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stomparound85
04-01-2005, 01:39
Any Cachers out there on the trails or doing some GPSing:banana

attroll
04-01-2005, 01:49
I do my fair share of geocaching. But it is my opinion that caches should not be put on the Appalachian Trail unless they are virtual caches.

stomparound85
04-01-2005, 01:53
Any Cachers out there on the trails or doing some GPSing:banana
thats a good idea. even though i do know of some off the trail in Bland VA:-?

Team Og Rof a Klaw
06-09-2005, 09:21
Team Og Rof a Klaw here... We're not serious hikers, we just dayhike. We often use caching as a way to find good trails.

Attroll, just curious: why don't you think caches belong on the AT? I just visited a few near the halfway point, and couldn't see that they were doing any particular harm. In fact, one of the ones at the halfway point (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=eb0cb339-d3f2-48b2-b082-e0f850816a71) looked like a place to trade some good hiker-oriented swag.

- Team Og.
(P.S. Thanks for changing my user name!)

Jaybird
06-09-2005, 09:42
it's called a "HIKING TRAIL " for a reason...

Team Og Rof a Klaw
06-09-2005, 10:16
I sense a pointless flame exchange about to start... :rolleyes:

- Team Og.

Ford Prefect
06-09-2005, 10:32
For what it's worth: Long before geocaching became popular, I was tasked with setting up a 6+ mile loop for a scout troop at a local state park. One of our ideas was to "seed" the trail with odd objects for the scouts to find. Keep the boys interested/occupied.

When we asked permission from the park rangers, we were told that permission to deviate from the trail would need to be obtained (presumably, in triplicate...) from DNR headquaters, but in NO WAY were we to put anything in the woods. In fact, the rangers seemed knd of upset we even thought about such an idea. Seems they didn't want us to muck up the wilderness portions of the SP.

At the time, it seemed a bit anal-retentave. Over the years, after packing out other peoples garbage, I've come to realize that there's a SLEW of people tramping around with very little sense of responsibilty towards preserving natures beauty. This is, perhaps, one reason some here are oopposed to it, particularly on the AT.

What I do find amusing, however, is that according to the web-site mentioned above, there is a geocache in this same SP now.

Team Og Rof a Klaw
06-09-2005, 11:25
Actually, that's an interesting point. Pennsylvania requires DCNR approval on any caches placed on state land. The geocaching approval process takes that into account.

Unfortunately, Jeremy Irish, the person who controls geocaching, has made it more or less impossible to get virts approved. So attroll's statement equates to zero caches along the AT, more or less.

On the plus side, the caching organizations do sponsor cache-in-trash-out (CITO) events, and I've never seen caches cause any of the kind of destruction that I think you're concerned about.

And I'll say this. If anyone here sees a cache that is actually causing damage to a trail, please report it on geocaching.com. I am certain that it would be history before long. I've done this myself when a cache was placed in violation of the protocols.

- Team Og.

TakeABreak
06-09-2005, 13:07
Geocaching would not be a bad thing if, it did not open up pandora's box. What will be next guided tour's, classes of 20 - 30 people for geocaching. If you want to do such things, please it somewhere else, like in a state forest where there aren't any trails or marked paths or such, make it a challenge.

Supply caching is something different and I have done it for myself and others, in hard to re-supply area's. That too must be done in a responsible manner, to keep rodents and other wildlife from destroying the cache and making a mess out out in the woods.

When doing a regular cache please remember to hang it, as if you were expecting a blackbear to find it and to try and get to it. If you don't, you might get just a little hungry when you reach the cache point and find it gone.

greymane
06-09-2005, 15:32
My understanding is that Jeremy is trying to separate the types of caches a bit, not get rid of virtual caches all together.

There is a Catch-22 here. If you want to keep the trail nice, you need to minimize traffic to some degree, hence the tendency to want to not add more activities to the area. However, if you make the AT an elitist retreat, you will not maintain sufficient support to keep the trail open. It is getting hard enough to find support for trail maintenance. Be wary of that slippery slope!

Besides, most of the cachers I know are heavily into CITO (cache in, trash out). What damage can that do?

anneandbenhike
06-09-2005, 15:58
My husband and I are avid geocachers and avid section hikers. While researching our next section...from Rt. 60 N. of Roanoke to Harper's Ferry, I looked to see where there might be some caches or benchmarks to liven up our hike. There are over 35 caches on that section of 215 miles. Some have been converted from regular to virtual due to being in SNP. There are also several regular caches in the SNP, though I think there are not supposed to be any in National Parks. We also do alot of CITO while we are caching and have never seen cachers doing harm to any area and frequently leave it in better condition that they found it. I definitely do not think that we are opening a Pandora's box here....it has already been opened.

Frosty
06-09-2005, 20:34
it's called a "HIKING TRAIL " for a reason...I thought it was a "National Scenic Trail."

Anyway, geocaching on the AT should be done with map and compass only.