July 10, 2009
The Gold Country GeoTourism Program – 2009 Gold Rush Event
On July 4 Gold Country hosted their first Gold Rush Event with dignitary speeches, a ceremonial cake cutting and a shotgun start to their GeoTourism treasure hunt.
It was a hot beautiful day for the event with more that 200 people signing up to partake in the days events. The participants were from all over BC. , Victoria, Kelowna, Nelson, Vernon, 100 Mile House, Prince George, Williams Lake, Kamloops, Sechelt, Princeton, with a large group from Penticton and national participants from Calgary and international participants from the Netherlands and Chicago.
GeoTourism is the modern treasure hunt with a twist; combining the outdoor adventure and sport activity of GeoCaching, letterboxing and orienteering, with an exploration aspect of historical education. To join in this activity you only need a GPS unit, a small treasure and a sense of adventure. Unearth one of the 72 sites being released throughout the region, and the race is on to be the ‘first-to-find.’ Each box will contain a special one-of-a-kind collectable GeoCoin, a reward for the first person to find each cache. What a great way to spend a Gold Country summer day.
The rules of the game are simple. Once you have located a cache, you may take a memento – just leave your own item in return. Then jot a message in the log book and head to the next site. Gather to find several caches in one day for great family fun.
CEO Luby Pow commended the Gold Country for developing and implementing this program as it takes a tremendous amount of effort to make a project such as this successful.
To learn more about the GeoTourism program visit www.goldtrail.com , to engage in this free recreational activity log onto www.goldcountry.bc.ca/vg and for other Gold Country initiatives please visit www.exploregoldcountry.com .
Dignitaries cut cake for launch (left to right) Randy McLean, SIBAC director & Mayor of Princeton; Randy Murray, Gold Country director & TNRD Area M director; Susan Roline, Gold Country director & Mayor of Merritt; Luby Pow, CEO SIDIT.
