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Geocachers -
Geocaching
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Friday, 10 August 2007 00:10 |
Geocaching found Lauren Weaver this April in Connecticut, where she was visiting her sister.
The families went on searches, looking up caches' coordinates online, then using Global Positioning System (GPS) units and determination to search the woods and brush for them. In a weeklong trip, there and in Boston, they located 13 caches.
Weaver was excited to return home to Eden Prairie, where she knew dozens of caches were waiting for her. But when she got back, all the caches in the city's parks had disappeared.
Turns out Eden Prairie had discovered geocaching as well.
As the popularity of geocaching grows, cities, counties and states are deciding how to deal with it. Restrict it? Ignore it? Permit it? Promote it?
"The range is huge," said Matt Werner, president of the Minnesota Geocaching Association and its 393 members.
"There are cities that don't know [geocaching] exists -- which is probably the majority," he said. "There are cities who, like Eden Prairie, find out about it and have a negative reaction. And then there are cities like Detroit Lake and Duluth, which are real open."
Often, parks departments begin like Eden Prairie did, by banning it. They're concerned that cachers will disturb their Lady's Slippers, threaten their Indian mounds and cut new trails.
But then -- often after meeting with geocachers -- some draw up a policy that allows the activity but draws boundaries. Last month, Eden Prairie did that, too.
"We want to encourage geocaching," said Stu Fox, Eden Prairie's manager of parks and recreational resources. "If it can get a family out on a Sunday walking around... that's a good thing. But we want to protect ourselves as well. We're stewards of a park system."
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