This is what Kathy Somers the President of the Guelph Hiking Trail Club had to say when I asked why they had removed the geocaches.

The Guelph Hiking Trail Club (GHTC) has not taken exception to geocaching on our trail….
However we have learned that caches have been placed without landowner or GHTC permission and some geocachers are bushwhacking across private lands and yards to get to the caches.  To these behaviours, we do take exception.

For me geocaching is about finding  interesting locations and not about trailblazing.  We do our community a great disservice when we do more bushwhacking than is absolutely required.   I’ve never understood why a geocacher would hide a cache 50m off a trail.  A muggle is no more likely to find a cache that far from a trail than a well hidden cache 5m from a trail.  As geocachers we participate in an activity that relies on the goodwill of others to allow us to continue to enjoy our activity.  We need to be mindful of this.

There was one log entry that Ms Somers included in her email that highlights what we shouldn’t be doing:

“even threw a couple of short running bushwhacks in just for kicks.”

Bushwhacking may be for kicks today but doing it leads to the kinds of drastic steps taken by the Guelph Hiking Trail Club.  No one wants to have their cache removed.  We go to a lot of effort to place them.  We need to do a little more effort and reach out to the property owners of where we want to place the cache.   I haven’t done that every time I’ve placed a cache and I should.

I think organizations like the Ontario Geocaching Association needs to reach out to groups like the Guelph Hiking Trail Club and find ways to work together.   We need to make related organizations aware of geocaching so that we can work together.   We need to work within the rules of what stakeholders will allow or we will in short order find fewer places that are accepting of geocaches.

Here are some things we can do to ensure we respect land owners rights

• remain on the marked trail
• use stiles rather than climbing fences
• walk around farmer’s cultivated fields rather than across them
• respect signs that say “danger / keep out” and “no trespassing”
• avoid disturbing wildlife/property
• get landowner or land manager permission before placing a cache.

So if you are not already a member and you live in Ontario why not click on over and complete the
Free Membership Application.

Please send me your suggestions on what we could do with the OGA website.

Provincial Associations

• Atlantic Geocaching Association
• Ontario Geocaching Association
• Association Géocaching Québec
• Manitoba Geocaching Association
• Saskatchewan Cachers
• British Columbia Geocaching Association

City Based Groups (Canada)

• Vancouver Island Geocachers
• Central Ontario Geocachers
• Geocaching Edmonton
• Kootney Cachers
• Calgary Cachers
• Canada’s Capital Cachers
• Peace County Geocachers
• Géocaching Saguenay/Lac-St-Jean
• Mid Island Geocachers

Facebook Groups

• Golden Horseshoe Monthly Geocaching Club ( GHMGC )
• Central Ontario Geocachers
• Ontario Geocaching
• Geocaching

Please let me know if I’m missing some and I will do my best to add them.  I’ll be working on a US list shortly.