Caching In Audubon Sanctuaries

[+PlasteredDragon]

I have approval from the administrator of an Audubon Sanctuary I love to place a cache or two on the immense property. I've scouted locations and selected those that absolutely minimize offtrail time.

 

What are your feelings about caching in Audubon Sanctuaries? I think I'm going to go ahead and place the caches, but is there anything I should know first?

[+Mr. Fantastic]

It seems to me that approval of the land manager is all that you need to move forward. The cache approvers should have no problems with anything else, I think.

[+PlasteredDragon]

Well, I guess my primary concern is that as it is an Audubon Sanctuary, I hold the land there in high regard. I've been hiking the trails there for nearly 15 years, but I never go offtrail... there are sensitive nesting areas and so forth.

 

I was planning to put in the cache description that the hides are very close to the trails (within 10 to 30 feet) and therefore stay on trail until you get very close. Do you think that would be adequate? (I know that people sometimes don't bother to read the cache descriptions. One of my caches is hidden in a park that has specific operating hours, and the description says clearly that the gates are locked at other times. I had a cacher recently show up outside of those hours and he was "surprised" to find the gate locked.)

[CoyoteRed]

I've got a cache in a special park, as well. Never underestimate the ability of a cacher coming in from the wrong direction and not reading directions.

 

What you have to do is force the hunter where you want.

 

Most cases the hunt will have to be a multi. Make the starting, listed coords at or near the approved parking coordinates. You then build a multi taking them from there. In my case the first stop is a kiosk where they have to gather information.

 

Don't place the cache on a part of the trail where someone coming one point might be tempted to cut a switch back or bushwack.

 

Also, my cache is right on the trail. I was fortunate enough to find a log that doesn't look hollow but is and lays right along the trail. Another way to prevent folks from going off trail is hide it under boardwalks.

 

A word of caution of placing a cache only a short distance off trail. Because the cache will be very close to the trail, folks will tend to go off trail at or near the same spot and is more likely to cause a social trail.

 

Hope this helps.

[+Renegade Knight]

As has been said. You have permission, it may turn some cachers on to the Audobon society and you have a win win situation. Like CR said just be mindful of the location and type of hide and you have what most people would consider a great cache.

[+TeamK-9]

As long as you're respectful to the enviroment and you try to minimize off-trail hiking, you should be fine.

 

My local Audubon Society actually hosted an orienteering class once, it was pretty cool... They had it set up so you weren't necessarily on trails, but you weren't destroying anything.

 

As long as you have the director's permission you should be fine.

 

I don't know if you've done this, but before you actually hide the caches, you should maybe take him out to the places where you want to hide them, to make sure that there are no possible problems with the location... He might see something that you don't...

[+PlasteredDragon]

I don't know if you've done this, but before you actually hide the caches, you should maybe take him out to the places where you want to hide them, to make sure that there are no possible problems with the location... He might see something that you don't...

Right. What I did was photograph the hiding spots and the surrounding terrain and e-mail them to the director so he could look them over. I want his approval on the location before I put anything there.

 

As he lives right on the sanctuary, I'm sure he'll be familiar with the spots and anything sensitive nearby. I included the coordinates for hides, and listed possible alternative spots if he didn't like the primary ones. Hopefully he'll like the spots I chose and I can move forward.

[+Miragee]

. . .  Never underestimate the ability of a cacher coming in from the wrong direction and not reading directions.

. . .

This is so true. I placed a cache recently that is a container that requires a phillips-head screwdriver in order to open it. I put that requirement in bold, in color, at the top of the description.

 

Many of the finders have written in their logs how they didn't bring a screwdriver.

 

Also, it is not too far off the trail, but the grasses are tall after all the rains. Unfortunately, a "Geotrail" is developing to the cache location.

Edited May 22, 2005 by idiosyncratic