A lesson in patience

[EnergySaverMember]

A lesson in being patience and working on relationships …

I have been communicating regularly with the local state park ranger and keep him informed on the status of geocaching on DNR property.

To that end he contacted me about a year ago, asking if we could work on placing more caches in his park … caches that showcase specific features of the park … caches that will encourage more geocachers to visit his park.

It has taken us quite some time to make our schedules workout, to get together for the cache placements … but as of today there are 5 new caches meeting our joint objective … you can check them out at 53004, if you wish.

P.S. – You’ve got a park ranger that is welcoming all geocachers to his park … you’ve got a friend 8)

[The5XplorersMember]

Harrington Beach, right? I saw those earlier.

My husband goes there with his telescope to take advantage of the dark skies, but now we’ll have a reason to go during the day time with the family.

Thanks!

[2qwerqEMember]

On Oct1, I set out from Indianapolis to visit a cacher friend in Marquette, UP MI. I wanted a place to stop halfway, since I was driving the long trip alone, so I brought up the gc.com maps to see what lay along my route at the half-way mark, and I saw Harrington Beach. Perfect! My first thought had been to stop, stretch my legs and head on down the road. But the series of caches in the park induced me to spend the night in Belgium and play in the pretty park. So the park rangers can know that their interest and affection for geocaching also attracts tourist dollars to pause on the long road and stay awhile.

Conversely, in IL, even though their state parks are free admission, they have no regard for cachers and have a strict permit policy that they often (read: almost always) say no to. I’ve visited many IL parks, because they are in the middle between my St Louis sister and me (Indy) but without caches, there is no real incentive to stay overnight locally. Generally, we meet in the middle, play a few hours and just drive home without even visiting the local establishments. If the parks allowed caching, we’d doubtless stay overnight to see all the park has to offer, because as any geocacher knows, you don’t always see the best places in the park without local cachers to show you where the best surprises are hiding.

Indiana has a similar state park permit, but most parks are willing and happy to host a handful of caches. Certainly, they love to see us coming en masse for an event. A few parks have booted us out in IN, but those are long heart rending tales of caching gone awry, and not the norm.

At any rate, I may well revisit Marquette, as I’ve made new caching friend there, and they offered free use of their lake cabin on Superior. It was wonderful! One cache remains from the Harrington Beach series (the puzzle, because I didn’t have the description in my Palm,) So If I come back in a year or so, I’ll look to see if this puzzle cache is still alive then.

Thanks to energy Saver for taking the effort and opportunity to work with your park rangers and place his great series. It’s well appreciated. And thanks to the park service for embracing geocaching. As you see, it’s good for the local economy too!

[LightningBugs MumParticipant]

Thanks for the testimonial!

[Author]

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