N 41° 29.279 W 081° 57.483

from Local Treasures

N 41° 29.279 W 081° 57.483

I left a camera in a cache near Lake Erie, in Huntington Reservation, which is part of the Cleveland Metropark System. Just before Christmas 2002, the cache owner contacted me; he had to remove the cache, wondered what to do with the camera. He said he’d be making a new cache come the new year. I wrote back, asked him to put the camera in the new cache, and took the opportunity to ask him why he geocached. This is the e-mail he sent back:

Margot,

I always enjoyed getting outside and geocaching fits with the other activities I enjoy.  I go dayhiking or birding nearly every weekend that my schedule allows.  It helps me get away from the boring corporate America job that occupies an overly large percentage of my time.

I saw an article in a magazine about geocaching and thought I might check it out someday.  Then I promptly forgot all about it.  A few months later the Cleveland Metroparks had an introductory program and I decided to attend.  A geocacher was born.  Almost one year and 100+ caches later, I’m stuck doing the road-trip thing to find new caches, as there’s nothing left locally.

Its a great hobby.  I’ve been to some beautiful and interesting places I would have never visited and, through the Northeast Ohio Geocachers club, I’ve made some new friends.  I’m a volunteer for the Cleveland Metroparks and this has allowed me to work with the parks on caching policies and to meet with other parks districts to try to get caching allowed in their parks.

I’ll get the camera back in circulation shortly.  If I get my wrapping finished today, I might even have some free time tomorrow.

E—