Arkansas Man Finds Addiction

An article in The Daily Citizen tells the story of Pat Vaughn who discovered geocaching in 2003. He has been addicted ever since. The article, titled Gold at the End of the E-Rainbow, discusses how Vaughn discovered the hobby and his personal quest to complete the Arkansas State ParkCache Challenge.

To complete the challenge Vaughn visited all 52 state parks in Arkansas and battled the elements to complete his goal. "The difficulty of actually finding each cache was not that hard, but some of the terrain was really tough,” Vaughn said. “Daisy State Park, southwest of Hot Springs, involved walking almost a mile and a half in 100-degree weather and several elevation changes. It was the most difficult one for me. But once you got in there, there was a fantastic view, well worth the effort of getting in there.” Vaughn said he drove over 1,000 miles in his quest, and that his favorite state parks were Mount Magazine, Lake Ouachita, Devil's Den and Withrow Springs

The response to the Arkansas State Parks' ParkCache Challenge has far exceeded expectations, according to Joe Jacobs, manager of marketing and revenue for the Arkansas State Parks.

“The challenge went live on July 14 and in four weeks we have had 550 finds, which is an average of more than 10 per park,” Jacobs said. “We have had four ‘finishers' who found all the clues in the 52 ParkCaches and were able to locate the 53rd and final cache.”

For information on geocaching in an Arkansas State Park and the ParkCache Challenge, go to ArkansasStateParks.com/things-to-do/geocaching/. For information on the Arkansas Geocachers Association visit ArkGeocaching.org.