NasheCache

Consider coming at this from another perspective. It's not just about you and your right to be at a public playground. Kindly consider how your presence is making others feel. It is unusual for a man to be at a playground without a child. So when we moms see one "lurking" around, it makes us anxious for the safety of our children. Yes, you have a right to be there. Yes, it is a shame that your presence makes some suspicious. I'm really sorry about that. I am. I have a father, a husband and three sons who all go Geocaching, so I am not anti-man by any means. But rather than wrapping yourself in the flag and asserting your rights, it might be more prudent to do what some of these gentlemen are doing... acknowledging that it's a fallen world in which we live and deciding not to worry mothers and put themselves in suspicion. Thanks, guys.

Jews?! Are you Jewish? I take offense to the way you phrased the colloquialism. I don't understand. I'm Catholic and if someone said "Catholics do this or that", I wouldn't be offended. Catholics is the plural form for those who are Catholic. Jews is the plural form for those who are Jewish. Why take offense?

Hamgran, that must have been an awkward situation in which to be. I agree with you that caches should not involve more recent deaths, if the family is not aware of/supportive of the idea. My prayers are with that mother. Did she seem open to the idea of having people visit her daughter's grave, if they did not know her? Over the weekend we searched out a cemetery cache. It was a beautiful tribute to military veterans. While there, I noticed a large, highly decorated grave site. I had to go look and was saddened to see that it was for a teenager who died a few years ago. There was so much love poured out into his memorial. There were tons of souveniers obviously placed there by his friends and family... even a pair of athletic shoes and a hockey stick. As I was walking away a car pulled up and two teenage girls got out. Sure enough, they went to the grave of this young man. I approached them gently and told them how sorry I was for their loss... that I had been looking for something else when I saw their friend's grave and how saddened I was. They seemed glad to be able to tell me about their friend and to see that someone else mourned his loss. I tried to say goodbye and tell them that I would be keeping the family in my prayers, but I couldn't get the words out. I was too choked up. It is not morbid to visit the dead. It is not disrespectul to enjoy life while in a graveyard. When I'm gone, nothing would make me happier than to have folks come picnic, play and pray near my grave site. I would tell them, "Think of me, enjoy your life. I sure did.".

Have fun at the beach! We try to visit Florida whenever we can... especially in the winter. We've done some caching while in Florida. It's a great activity to add to a trip. We're already planning to go to Ft. Myers Beach next February and I'm happy to see so many cache opportunities.

I totally agree with you. That's terrible that some were still alive and they dumped them on the ground and not in a lake or river. I also can understand why you were concerned when the men were acting suspicious. It does sound like they felt they were up to no good. I'm interested in learning more about whether they were lazy jerks or criminals. Oh, yes, that would be terribly rude of me. Downright unethical. In fact, I would say that deliberately wasting food rises to the level of sin. But is it illegal? Speaking just in terms of maintaining a healthy fish population, what difference does it make if someone takes some fish legally and then eats them, stuffs and mounts them, wears them around their neck as a necklace or dumps them in the woods? I would agree that some of those options are more ethical than others. But if you acquired them legally, then whatever you do with them has no bearing on the fish population. Thank you for discussing this with me. If I'm going to report someone to the authorities, I want to be sure that they committed a crime. I don't know enough about fish and game laws to be sure. So I appreciate learning more about this. Good job not being seen! You didn't know what they were dumping but you kept your wits about you and got good photos. I'm really glad that they weren't worse criminals hiding human parts and that you weren't in serious danger. Be careful out there, cachers!

Thanks for the information. I truly am interested in learning about this and I defer to those with wildlife expertise. I'm still a bit confused, though. Good point. Of course I don't want there to be outbreaks of people dumping animal carcasses up and down the highways and back roads. At least in this one instance it is organic material that will quickly decompose. Won't the birds eat them up? It's not like they were dumping old tires or batteries. Okay, but what does it matter in terms of fish population if these men took the fish and consumed them or took them and disposed of them? The fish are still out of the lake either way. Well, we don't know their intentions for sure. Even the Wildlife Officer couldn't speculate as to why they did what they did. Like Watchdog said, maybe they intended to consume the fish. Is it possible that they paid their fees by getting a license... took the allowable number of fish... intended to go home and fry them up for their families... but something went wrong, the fish died and so they dumped them? I'm not saying that they made the best choice about how to dispose of the fish but it could have been worse, yes? What if they put them in a plastic garbage bag and tossed them in a dumpster, unable to decompose for years and years? When I read that someone saw a crime while caching, I was afraid it was a mugging or a shoplifting. Then when I saw six fishies on the ground, I was relieved but baffled. This is a crime worth contacting authorities and being willing to testify? But then someone refered to it as poaching, so maybe there is a problem with people intentionally fishing and then tossing them aside. I certainly don't mean to criticize you for reporting it... I just don't understand it. These forums are a great resource for learning more about a wide variety of topics. I appreciate the education.

Please help an ignorant city-slicker. Why is it a crime to dump fish on the side of the road?

That's not always feasible when you're backlogging a few hundred finds! I understand what you mean but backlogging a few hundred finds is not something that I understand doing. Just start fresh, ya know? You made those first few hundred finds as part of a team and now you're moving forward as your own entity. But that's just my approach... I know that others prefer to do it differently. I don't like that approach, either.

We have five children and we log all finds under one account. We're a family, not individual cachers... at least, not at this point. I've read many logs where a particular older child has obviously just started his own account and is going through his family's previous finds and logging them for himself. It's somewhat annoying to read "I'm logging this because I have my own account now" over and over on the various logs. IMO, if you are going to claim a previous group find as one of your own, at least use your own words to describe what it was like to make that find.

True enough. More than a few of us had trouble using our GPS when we first got it. "Mark and Edit" is a concept that isn't obvious. Especially when I don't want to mark where I am, I want to GO somewhere else. But they don't have a GOTO button. Thank you! It's not just me... it's that the steps are not intuitively obvious. I swear, I must have stood out in a field for nearly half an hour before I stumbled upon just the actions that you describe... and that's after having spent a good hour trying to read the owner's manual. I've been figuring that I'm doing it wrong somehow... but the "Mark and Edit" gets the coordinates in there and then points me in the right direction, so whatever works, ya know? I feel all smart now for figuring that out on my own.

There is?? How cool! We used to live in Canton and would go to the parks on Hines Drive rather frequently. When (if?) the weather ever warms up, we'll have to go search for the caches there. Thanks for the tip!

I would really appreciate a disclaimer on caches like these. Some of my younger children are sensitive and I'd prefer they not stumble upon (fake) decaying corpses. I can see how these would be funny surprises for adults and older kids but not every cacher is as resilient. Giving a little warning would be a kind thing to do.

Our first cache was less than a week ago, but I'm sure that we'll always remember it. It had all the makings of a "good" cache... it required a hike through some beautiful countryside in a park near our home that we hadn't even known existed prior to our search. It was an easy enough find that my 9 year old could be the one to discover it and it contained toys. It was such a fun beginning that we have become extremely addicted to this activity!!

Congratulations to fellow Michiganders!!

I feel like I'm too new at this to have an opinion, but I have to say that I disagree wholeheartedly with that assessment. My family and I enjoy the totality of the experience and we enjoy our growing list of successes. It doesn't have to be either/or. All of us liked getting gold stars on our homework when we were children. It's just human nature to want a reward for our efforts. Now that I'm caching with children, I see that those little smiley faces mean a lot to them. Getting ten smileys is simply more fun than getting just one. But don't worry... they still soak up the rest of the experience... the scenery, the sleuthing, and the camaraderie. We would love to do a "Treasure Trail"... for the excitement of the hunt, the thrill of the find, the chance to see new places, get some exercise and enjoy the great outdoors and... yes... for the smileys.

I was just about to add my "We're new to this, too!" note when I saw that the most recent reply is from the very guy who inspired me to start geocaching. Hi Noiseguy! Our very first search was two days ago. Since then we've found four and not found two. The weather had been so perfect for hunting but this morning we woke up to snow. The children have come down with colds, so I'm sitting here all anxious to get back to the search. Stupid weather and viruses! Although... and I never thought I'd say this... I think that I'm so addicted to geocaching that I'd actually be happy to go out regardless of the weather.

We're new, too, and we have found that putting the coordinates into Google Earth often gives us a good visual of where we should look. For instance, our very first search was in a wooded field. By going to Google Earth first, I was able to remember that the cache was stashed at a bend in the trail, after a clump of trees. Having had a bird's eye view of the location before we left really helped us once we arrived. Don't give up! I know that it's frustrating not to find the cache but I've told my children... an outing is a success if we take time to appreciate the scenery, learn something new and enjoy our time together.