Cache in, trash out
- Chris Abbott
- Oct 9
- 3 min read
Chris Abbott
Editor
Geocachers help clean up trash in the Waterford Ponds area
Cache in, trash out.
Geocachers from Norfolk County, and some coming from other parts of Ontario and Quebec and even Michigan, joined this year’s Waterford Ponds area fall CITO, picking up trash alongside the roadways, trails and shoreline on Tuesday, Sept. 30.
“This is how we give back to the community,” said Karen Daniel from Bloomsburg. “We’re taking the trash out.”
James Kuipers from Grand Rapids, Michigan organized the Waterford Cache-In Trash-Out event.
“I started (geocaching) in 2010,” said James. “I was up in northern Michigan with my family, and I bought a hiking map that said geocaching.com at the top. So we started it… and now it’s a hobby that’s brought me all over the world.
“I met a lot of great people through geocaching. I ended up meeting Karen and a group of Canadians doing kayak caches in Michigan. Geocaching… a lot of us like hiking, biking, physical activity, and having an objective, a destination. I don’t enjoy just going out to bike 10 miles, but I’ll go bike 10 miles if there’s geocaches along the way. A chance to stop and a challenge. I like a good, challenging task – you might have something like a tree climb. This morning I got one in a culvert.”
CITO is a social event, said James, as more and more bags of trashed were being brought back to their base to be picked up by Norfolk County staff the next day, “and really give back to the community and pick up trash. A CITO event is not typically about caching, it’s about picking up trash… But we are a community of cachers, so often before or after, you’ll find us caching as well.”
The Sept. 30 event was organized as a followup to a recent ‘mega’ caching event in Burford, which attracted enthusiasts from across Canada.
“Geocaching is worldwide – I don’t know exactly how many, but there are about 3.5 million,” said Karen.
“I don’t know if it’s still growing or if it’s levelled, but I’d say the ‘boom’ was around 2020 during Covid,” said James.
“For me, I used to do downhill skiing, but I can’t anymore,” said Karen. “The older I get, I can still ride a bicycle, do some kayaking, and some moderate hiking. So it (geocaching) suits me and I’m retired. It gets us outside.”
Karen estimated about 30 geocachers are in the Simcoe area.
“It’s a good number,” she nodded.
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Geocachers use GPS to find small hidden containers, painted in camo and dark colours. They log the find, then seek more containers. Some are virtual/Earth caches representing a place of significant or historical interest (including one at the Black Bridge, built in 1916).
“Within five kilometres of here, there’s probably 300 caches,” said Karen. “The smaller ones are nice because no one notices them. We don’t want non-cachers to see them.
“It gets better and better,” she laughed, scrolling a map on her phone.
Geocachers Starr and Fred Stothers came to Waterford’s CITO from London, Ont., while David Harvey arrived from Gatineau, Quebec.
“It’s addictive,” David smiled. “Sometimes you get challenges, sometimes you don’t find what you’re looking for and you have to walk away. It’s like gambling, you don’t win all the time.”
“It’s a beautiful area and there’s tons of caches here,” said Starr, who goes out geocaching every chance she gets. “There was a big one in Burford on the weekend (the only mega event in Ontario this year).”
To get involved, go to www.geocaching.com . You can establish a free, basic account.
“That gives you a taste of it,” said Karen.
The next level requires a $40 US fee for an annual premium membership, which gives added benefits to cache owners – like Karen, who placed hundreds of caches in the Waterford area over the years.
“This weekend, because there were so many people here (Burford), my phone has been going nuts, dinging,” Karen laughed.
In total, Karen has found almost 23,000 caches, and her friend Susan Zakamarko from Oakland is nearly that, but there is an Ontario geocacher that has found more than 65,000.
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