|
NPS
CJS Geotrail Expands to Lower Eastern Shore Launch Event in Onancock VA on April 14, 2012 Annapolis, MD - The Lower Eastern Shore expansion of the popular Captain John Smith (CJS) Geotrail debuts in Onancock, VA with a launch event from 10 am to 12 noon at the Historic Onancock School. This new segment of the CJS Geotrail adds 11 geocaches extending from Pocomoke, MD to the southern tip of the peninsula at the Virginia Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge. The launch event will feature displays and exhibits, geocaching instruction for first-timers, and plenty of door prizes. The event is free and open to the public. The Captain John Smith Geotrail is a journey across Chesapeake landscapes that evokes scenes and stories experienced by Captain Smith 400 years ago. Originally launched in June, 2011 with 40 sites on five Chesapeake rivers, more than 5,000 visits have been recorded on the national registry at www.geocaching.com. The Captain John Smith Geotrail is sponsored by the National Park Service and its Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network, the Chesapeake Conservancy, Maryland Geocaching Society, and Groundspeak, the national organization supporting the geocaching community world-wide. This is the second Chesapeake-focused geotrail built through this partnership. The Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Geotrail, launched in 2010, has drawn over 8,000 visitors to its sites across Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Thanks go to the many volunteer geocachers who have participated in the development of these trails and to the host sites for their collaboration and enthusiasm. Exhibitors participating at the launch on April 14 at Historic Onancock School include: Kiptopeke State Park Janes Island State Park National Park Service Magellan, GPS navigation Chesapeake Conservancy Maryland Geocaching Society Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge About Geocaching Geocaching, pronounced "geo-cashing," is a worldwide phenomenon, in which participants use a hand-held GPS (Global Positioning System) to plot map coordinates in order to locate a hidden treasure or "cache." Searching for a cache is akin to going on a treasure hunt and can involve clues, riddles and visits to multiple locations. Shovels are a forbidden tool - caches are never buried.A "geotrail" is a series of caches tied together by a common topic or theme. To join the adventure, a geocacher must access the official geocache website at www.Geocaching.com to set up an account. A basic membership is free. Once an account is established, the geocacher can use the advance search function to locate the Captain John Smith account, retrieve the map coordinates, and see the cache details for each Captain John Smith Geocache. Included with the information for each cache location is a description of the site and its significance to the Chesapeake and Smith's voyages.The next step is to head outside with a GPS to find geocaches along the Captain John Smith Geotrail! A collectible, highly coveted, and trackable geocoin is awarded to those geocachers who locate a minimum of 15 geocaches along the trail. To be eligible for the coin, geocachers must download a trail passport from www.smithtrail.net, find and log on www.geocaching.com at least 15 geocaches from the trail, record the secret code word from each cache on their passport and post a picture of each cache location on the corresponding geocache webpage. After discovering the 15 required caches, geocachers may have their passports validated in person or via mail at the National Park Service Chesapeake Bay office:410 Severn Avenue, Suite 314, Annapolis, MD 21403. Approximately 100 geocoins remain to be awarded. |
Last updated: February 26, 2015