04/22/24 - 117 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/9bh4zbtr
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Feature - Travel Bugs From PA Wilds Like Bass A. Beck Go Far And Wide
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Basse A. Beck is now in South West England, UK, spreading his message of cleaning up acid mine drainage and restoring migrating fish to Pennsylvania’s rivers. He began his journey from the Coke and Hollywood geocache in Tyler, PA, on October 9, 2010. Even though Mr. Beck passed away in 1974, his legacy lives on in the form of a Legacy of Conservation hero card “travel bug.”
This travel bug was launched with 29 other Pennsylvania environmental hero travel bugs as part of the DCNR Legacy of Conservation Geotrail in the Pennsylvania Wilds. The idea behind the geotrail is to put geocachers on some of the best sites the Pennsylvania Wilds has to offer on state lands (State Parks, State Forests, and State Game Lands) and significant conservation locations.
Each geocache on this trail has a collectible “Legacy of Conservation” card, featuring one of Pennsylvania’s notable environmental heroes/heroines. Collect all 30 cards, and the geocacher will be eligible to receive the coveted “DCNR – Legacy of Conservation” coin at one of three validation locations—Parker Dam State Park, Lyman Run State Park, or Chapman State Park.
The trail has been popular with the geocaching community and the travel bugs (one card from each cache was turned into a travel bug) have been on the move, Beck in particular, whose goal was to visit geocaches along the Susquehanna River. He did that and then some:
Tracking History (7938.4mi):
-- 10/9/10 Knapaholic “Grabbed this a week or so ago. Gonna take it out on the road to spread the word about this great new trail!”
-- 10/10/10 Event cache – 10 10 10 – near Pittsburgh – many “discovered” the travel bug at this event.
-- 11/14/10 “We found him traveling on Rt 30 in Pittsburgh. He's been teaching us a bit about migrating fish and the river ecosystem. We'll try to leave him at a nice cache location near some water.”
-- 1/3/11 Another event cache PAGA Social # 29: Christmas in Hawaii Jumped into a few caches, and then was picked up.
-- 3/12/11 BananaWhammers dropped it in: Education Cache near Grove City, PA - A cache devoted to combining geocaching and education.
Teachers, there are great benefits to introducing geocaching to your students. By teaching them about this worthwhile sport, you are giving them an activity that can be shared with friends and family regardless of their age. By clicking on the link, "View in Google Earth" for a tracking bug, you can teach geography.
Giving your students the gift of geocaching is one that will be with them long after they leave your classroom. If you have any suggestions for how geocaching can be incorporated in education, please leave them with your post. Have a nice day and keep caching!
-- 3/20/11 jbc finders: “grabbed this on my way through from Erie. Will drop it off on my way to Virginia.” Redrock Wilderness Overlook cache Virginia.
-- 4/9/11 JimBob ‘n QB picked it up “The TB is now in my possession, and if RedBat doesn't mind, I'll hold on to it until I get to the Susquehanna in about a month or so. I know of some great caches on and in the river.”
-- 4/10/11 to 5/7/11 – dipped in several caches in Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Arizona, Virginia, and then back into Pennsylvania to caches along the Susquehanna River.
-- 5/7/11 JimBob ‘n QB: “Well, I got him to the Susquehanna River; however, the cache is too small to put him in. I'll drop him off a little down river at a cache that is big enough, yet a little inland.”
-- 5/7/11 Catch-n-Release cache – along the Susquehanna River between York and Lancaster. Cache is close to a fly-fishing catch and release only stream. The cache is a catch and release for trackables.
-- 6/23/11 TigglePig: “ Passed to us by a friend visiting family in the US. Now in the UK and will be placed in a cache over the next week :-)”
-- 7/10/11 FalMouth SAR grabbed it: Found in a cache in Charlestown, Cornwall, UK.
The TB has now visited the Peg Leg Pascoe and Master Yoda caches in South West England, and now (7/26/11) resides (temporarily) in the ELECTRIC BRIDGE cache in the same general area.
I wonder where Basse A. Beck will visit next, and who will hear his message of stewardship. If you are a geocacher, perhaps you will discover him, or one of the other Legacy of Conservation travel bugs, in the next geocache you bag. Keep your eyes open.
(Written By: Eric Rensel, a DCNR natural resource specialist, and reprinted from DCNR's Resource online newsletter.)
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8/8/2011 |
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