NEWSPAPER INTERVIEW, GEOCACHING ARTICLE

[mountainborn]

In the old days, you remember, way back in 2004 or so, when a reporter was on assignment to do a public intrest story, they took a notebook, a recorder and a photographer.

Times change, however, and I was recently interviewed by a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette in Little Rock, on the topic of Geocaching. The initial contact was made by email. The reporter had found my contact on the Arkansas Geocachers Forums web site. Then a questionaire and photo request followed. Pretty cool Huh !!

Here is my response, with hyperlinks to photos:

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Thanks Stephanie !

My Geocaching screen name is mountainborn, my wife Betty's is Butcherknife. We live in Vandervoort Arkansas. We have found just over fourhundred geocaches of all types. We recently resumed geocaching activities after about a year off because of health and work demands.

Our home page is: http://www.mountainborn.com

We geocache with a Garmin Colorado GPS and a Magellan Gold GPS. We navigate our vehicle with Microsoft Streets and Trips that has the geocaching.com KML patch applied to it. Those programs are run on a laptop mounted in our Jeep Wrangler.

Here is a photo taken in Groom Texas, of our Jeep and our camper, it is a Oliver travel trailer.

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/mo ... 8_0934.jpg

Questions:

Why do you think geocaching has grown in popularity?

I think that geocaching has grown in popularity, in part because peoples lives are so busy. They can find a few minutes to find a geocache during their lunch hour, on their way to or from work, as well as on the weekends with friends or family. It is a bonus that geocaching is of intrest to Grandparents as well as great grand kids. The entry level investment is small compared to the amount of fun that the whole family can have. We like to camp in an area and geocache while we explore the sights and history there. Our National Forests and State Parks are great places to geocache and the kids learn so much about our culture, history and enviroment. This gag photo taken by a ancient trail marker tree, is in Polk County, near Vandervoort:

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/mo ... C00341.jpg

Why do you enjoy geocacing?

The excitement of the hunt, the pitting of witts with the hider of the cache, the thrill of the find, reading the log to see the comments of others that have found it. As well as sharpening personal skills of placing quality caches that others will enjoy.

In this photo a geocacher is looking for a cache that is hidden in a log, his dog has already found it !

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/mo ... C00218.jpg

Why do you recommend others go geocaching?

It is a low intensity outdoor sport that is easy on our enviroment, most geocachers take only photos and leave only footprints. But most of all I recommend geocaching to people because it is a opportunity to learn about Arkansas's diverse cultural background, while meeting new people and seeing new and exciting things along the way.

This photo is on a Mountain West of Waldron, near an old homestead :

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/mo ... C00762.jpg

How is geocaching beneficial to Arkansas?

Tourism is an obvious benefit of geocaching, but there are so many other benefits that they are hard to list. Geocachers begin to gain a new appreciation of our enviroment and how hard it is for some of our Federal and State Agencies to strike a ballance between public use and preservation of Forests and Historical Sites.

Rock fence in the snow, Rich Mountain near Mena:

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/mo ... C00766.jpg

Can you tell me about your favorite trip geocaching?

Earlier this year we went to a geocaching event named "Clarksville or Cacheville, you be the judge." There were door prizes, games and contests along with a great meal and renewing friendships. We arrived late Friday night after getting a late start because of work. We came slipping into the parking area for the Johnson County Fair Grounds, planning to get a couple of hours sleep before the event started. But it wouldn't be all that simple. The Clarksville Police were searching the area for someone that had attempted a break in. We talked to the Police Supervisor, exchanged telephone numbers and woke up in time for the event the next morning.

This photo is my wife Butcherknife at a geocache in South Carolina at a old plantation, note the spanish moss:

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/mo ... C00775.jpg

What is your favorite cache you’ve found?

There are so many good ones out there that i've heard of , but havn't gotten to yet, however, my hands down favorite is the "TOOL TIME CACHE SERIES" located near Mt. Ida. This clever cache series was put out by team "CACHEMATES". At the first set of coordinates you find a large ammo can that contains all of the tools that will be needed to retrieve all of the caches in the series. You will have to use your imagination to solve, learn and then decide which tool to use to retrieve the hidden cache. Jerry and Bonnie Turner operate a cabinet shop and have some really clever caches out there.

How long have you been geocaching?

Since 2005, we first logged on to http://www.geocaching.com in February of 2005.

These geocachers traveled from Tennessee to go to the "Lock Yer' Hubs cache" in the national forest near Vandervoort.

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/mo ... 6_1145.jpg

How did you find out about geocaching?

While learning about Golbal Positioning Satellites on the internet.

Whiskey Peak cache site:

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/mo ... kTower.jpg

Can you tell me about your involvement with geocaching?

As US Navigational Loran transmission sites were starting to be phased out, emergency response teams needed a better way to direct emergency services such as air life, to their location. GPS was the answer and public service agencys everywhere began to start using that technology.

Geocaching was a natural extension of that technology. We started using GPS on vacation trips, then began to find caches along the way during those trips. As we began to find more caches and meet more geocaching friends, we became more active and are members of Arkansas Geocachers Association located at: http://arkgeocaching.org/

This photo is at the location of a cache at Lum & Abner's Jot em' down Store in Pine Ridge.

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/mo ... mstore.jpg

How often do you go geocaching?

We either go caching or do cache maintenance every week.

Photo of mountainborn and his geocaching pal, Dillon the retired drug dog.

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/mo ... mNdill.jpg

Stephanie, some of these photos may not translate to news print well, so let me know and I'll look for better ones.

Please call if other questions come up.

harm

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Who knows if it will ever make it to the presses or not, many things can effect that, but it sure was a novel thing to us anyhow.