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Post by davemeister on Apr 25, 2011 10:13:24 GMT -9
Any interest in an Alaskan powertrail to rival or even surpass the ET highway? Now that the ET highway powertrail is history, just putting it out there for an Alaskan powertrail. Due to the relatively few turnouts though this might put a damper on things. I'm just thinking we might be able to put our collective noggins out there and see if this is feasable. Some ideas to ponder: 1. We have miles and miles of long stretches of highway. 2. Which one would be great for a power trail? 3. Can we try to avoid the pitfalls and incorporate lessons learned from the ET highway? 4. Caches could be "Geocache Alaska" owned caches and we could all be responsible to maintain. Thoughts? Comments??
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Post by ladybugkids on Apr 25, 2011 14:51:37 GMT -9
I like how Cohofive implemented the Seward Highway series of caches that take people away from the road to places they otherwise wouldn't have visited.
I don't see how a 0.1 mile spaced power trail can be safely implemented on any of Alaska's highways, even those with shoulders. Best option might be Nebesna Road, McCarthy Road, Steese Highway, Elliot Highway, Denali Highway, or perhaps better yet, the Stampede Trail or Petersville Road or the Willow side of Hatcher Pass Road, where traffic loads and speeds are generally lower.
Personally, I am a firm believer of caching being about location. I have yet to drive any Alaskan highway with a compelling cache location every 0.1 mile. As Briansnat once opined, if the only reason to drop a cache somewhere is to place a cache, perhaps one should reconsider the location.
As a member of the GeocacheAlaska! Board of Directors, I would not support GeocacheAlaska! being affiliated with a power trail for liability reasons. The Board does not carry insurance, so its members' personal assets are at risk if there was to be an accident associated with a power trail such as nearly happened with the snow plow on the ET Highway. Groundspeak protects itself from this by being clear they are only a listing service. GeocacheAlaska! could not similarly protect itself as the cache owner.
I know this post is a wet blanket post, but I encourage local cachers to think very carefully about how a power trail would be implemented if one is to be implemented. There is a lot of information that can be pulled from the geocaching.com forums and Nevada newspaper articles about what went wrong down there.
All of the above said, if such a project were to go proceed, as a volunteer Groundspeak Reviewer, I would park my bias at the login page and publish caches that meet the Groundspeak guidelines, especially the one pertaining to adequate permission. There are currently many caches within the Alaska DOT right-of-way that have been published after giving the cache owner the benefit of the doubt that they acquired adequate permission to place their cache on/near a piece of DOT guardrail, sign, or other object. There is a good chance that a power trail on a DOT-maintained roadway would attract the attention of the AKDOT which could potentially draw attention to all caches within AKDOT right-of-way, which probably wouldn't have a pretty result. What would be really cool is if someone who really felt strongly about this joined the GeocacheAlaska! Advocacy committee and approached AKDOT about permission for caches across the state.
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Post by NorthWes on Apr 25, 2011 16:14:03 GMT -9
I agree 100% with LBK's remarks.
I like power trails (the first I did was the now-archived Pushwalla Power Path in southern California), but there's a problem inherent in the power trail concept. It's tough to place a power trail along a hiking path unless there's strict attention to the 'park-friendly' ethic (as presented on the Landsharkz.com site), because of the creation of geo-trails. We see geo-trails form here in Alaska with relatively few visits to a hide site - imagine what it would look like with dozens of persons a day literally beating down a footpath to a cache? And, LBK already hit the nail on the head regarding liability with DOT right-of-way issues and a power path along the roadways.
I hiked the McHugh to Potter area on April 23rd, finding 26 caches along what became an 8-mile hike - a glorious day of caching and companionship. It seemed on some trail sections I'd barely hit my stride before I'd reached the next cache location! Kincaid Park is another example of a wonderfully-cache-dense zone, as is the coastal trail.
We have a Tour of Anchorage trail from Service HS all the way down to the coastal trail that could support park-friendly style cache density - best found by bike in summer or on skis in winter! There's a place we could build upon...
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Post by davemeister on Apr 25, 2011 18:06:23 GMT -9
I don't consider it a "wet blanket" reply. It's just what I wanted to hear, a different set of opinions or ideas and perfect topic for a forum where folks can post there concerns/ideas. Thanks for your valued imput Mike.
Thanks
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joetheplumber
Bronze Cacher
MIS
Posts: 15
GeocacheAlaska! Membership Level: Not a Member
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Post by joetheplumber on Apr 25, 2011 23:49:34 GMT -9
What is imput?? Just wondering. ;D
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Post by ladybugkids on Apr 26, 2011 5:33:12 GMT -9
I don't consider it a "wet blanket" reply. It's just what I wanted to hear, a different set of opinions or ideas and perfect topic for a forum where folks can post there concerns/ideas. Thanks for your valued imput Mike. Thanks Thanks, Dave. One of the beauties of geocaching is it is something different to each player. I just got back from a work/vacation trip in Europe and powercached in a different way...12 countries in 12 days with the help of Dutch (Johny Cache and Eeg) and Swiss (Worlddiver) cachers. 4000+ kilometers via car, train, plane and on foot visiting quality caches in mostly really cool locations (most had numerous favorite votes) was a total blast. I found fewer than one hundred caches during the course of the trip, but I remember each and every cache, ate a lot of great local foods, and thoroughly enjoyed the company of my caching companions. I'm still catching up on my logs and then need to upload my photos, but I'm getting it done. Some people will travel thousands of miles to do a Route 66 or ET Highway style trail for a numbers run. Others, including me, won't. However, put that style in a beautiful place relatively close to home and I probably would go out and at least sample it. I've completed a few walking power trails of 18-36 caches over the course of a few hours and had a most enjoyable time.
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Post by fuzzybelly on Jun 22, 2012 8:03:42 GMT -9
It's not an ET highway, but there's a couple good ways to BOOST you're smiley numbers.
Peanut82 and Toepunch have a nice little 20+ cache powerpath down by Mirror lake in Peter Creek area. I've yet to do it, but it looks and sounds good.
And Miss Molly Prissy Pants, has helped to make a powerful 30+ cache powerpath along the bike path that skirts the highway in Eagle River.
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