachers swap out DVDs.
GEOCACHING TERMSCaches: The prizes in all shapes and sizes that cachers hide for other cachers to findMuggles: People who find caches, but don't participate or know what the boxes areFreebies: Caches near where you happen to be going anyway, particularly right across state linesMicros: Small caches, usually from the size of a film canister to the size of a little fingerNanos: Tiniest of all caches, sizes range from pencil erasers to hollowed-out nailsCITO: Cache in, trash out; cache contains trash bag for finder to pick up litter on the way backPower cachers: Cachers who go on binges, finding as many as 120 caches in a daySource: Lyle and Ann Petry
Mr. Petry got into the hobby with his father, who began searching with a bulky old GPS unit removed from an airplane. The old units could get searchers within 30 to 40 feet of the cache's exact location, while the sleek, newer models the Petrys use usually get them within about 10 feet.
The Cracker Barrel restaurant chain has embraced the hobby. Many stores have hidden caches underneath rocking chairs or in fake sprinkler heads. The Petrys say they stop at the restaurants on trips because they know they can find a cache while they wait.
"A lot of people plan their vacation around where they can find caches," said Eric Phillips, steering committee member for the Georgia Geocachers Association, who found a cache at Fort Yargo State Park last week.
Georgia parks officials hope to draw in visitors for the same reason.
"Geocaching combines technology with trails and is a good way to get people outside and active," said Chris Clark, a commissioner with the state Department of Natural Resources. "And it's great for families because they get to go on a treasure hunt together."