CLEARFIELD – Visit Clearfield County (VCC) would like to announce the opening of the fourth leg of the Clearfield County Geocache Trail.
The 2014 leg is themed Home Town Heroes, which allows participants to learn about and honor Clearfield County heroes and veterans. This year’s cache joins three existing legs: cemeteries, parks and recreation and wet and wild waterways, all of which are still active.
Geocaching is a worldwide treasure hunting game that uses a GPS. To play geocaching, participants hide containers as small as thimble-sized waterproof cylinders to as large as military ammo cans.
The containers can be hidden in any interesting place. They can be attached to a guardrail, street sign or lamp post, as well as hidden under a shrub or pile of logs/rocks.
The VCC encourages creativity.
There are rules that geocachers must follow, including getting permission from landowners and not disturbing the property. For example, it’s not permitted to bury a cache.
An event was held Saturday to kick off the 2014 leg of the trail, and 50 participants attended form as far away as Seattle, Wash. Volunteers from across the county develop, manage and maintain the CCGT with minimal support from the VCC.
“The main goal included creating a geotrail that geocachers and their families would find interesting,” said VCC Executive Director Holly Komonczi. “It was important to attract geocachers from out of the Clearfield County area with the hopes that they will spend a couple of days in the county.
“This would benefit many of the local businesses. Geocachers frequently spend entire days, weekends or vacations in pursuit of caches and spend money at restaurants, purchasing gas and using local hotels and campgrounds.”
According to Komonczi, studies have shown that for every six caches the geocachers find, they spend approximately $200 locally. The VCC, she said, hopes that once out-of-the-area geocachers come in and complete the trail, they will return to participate in other activities.
There are also hundreds of caches hidden in Clearfield County that are not a part of the trail, she said. Komonczi said this will encourage geocachers to return or stay longer.
You can visit the Geocache Web site or contact the VCC.