MnGCA

Kurt Franke · Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 3:22 pm Post subject: Winter Caching and XC Ski Trails

I recieved this email today from a friend and park staffer:

casinoman · Geocacher Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 374

Just a thought here. Could they not send a personal note or email to each of the cache owners in the park. To say change there cache page to note that the ski trails are not for walking in the winter.

I know that most of the cahcers that cache are not members this or any other forum sites. They find caching by word of mouth and then go for the hunt. I know that some people don't even read the page. Embarassed

but may be a cation at the top of there cache page may get seen.
Just a thought and it is only MHO.
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speedysk1 · Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:44 pm Post subject:

Kurt Franke · Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 5:07 pm Post subject:

bflentje · Geocacher Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 3673

Tuxedo Duck · Geocacher Joined: 08 Mar 2007 Posts: 40

I have been to a Three Rivers Park District park, and wanted to do geocaching on foot, so I asked the office and was told I could walk along the trails as long as I did not disturb the XC ski track.
The trails were wide enough so it was easy, and that was with a couple other guys with me.
I also XC ski, so I knew the importance of keeping off the XC ski tracks. And I did not want to pay to get their XC ski pass.

King Boreas · Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 5:33 am Post subject:

Last winter I was at Cleary Lake hiding a cache @ 5:30 am. As I was walking back, I met a woman grooming the trails, explained what I was doing (which she totally understood), and she asked me to post a note on the cache page.

I disable my State Forest Rec Area Ski Trail caches, and my Three Rivers Ski Trail caches. That doesn't mean they can't be found. Disabling seemed to reduce or stop the traffic that might use the trails regardless.

Arcticabn · Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 8:17 am Post subject:

Kurt,

First off thanks for taking the time to contact the cache owners.

Second, if you are inclined, I would look at all of the active cache pages for the park and see how many finds and DNFs they have had since the snow fell.

If the number is low as I suspect it is, then I would also send the Park Ranger back a note stating that you do not believe that the walking issue is due to geocaching and then provide him the numbers. You know stay that there are X active caches in the park and that since the first snow on X date that only X logs both found and did not find have been noted. This is not to say that there are not cachers that didn't find the cache and didn't log a DNF but even if you double the number it should not be significant (at least that is my guess).

Arctic
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KRedEP · Geocacher Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 721

A week or so ago I was going after a cache near a trail in the dark. I wasn't clear what type of trail it was. It looked to me that snowmobiles were using it, but it was dark and it also could have been the grooming for the XC ski trails. I'm just saying that sometimes it is tough to know. I walked on the edge but thought maybe I was being overly cautious.

I think if there are caches along a XC ski trail, people are going to walk on that to get to the cache, therefore if people shouldn't be walking on it, the cache should be disabled. Or maybe there needs to be more clear signage. Many cachers don't read the cache page unless having trouble finding the cache, so noting that on the cache page isn't going to solve the problem.

Kurt Franke · Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 3:47 pm Post subject:

bflentje · Geocacher Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 3673

Pear Head · Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 1:43 pm Post subject:

MNMizzou · Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 1:30 am Post subject:

Surprisingly someone tried for one of my series of caches in Eagle Lake Park that are along a ski trail. They did them while skiing, go figure. They batted .250 on the series of 4, which is about what I expected, the one is right on the trail, the others are off in the 25 foot range, which with all the snow I'm guessing was an adventure, even skiing back to them. They seemed to have fun with all of them though which is why I left them active. I did go back and put a disclaimer on them that in the winter they are on a ski trail, which I really didn't initially know, and follow the rules if you're going to go look for them... but to me it wasn't a reason to disable them totally.