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Geocaching
: A New ATV & UTV / SxS Riding Experience
::Continued::
Jeffords said that it was his wife who came up
with the idea. “My wife saw it on the Internet
about four or five years ago,” he said.
“She was reading about geocaching on some
sites including geocaching.com and got the bug
and thought it would be a great activity for the
club. We decided to do it one year and it took
off from there.
“We purchased some inexpensive ammo cans,
put a log book and a trinket in each one and hid
them in a valley in Montana,” continued
Jeffords. Jeffords explained that the ammo cans
are ideal for something like this because they
are waterproof and will not rust. “We hide
them in rock piles, behind stumps or something
like that. They are pretty durable and cost about
$5.”
“We created some direction forms with hints
on where riders would find the cans and provided
them with the coordinates of the cans locations,”
continued Jeffords. “Then for the next two
years we did geocaching in coordination with our
annual fun ride. That’s how it got started.
We didn’t do it for a while after that.
However people asked us to do it again. So we
will be doing it in 2012.”
Jeffords explained that the National Forests
in his area of Montana allow legal ATV riding
on the roads from June 15 through October 15.
The National Forests used for the geocaching include
Flathead National Forest, Salmon Challis National
Forest, Beaver Head Deerlodge, Lolo National Forest
and Clearwater National Forest. Since the club
does geocaching for free, they do not have to
get permits from the National Forest Service.
“If we charged a fee for a geocaching in
a National Forest, we would have to get a permit
and that costs upwards to $500,” said Jeffords.
“We found out from the National Forest Service
that if we don’t charge a fee then we are
legal to go out and hunt for the cans as long
as we collect them. There is no need to get permission
every year.”
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There are several Geocaches in
Sand Hollow State Park in St. George, UT |
The group gives prizes to people who find the most
caches or were the first to find a cache at their
annual Christmas Party. “The prizes are a
little goofy. For example, we found some water bottles
and stuffed them with a first aid kit or fishing
gear. We’ve also given out compasses or a
goofy little trinket,” he said.
Coordinates and hints are distributed at club
meetings, ATV dealerships in the valley and at
dealerships in the closest biggest town to Hamilton,
Montana, Mazelli. They also publish hints and
coordinates on the association’s website.
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Looking for
a geocache can take some skill on an ATV
to get to where it is hidden along the
trail!
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The skill level of a trail influences where the
geocache is hidden, explained Jeffords. “If
a trail that leads to a cache is very difficult,
we don’t ask beginners to participate. We
encourage expert or intermediate riders to do
these hunts. However, we also hide cans in areas
where beginners can ride as well as families with
kids. We do geocaching in different areas so there
is a variety of riding people can experience.
We keep it local and hide cans in a radius of
100 miles. We hide some caches that are easy to
find and some we hide where some skills in riding
are necessary to find them. We are also careful
to hide the cans where ATV’ers and motorcyclists
ride and out of the way of the general public.”
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