I've been trying to avoid this thread, but I've had a few private emails
in addition to what's been posted on the listserver, so I'm going to
quote myself, and reuse part of a reply I sent to another cacher,
because I haven't seen this point of view surface here yet:
I think the rangers had every right to do what they did. I have two
reasons for that view. Number one, designated wilderness areas have
always been off-limits to cache placement. Even Scott Wood, who welcomes
caches in Tonto, excluded designated wilderness areas, and the
Superstitions, including the entire area around the Peralta Trail, are
so designated. Number two, we have been preaching since the September
meeting, and geocaching.com has been preaching forever, that hiders
should obtain permission. AZSaluki's post gave me the impression that
the rangers weren't against Geocaching per se, but they sure knew that
the caches had been placed without consent. So I don't see that the
Geocaching community has any argument.
That may not be a popular view, especially on the listserver, but I
think it is the correct view. If I owned one of those caches, I'd be
down in Mesa as fast as I could be, to retrieve the ammo can, hand
deliver a personal letter of apology, and find out who to talk to about
obtaining permission for a possible future placement. But I think trying
to "push back" on those that were confiscated will do nothing except
alienate us further in the eyes of those who make these decisions.
Geocaching doesn't have a lot of rules; it's time we started playing by
the few we do have.
Steve
Team Tierra Buena
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