MnGCA

[King Boreas]

Today I met a reporter from the Pioneer Press at Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park. Three cars drive in, and park at the picnic shelter. A crew was working on a new trail very near, and I was wondering how we were gonna go to the cache that was 250 feet away.

Three guys walk up to us, as I'm checking out my GPSr, and one of them asks if we're going geocaching. They knew there were caches in the park, but had never seen anyone. I'm not good with names, but I got a card from John Elholm, Senior Planner, Parks Division. We chatted awhile, about 'caching, park visits due to the caches in the park, the County policy (it will probably be similar to Ramsey County's). I requested a higher per-cacher limit. (He He He)

The main concerns seemed to be burying, destruction of property, and new trails. Other than those concerns, John seemed very favorable of the sport. He does monitor the cache logs, and is impressed with the amount of "trash-outs". If you trash-out, be SURE to post that. It helps our public image.

Hey, I got to be a Geo-Ambassador. How 'bout that ?
_________________
Joined: 16 Dec 2002

arrive...raise heck...leave (SCSA)

[s4xton]

I have been very impressed as to how cache-friendly Washington County is, and yes, they *DO* read the logs. I'll site two examples of cache-friendliness:

I got an e-mail from John Elholm (I'm pretty sure it was him) reguarding a log I posted in Pine Point Park where my timestamp was after park close. He was VERY polite in telling me that geocaching was okay, being in the park during rain was okay, but being in the park after hours was not. (I don't believe I'm admitting this to you guys, I felt so guilty!!!) Anyway, I quickly removed any time-specific texts from my log.

Another time in Pine Point Park, a friend and I ran into another guy that asked us straight away, "Are you two Geocaching?" We said yes, and before he could introduce himself he talked about how he was going around the park planting envelopes for an "orientation course" and he said the next day a bunch of people will be looking for them (or something along those lines). I was getting the impression it was a massive geo-gps-hunt in the park or something - I didn't ask too much else and he was off hiding the next envelope.

He acted official, as if he was with a county programme or scouts or something.

These two examples, in my opinion, stress than Washington County is very cache friendly!! I hope to put a cache in Square Lake Park, as that Washington county park is the last county park without a Geocache, and the other county parks are now saturated. Additionally, Square Lake is only a few miles from where I grew up.

(and KB, when will we be seeing you in the paper?)

-Aaron