Just the other day, I was looking into the history of geocaching. Did you know that Groundspeak was the first organization to engage in geocaching, beginning over 15 years ago? Before that, satellites used for GPS had almost exclusively been used for military operations. By making satellites available to civilians, the government of the US helped make geocaching possible. After the first cache was hidden in Washington state, the game was born. Another cache and then another was posted for people to find. However, access to caches was limited, at the time, to a select few who owned GPS units. Determining the location of a cache could be done without this technology, but with great difficulty.
After smartphones gained the ability to provide accurate coordinates, geocaching popularity received renewed interest. By making smartphones capable of providing precise GPS locations, this technology opened the game to those who don't own a dedicated GPS unit. Bringing this game to smartphone users greatly expanded the popularity of the game. Expanded popularity of geocaching has had its drawbacks, including missing trackables and other ill effects. Before you decide that the increased interest is not worth the trouble of missing trackables, think of how much more enjoyable the game is when there are more people to find our caches. Giving the geocaching community a population boost is a worthwhile gain. Even if a few trackables go missing once in a while, the game is more fun now. Decide for yourself whether smartphones are right for you, but they do have the advantage of seeing real time cache updates and being able to search for more information to solve puzzle caches.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.