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"There is nothing- absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats". Wind In the Willows
It's really too bad that Twisted Sister was disabled. I have a great photo of my two little ones under the "you will die if you try this portion of the trail without the correct gear" sign. Considering they were 4 and 8 at the time, my guess is that is the last of the AT they will see for a while. I'm not sure why the AT and National Parks have such a bad opinion of Geocaching. I do not think that the foot traffic is that high. We try to obey the rules (just as long as one of EH's geocoins isn't involved) and it's a great way to get kids into hiking and nature. I suppose that's a terrible thing for government. The only bad part of Twisted Sister was that I dropped off a TB and it wintered over.
One of our new members - I forget her user name - is the "Boundary Program Mgr. for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) and the National Park Service (NPS)". She provided me with some information regarding caches along the AT, which I have forwarded to Attroll, our webmaster, who is very active with the AT.
We should hear more about this in the near future.
It is to bad that the Twisted Sister Cedar Stump cache was archived also. I don't think it was archived because it was on the AT though. I think the owner archived it. I looked at the maps and it looks to be far enough off the AT where it should not have been a problem.
Blazing Troll
Bruce
I do not know this person that sent the policy to you but from what I read in the policy it leaves things vague. It sounds like caches are allowed on the AT with permission only but as long as you do not trample vegetation or any part of the enviroment. In other words you can not leave or get off the trail to place a cache.
Blazing Troll
I've found Twisted Sister (and loved it) but it was closer to the AT than Fallen Arch was. So distance from the AT doesn't seem to be the problem. Although later you said it might be okay to place one if you don't have to leave the trail to find it, i.e. don't have to trample vegetation to get to it. Bemis was archived and that was practically on the trail....Who would you get permission from to place an AT cache? Can we get some more info on this matter?
"There is nothing- absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats". Wind In the Willows
The AT trail corridor varies in width from a couple hundred feet to over 1/4 mile. This may help explain the apparent randomness to these decisions. I'm currently trying to find out more about permissions for the trail.
I retrieved my AT cache today, as requested, and the last two people to sign the log were the two Alabama boys. They signed on the 15th, the cache was archived on the 17th. Obviously, neither has been home to log it yet. Can they log a cache that they found before it was archived???
"There is nothing- absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats". Wind In the Willows
Di and I may have been the last cachers to do this cache. We were camping for a week in Rockwood and the cache was archived after I loaded the caches for the week. It is actually was within 50 feet or so of the trail and we both had a lot of laughs navigating across the stream just before the cache.
Now to think about this like an attorney. First of all it is unlawful to discriminate against people for a variety of reasons, national ancestry and sex being two of the biggies. I know that we have cachers of Native American descent and probably as many women caching as men. This position by the AT people violate their rights. (This might be a bit tongue and cheek, but please read on)
The land is not owned by the AT Conservancy. While the ATC does a lot of the legwork and acts as stewards, federal tax dollars, yours and mine support the National Park Service and the USDA Forest service.
The stated mission of the ATC is "to ensure future generations will enjoy the clean air and water, scenic vistas, wildlife and opportunities for simple recreation and renewal along the Trail." Anybody think that geocaching doesn't fall squarely within the definition?
The ATC also "guards against incompatible uses. Are we, as a group, incompatible?
These are public trails and it's incomprehensible to think adding a gps and little tupperware is justification for banning us from enjoying ourselves in a manner in complete accord with their stated mission. The Groundspeak leaders should fight this. Maybe I will restrict the trails to caches that I have placed on private property to ban anybody that doesn't carry a gps or can't give me a one sentence answer to what geocaching is!
I'm calling Joe Bornstein!
Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.