ConsHaltonCache

One of my first geocoins, and one of my favoretes.

Ok that's my last stamp for this post....

Well....half a leaf...

Canada Day 1996

Only have two from this set, anyone have some to trade?

Thanks to a friend I only recently completed my set of this run.

Well, I keep with this theme...since my album is right here anyways.

I bought a new stamp book album last night...

Very nice indeed!

I too would love to purchase (at least) one of these after the event. Its beautiful!

Thanks for the replies. Knowschads especially. I don't think I want people climbing on the gazibo, the local park hawks would get upset. I'll take a closer look at the area and see what other hides I can find. When the gazibo first when up I thought it would be a great spot but upon investigation they built it really really solid so there are very few options for hides (no bolts, no nooks, nothing, except one spot that would be quite high). I don't want it to be too hard but somewhere in the middle of the road. Little challenge but still findable and fun. If it does turn out to be a micro I would label it as such in the sized on the cache page. (I don't like it when that's blank).

not helpful at all.... Let me clarify: HOW HIGH is TOO high to place a cache?

I have a small park I wanted to hide a cache in and my original idea of a small lock and lock is not looking so good (they built the darn gazibo to well to hide anything! Its just to solid and has no hidy holes....) so I think I may try a micro or such. I've never done one and only found a few so my question is: do they have to be visible in some way? can a cache be hidden out of sight and only found by touch? Is there a height limit? I'm a tall person so I'm always wondering if I hide something where I can reach by tip toe that maybe most cachers will not be able to reach... (so if it was high, out of eyesight and they can't run their fingers over the area they can't find it at all...) Ideas?

12.8 to 1 5 hidden to 64 found for me right now....haven't got out as much as I would like.

I'm glad it seems like the majority of responders got the point of the rant. Very sad to see that even education fails in some cases. *sigh* Just something to keep in mind from now on. Just hope our grandchildren can also enjoy wild areas we visit, preferably in their full glory...but ... *sighshrug* The thread has been discussed enough so moderates can feel free to close it if they wish. I never expected quite this much response. Still not sure if its a good or bad thing.

Wow, its that kind of attitude that really blows me away...clearly education is not helping in this case. Lift up your foot and compare your nice hard soled heavy hiking boots to any paw of a Bear, Mountain Lion, Bobcat, Badger ect. See any difference? (insert sarcasim here Just a slight one.) Also compare the number of human visitors to the number of wild animals in the area. Any difference there? Responding at all to that post may not have been productive but this kind of attitude is what causes the issues...sadly education can't reach everyone. Really baffling.

Hear! Hear!

Some good responses (but some very ignorant ones too. Sad that so many just put their head in the sand and refuse to acknowledge an issue.). I do know it is only the bad apples and it was a rant. Thanks muchly for the great comments Northernpenquin. I agree I could write a similar rant about general trail users (and I think I have to my manager...). It has often taken over a year of re-closing trails before people get the point. But frankly this is the first time I have seen a trail closure go in reverse so drastically fast. I will be looking into a permanent trail sign with map here and hopefully that will solve the issue (and help prevent visitors getting lost which is also a problem in this area) but we really cannot do this at every site people leave the trails. I wholeheartedly agree with Northernpenguins comments: if people continue to say "get over it, we bushwhack all the time" then the land managers WILL close areas to cachers. I don't want to see this happen but I am also one of the ecologists that have to go out year after year and see the damage first hand and after a while it really does get disheartening and eventually we may just give up trying to continually fight to educate the bad apples. It really does hurt me to see the "get over it, we bushwhack all the time" attitude (no mater what user it comes from. And yes we are communicating with other users to try and solve these problems with them too. Geocachers are a very very small part of the problem, but the fact they are any part of it at all bothers me). We see the effect of these attitudes slowly widdle away at our natural areas or populations of rare species. You stepping on one or two individuals may not seem like an issue for you but add every person that does it and every other factor affecting the population and it does become an issue. Every factor is another nail in the coffin...but that's a whole 'nother rant (and no I never said that a few off trailers will cause the extinction of anything but it DOES hurt our environment and it does contribute to overall declines). We do review new cache placements in our parks to ensure they are not in the extremely sensitive area (this cache is not in one of these extremely sensitive zones) but I also feel the the ENTIRE park should be treated with respect. If everyone decided they did not need to stay on the trails then the park would be diminished. We cannot JUST protect tiny islands of the super rare things, the environment works as a whole. (but I'll stop there...I could go on and on about ecological values, and other things too). Staying on the trails in this section is really for the park visitors sake in this section, but like I said, it's the principle that has me bothered. Maybe in the future we will restrict cache placements to immediately beside the trails...but I know most cachers find these to be quite predictable and easy to find and did not want to make them to predictable or "easy" in our areas (thus the allowing them about 10M off the trail in some areas). And I also agree that users just not reading the cache description is a problem...but I thought it was a little more obvious when you reached the physical site. As for how you can help: I think the best thing that cachers can do is read the cache description and be aware of the recommendations. When you get to the park take a quick look at the trails map or grap a trails guide that way you can see where you are in relation to the cache and know if your on the right tail. I also love the Ontario Trails Project and would highly recommend downloading their trails file to your GPS so you can know where the trails are in relation to your intended cache and only bushwhack if absolutely needed. Also if you reach a cache on any of our lands (or the regional lands) and feel it is not an ecologically sound, or is an unsafe placement please contact us and let us know (either through this user name or by emailing: geocache@hrca.on.ca, both will come to me directly ) If you would like to place a cache on any of our lands you can review our guidelines and submit an application to us. Both available on our website at: http://www.conservationhalton.on.ca/ShowCa...m?subCatID=1313 And a map of our land holdings can be found: Conservation Halton Watershed Map Our lands are the dark green, Regional Forests are the light green.