Ancient Navigational Aids
Ever since the Big Blue Switch was flipped on May 2nd 2000, GPS-powered technology has become an essential tool for millions of people around the globe. We—geocachers—are intimately familiar with the wonders of GPS; leveraging its precision to locate millions of geocaches hidden around the world as part of our hobby.
But it is worth remembering that this technology has only existed for a minuscule fraction of human existence. Not long ago, ingenious minds toiled for months to craft clever ways to talk about location.
Sunset at English Bay, Christina Chan. Flickr.
An inukshuk is a structure of piled stones made to resemble the human figure.
Traditionally constructed by the Inuit people of Canada, they are often used as a means of communication: each structure, in its construction, would hold a unique message that could be understood by members of the community. For instance, when placed on shorelines or hilltops, inukshuk would act as navigational aids guiding travellers along their journeys. Elsewhere, they were used by hunters to mark the locations of strategic vantage points or caches containing food or useful tools.
This particular inukshuk was constructed by Alvin Kanak out of grey granite; it was commissioned by the government of the Northwest Territories for its pavilion at Expo 86. It was later gifted to the City of Vancouver, and now lives on the seawall, towering over English Bay.
Logging Requirements
To earn credit for this Virtual Cache, you must visit the posted coordinates and perform one of the following two tasks.
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Head down to the water, and build an inukshuk of your own using stones on the beach. Take a picture, and attach it to your "Found it" log.
OR
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Take a picture of your favourite navigational aid with Kanak's inukshuk visible in the background. Attach this picture to your "Found it" log.
Don't have a favourite navigational aid? Ridiculous! How about a compass and a printed paper map? A buoy? A foghorn? Or maybe a sextant and an up-to-date nautical almanac? What about a rate-integrating gyroscope? Astrocompass? Maybe even an actual, literal, fiery star?
(Or just your GPSr, but that's decidedly uncreative in the face of such diverse choice!)
Have fun!
Virtual Rewards 3.0 — 2022–2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.