MnGCA

[King Boreas]

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=4a557594-fdeb-4d89-9d48-f8ecde25cc06

Read J T's log, then look at this map:

http://www.geocaching.com/map/getmap.aspx?lat=44.83725&lon=-93.40325

The Three Rivers website doesn't even claim Anderson Lakes:

http://www.threeriversparkdistrict.org/parks/index.cfm

and if you look at the Hyland Lake area:

http://www.threeriversparkdistrict.org/parks/maps/hyland_summer.pdf

OK, I think they're full of _ _ _ _ so I go to Anderson Lakes EARLY this morning (before traffic, HEH), to place a couple new caches. If you looked at that map, the whole northern and western areas of the park were open. I parked at the Preserve (?) shopping mall, and crossed Anderson Lakes Parkway to the paved trail. AHA, no Three Rivers boundary signs, looks good. I followed the trail a bit, went off on a woodchip trail, which lead back to the paved trail, only further along. Not far off was a parking lot. Laughed at myself, because if I'd continued on the Parkway, I could have parked there. As i approach the lot, I see the Three Rivers logo on the garbage cans.

What the heck? If it's your park, update the damn website. If it's your park, how do you call it part of the Hyland Lake Park Preserve? This re-enforced my resolution: I'm removing all caches from park districts requiring registration.

[Marsha and Silent Bob]

[Centris]

[Marsha and Silent Bob]

[s4xton]

Sorry to revive an old thread.

I've recently spoken with our contact with the Three Rivers Park District, Marlene Witucki, along with some cache hiders that have been outside of some of their regulations. For now, the MnGCA does not enforce any rules a park or other geocaching area may have, but we do make strong recommendations to cachers and cache hiders to follow existing rules and regulations that may be in place.

I wanted to publicly thank geocachers Good-Boy and Dick K who have made special efforts recently to work with situations with the Three Rivers Park District. Even though there is not agreement among geocachers as to what should and should not be acceptable (including amongst MnGCA board members), they both made choices that help maintain our great image as respectful park users. They have both sacrificed decent caches for the cause. In both cases, neither cache hider knowledgeably did anything wrong.

I will also say that the Three Rivers Park District has a very strong amount of respect for geocachers and the MnGCA. Much of the foundation of this respect was built by former boardmember Bobhiker, but it continues on with all geocachers that deal with their parks either by hiding or finding caches within Three Rivers' juristiction.

I want this forum to continue to remain open and honest about the pros and cons of the Three Rivers' policies and I want everyone to feel comfortable being publicaly in agreement or disagreement with them... but I also support and have a lot of respect for people following the existing policies. Again, I want to thank Good-Boy and Dick K for doing so.

-Aaron

[King Boreas]

[s4xton]

[Rouster]

Has anyone suggested a quota per square mile? Many of these parks are very large, especially if they are combined (think Tierny/Bush/Anderson).

[King Boreas]

Three Rivers Parks geocaching permits expire on April 1st

I will not be re-newing any of mine, so if any one wants to be LTF, you have my permission (and Thanks) to remove it for me. I believe I have three remaining:

< edit >

Thanks J.

[KC0GRN]

Sounds like my kinda Job. Count me in for pickups on those ones KB

[Marsha and Silent Bob]

On Monday November 14th, Paklid and I met with several members of the Three Rivers staff including the well known Marlene Witucki to discuss updating their geocaching policy.

Using statistics gathered by various cachers over the last few years on all caches in the state and more specifically within 20 miles of Minneapolis/St. Paul, we were able to give some actual numbers about cache visit frequency over a year of a cache’s lifetime and use that to give the updated policy some real credibility.

Our goals for this policy were to lighten the registration requirements, do away with re-registration after a year, increase the density permitted in Three Rivers' parks, increase the distance from trail requirements, and make a clean and easy to read policy for both Three Rivers and geocachers in Minnesota.

Basing our proposed policy on the success of the Duluth Policy, we made some changes to better fit Three Rivers and submitted it to Marlene in late October. Marlene got back with us with a meeting time and location and both Paklid and I took time out of our work week to do the presentation.

Overall the presentation went well and we both found that the Three Rivers staff is *very* happy with geocaching and geocachers and welcome the activity in their parks. Both Paklid and I felt that the meeting was a success for the MnGCA and that Three Rivers took our policy under serious consideration, but we will not know the outcome of the policy presentation until after the Three Rivers Board meets in December.

We’ll keep you posted on any updates that become available to us.

Thanks and happy cachin’,

Silent Bob
MnGCA President
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Sad state of affairs.

[King Boreas]

Three Rivers ...

If they'd just go back to Hennepin Parks, I'd know where they are.

[celticwulf]

[Moe the Sleaze]

[jrest]

Very cool!!!! Thanks for taking that one and running with it. Looking forward to hearing what the decision is, and hopefully it will be good for both parties.
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round n' round we go!