orienteering, geocaching, hashing

I'm contacting you because GC.com gave me your name with a list of geocachers that also run. I'm writing an article for trail running and would love to ask you a few questions, possibly even include one of your favorite geocaching trail runs.

I noticed that you wrote about running trails and that you are involved with a club in PA. Please let me know if you can help and how to contact you via email.

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yes, I run with the Pittsburgh hash house harriers, kind of a mistery run where runners follow marks on the ground made with white baking flour by someone else previously (usually earlier in the day, or one day before...). the purpose of the HHH run is to find a case of beer, usually stashed in a hidden area in the woods, and then socialize as all runners reach it, collect, and it so becomes a nice place and time to chat with the "usual suspects" that join this weekly event. the Pittsburgh HHH website is www.pgh-h3.com. Many of the "beer stop" locations that I have aquainted myself by running with them, I have used the same locations for geocache placement.
another activity I do is "Orienteering", a land navigation sport using map and compass that is popular in scandinavian countries. Similar to geocaching, participants use traditional tools (and not a GPS) such as map and compass to locate flags in the woods.
I have merged all three activities, geocaching, hash house harriers, and orienteering, in creating my own event, called "Hash-O", in a park near where I live, Frick Park.
In that event, I had 13 locations in the park that were marked with red and white ribbons (the colors of Orienteering, BTW). Location 8 and 13 were also "beer stops", meaning there was a cache of cold beer and snacks at those locations. Each participant (a runner) was given a topographic map with marked on it the current (starting) position, marked as a triangle, and two target (destination) positions, each marked as a circle. Unknown to the participant is that of the two target positions, only one is valid ("True"). The invalid one ("False") will have the ribbons (usually tied to a tree branch) marked with a "F" on it. The valid one ("True") will have a topographic map on the ground below the ribbon and a pen, and the finders would have to copy on their personal map the next two target positions (two circles) that are drawn on the map found on the ground. They don't take the map found on the ground - they leave that to the next participant that follows [a variation would have been to have 50 or so maps at each location in all of the 13 locations, but with the cost of color printing, it was going to be too expensive, so I resorted with the method of having each runner use the pen or marker to mark on their PERSONAL map the next two target locations learned from viewing the GROUND map. Each map found on the ground also had glued on it the GPS coordinates of the two target positions. So, while most of the participants followed traditional Orienteering sport techniques of map & compass to locate the next two target locations, some instead used their portable GPS devices to key-in the coordinates of the next two locations, and used the GPS to locate them. From a geocaching perspective, this was very much like a "Multi-Stage" cache, with cold beer caches at stage 8 and 13.
the maps found on the ground at each stage, and the participant map given out at start time are viewable at
http://pgh-hash.blogspot.com/2007/07/orienteering-hash.html
The original instructions, as explained to the runners of the Hash House Harriers running club are at
http://pgh-hash.blogspot.com/2007/07/orienteering-hash-instructions.html.

reporter:
Thanks for all the info. Your events look crazy and fun. I'm hoping you can answer some questions for my article. I don't know that I can include the beer events, but maybe you run and cache quite a bit in addition to those things. Check out the questions below and see if it's a fit. Please feel free to elaborate anywhere...or be brief if you don't have much time. I look forward to your input.
Bio Stuff
-Name, address, phone (so my editor knows you're a real person). Also your gc.com user nickname?

nickname: "Sherpes"

History of Trail Running
-First started and why?

Started trail running because is never boring. At the turn of every bend, there is new scenery, the terrain varies, one must constantly adjust and improvvise. Started running on trails regularly in Colorado Springs in 1998.

-Your particular thing...i.e. races, solitude, fitness?

Fitness, mostly. Enjoy going with other people, when I can find someone that has the free time and common interests.

-Did you use a GPS for running...tracking distance/speed, keeping pace, making bread crumb trail...before you started geocaching?

No, in the past I just looked at topographics maps. Now I use Gmap Pedometer online.

-Are you connected with a local trail running club?

yes, the Pittsburgh Hash House Harriers

History of Geocaching
-First started and why and why you love it?

It was by accident. I was running the trail running club Pittsburgh Hash House Harriers on a trail set by the hare Death Marchall. Then, while walking along a creek in the woods, saw some debris and trash, and after inspection, realized it was a geocache that had been vandalized and thrown on the ground. In trying to identifying its owner, I got aquainted with the activity of geocaching, and since then, got hooked. That cache is " Dead Man's Tower Cache " (GCJ9NA)

-First cache, any interesting stats, etc.?

Dead Man's Tower Cache (GCJ9NA), near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

-Are you connected with a local geocaching club?

There is a unmanaged club of sorts where I live to which the local geocaching community "feels they belong to", sort of. It is called Three Rivers Geocaching Organization, or TRiGO in short.

History of Running while Caching
-Why did you connected the two, which came first...running or caching?

Running came first, because geocaching is relatively a new thing in general. Then, while vising a large park with a friend for a run, we decided we were both going to be hunting the three geocaches that were in the park and started the run together. We each had our own GPS, and it was funny as we got closer and closer to a cache on how each of us independently veered off slightly from each other, almost as a reflection of stubborn individuality.

-Are you avid, addicted, etc? How often run/cache?

No. Not addicted. Now, I run in my local park for my regular jog, follow a trail in the woods, and as I recognize the locations, I remember of a geocache placed there (geocache that I've previously found already), and I stop and check its existence. These caches are more like reference points in my run.

-Why do you love doing both together?

It's like a scavenger hunt. Walking is boring. Running is quick and fast.

Relevance to Trail Running(the big question the readers want to know)
-Why should a trail runner geocache? Feel free to comment on any...or add your own. Motivation? New places? Workout (stop-go)? Fun? Social?

It is more to motivate a run. Running and simply running can be boring. Running with a purpose is more fun. The sport of Orienteering, popular in Scandinavian countries and Eastern Europe, merges running with a scavenger hunt-like activity, where participants must locate flags hidden in the woods in the least amount of time. Similarly, a fit geocacher can use a GPS to locate multiple geocaches in the woods, and do that while running. Depending on the terrain and trails encountered, the direct route may not be necessarily the quickest way, and a runner may circle the area where the cache is reportedly located, if that area has a thick underbrush, before finding the best approach to get to the cache. Doing it in pairs or other people is more fun. Your partner may be approaching the cache from a slightly different side, and yelling to each other so that acoustically we know of each other's current location makes the scavenger hunt more fun.
Doesn't have to be running either, but could be while biking. On a 20-mile bicycle trip along the Allegheny Passage "rails-to-trails" bicycle trail on the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, we stopped multiple times looking for a geocaches placed right along the path. It kind of breaks the monotony a bit, and makes the day more interesting.

Great Trail Run
-I'm looking for a total of 5 great trail runs to cache on around the country. If there's one you think should be highlighted in your area, send me the trail name, location (include park name or national forest, etc.), distance, details, geocache(s), and any race, club, guidebook, website that might be connected to it.
Advice
-Any advice for a trail runner on how to get started in geocaching?

running for geocaches is very similar to Orienteering in the mental aspect. I would contact a local Orienteering club and participate in their local meets.

-I'm particularly curious about how you carry your GPS? Do you carry other things with you when run/caching?

Nothing fancy: I hold it in my hand.

-How do you make it a good run/cache experience? Do you pick a new run and find out if a cache exists nearby...or do you find a new cache you want to visit and just run?

actually, a bit of both. Sometimes I find out of a park nearby and want to go for a run, and then later investigate if the park has any geocaches as well. Other times, I look for any geocaches in the area, and then later discover when reading the topographic map of the area, that the area is well suited for a good run.

-Any advice on equipment? Best GPS for run/caching? Small/light?

the best equipment is your shoes. They are the primary contact material between your body and the ground. The other best advice is, keep alert and stay away from danger. Tripping on a log and falling face-down and getting injured while being alone in the woods is a recipe for a very dangerous situation.

Popularity of Run/Cache
-How popular do you think trail running combined with geocaching is?

Not popular. Geocaching is very much an activity of either people going solo walking in the woods, or by families with children.

-Do you know of other people that do it?

Two people, John Hartman, with whom we also share the activity of Orienteering, and "Nellsnake", a fit trail runner who has been very active in geocaching.

-Any clubs/groups/events involving running while caching?
Memory/story
-I'm hoping you might have time to do a quick paragraph on a recent run-cache memory. Where you went/trail, when, who with, why, what you left and what you found, cache name, something particular to this cache/area/trail...like that.

Once a year, in mid-June, about four hundred people walk/run in a single day the entire length of a 34-mile trail called the Rachel Carson Trail. The trail is located in Allegheny county, north of the city of Pittsburgh. To break a bit the monotony of walking the trail, my hiking/running partner and I looked for three geocaches along the way that were located in the proximity of the trail. It was nice to find the hidden cache, read its log, and share a moment with another human being and its traces left behind by them for us to share, right there in the woods, next to a babbling creek under the thick covers of an evergreen.