New ‘Lord of Rings’ inspired geocaching trail to open in Ohio
The trail is in Coshocton County and was designed by Ohio University students.
A new geocaching trail based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” series is opening this weekend in Coshocton County, about a 2.5-hour drive from Dayton.
The Coshocton Ring Trail will go live at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, via the geocaching.com website and app.
Mindy Brems, the executive director of the Coshocton Visitors Bureau, said there will be 45 caches throughout the county for adventure seekers to search for.
“It’s a really great family-fun activity because kids can participate and adults can help them learn really important navigational skills,” Brem said.
If you’re not familiar with geocaching, it’s an activity where people use satellite technology to search for hidden boxes called “caches” at specific locations marked by coordinates. Once you find a cache, you record your name on the sheet in the box and put it back, Brem explained.
Brem said you do not follow a specific trail.
“For us, we call it a geotrail because that gives you a goal,” Brem said. “At the end of this geotrail, when you have met the requirements, you earn a coin.”
Brem said you must find a certain number of caches in each “ring” (15 total) and a “cache to rule them all” to receive an exclusive coin from the Coshocton Visitors Bureau.
“They’re everywhere,” Brem said. “We’re not only trying to give people things to do while they’re in Coshocton County, but also highlight some of the really great things we have here for people to see and do.”
Brem said visitors may end up in the Historic Roscoe Village, a restored 1830s Ohio and Erie Canal Town, or the Clary Gardens, a botanical garden that is free and open to the public year-round.
The Coshocton Ring Trail was designed by students at Ohio University’s School of Business. Brem said Lenie Holbrook had students in his senior business class come up with proposals for the next geocaching trail. The county’s previous trail was “Game of Thrones”-themed.
Since 2014, the county has had 11,000 people record cache findings, Brem said.
Passports for the trail will be available at the Coshocton Visitors Bureau or on their website. Once completed, passports can be redeemed for tokens from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. any day of the week at the Coshocton Visitors Bureau or after hours at the Coshocton Village Inn and Suites.
For more information, visit the Coshocton Visitors Bureau at www.visitcoshocton.com.