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Geocaching—Like a High Tech Scavenger Hunt Only Better Remember the old party favorite—the scavenger hunt? It’s gone high tech. Anyone with a GPS, access to the Internet and a sense of adventure can geocache. Just log onto www.geocaching.com, locate a cache in our area, use your GPS unit to visit the cache, and report your find back to the website. The game has been played by hikers in Carteret County for at least two years, but the area’s newest caches are for canoers and kayakers. Kayakers Connie Asero and Bill Murray have created a twelve cache water trail that leads from the upper White Oak River in Jones and Onslow counties all the way to Nelson Bay in down east Carteret County. Nelson Bay is home turf for the Nelson Bay Triathalon founded by James Davis who died during a race in Greenville last year. “The James Davis Memorial Canoe/Kayak Geocache Trail was established as a tribute to James,” said Connie Asero, “He was a terrific athlete and is missed by everyone who ever came in contact with him. The geocache trail is just one more way to honor his contributions to our community.” This year’s Nelson Bay Triathalon memorializes James Davis and is scheduled for May 1 in Sea Level. Geocaching is a new Internet sport that is gaining popularity both world-wide and in eastern North Carolina. Individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the GPS coordinates of these caches on the Internet. GPS users can go to the website, register for free, and get the locations of caches in their area or at a tourist destination. Then players use a GPS and follow the coordinates to the hidden cache. As of today, there are 90,557 active caches in 199 countries. Geocaching has just a few basic rules. A “cache” is a hiking and camping term for a place where provisions have been strategically hidden. Caches are usually hidden in places of great scenic beauty that the player might not have visited otherwise. Each cache has a surprise gift for the finder who is then expected to replace it with an item for the next person who locates the cache. And each cache find should be reported to www.geocaching.com. The James Davis Geocache Trail is for recreational paddlers and is organized to encourage players to find all twelve caches. Each of the twelve caches is bungied to a tree close to shore on area waterways, and each has five flyers with stamped envelopes addressed to Ben Ball at WTKF 107.3, The Talk Station. The first five people to locate all twelve caches, sign one of the flyers from each, and mail them to the Talk Station will win a free T-shirt from the Nelson Bay Triathalon. The locations of the caches have been posted to www.geocaching.com but to give local paddlers a leg up are listed here first: Geo-cache 1: N34°42.286’ W076°45.087’ Geo cache 2: N34°42.181’, W076°49.639’ Geo cache 3: N34°41.875’, W076°50.236’ Geo cache 4: N34°53.954, W077°14.361’ Geo cache 5: N34°51.516, W077°12.562’ Geo cache 6: N34°52.610’, W077°13.067’ Geo cache 7: N34° 54.195’ W077° 15.019’ Geo cache 8: N34°49.013, W077°11.738 Geo cache 9: N34° 45.726’ W077°09.982’ Geo cache 10: N34° 42.996, W 076°42.681 Geo cache 11: N34° 54.006’ , W076° 24.507 Geo cache 12: N 34° 53.210, W 076° 24.100’
To find launch sites, paddlers can visit the Crystal Coast Canoe and Kayak club website, www.ccckc.org for information or pick up paddle trail maps from local outfitters or at the Carteret County Visitors Center. “Connie and I worked for six months to put this trail together,” said Bill Murray, “The good news is that I got to kayak with Connie. The bad news is that I got to kayak with Connie—sometimes that can lead to bleeding and other unexpected misadventures.” Blowdowns, beaver dams, and low water may hinder access to some of the caches, and players should call local outfitters for current trail conditions. Players should also note that this is a personal responsibility adventure—the player assumes responsibility for participating, knowing trail conditions, and appropriate safety precautions for the sport.
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