COWARD — A small group of geocache enthusiasts decided to give back in a large way and participate in a state-wide county and state park cleanup initiative.
Geocaching is a relatively new but growing hobby that involves using global positioning systems to locate small treasures hidden in public areas such as county parks, said Columbia resident Greg McDaniel, a member of the Pee Dee Cachers group.
According to http://www.geocaching.com, a geocacher leaves a treasure in a hidden place, pinpoints the exact hiding place with GPS, and then shares the information with the world online.
McDaniel said he and other cachers frequent state and county parks to do their caching and decided it was time to reciprocate.
That’s the reason why the group participated in the annual beach and river sweep at Lynches River County Park on Saturday.
“All of this is on loan to us. We have to take care of this for the future,” he said. “If we abuse it and not take care of it, it won’t be here forever, and it should be.”
The group spent about two hours picking up litter and had some interesting finds, said Alaina Williams, cleanup volunteer and geocacher.
“We mostly found cigarette butts, but we found two folding chairs and a tent on the river,” Williams said.
The group also was able to mix a little “cache” with their trash Saturday.
While picking up litter, the group members also had their global positioning systems on hand to find caches, McDaniel said.
Several caches have been placed in Lynches River Park, and most are stationed within one-tenth of a mile of each other, he said.
Geocaches can be anything from an old war ammunition box to a film holder containing log book where cachers have signed their names, McDaniel said.
The cachers were the only people who came out and helped with the cleanup effort which was open to the public, said Terasa M. Young, Lynches River Environment Discovery Center supervisor.
“We had a very small turnout,” Young said. “I wouldn’t say (litter) is a huge problem in the park, but we also have help that pick up on a daily basis.”
Other places in the state such as the Myrtle Beach State Park have huge turnouts for its beach sweep event, Young said.
The state cleanup program is in its 20th year, while this is only the second year for of the Lynches River Sweep, so that might be a reason for the low turnout, she said.
Hopefully, word will spread about the Lynches River Sweep, and there will be more participation in the future, Young said.
“People just feel like we should take pride in what nature has given us and be good stewards of the earth,” Young said.
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