Jennifer Kohlhepp, Managing Editor
Get the coordinates and find the cache.
The township’s Environmental Commission has announced that the first official geocache has been placed in Cranbury. Geocaching is the recreational activity of hunting for and finding a hidden object by means of GPS coordinates.
Residents who would like the coordinates of the Cranbury cache can attend Cranbury Day on Saturday, Sept. 12, when Environmental Commission members will be handing them out.
“I sent my best man out there today and he used the pdf sent, plugged the coordinates in Google Maps and he got it,” Environmental Commission Chairwoman Barbara Rogers said during the commission’s Monday night meeting.
“We’ll put a pdf on the (township’s) website so people know it’s out there and have the coordinates,” Commissioner Paul Mullen, who placed the cache in the Reinhardt Forest Preserve, said.
Ms. Rogers said the commission is working with Cranbury School eighth-graders to eventually place caches in all of Cranbury’s open spaces.
Mr. Mullen said the commission is also working with the Cranbury Public Library to spread the word about geocaching in town as the library has a geocaching workshop scheduled in the fall.
The commission also hopes to emphasize a “Cache In, Trash Out” theme for geocaching in town.
“As long as you’re going in, make it an environmental issue and go in with trash bags and pick up garbage along the way,” Mr. Mullen said.
The commission is also going to release a master map of all of the walking trails on Cranbury Day. Mr. Mullen created a township map that highlights all of the current and proposed trails in the township preserves. A large color version will be displayed at the commission’s booth.
That day commission members will also have a QR code available that residents can scan with a QR reader app on their smartphones that will direct them to the parks chart on the township’s website.
“This is stuff the Environmental Commission has been working on for the past couple of years,” Ms. Rogers said.
The Environmental Commission is also currently working with Boy Scout Hunter Pormilli who will create a new trail at the Hagerty Preserve in the spring. The Parks Commission would like the Fisher property trail connected to Hunter’s proposed trail, the proposed trail bisected in the middle so people could walk half of the trail instead of the full length and to connect the Pin Oak trail that comes out at Farmstead Way with a bridge that is currently in place in that area.
Mr. Mullen said he checked with the tax assessor to make sure the proposed trail does not traverse private property. He also said placing a trail head marker at the Farmstead Way entrance is something the commission should consider.
