Seeking the Hidden (continued)
Visiting new places like these was partly what motivated Dave Lyons, now of Cary, North Carolina, to locate more than 200 geocaches during the several years he lived in Fairbanks.
“In Alaska, most of the caches I went to, it was like ‘Wow! This is this great area that I would never have dreamed of going to unless I was hunting for this little box,’” he says. “A lot of the cachers [in Alaska] specifically put caches in places to bring you to something that would be very difficult to find if you were not familiar with it.”
"People usually put caches in places they want to show off and share with others."Mike Malvick
Anchorage geocacher |
According to the Web site geocaching.com, the term ‘geocaching’ originated in May 2000, about the time the U.S. government disabled Selective Availability, its intentional degradation of GPS signals. This sudden tenfold improvement in accuracy made it possible for anyone with a off-the-shelf GPS unit to navigate to within 10 to 50 feet of any given point on the globe—assuming you could walk, ski, swim, float, or fly there!This level of precision would have astounded a 19th century navigator, but it also leaves just enough inaccuracy to provide a challenge for those seeking carefully hidden geocaches.
For the caches I’ve found, only once did my GPS receiver lead me right to the spot. The other times it brought me to within 30 or 40 feet—but in which direction?—and I had to do some searching, sometimes on my hands and knees.
Finding its place on public lands
Up to now, the BLM and other federal agencies have mostly regarded geocaching as a wholesome family activity that gets people outdoors and improves their navigational skills.
That’s not to say there haven’t been occasional problems with geocaching on public lands. Damaged vegetation and soils around heavily visited caches have raised concerns in a few parks, and some agencies have determined that placement of caches is incompatible with management regulations for federal wilderness areas.
Lyons says he encountered Alaska land managers and private property owners who didn’t want geocaches placed on their land. “They considered geocaches ‘trash,’” he says.
For responsible geocachers like Lyons, the solution in that situation was clear—Don’t hide caches where they’re not welcome. Most geocaching Web sites and brochures emphasize that landowners’ permission must be sought before placing caches and that geocachers must obey all laws and rules pertaining to that area.
For its part, BLM-Alaska has been receptive to geocaching on the public lands it manages.
“Because of the low impact of this kind of recreation, we’ve decided that this generally doesn’t require a permit for public lands in Alaska,” says outdoor recreation planner Randy Goodwin. “And this approach has worked well so far.”
“That may be partly because of the lower number of public land visitors we have in Alaska,” Goodwin says. “But I credit the local geocachers, too. Many of them link to our Web site and inform people about use restrictions on our trails. Some even suggest bringing a trash bag along to pick up litter.”
It’s clear that for some geocachers, responsibility doesn’t end with placement of the cache. “There’s also demonstrating good stewardship,” says Anchorage geocacher Mike Malvick. He’s been working with the BLM
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