Geocaching

“I spent the last two weekends checking on my geocaches. Everything looked great.

For those not familiar with geocaching check out Geocaching.com”

“I just got into Geocaching...lots of fun.

Hey, bacpac, what's your zip code, and do you use bacpac as your name for geocaching?
I would like to check out your site/caches. You can check out my two caches at 96001...Paradox and Lassen View. I'm going after "Hidden" on Shasta next Sat...it's in Cascade Gulch (Hidden Valley)...it's a climbers route to the summit, usually a winter route. Been there a few times climbing, it's a bear.

Anyone else Geocaching?”

“72205, Look for bacpac.”

“Been looking into it. Websites are very interesting. I will participate eventually.”

“I put some out too.”

“Get a pair Phil.”

“A pair of geocaches that is.”

“U been busy Buddur.............

I'm going to put out some winter caches this year...will need x-c skis or snowshoes to get to them...I suppose I'll have to hang them in a tree...digging through 6 to 20 foot snow drifts wouldn't be fun.”

“looks like fun bacpac

every find anything really good in your geocache?”

“Geocaching is not about finding. Geocaching is about giving. Just like real life.”

“bacpac, how would you know about giving?”

“I give. Too few people know how to receive.”

“"You can't handle the truth"

Jack may have said it, but I wrote it.

bacpac”

“*Sigh*

Our father, who are in heaven..”

“Geocaching is like the old saying It's not the kill...it's the thrill of the chase!”

“Did'ja log the Moonville Tunnel Geocache yet, Mr.Gonzo?”

“This is too freaking awesome.. I will be checking this out further.”

“Is intentionally leaving a trace in keeping with "leave-no-trace" ethics?”

“You bet'cha...when caches' are hidden under rocks, sticks and/or regolith.”

“Isn't "caching" in wilderness areas illegal? I don't think supply depots can be legally left unattended for more than 24 hours in bona fide wilderness areas (maybe it's OK on FS and BLM lands, though...)”

“It is illegal is some areas. I use the don't ask don't tell policy. There have been folks who had to remove caches or lost them to the ranger.”

“From Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 261, Section 10:

The following [is] prohibited:

(e) Abandoning any personal property.

This is NOT an editorial comment about geocaching. I just thought that people participating in geocaching might want to know that there are legal risks involved in the activity.

The concept of geocaching doesn't bother me, per se, although it might if it gets out of hand - I would hate to see things like bear-proof containers start to get scattered about our wilderness areas...”

“I put little toy bears on all my cache's, all two of them! lol”

“Forrest, Geocaches are not abandoned property. They are regularly visited and records of such visits are maintained.”

“I was gonna hunt for a nearby cache a couple of weekends ago, but I couldn't find my Magellan.

D'oh!”

“As far as the Forest Service (who is in charge of most wilderness areas) is concerned, any personal property left unattended for longer than 48 hours is considered "abandoned."

There are plenty of non-wilderness areas open to geocaching. Non-wilderness National Forests and BLM Lands surround all designated wilderness areas, and I think geocaching should be completely legal in these areas, just not in actual bona fide wilderness areas.

Forest Service Wilderness-Management Manual”

“I once found a Mission Impossibe II DVD in a Geocache. If you like Tom Cruise that could be pretty cool.”

“If I ever run away from home, I will hide myself in a geocache.”

“Getting the baby blues Birch?”

“I took the liberty of forwarding that very question to a friend who is a Wilderness Manager for the FS. She is forwarding the query up the food chain to the legal beagles for a definitive ruling that hopefully will be consistent Region- if not Nation-wide. Stay tuned. I will post if I get an answer.”

“I believe the Head Cheeses already are aware of the Geocaching scene.

I was contacted by a Puubah in my area, who was interested in the idea, but who was concerned about people placing things on Park Lands. Her concern was that trails would eventually form, people would get lost, the caches would stick out like a sore thumb, too many of them would be placed, etc. It is my understanding that they are currently watching many caches to see the volume and frequency of seekers and their general comments as to how they feel about finding these sites.

My caches are all hidden from view, and like many have said, they "could've walked right past 'em if they weren't looking for them." Each person seems to have gotten to the caches from different directions. And all of them have marveled at the time and effort it took to get there, the scenery they encountered, and how much of a blast they had during their search. I can only see postitive results from this "test".

Anywho...Enough already!

And how was I contacted by the NPS you may wonder? ...While seeking for a geocache, I came across a Park Ranger in the middle of nowhere with whom I discussed the activity and was asked to give personal info to so I could be contacted by his Superior who was interested in this activity. And wouldn't you know it, I find out from his Superior, he was doing the very same thing under their orders!”

“buddur....
i have logged on the cache that we stashed last weekend as "moonville cache"....now, we'll see how well we have it hidden....”

“Geocaching does seem to be a growing form of outdoor recreation. The public land agencies should accommodate this new activity. Some guidelines should be set up and followed to protect the natural resources, participants, and private property of course.

Only the most elitist, hard-core purist would think geocaching is somehow 'wrong' or environmentally harmful.”

“Gordon, I disagree. Playing "hide and seek" with your little trinkets and hiding it in the woods seems to me to be frivolous and trite. The rules of the game are contrary to the basic tenets of responsible "outdoor code."
Just my humble opinion. You wouldn't advocate me leaving stuff out there, justifying it by claiming it won't be found by anyone not specifically looking for it, would you? Maybe I'll just put my trash in a tupperware and leave it, register it and call it geo-caching.”

“I don't believe you are familiar with the basic principles of geocaching.

If you visit the web page the instructions state the ethics of placing your cache.

Among them is the owner of the cache periodically returns and replenishes or removes the cache as needed. A cache is no more 'abandoned' than leaving your tent set up as a base camp while day-tripping or arranging a food drop while thru-hiking.

Geocaching is a great way to get more people interested in the outdoors and enjoying public lands. Isn't that the goal of everyone here?”

“It's obvious that flyguy6x doesn?t have a clue what Geocaching is all about...

"Maybe I'll just put my trash in a tupperware and leave it, register it and call it geo-caching."....duh, reminds me of the quote ...

"It's better to say nothing and be though a fool then to open ones mouth and remove all doubt"

"Frivolous, trite, hide and seek, little trinkets"....perhaps you just don't have the skills to go out and find a level 3 cache, let alone a level 5.
Check out the site before you make such rash judments....

Geocaching”

“Geocachers represent the Imperial wealth of the United States with all their expensive high tech gadgetry. Flyguy is like a sand eating terrorist who can't afford a GPS and is just miserable, because of it. He rejects the Geocachers, because of their economic power, but claims they are hurting the environment.

There ya go. History by example.”

“A long, long time ago when I was young and foolish I too was one of those who spoke ill of the techno weenies and their GPS's. My skills with a map and compass are second to none, so I mocked those with GPS.....accuracy to plus or minus 300 feet, who needs it, learn your skills I would say.

Then a wondrous thing happened, upon these pages I did learn of Geocaching.....accuracy to within 3 feet...cool....level 5 caches, that require scuba gear or rock climbing equipment, waaay coool.

A sport that requires map and compass, a sport that uses hiking, backpacking and x-c skills, a family sport that young ones may partake, a treasure hunt where "trinkets" like soap bubbles for kids or gold coins and even a $100.00 bill may be found, a sport that may require the skills of a mountaineer and climber...all this was too good!

Now some without vision or imagination would speak ill of this sport, to them I say...

"May your pack frame turn soft, your boots to moccasins, your down bag to wool blankets and your Gore-Tex to hides"












Oh yea....may all your children be born with snowshoes.”

“I did visit the geo-caching site about 6 months ago when (I think it was ) Buddur first posted about it. Just because my opinion differs from yours is no reason to get nasty and call me a fool, put curses on my off-spring or liken me to a terrorist. I guess I've bought in to the "take only photos, leave only footprints" alittle too much to your liking.”

“Oh lighten up....you may want to reread your post before you get sensitive to others.

When we place a cache, no one, usually not even the animals know its there...which is much less then I can say about campfire rings, trails and most campsites. All of us here are strong advocates of "leave no trace" and most of us haul out more trash then we would like (our last 10 day trip we hauled out over 8 pounds of trash ) When I camp I won't even have a fire because of the resources it uses and the scars it leaves.

All the comments that were made were tongue in cheek, please don't take it personal, we don't mean to offend....


















Or someone may put a hex on you...........”

“related to bping..yup”

“On my geocache pages, I specifically state where to park and enter the NPS land to start the search for my geocaches...and this is what I get...


User Ranz has contacted you with the following message:

I was in Ohio for a few days and decided to do a little cache hunting.
Three of yours were on my list. The two blossom caches and furnace run.

I wanted to let you know that I was not able to hunt these caches
because they are on private property. I was stopped at the gate while
hunting the blossoms and told that I could not proceed. They were unaware of
the caches and would not extend permission for me to hunt them. Furnace
run is next to an interstate and the other three sides are posted "No
Trespassing".

I couldn't log them as "Not Found" because I didn't get the chance to
hunt them. I didn't want to post a note because you did not want
anything posted that may be considered a spoiler.

If I have missed something obviouse forgive me. I live in Utah and I am
not at all familiar with the area. I just wanted you to know that I was
not able to hunt your caches for the above reasons.

If there is a way that I could not find, you might want to consider
posting it for others.

Good luck and happy caching;

Ranz”

“You can lead a horse to water, if he doesnt drink you prolly got to shoot the horse since he is now a liablity.”

“Birch, you have it wrong. It goes like this...You can lead a judge to water but you can't throw a book at a horse!

Woohoo! 63 caches in my first month all with out a gps. I'm such a stud.”

“63 in one month is incredible. You got #&%!$tons of them around you, or what? I'd be impressed if you found a couple of my caches w/o a GPS, as some folks can't seem to find'em with one.”

“My zip (94598) has 682 caches within 100 miles. I practically trip over them when I go out. Plus, very few people give much thought about good placement.”

“Well, it finally happened. One of my geocaches' has been removed. I knew it would come to this, but just didn't know when. All the activities that are allowed by the NPS and others and they can't allow one darn cache container hidden under a pile of rocks in the middle of nowhere. The impact this geocache has had on the land is infinitesimally negligible compared to the lingering effects of activities the NPS and others perform.

Anywho... I'm going to try to keep the location, and asking everyone who goes there to pick up one cobble from the ground or streambed and place it on the remaining cairn as a rememberance to thier journey. The cairn should slowly grow with every visit. Do you think this'll piss the NPS off??? I hope so, because I've gotten a bunch of responses saying this nd my other caches were the best they've done so far, and the sentiments pouring in from the removal supports that.

If you care to read about my Furnace Run geocache (geocache #427), what I posted as a remark to it's removal and how I plan to keep this location alive...click on this link. And if you do, please respond with your opinions good or bad.”

“condemns the placement of Geocaches...HA!!! In turn, I condemn the NPS for almost burning down the town of Los Alamos. For investing huge dollars into develpoping sites and then prohibiting taxpaying citizens from entering the sites.

I know nothing of this new and exciting sport, but the idea is a good one. It is an idea that fosters imagination, creativity, and family involvment. It helps develope outdoor skills and fosters a respect of nature and wildlife.

I love the NPS, BLM, forestry service, but the small minded people that run these great institutions are a waste of my money...I want a refund!!!

All of you out there....Get out and vote these pecker heads out of office...If you don;t vote, you have no right to complain, you are voicless. Write email, write your congressman, call your Senator...thats what you hired them for. With the push of one button, we can reach millions.

We can make it work...With one mind, one heart, one breath, we can change a world...Don;t sit back and let @$$holes in a uniform or a suit tell us what we can do...as long as we are not harming anything, why should they care. Do you stinkin job and make more parks...not prevent people from enjoying themselves in an unselfish, harmless way.

Like Bob Marley said..."Get up, Stand up...STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS"!!!

Thank you very much. Elvis has left the building.”

“Well, now I have some Park Ranger, 36CFR, trumping up charges and acusing the cache presence of activities that are non-caching related. Here's a portion of what he posted...

> Until the NPS finishes it’s evaluation, rangers at
> Cuyahoga Valley have asked Geocachers to remove all
> caches and to refrain from installing new ones.
> Despite fair warnings to the cache owner (1), the
> Furnace Run cache was not removed. So, on April 7th,
> after noting significant damage in the area, rangers
> removed the cache. Two Beech trees in the area were
> discovered carved upon by Geocachers(2)(their names
> match the cache diary) and fossilized rocks (3) have
> been removed from the Furnace Run streambed.
> Visitors to the cache have let their dogs run loose (4)
> disturbing wildlife and most recently, ATV riders
> seeking the cache (5) have deeply scarred the landscape.
> Not everyone treads lightly.

In response to those embellished charges...
(1) There were NO fair warnings...no warnings at all, as a matter of fact. Had I been asked/requested, I would have without hesitation removed the geocaches fromsite personally. Yet it is made to seem like warnings were not heeded and were disregarded, which is not the case.
(2)It is very unfortunate about the carved trees, I have yet to notice them myself, but I don't doubt the Ranger's word (that much..how can you trust someone who trumps up charges, could that person also insinuate something that noone can verify in order to make the situatin seem worse?)
(3)As a geologist, I'm well aware of the dynamic landscape of the valley and how insignificant a rock from a cobble-strewn stream such as Furnace Run can be. This should not have been made an issue of in the first place, but of course, if a Ranger wants to make something from nothing, who's to stop him.
(4)Dogs distubing wildlife I know nothing about...There have been only 3 posts from Furnace Run cachers that stated they brought dogs with them. Does that mean wildlife was truely disturbed? A dog in the wilderness does not a disturbed wildlife make!
(5)Is what really burns me up...
I found the ATV tracks more than a month ago and Emailed the NPS about it then. I'd put sticks at the fence where they'd enter the land and lay down sticks and branches over their "course"to indicate to the ATVers they shouldn't enter and ride in this area, . However, I would come back to find the sticks/branches would be removed and the tracks relatively fresh. This tells me the ATVer(s) is/are someone who frequents the area. From the tracks that lead up to this area (just south of 271 on highway land, and coming from the west side of Furnace Run stream), it shouldn't be hard for anyone to follow and find where the tracks originate from, and I'll bet it's most likely someone who lives nearby. I even called the Ranger Station on 4-7-02 because to me it was apparent the ATVers were returning again and again. All things considered, it is fair to say the ATVers were there to *ride their course* and not to search for the geocache. And yet the cache presence is unjustly implicated. Shotty investigative work, obviously.

DOES THIS SURPRISE ANYONE???”

“Do the crime and do the time.

No whining!!!”