Thoughts on Geocaching

I did some trail maintenance this weekend ant the Pilot Knob Ridge Preserve and while I did this I also looked for two new GC's. I am seeing a trend that I do not care for too much, that being that cachers are over populating certain areas.

On the 200 something acre preserve that I help to maintain, there are now 5 caches, one brings you to that special place, the rest are stuck in the woods, and one is in the kiosk. When I first began geocaching and letterboxing 4 years ago I liked the discovery of those new places that are known to a few, but are still special, or the thought that goes in to making a multi-cache that takes you on an awesome adventure. That GOOD caches are becoming diluted with the pleura of GC's out there that are hidden simply for the sake of hiding a cache. I don't bother hunting for roadside caches or caches placed in areas that I have already been or micro's.

The problem for me is two years ago a majority of the caches were interesting now they are the exception. Geocaching for me is something that I do now if it is near to a place that I am hiking, but I do not go out of my way to cache or look for boxes anymore. It really is too bad, because there are some many places that are interesting that do not have a stashed item on them that could, but with the volumes of junk caches out there are even more difficult to find. I fear that the popularity of the sport is going to be its demise. The GC lords need to space the single caches further apart, and to coordinate better with letterboxers for the sake of both activities

First Hike of the Season

After a very quiet winter with me at war with my lower back I am finally able to get out and hike.

Today I went up the little Pilot Knob Ridge preserve that I am a volunteer for and did my first loop around all the trails. I was very happy seeing all the trails in excellent shape. I won't have to spend the first few weekends up there hacking blowdown.

I am looking forward to getting up north and we are planning a 5 day trip on the NPT so I have a lot to look forward to this summer.

I was happy with my winter conditioning program, I was out of breath in a couple of spots, but not bad really. Of course I was taking it easy the first time out. I will push it a little more next week.