Guest OblongFred Posted February 16, 2002 Share Posted February 16, 2002 check out todays Arts&Life section. They have a good size article about geocaching. Its on the front page towards the bottom under hobbies. Now I'm waiting for them to put it online so I can put it up so everyone can read it. Quote Link to comment
Guest clatmandu Posted February 17, 2002 Share Posted February 17, 2002 Let Jeremy know about this also, he'll put it in the Geocaching in the News link. Quote Link to comment
Guest regoarrarr Posted February 17, 2002 Share Posted February 17, 2002 Anyone find a URL for the article? I searched on the PD website but couldn't find anything Quote Link to comment
+SherwoodForest Posted March 13, 2002 Share Posted March 13, 2002 did anyone ever find a digitized version of the story? I never caught the paper, and it apparently never made the cut for the website. i had several people talk about the article to me, but want to see the actual article itself... Quote Link to comment
+OblongFred Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 If I still had the paper, I'd put in here. I was hoping would show up on their website. Quote Link to comment
+clatmandu Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 Any chance of going to the library and making a copy of the article? Quote Link to comment
+regoarrarr Posted March 14, 2002 Share Posted March 14, 2002 zephyr98 sent me an email with the text of the article: Article under Hobbies in Arts&Life (Section E) of Saturday, February 16, 2002 issue of Cleveland Plain Dealer High-tech, hide-and-seek sport draws crowds and controversy. Grant Segall Plain Dealer Reporter On a snowy ledge at South Chagrin Reservation, Carly Martin pulls a hidden canister from a crevice. Inside are several small freebies, including a golf ball, a restaurant coupon and passes to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. The canister also holds a disposable camera and a log-book for treasure hunters to record their triumph. “A beautiful site,” one hiker wrote. “Took an hour to find, and great fun,” another wrote. Martin, a naturalist for the Cleveland Metroparks, is helping locals join in a worldwide, controversial craze: geocaching. It’s treasure hunting with a new weapon: a global positioning system receiver. This hand-held device bounces signals off satellites to determine the owner’s latitude and longitude within a few feet of accuracy. According to the sport’s leading Web site, www.geocaching.com, 12,330 caches have been hidden in 104 countries, including 126 caches within 100 mils of Public Square. Public siting Most of the caches are public sites, but come as a surprise to the sites’ managers. Most park agencies forbid visitors from taking or leaving anything (other than trash in a trash can). The National Park Service explicitly forbids geocaching, fearing for the parks’ fragile environments. Chief Ranger Brian McHugh says about eight caches have been removed from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. “They had one geocache right next to rare, threatened plants, and they didn’t know it.” John Sweet, director of marketing for Lake Metroparks, where a couple of caches have been registered, warns that players may be cited for littering and straying off trails. “While it sounds like fun, it also represents a safety hazard.” John Wilder, manager of Tinker’s Creek State Park, where a cache was registered last Christmas Eve says, “We want to look on it positively. I’d like to go forward with getting permission for people to do it, and just take it slow.” The Metroparks’ Martin has planted six geocaches and sanctioned several others in relatively safe, stable places. She says they help lure visitors. “There are people who don’t come out and hike in the forest just to enjoy themselves,’ Says Martin. “This gives them an excuse.” Honor system Geocaching works on the honor system. Finders are supposed to take some freebies, leave others, and restore the site. The freebies should be safe, inedible and suitable for all ages. Local sites range from a down-town intersection to a highway rest stop. Cahes range from a Tupperware tub to a film canister to a deodorant stick to a virtual site-that is, a spot identified only by a photo on the Web Site. The sport was born two years ago, when the federal government dropped a security measure that used to blur global positioning signals by several hundred feet. Geocaching’s inventor, Dave Ulmer, a computer scienist in Beavercreek, Ore., worries that he sport is wearing out the wilds. He says all the caches should be reoved after a year to protect their sites. Still, he’s big on global positioning receivers, which can be bought at outdoor stores. “For $100, you can by into a $20 billion system,” he says. He uses a receiver to explore the wilds without getting lost. Others use them to find missing children or stolen cars. If you can’t afford a receiver, you can still search for caches. At the Metroparks offices and Web site, www.clemetparks.com, Martin is giving out enough written clues for determined hikers to hunt treasure the old fashioned way. Contact Grant Segall at: gsegall@plaind.com, 216-999-4187 Cleveland Metroparks naturalist Carly Martin is offering two free discussion on the high-tech scavenger-hunt craze Sunday, the first, at Look About Lodge, 37374 Miles Road, Bentleyville, South Chargin Reservation. The second, at 3 p.m., will take place at Rocky River Reservation Nature Center, 24000 Valley Parkway, North Olmstead. More info is available at www.geocaching.com and www.clemetparks.com. Quote Link to comment
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