May I have help, please

[+bumblingbs]

I am not he best spokesperson for geocaching. I know that there have been some issues with caches in state parks. I know that the third cache I ever found was in a state park. And, I know the director of that park is planning to remove it.

 

So, I'll go see him. Three generations of us will go see him. Maybe it will help that one of us is a member of the police department?

 

I want to fight the good fight in my hometown. It's a beautiful state park, and there are no new geocaches going there. I understand completely that if there are geocaches there, the person in charge has a right to know where they are. And, that they are being maintained. And, that there's no environmental damage. That's fair. But you have to pay $10 for a permit. Only one person has ever done that.

 

Any advice here?

 

One more thing. I'd wager that nobody in his park knows where my cache was, the one I paid for. The one I paid for because they needed to be sure it was safe.

 

I don't suppose they would like me to point that out.

[+Team Jac'd]

I am not he best spokesperson for geocaching. I know that there have been some issues with caches in state parks. I know that the third cache I ever found was in a state park. And, I know the director of that park is planning to remove it.

 

Which cache? Which park? Is there an appeals process?

 

If nothing else, I know that unless it was way over in Eastern Washington, I would go over and find it and make a point of finding the ranger and telling him that I discovered their park due to finding the geocache.

 

just my 2 cents,

Poppa J

(keep your stick on the ice, remember, we are all in this together)

[+Criminal]

Hi Bees! Good to see you!

 

I’ve spoken to all of two State Park officials on matters related to geocaching, both were well aware of the game and its play. It appears that the person you’ll be speaking to is aware as well. Since you don’t have to waste a bunch of time on explaining how the game is (supposed to be) played, you can instead focus on the aspects of geocaching that benefit him and his park. CITO comes immediately to mind, as well as increased usage of the park. That’s the key, IMO, to winning him\her over, explaining how geocaching is advantageous to the park.

[Team Misguided]

Keep in mind that the State Parks have a new PERMIT policy. All geocaches placed in state parks must have one of the NEW permits filled out an approved. The special use permit that you obtained for the geocache at Fort Worden needs to be updated with the new permit.

 

While I do not have confirmation of this, I assume that most parks have been giving cachers a grace period to get the new permit filled out. This specific park may have decided that they have given cache owners a long enough grace period. I would suggest that you get out there and fill out the permit as soon as possible. The advantage is that there is no fee with the new permit!

[+LandRover]

I sure hope the person you paid for the permit had a nice lunch with your money.

I went through process earlier this year to place a cache in a State Park and although it took some time to get all the paperwork processed it was a fairly easy process and NO MONEY had to be paid to get permission to place the cache.

[+bumblingbs]

As far as I know, I'm the only person ever to have paid $10 in the state of Washington to place a cache. I tried to catch bees with honey, and it didn't work, so now I'm spitting vinegar. I don't know, I have a human being living here in my house that does not "get"geocaching. He can hike anywhere, he actually accounts for two of the finds on our account because he tripped over them, but Mr B does not geocache. My mother, who just turned 80, does. Go figure.

The person I'm dealing with is Steve Shively at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, Wa. And, I'm annoyed, after I thought I did such a good job being an advocate of geocaching, that he was apparently very vocally against geocaching in HIS park. This is another human that does not "get" geocaching. Somebody had a thread on the forums, asking how to make their partner "get" geocaching, and you can't. Period.

So, I paid $10 and he told me that he's in charge of a state park and he needs to know where the caches are. I don't have a problem with that, If I were in charge of a state park, I'd want to know, too. And, I'm sorry...I've never met a geocacher I didn't like, but there is somebody out there geocaching that turns my dollar store cache into a dime store cache. There's somebody I follow who leaves the cache totally exposed. I'd like to buy into the thought that geocachers are better than any other given section of the population, but they are exactly as good as and as bad as. There have been bad caches placed in this state park.

But now we get into trouble, because I have no sense at all. I paid my $10, and he said it was what was needed to check on the cache, make sure it was environmentally safe. I know absolutely that he told a big fat lie.

Which is why I am not going to be a good geocaching advocate there, because I would like very much to point out that he told a big fat lie. Oh, yeah, I've used up my $10 over and over, talking about geocaching. Did they ever actually see it? Absolutely not. And I would say that, to a man who already doesn't "get" geocaching. It would be very satisfying, but probably not going to make him like geocachers any better.

So, if I rant here, maybe I'll shut up there.

And, Team Misguided, I don't have a cache there. My cache there is archived, and long since removed. I would like to re-activate it. I have a written permit. Not likely I'll get an updated one, and I'm not paying again. The one cache in this park with regular coordinates is in danger. The other is a 4 step multicache, so its safe, they're not going to work that hard.

[Team Misguided]

Fort Worden is the only state park to my knowledge to have applied the 'Special Use Permit' rule to geocaches. That is where the $10.00 fee came from, for that specific permit. The new Geocaching permit does not have a fee involved.

 

I have corresponded with Mr. Shively myself and he is likely one of those people who will never understand geocaching or geocachers. I can only hope that as this new policy takes hold and the parks start to see the benefit of bringing geocachers to their parks, he will be encouraged by his peers and supervisors to re-think his position. Until then it's his park and it's up to him to decide if he'll allow geocaches or not.

Edited September 8, 2006 by Team Misguided

[+Prying Pandora]

While we don't have to pay for parking in state parks any more, we did up until early this year. I spent somewhere around $50 last year for a state parking pass, and the ONLY reason I did so was so I could find geocaches in WA state parks. If not for caches in state parks, I would never have bought the pass. I am sure that is the case for others as well.

[+bumblingbs]

Hello Prying Pandora, it's nice to see you again.

 

You bring up a funny issue, because we talked about that. That was one of his points, that Fort Worden was the only state park that was always free.

 

I'm thinking that ALL state parks should have always been free.

[+bumblingbs]

Thank you, I would like to say that this topic has gone off the boards with somebody that can do something about it. Thanks.