Welcome to the Portland Freedom Trail.
What is a Wherigo Geocache?
Wherigo is a new way of utilizing GPS technology to play games,
take tours, and yes geocache. Visit www.Wherigo.com to learn more about
this new software.
Do I need special equipment? (Help is available. See
below)
Yes! To find this cache the proper way and to truly experience
the hunt the way it was meant to be experienced, you will need four
things:
- A printout of the Portland Freedom Trail Self-Guided Walking
Tour. Download
- The Wherigo Player
- The "Portland Freedom Trail Part A" Wherigo Cartridge Download
- The "Portland Freedom Trail Part B" Wherigo Cartridge Download
You can download and print the Portland Freedom Trail Guide at
www.PortlandFreedomTrail.org
The Wherigo Player comes pre installed on the Garmin Colorado
series GPSr. A version of the player is available for download for
use by GPS enabled Pocket PC devices. See the Wherigo web site for
the download.
Once you have the Player ready to go, you will need to download
both cartridges for this cache. Click "Download Cartridge" next to
each cartridge to get them.
The Setting:
This Wherigo Geocache takes place in downtown Portland Maine. It
follows the Portland Freedom Trail Self-Guided Walking Tour. During
the tour you'll visit 13 locations. Overall, the walk is
approximately 2.5 miles. Each cartridge lists 1-2 hours but that's
the total for both cartridges - it should take somewhere between 1
and 1.5 hours.
The posted coordinates are for the beginning location. Parking
is available in the Old Port and in the Casco Bay Ferry terminal
parking garage. Based on initial experiences with the Colorado,
please start the cartridge in front of the Casco Bay Ferry Garage
(or at least well away from the marker). After you've started, then
walk into the first zone for Franklin Street Wharf
The Experience:
This cache follows the Portland Freedom Trail. It's designed to
be a walking tour but it can be accomplished by car assuming you
can find parking at each of the markers. It will be easy to find
parking at some of the markers and impossible at others and you'll
need to make at least a short walk.
The Wherigo experience is somewhat more complicated than others.
Given limitations in the player, the complete tour had to be broken
into two parts. At the end of Part A you'll receive a code for Part
B. Make sure to save your cartridge, remember the code, and begin
Part B. You need to enter the code for Part A before the first
location is revealed.
At each location you need to find a marker for the Portland
Freedom Trail. Using the marker as a reference point you need to
answer a question about what you see. I've tried to make the
answers straightforward and easy but difficult to guess without
visiting the marker. Once you've visited all the locations you'll
see an item for "Correct Answers?" You'll use this to make sure
your answers are correct and will reward you with the code for part
B or the coordinates of the final location.
The final cache location is somewhat close to the first location
so parking nearby to that is a good idea. If you're caching off one
of the cruise ships visiting Portland Harbor, you'll find the tour
very convenient; it will take you near to several caches in the
downtown area.
Is logging my result any different for this cache?
Logging your results here on geocaching.com is no different than
any other cache; so no changes there.
Unlocking the cartridge on Whereigo.com is not required, but it
would be greatly appreciated. After you've completed the cartridge
you should see a "Portland Freedom Trail Part A.gws" on your device
and another for Part B. You can upload these files to Wherigo.com
and it will "Unlock" it, giving you full credit for completing the
cartridge. It will also help track the number of completions for
this cartridge. Again not required, but I would really appreciate
it if you did.
Don't have the hardware, but still want to experience
this?
In the interest of promoting this new cache type I will try to
make myself (and my Colorado 400t) as available as possible to
anyone or any group that would like to experience what this is
like. Contact me through my profile and we can try to setup a
meeting time and we can run through this thing together and you can
get a cool new found icon in your profile.
Gob-ler is also willing to help with his Colorado 400t.
Contact him through his profile to set up a meeting time and
get that cool new icon.
Feedback is a great thing!
Because this is so new I would greatly appreciate any feedback
you can offer (good or bad). Your feedback will help determine
whether I take on publishing more of these caches.
