Orienteering At Howard Collier
Howard Collier State Nature Preserve is located on the Sandusky State Scenic River. The heavily wooded preserve is 115 acres and contains over 1.5 miles of trails with a wide variety of trees and wild flowers.
The cache is NOT located inside the preserve. It is ILLEGAL to place a geocaching container within a State Nature Preserve in Ohio. You must use orienteering skills to locate the cache. Orienteering is a sport that began in Sweden in the late 19th century and requires the use of a map and compass to locate a series of control points. Participants are given a topographical map and a control description sheet at the beginning of the event. After a short time of map study, participants must find all of the control points, in order, in the shortest amount of time possible.
Finding The Cache
The cache is NOT located at the posted coordinates. The cache can only be reached by using the control description sheet that follows one of the designated trails in the park. Park your vehicle at the Parking Waypoint and then follow the directions on the control description sheet. The Parking Waypoint is the starting spot for the control description sheet. Stay on the designated trail at all times. It will be impossible to find GZ if you leave the trail. The terrain can be tricky at times. The trail contains numerous dirt paths and hundreds of feet of stairs and bridges. Use caution when conditions are wet and slippery, especially if you are trying to achieve a fast time. The entire round trip from the Parking Waypoint to the cache and back is over 1.5 miles. The cache is located at the end of trail just outside of the nature preserve.
Howard Collier State Nature Preserve Topographical Map
Control Description Sheet
While not to be considered an additional logging requirement, in the true spirit of orienteering, please post in your log the number of minutes it took you to complete the course and find the cache if possible.
Descriptions for control point symbols and general information on orienteering can be found at https://orienteering.sport/iof/rules/control-descriptions/.
This cache has been placed with permission from the Northwest District Preserve Manager. Cache during daylight hours only.
For those of you who need a gentle nudge in finding the cache, see the HINT for directions on finding GZ using a GPS. Note: you will still need to find all of the control points on the trail even if you use the hint. Suggestions: 1. print a physical copy of the map and control description sheet, 2. use an orienteering compass to keep your map facing north, 3. the red lines from control point to control point are “as the crow flies” and NOT the designated trail, and 4. bring paper and pencil to take some notes.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.