[Az-Geocaching] Another cache bites the dust

Jim Scotti jscotti at pirl.lpl.Arizona.EDU
Mon Nov 17 16:49:27 MST 2008


In the early days of geocaching down here in Tucson, several geocaches were 
placed in the National Parks around town before we all understood the NPS 
rules regarding caches and a park ranger who was also a geocacher and had 
visited many caches in the area was presumably "put in charge" to remove any 
caches that violated the NPS rules.  I had the impression that the ranger was 
given the task by superiors.  So I wouldn't rule out an agency taking the 
trouble to remove geocaches.

BTW, I had a geocache down here at the base of Cat Mountain off of Ajo road 
which was on a side trail off the main trail from Sarasota Blvd.  The trail 
had been maintained not long before one of my visits to the cache, so I felt 
that it was placed in an area that met all requirements.  So a week or two 
after my last visit, I got an e-mail from a city police officer who was in 
charge of the Tucson Mountain Park area saying that he had my geocache.  It 
turns out that the trail I had found was a "wildcat trail" that he had been 
trying to close to preserve the area and someone had been maintaining the 
trail against his wishes.  He placed a trail closed post were it left the 
main trail with his business card attached.  I was happy to cooperate with 
him and he was very geocache friendly, offering to check out possible 
placement sites in the area and in fact, I replaced the cache (with a new 
name) less than half a mile away not far off the main trail where it still 
sits today.  So agencies will do what they need to and generally are friendly 
to work with (with a few notable exceptions), especially if you follow the 
rules and if you talk with them when in doubt.

Jim.

On Mon, 17 Nov 2008, MEL HOCKWITT wrote:

> I wonder is there is a contact on the sticker as to whom made it (print 
> shop) I don't think this was done by a official agency but someone who is 
> against Geocaching.  I agree that the cache is usually hidden so someone 
> must have the coordinates in order to find it, don't think any agency would 
> go to that trouble just to remove a cache that is out of sight.
>
> Mel

I'm not normally a religious man, but if you're up there, save me,
Superman! - Homer Simpson
----------
Jim Scotti
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/


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