Shoreline/Water access-only cache ideas

[gotta run]

There are various lakes where a small public access boat landing exists, but the rest of the shoreline is private property. I’d like to place a “boat needed” cache but there is no other public property to put a cache. The obvious solution is to find a landowner who doesn’t mind if I hang something from one of their shoreline trees but I am looking for other ideas. No I do not want to make a SCUBA cache. Any suggestions/examples?

On the Left Side of the Road...

[Lostby7]

I have been looking into this and the state provides water rights to folks on any “navigable” waters….streams, lakes etc. The state owns the land under all navigable lakes, ponds and rivers. Maybe someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but from my readings it looks like we might be able to place caches on navigable waters within the “Ordinary High Water Mark.” In other words from the water and up to a point where visible water erosion ends…but of course there are some exceptions to this…

Wisconsin law allows public access to any navigable (a small craft may float down the water at any point in the year) waters so long as your “Feet are wet.” The smallest creeks may present an issue as there the adjacent land owner may actually own the land under the water…but so long as you don’t touch ground you are not trespassing.

…but I’m no a lawyer and I don’t work for the DNR…and maybe I’m inferring permissions (which still would need to come from the state and not private land owners)….I hope one of our reviewers can provide more information on this.

http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/g3622.pdf

[RSplash40]

@gotta run wrote:

There are various lakes where a small public access boat landing exists, but the rest of the shoreline is private property. I’d like to place a “boat needed” cache but there is no other public property to put a cache. The obvious solution is to find a landowner who doesn’t mind if I hang something from one of their shoreline trees but I am looking for other ideas. No I do not want to make a SCUBA cache. Any suggestions/examples?

Need help on the scuba side? 😛

[cheezehead]

@RSplash40 wrote:

@gotta run wrote:

There are various lakes where a small public access boat landing exists, but the rest of the shoreline is private property. I’d like to place a “boat needed” cache but there is no other public property to put a cache. The obvious solution is to find a landowner who doesn’t mind if I hang something from one of their shoreline trees but I am looking for other ideas. No I do not want to make a SCUBA cache. Any suggestions/examples?

Need help on the scuba side? 😛

SCUBA? Isn’t that like of version waymarking that no one does? 😉

[Lostby7]

@cheezehead wrote:

@RSplash40 wrote:

@gotta run wrote:

There are various lakes where a small public access boat landing exists, but the rest of the shoreline is private property. I’d like to place a “boat needed” cache but there is no other public property to put a cache. The obvious solution is to find a landowner who doesn’t mind if I hang something from one of their shoreline trees but I am looking for other ideas. No I do not want to make a SCUBA cache. Any suggestions/examples?

Need help on the scuba side? 😛

SCUBA? Isn’t that like of version waymarking that no one does? 😉

I have found that if you can hold your breath long enough even some of the SCUBA caches can be found sans breathing apparatus.

[RSplash40]

@Lostby7 wrote:

I have found that if you can hold your breath long enough even some of the SCUBA caches can be found sans breathing apparatus.

True – the scuba attribute can be misleading at times..I do know of a couple that you’d have to be a heck of a free diver to make it too.

[gotta run]

@Lostby7 wrote:

I hope one of our reviewers can provide more information on this.

To clarify, I did ask our reviewers and the general answer is that landowners own the land and what’s on it. Ideally I’d like to come up with some caches that could be reached from the boat but are not on land. But if the tree or attachment structure is on land, well there’s your problem.

One could approach various landowners at random for explicit pemission but…not real practical. But lacking any publicly owned island or other terra firma, I have no other ideas.

On the Left Side of the Road...

[glorkar]

It wouldn’t necessarily have to be random. Just take a cruise down the shoreline and mark spots that could possibly work. Later, when you get back home, look up who owns the land and do a nice write-up with pictures and such of what you’d like to do and how it would(n’t) impact their privacy/lands. If you pick out a bunch of spots, chances are at least one of them would give you the go-ahead. Heck, maybe you could even get some of them to start caching!

[Lostby7]

@gotta run wrote:

@Lostby7 wrote:

I hope one of our reviewers can provide more information on this.

To clarify, I did ask our reviewers and the general answer is that landowners own the land and what’s on it.

Well take a look at chapters one and two of the PDF link I posted above…maybe it will give you some insight into water body ownership….I’m still in the beginning stages of understanding it all. I had hoped that the reviewers were familiar with this topic but I know it can be a bit fuzzy and where fuzz lives so to does caution.

What is clear to me is that you can float / walk on any body of water in the state (with a few specific exceptions) so long as your feet stay wet and you will not be found to be trespassing. Whether or not one can place a cache on the waters bed or within it’s “Ordinary High Water Mark” is where it is unclear for me…I think this might be best answered by the DNR or some other state agency.

My best guess to avoid any private ownership issues would be to place a cache on the bed of the river / lake as that is state owned…you’d still need to get state permission though to do so. Perhaps an area of shallow water….a rock outcropping…

[labrat_wr]

@Lostby7 wrote:

….a rock outcropping…

like this? GC1WE0R

Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

Why not just anchor a small buoy?

[SammyClaws]

@TyeDyeSkyGuy wrote:

Why not just anchor a small buoy?

That wont fly. Buoys are either navigational markers or anchoring a boat. For any other purpose you have to get DNR and permission from the land owners in the area. I know of a group that was trying to put out some ski buoys for a slalom course and they ran into nothing but problems. After a year of trying they finally gave up.

[Miata]

My fear on a shoreline cache like this, would be people attempting to access the cache via land (trespassing).

I am however envisioning the cache placement you may have in mind and it could work if it were a larger overhanging tree on very undeveloped shoreline.

Undeveloped and remote to me would be the key. With taxes the way they are, I the land owner would not care to see people several times a holiday weekend poking around my shoreline for who knows what reason.

[zuma]

One alternative that I have been thinking about, and even have a duck for in the garage, but have not found the right spot, is to use a plastic duck, available from hunting stores. You could mount a micro to that, or use it as the first wpt of a multi.

While I have not done this yet for a permanent cache, I did have a temp cache like this at the Lake Wissota Picnic last year. Worked great until a boat ran into it and cut the line. (I placed it too close to where pontoons landed.)

zuma

[furfool]

@gotta run wrote:

@Lostby7 wrote:

I hope one of our reviewers can provide more information on this.

But if the tree or attachment structure is on land, well there’s your problem.

Not necessarily. If any part of the tree growing on your property hangs over the property line and is over my property, I can cut that part off. Maybe the same rule applies in this case. However, I would still take a look and try to contact a land owner for the appropriate permission. You wouldn’t want to po somebody and have your cache taken all the time.

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