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New coordinates posted on May 15,
2005!!!
The "Dutch Treat, een Nederlandse
traktatie in Alaska" cache is owned and stocked by Johny Cache from
the Netherlands. It was hidden and will be maintained by the
Ladybug Kids of Alaska. The Alaskan sister cache owned by the
Ladybug Kids is "The Golden Heart of Alaska"
(GCNQY0)hidden
in the Netherlands by Johny Cache.
Johny Cache lives
inDordrecht, a
waterfront city that was founded in 1220. Dordrecht is a city
of history, water, and culture, much of which is memorialized by
over 1000 monuments. For more information about Dordrecht,
click here. |
The International Geocache Exchange. What is it?
The "Dutch Treat, Een
Nederlandse Traktatie In Alaska" cache is part of an
international geocache exchange project.
An international geocache exchange involves the exchange of a new,
fully prepared geocache with a geocacher from a different country.
The caches are filled with items unique to each cacher's individual
locality. Once an exchange has occurred, each geocacher would then
have the other person's geocache to hide as their own, as per
current gc.com guidelines. Both cachers' names will be listed in
the "hidden by" section.
The idea to exchange geocaches internationally was popularized in
this
thread in the geocaching.com forum. You might
also like to see the Nordic
thread. One of the first cachers involved in a
geocache exchange wrote an article on the topic in Today's
Cacher. This article can be found here. |
  
Like the "The Golden Heart of
Alaska" cache, the "Dutch Treat" cache is hidden in a place of
quiet refuge where a person can get away from the hustle and bustle
of day to day life and enjoy a natural setting. "Dutch Treat"
is hidden with permission in the 1800 acre Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl
Refuge which is under the jurisdiction of the Alaska
Department of Fish and Game - Division of Wildlife
Conservation.
Trail maps are available at the
trailhead adjacent to the dairy barn which was admitted to the
National Register of Historic Places in 1977. You may also
want a map of the mushing trails maintained by the
Alaska Dog
Mushers' Association to help you access the cache
location. If you plan to mush or skijor to the cache, please
park in the west parking lot at N64° 51.839', W147° 44.392'.
If you are going to ski or walk to the cache, you may park in the
east parking lot at N64° 51.831', W147° 44.245'. People
riding snowmobiles may access the refuge from several different
locations.
Summer access notes:
Waterproof boots or sandals are recommended for the direct route as
there are several very wet and swampy areas to cross.
Alternatively, you may build a route with the following waypoints
and keep your feet pretty dry:
1. Go to Boreal Trail stop #12. Cross the dip at N64° 52.189',
W147° 43.797'.
2. Pick your way through the forest to N64° 52.205', W147°
43.775'.
3. Turn left on the mushing trail and follow it toward N64°
52.271', W147° 43.730' skirting the wet spots along the way.
4. Cross through the forest to N64° 52.280', W147° 43.654' and you
are home free to the cache!
Be aware that the Creamer's Field
trails and the mushing trails are multi-use trails used by skiers,
skijorers, mushers, runners, snowshoers,
hikers, mountain bikers, and people on snowmobiles. Be aware
of your surroundings and travel in the designated direction when
possible. If you are on foot or skis and you are approached
by a dog team, step off to the side of the trail and stand quietly
to let the team go by. A schedule of dog races is posted at
both Creamer's Field parking locations and is usually listed in the
Fairbanks Daily News Miner "Sports Slate" and you are asked not to
access the mushing trails during 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on race
days. Dogs are welcome on the Refuge, but they must be
leashed in compliance with the Fairbanks North Star Borough
regulations. DO NOT let your dog(s) run loose during any
season because they can be a hazard to dog teams in the winter,
migratory birds in the summer and moose during all
seasons.
For more information about the
refuge and activities that occur at the Refuge, visit the
Friends of Creamer's Field
website.
So come out in winter or summer and
enjoy one of the special treasures of Interior Alaska, and you'll
be rewarded with a cache filled with special trade items that came
all the way from the Netherlands!
Postcards & Camera
Inside the cache you'll find a stack of Alaskan postcards added to
the contents by the Ladybug Kids. They are addressed to Michael de
Jong, also known as "Johny Cache." Sufficient postage
is already affixed. Each geocacher is asked to take one postcard
and mail it to the Netherlands with a personal message for Johny
Cache. He would love to hear from fellow geocachers from Alaska.
Send him your greetings and let him know what you think of his
cache.
The cache also contains a single-use
camera to capture cachers' images. Please take your photo and
leave the camera in the cache for the next finder. The film
will later be developed and the images will be scanned and added to
this cache page. |
Message
from Johny Cache
 Greetings from
the Netherlands! Who could ever think that someday I'd
actually have my own cache hidden in "The Great
Land!?!"
Ever since I was a kid, Alaska
has fascinated me, and since I first learned about the
international geocache exchange, an Alaskan-Dutch exchange had been
on my mind.
So, in December 2004 I
contacted fellow geoachers Ladybug Kids of Fairbanks, Alaska. They
eagerly agreed to participate in a geocache exchange, and soon the
ball started rolling. E-mail was sent back and forth, ideas
were exchanged, plans began to take shape, and now, just two months
later, the first Alaskan-Dutch geocache exchange is a fact! Who
knows, maybe someday my wish to travel to Alaska will become
reality, but for now having my own cache there is a great
substitute!
The first 30 or so visitors of
the Dutch Treat cache will be able to choose from a wide variety of
Dutch trinkets, including Heineken merchandise, little wooden
shoes, Dutch soccer club merchandise, patches, pins, refrigerator
magnets, and lots more. In the future more Dutch trade items
will appear in the cache, as the Ladybugs and I are planning on an
ongoing exchange of trade items.
I hope you'll like the cache
and its contents, and I hope it will add an extra dimension to your
geocaching experience. Maybe it will even inspire you to get
involved in an international geocache exchange yourself. I'm
looking forward to reading your log entries on this
page.
And last but not least, a big
thanks to the Ladybug Kids for making this cache possible, and for
the very nice cooperation in this exchange project!
Before this project we didn't know each
other at all, but it's with much pleasure that I now can say that
through this geocache exchange I've made some new friends, and
learned about life and geocaching in Alaska. And this is
probably what the international geocache exchange idea is all
about!
Best regards and happy
caching,
JC
For getting a taste of what
caching is like in the Netherlands and some other European
countries, take a look at my website and the photos on it at
http://home.tiscali.nl/madejong/geocaching.htm | |