The history and impact of the Erie Canal stretches back over 200 years, across more than 300 miles, and millions of lives. It is complicated, it is messy, it is multidimensional. You can become fascinated by it through the economics, the politics, the engineering, the social and cultural changes, the environmental impact, music, folktales, art, or a general love of history. Like the canal itself, history is a ribbon that connects us, for all the good and the bad.
The Seneca Chief prepares to depart from Buffalo to replicate the inaugural journey on the Erie Canal. Photo courtesy of Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site.
The capstone of the revitalization of the Erie Canal during its Bicentennial is the inspiring journey of a replica canal barge. Buffalo Maritime Center enlisted the help of volunteers, donations and corporate sponsors to create a new version of The Seneca Chief. The original barge made the inaugural journey on the entirety of the canal in October of 1825, carrying Governor DeWitt Clinton and a keg of Lake Erie water. The replica Seneca Chief is on a similar journey in its path across New York State, but on a far larger, more complex journey through history.
On Saturday, June 8, New York State Parks and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation celebrated Get Outdoors & Get Together Day at 22 locations across the state. This annual event coincides with National Get Outdoors Day and encourages people of all abilities to connect with public lands through outdoor recreation activities such as fishing, nature walks and hikes, birding, archery, camping, and paddling.
This year, more than 2,000 participants enjoyed the day at a New York State park or historic site! Activities included a magic show, a raptors and reptiles show, dancing, singing, spin art, yard games, and more! Let’s take a look at some of the action.
I am not stealthy. This is not new information, but I didn’t realize how sloppy I was at sneaking around until I tried geocaching—a worldwide game of locating some of millions of little hidden stashes.
This outdoor activity relies on the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, where participants place caches of trinkets, also known as “hides,” in various places, and record locations with GPS coordinates to the website geocaching.com. Cache-seekers then use those coordinates with their own GPS devices to locate the caches, and can take some trinkets and leave some of their own for subsequent seekers to find.
And there are a lot of little hidden treasures out there. For example, the website above indicates there are more than 2,800 caches hidden around the Albany region.
On my first go at it, I found myself lifting low-lying tree limbs and creeping around bushes in search of tiny containers along a busy section of the Empire State Trail, the new 750-mile multi-use trail that connects New York City to the Canadian border, and Albany to Buffalo. While I was doing this, a woman in an SUV noticed me and I could tell I was acting a bit too suspicious for her taste. She stopped her car, watched me, and didn’t continue driving until I left that section of sidewalk.
After this inauspicious start, I was in awe of more experienced hobbyists, known as geocachers or cachers. After examining the map on the official geocaching app, it turned out there was a cache hidden close to my home. Strangers had been snooping around the area to try to find it and I hadn’t even noticed them! Luckily, the 2021 New York State Geocache Challenge is here this summer, so I will have plenty of time to hone my skills.
Volunteers and New York State Park workers have concealed more than 230 geocaches with items like stickers, toy cars, and figurines in 56 State Parks and Historic Sites in Central New York, the Saratoga-Capital Region, and the Hudson Valley. Adventurers who find at least 45 caches (at least 35 in a specific region, and up to 10 in either of the other two regions) will receive a geocache challenge geocoin representing the primary region.
The obverse of the geocoin for the Saratoga Capital Region.
The geocoins are trackables, each with a unique identifying number that can be activated online and then tracked as coins are located, reported and moved to new locations by subsequent geocachers.
So far, the geocoin that has traveled the furthest from a State Park is from the 2015 Saratoga-Capital District Region Geocache Challenge. Now settled outside Salt Lake City, Utah, the token (TB6Y60Y) has so far trekked 160,500 miles to such places as the Mediterranean island of Malta, Germany, the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in India, Japan, Israel, and nearly three hundred other places.
Some geocachers are nearly as well-traveled. Larry Eaton is the Saratoga-Capital region’s geocache volunteer coordinator and during his two decades, he has logged about 17,500 caches, with about 1,500 of those found in State Parks. Though this seems like a daunting number to some, Larry knows cachers who have found hundreds of thousands of caches.
Eaton and his companion, Sadie, out on the trail.
But most geocachers start with smaller beginnings. David Brooks is the education manager at the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site and serves as the park’s liaison for this year’s Saratoga-Capital District Regional Geocache Challenge. As more geocaches came to his site, he became more interested in the hobby. He decided to try it with his son after being inspired by a volunteer at his historic site named Barbara, who used the hobby to spend more time with her son.
When putting out caches in the historic site, Brooks likes mixing the environment and history of Schoharie Crossing, which focuses on the history of the Erie Canal. One year, he and Barbara put created an innovative cache that involved a small boat on a pulley system.
Some geocachers take pride in creating such clever hiding places. Eaton said once a geocacher in the Capital Region built a replica of the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz out of an old furnace and hid a cache inside of it. There are also different kinds of caches for folks to get creative with, including puzzle caches and different types of challenge caches that require specific skills and tasks to obtain.
A cleverly disguised cache made from an owl decoy.
All the State Parks geocaches that are part of the challenges are free to find and access, though there may be fees to enter the parks. To participate, you can download the pick up a passport in person from a park or historic site or find it on their website.
For passports, click on the name each region involved to download a PDF, which outlines which Parks contain the geocaches: Central, Saratoga-Capital and Taconic.
To find the caches, download the Geocaching app or follow the coordinates of the caches listed on the Geocaching.com website. When you find a cache, stamp your passport with the stamp inside each cache the turn it in to the state park indicated on the passport. Remember to leave the stamp behind for others that come after you. The challenge runs through November 11, 2021.
Stay on or near trails, take care not to trample vegetation, put everything back as you found it.
And please, don’t set up your own geocaches without checking with your Park manager first. State Park rules require that any geocaches in State Parks must be approved beforehand and follow rules to protect sensitive environmental or historic areas and public safety. Keep it safe, keep it fun! Happy seeking!
Cover shot – The reverse side of the 2021 New York State Parks Geocache Challenge. All photos by NYS Parks.
Post by Jessica Andreone, Environmental Educator, Central Region of New York State Parks.
New York State Parks and Historic Sites Blog 