PRESS RELEASE: August 12, 2010
Contact: Teresa Mitchell, 315-646-1000, James “Boots” Hooper, 585-732-6057
Great Lakes Seaway Trail High-Tech GPS Treasure Hunt "Open" for Geocaching Travelers
Contact: Teresa Mitchell, 315-646-1000, James “Boots” Hooper, 585-732-6057
Great Lakes Seaway Trail High-Tech GPS Treasure Hunt "Open" for Geocaching Travelers
  A geocacher picks up a Great Lakes Seaway Trail GeoTrail Logbook at the Seaway Trail Discovery Center in Sackets Harbor, NY  Official Great Lakes Seaway Trail GeoTrail Logbooks are available at many locations along the byway. Look for the ammo cans painted with the new Great Lakes Seaway Trail logo. |
Great Lakes Seaway Trail, NY and PA – Sixty-four – count ‘em – 64 Great Lakes Seaway Trail geocaches are now in place, with another 11 to follow soon, for those who enjoy exploring with their GPS (Global Positioning System) unit in hand. Geocaching.com reports there are as many as 4-5 million geocachers worldwide.
At least 10 ammo boxes emblazoned with the new Great Lakes Seaway Trail logo have been placed in each of five regions (Lake Erie, Buffalo/Niagara Falls, Rochester/Central Lake Ontario, Eastern Lake Ontario, and 1000 Islands/St. Lawrence River) comprising the 518-mile America’s Byway that parallels the freshwater shoreline of New York and Pennsylvania.
Each cache has a uniquely-shaped punch that cachers will use to mark their Great Lakes Seaway Trail GeoTrail logbooks. Once cachers find 10 caches in a region, they can have their logbook validated to receive the distinctive Great Lakes Seaway Trail GeoCoin for that region.
The series of five elegantly-designed antique-metal finish coins features the Flagship Niagara, Niagara Falls and the Maid of the Mist tour boat, Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse, historic Fort Ontario, and an oceangoing ship on the St. Lawrence River.
“This new Great Lakes Seaway Trail GeoTrail provides a new recreational, historic, cultural and outdoor adventure for travelers to experience the full 518-mile length of the byway,” says Seaway Trail, Inc. President and CEO Teresa Mitchell,
Great Lakes Seaway Trail Project Manager Kurt Schumacher says, “This new economic development initiative linking the Great Lakes Seaway Trail to GPS-guided treasure-hunting along the byway’s full length is a fabulous way to drive new travelers into our shoreline communities and their accommodations, restaurants, shops and services.”
Great Lakes Seaway Trail GeoTrail developer James “Boots” Hooper says he believes this is the longest linear geotrail in the U.S.
“The beautiful landscapes and waterfront, historic sites and natural found only along this unique byway await Great Lakes Seaway Trail geocachers,” says Hooper, a member of the National 4-H Geospatial Science Taskforce, the New York State 4-H Geospatial Leadership Team, and the Rochester-based GeoRoc online community.
Logbooks for the entire GeoTrail are available at the locations below. Each location is also a pick-up point for the GeoCoin for their individual region. The Seaway Trail Discovery Center in Sackets Harbor, NY will have each of the 5 regional coins available.:
Lake Erie Region
• Tom Ridge Environmental Center, 301 Peninsula Drive, Suite 1, Erie, PA 16505
Buffalo/Niagara Falls Region
• Niagara USA Official Visitor Center, 10 Rainbow Blvd., Niagara Falls, NY 14303
Rochester/Central Lake Ontario Region
• VisitRochester, 45 East Avenue, Suite 400, Rochester, NY 14604
• Wayne County Tourism Office, 9 Pearl Street, Suite 3, Lyons, NY 14489
Eastern Lake Ontario Region
• Cayuga County Office of Tourism, 131 Genesee Street, Auburn, NY 13021
• Oswego County Tourism, 3rd Floor, County Office Building, 46 E. Bridge St., Oswego, NY 13126
• Screwy Louie’s Sport Shop, 596 Main St., Fair Haven, NY 13064
Thousand Islands/St. Lawrence River Region
• Seaway Trail Discovery Center, Ray & West Main Streets, Sackets Harbor, NY 13685
• St. Lawrence County Chamber, 101 Main St., Canton, NY 13617
• 1000 Islands International Tourism Council, 3373 Collins Landing, Alexandria Bay, NY 13607.
The Great Lakes Seaway Trail GeoTrail sponsors include VisitErie, the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corporation, VisitRochester, Wayne County Tourism, the Fair Haven Area Chamber of Commerce, the Cayuga County Office of Tourism, Oswego County Tourism, the 1000 Islands International Tourism Council, the St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce, and the Great Lakes Seaway Trail.
Hooper is busy locating an additional 11 caches throughout the byway region. They will be announced later this year.
GPS coordinates for 100 easily-seen Great Lakes Seaway Trail “outdoor storyteller” signage units at significant points of historic, natural/birdwatching, cultural, maritime, agricultural and architectural note along the byway can be found in the 2010 Great Lakes Seaway Trail Travel Guide online at www.seawaytrail.com.
Seaway Trail, Inc. and the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Discovery Center Gift Shop are official Groundspeak and Geocaching.com merchandise distributors. Learn more at www.seawaytrail.com. #
Geocaching 101
- Geocaching is pronounced geo-cashing, like cashing a check
- Geocaching combines geo for geography and caching for the process of hiding a cache, which historically has referred to a hidden treasure or concealed food/provisions/cash
- Who geocaches? More than 4 million people of all ages and interests worldwide5
- Where do you find the GPS coordinates for locating the Great Lakes Seaway Trail geocaches? www.geocaching.com lists the coordinates for more than 4 million geocaches around the globe, including those located along the 518 miles of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail. Note: once all are in place, you will find the 75 official Great Lakes Seaway Trail geocaches listed at www.geocaching.com as well as other caches hidden in the byway’s 5 regions by individuals and groups. Only the 75 placed by Seaway Trail, Inc. qualify for the Great Lakes Seaway Trail GeoCoins.
- How are geocaches rated? 1 is the easiest, 5 is the most difficult to locate
- What is in a typical geocache? A logbook or logsheet with information on who set the cache in place and notes from those finding the cache. The Great Lakes Seaway Trail caches have a uniquely-shaped punch for marking the logbooks that cachers carry with them from cache to cache.