+Chipper3 Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 I am a fairly "green minded" person but I don't obsess over the finer points of living on this planet. I do stay on the paths in alpine meadows but have no qualms about getting off of the trail in state parks and going cross country, Having said that, I am amazed at how quickly a trail develops to geocache sites. I recently logged some way off road caches and maybe 6-8 people in the last year had logged the cache. But that was enough traffic to create a path void of vegetation. I am intereseted in how the "community" feels about this and how should we be responsible to the environment while enjoying our hobby. Quote Link to comment
+robert Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 It's always in my mind to keep from destroying anything. One thing to keep in mind is that the path you're noticing may not have been from caching--perhaps you noticed it and took it because it was open, the same reason everyone else did. Next week (Oct 11) the folks from Leave No Trace will be doing a training with us at our Fall picnic. If anyone is in the area, or wants to come to Maryland, you're more than welcome to attend. Cache page for the event is here. If you can't make it, follow their link and see where they'll be near you. ~robert www.CacheGear.com Quote Link to comment
2oldfarts (the rockhounders) Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 It's a safe bet the trails you're seeing have been made by other critters in the area. It could be deer, elk, cattle, or most any game animal. People tend to follow game trails when going cross-country. John of 2oldfarts ******************************************************* Everybody is entitled to my opinion - the ornery oldfart Quote Link to comment
+Touchstone Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 Game trails is a good bet, but that doesn't excuse the fact that caching has an impact. I think that falls under the category of maintenance. If you see the area getting impacted, email the owner and see about moving it a bit so that the area can get a chance to recover. Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. The rest go geocaching. Quote Link to comment
+Bilder Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 Game trails are what I use when going off trail for cache placement. It is both low impact and makes it easier for others when they come to find the cache. If only 6 people have been there in the last year, there is no way they could have worn a path like you describe. One season will erase the footprints of a couple people. Of course, we could shoot all the animals in the forest to keep them from making trails, but that would be counter productive. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have never been lost. Been awful confused for a few days, but never lost! N61.12.041 W149.43.734 Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 A while back I emailed some people to find out variouse stages of trail degridation. Nobody replied. There is a point where the trail will rebound quickly and a point where it will take a year or two. Thanks to land managers NOT responding I still have no clue about this. Quote Link to comment
dsandbro Posted October 3, 2003 Share Posted October 3, 2003 quote:There is a point where the trail will rebound quickly and a point where it will take a year or two. It generally takes a fair amount of foot traffic over a long time to create enough soil compaction to inhibit recovery for more than a year. A dozen or so people per year visiting a cache is unlikely to create any problems. A visible trail is not necessarily a resource impact. It may look unsightly, but soil damage may not have occurred. =========================================================== "The time has come" the Walrus said "to speak of many things; of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and Kings". Quote Link to comment
+Alan2 Posted October 4, 2003 Share Posted October 4, 2003 What's wrong with a trail made by humans? we're part of the animal world too. Do deer and other animals have priority over us? Alan Quote Link to comment
+Chipper3 Posted October 4, 2003 Author Share Posted October 4, 2003 Well, I have to rejoin this discussion I started. No, these are not game trails. I am talking about that someone has created a cache off of the main trail and the impact is clearly cache related. I have a large meadow that I go into from time to time to plant wildflowers. I agree that a season of laying fallow will recover the paths I make if I don't keep going down the path. But I have noticed that just a lttile foot traffic will crete a path that doesn't recover quickly. I am just becoming tuned in to this and thought it would be worth discussion on "best practices." Quote Link to comment
BassoonPilot Posted October 4, 2003 Share Posted October 4, 2003 Chipper, 6 - 8 visitors over the course of a year visited one "way off road" cache and you think they created a trail? I don't believe it, for the reasons stated by many others in this thread. But I'm absolutely amazed at the coincidence of those very few cachers having all shuffled and stomped precisely the same route to the cache in order to create a path. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted October 4, 2003 Share Posted October 4, 2003 How do you know that the cache created the trail? In many instances cach hiders use existing game trails to place their caches because they are the path of least resistance. I know I've used existing game trails to place many of my caches. To anyone who comes along, they may assume that the trail was created by geocachers, when in fact they weren't. And as BP said, I can't imagine 6-8 visits a year creating much of a trail in most environments. Heck, I'm a trail maintainer and I spent the past few weeks trying to reclaim hiking trails that were totally overgrown after only two months of heavy rain. "You can't make a man by standing a sheep on his hind legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position, you can make a crowd of men" - Max Beerbohm Quote Link to comment
+El Diablo Posted October 4, 2003 Share Posted October 4, 2003 AS stated by many above me...what you are seeing is a game trail. Most cachers follow game trails while placing caches. We all usually follow the path of least resistance...which is usually a game trail. If the cache was getting 10 hits a week I could see your concern. Remember, Mother Nature has a remarkable way of healing herself. El Diablo Everything you do in life...will impact someone,for better or for worse. http://www.geo-hikingstick.com Quote Link to comment
opie744 Posted October 4, 2003 Share Posted October 4, 2003 If you really think that the trail may have been created by human feet, see about moving it a bit. I hope most of us are conscience to try and NOT make our mark out there. One for keeping the cache' hid and other, little impact on nature. The natural surroundings is the reason I like the sport so much. Back the owner who doesn't answer your emails, that really yanks my tail. I've run into that with an owner that has several virtual cache's in our area. He has yet to email me back with conformation that we gave him the correct answers. After several weeks, i logged them as finds, figuring he has the power to take me off if I'm wrong. These are ones that you are supposed to email him, I checked several times. Quote Link to comment
+Doc-Dean Posted October 4, 2003 Share Posted October 4, 2003 I can say that in my area (South Florida) this has not been a problem. Vegetation growth is so prolific here that an intentionaly cleared path will be unrecognizable within a couple of months. The exception being if heavy equiptment was used to make the path and that is not something a geocacher is likely to have with him/her... --------------------------------------------------- Free your mind and the rest will follow And may no Admin bricks fly your way Quote Link to comment
+Bloencustoms Posted October 5, 2003 Share Posted October 5, 2003 Having worked for a land surveyor for 4 years, I have a lot of experience cutting line of sight trails in wild areas. Fortunately, as GPS is becoming more affordable, much of this heavy duty bushwhacking is no longer nesessary. On one very large piece of property, we found evidence of the land's former use as a plantation over a hundred years ago in the form of subtle linear rows in the earth on the forest floor. Some of the oldest trees along the original property line are tranfixed with ancient bits of wire fencing. None of these signs of use would be apparent unless like us, you were specifically looking for them. On another part of the same property, we had to cut almost a mile of LOS with machetes and brush hooks. When we revisited the site a few months later, the only signs of our passage was the absence of the larger wrist size trees we had to remove. All of the brush and undergrowth had completely obscured the trail. Here in SE Louisiana, we have a very long growing season, and it is a big contributor to the rapid reclamation of the trails. But I truly believe that a few cachers over the course of a year will have an unmeasurably small impact on the terrain here. Cachers don't have to remove trees for LOS, after all. [This message was edited by Bloencustoms on March 32, 1999 at 25:60 PM] Quote Link to comment
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