MaplessInSeattle

Would you participate in a Winter CITO in Mid-January? I just stumbled upon some horrible trash areas. Parks Dept has agreed to help out, but I don't want to plan a CITO, only to find that no one would attend because of the cold weather or bad conditions. I would like to know what people in the area think. I've had some people message me stating they would help out, but obviously I will need more than one or two people to attend, in order to make this a success.

Also to keep in mind up here, the ground near many lakes and streams gets much weaker as well.

Congrats FunnyNose! Now come find my new cache. LOL And, not that it compares to any of these great milestones, but we just hit our one month of caching, and have 67 under the belt.

Welcome to Geocaching. Kiss freetime goodbye. Welcome to the club

If you happen to be in this area at all(SeaTac). The cache we just released is easily accessible from the SeaTac Community Center. They just opened up their play area. Swings, Playsets, Mini Rock Climbing Structure, Basketball courts. For the nature minded, there is a small swamp in front of the community center, as well as the next door Botanical Gardens. Cache Link: GC17H5D There are also some other nearby ones that younger people can do. Cache for SuperDash Boulevard Park Booty Multi - Centauri Escape Pod Foxtrot.

It's a shame that I never even heard about this on our local news. But I did hear the latest about Britney, and Lohan.

A great way to avoid many of these problems is talk to the parks people BEFORE placing a cache in the park in the first place. The parks operations lead asks me each time he sees me if anyone found my cache. I also informed him of the others in the area. And he has my contact info in case they ever need to be moved or disabled.

Does anyone know who holds the record for the MOST geocaches to date? I'm just curious. I've seen people with over 6000 so far. Anyone know of someone with more than 7000?

Ok, almost everything I've read has stated to contact local this or that. Now you're saying if I do, we can't count it as a cache?! ugh, well then nevermind this thread, I'll scrap the whole idea.

I am in the process of setting up a CITO Cache Event. I have the approval of the Park Operations Lead, and his supervisors. They said to go ahead and contact the city as well, to get support from the local Community center, as this will ensure enough bodies. (Large Park) There are three caches in the park. Two of them Multi. One is mine. I will be temp archiving my cache, and another user, which I know, will most likely do the same. Should we contact the other user and request a temporary archive, so that the caches are not lost to the muggles in the park? Many of these caches will be discovered if left in place. Especially once people start turning over stuff, and reaching in tight spaces to get trash. Since you never know what type of people will attend a community event, I thought a temporary disabling and removing of Caches would be in order. I didn't see this addressed anywhere, and wondered what the general consensus is. TIA for advice/input. oh, side note: I will place 2-3 caches in a nearby area, so that geocachers can still have an after-cache event if they choose to.

Referring to "Hiding a Cache" Speaking as a new geocacher, who made a big mistake with first hide and succeeded with my second... Do read all the above suggestions, they will save you, and your local admin a bit of hassle. As well, cache outside of your area, this will help you get an overall idea of the local scene. On our hide we got nice words from some experienced cachers, so we are glad that we waited, and researched before placing the second(more appropriate) cache. Although us Newbies tend to be a bit more creative with our initial ideas for a cache... Experience goes a long way towards cache longevity and appeal to the community. I would also suggest getting to know a cacher or two that is willing to give you advice and chat with you a bit. This was very helpful, it kept us from making some mistakes. Also it helped that our local admin was very nice, and supportive, in spite of our carelessness first time around. Referring to Finding a Cache. Don't be afraid to try to tackle what might seem like a slightly difficult cache as well. We got our first and only FTF at night, on a new cache, that quite a few other "seasoned" cachers DNF'd on. Us newbies tend to think a little differently, so we tend to search and look at everything as a possible cache. This can allow you to find some caches, that many others may overlook.

We've only found 5 geocaches with stickers on them. So I wouldn't use that as a guideline necessarily.

::smiles and nods:: pretending to know what the jibberish was about

I just wanted to thank everyone for their input and advice. I did eventually have to up my terrain/difficulty to 3.5/3.5. I saw five of the geocachers wandering around for quite a while, and then after watching some of them try to navigate the obstacles, decided it was only fair to up the ratings. So I'm off to go average some more waypoints for our next hide.

I ran into a cacher yesterday. I stayed hidden in the bushes for quite a while, and when I was sure he was starting to get even more off course, my greeting was simply "you're about 100ft off". (I'm the owner of the cache he was hunting, I just happened to be performing CITO in the area). He looked up at me, pulled out his GPS and smiled. I introduced myself and found out he was not just a geocacher, but one of the ones I respect the most, with almost 5000 finds! Turned out to be the start of a great day, with me getting to meet a few other cachers I had heard about and always wanted to meet.

I've found the only time they were useful, is when they designate a non-obvious parking location. i.e. The trail or park you need to get to is quite a few blocks away from any public parking spot.

well the one I did had me walking almost a mile across sand dunes, and up the side of a hill that had loose rock, as well as having to secure the gps while I scaled some of the rock areas. I think the 50mph gusts added to it a bit. So I guess 3.5 wouldn't have been so inaccurate if the weather was nice. Of course in nicer weather, there would have been snakes. LOL All in all that was one of my favourites so far though, just wish I would have read the logs first. But considering I saw people from this side of the state's signatures on there as well, and no complaints from them, besides the normal ones... I'm gonna definitely lower the rating of mine. Now if I could just finish this camo job...

Wow, experience makes a difference. We're going to lower the terrain rating. Just did a 3.5 that nearly killed me. Makes our Lost in North SeaTac park look like... well, a walk in the park!

Well, i didn't swim to the island, actually, i'm going to make a note on that cache. That is supposedly a federally protected wetland refuge for white pelicans. So, i'm not about to go out there and get in trouble. As well, we are considering putting a log book in a bottle, and sending it across the lake.(wife's idea) however, we did have an interesting geocaching moment today. After we climbed to the top of the Iron horse Monument, to get the cache, I realized there was no pen/pencil in the swag bag. UGH!!! So, i contemplated the options. Too windy *60mph* to burn a stick and write in charcoal. So, the decision was made. I would walk my wife back to the car, and then i would sign the log, and make the walk back up the canyonside. So yah, I'm a bit tired, as we write this from some restaurant/lounge that is kind enough to leave their wifi unsecured. Must drink coffeeeeeee.

Good point. I like that statement.

The idea sprung from a post by another fellow newbie asking questions about looping a trail Link to comment. My question is twofold: 1) Is it wrong to put in additional waypoints on a cache, that you would like the cacher to visit, perhaps little things you find interesting or intriguing about an area? 2) Would, or have you yourself visited any such points along a cache? I'm asking because at the location of our future cache, there are many odd things about the area I would love to have others look at, but they are either too close to another cache/waypoint to list, or they just wouldn't do for a cache location anyway. However my wife and I have found them very interesting, and feel others may as well. General consensus?

Hmmn. So then is it generally accepted within the community, that if you rate something as difficult, that falls inside of a city park, it may not be difficult for those that like to hike 5 miles in the snow to go scuba diving in a frozen pond for a geocache?

Actually, I've been watching the cache area for two years, and have seen it at its worst, and its best. I've been to the cache site, when there is knee high pond of ice formed, which won't happen again, because a new runoff drain was placed to prevent it. I've been to the Original waypoint when it was covered in brambles so high that you have to low crawl to get to it, just so that i could have a nice spot to watch birds. Personally, I wouldn't look at terrain, unless special equipment is needed, I am always game for whatever. Climb a tree, scale a rock, get a bit wet, eat some mud, all sounds like fun to me. I've looked for a thread about suggesting a dual rating system, but couldnt' find one. Is there a request in existence for such a feature. Urban ratings vs rural ratings. If such a system were in place, i could rate my cache extremely low. Since it is in an overgrown park, but would be easy for a hiker or other adventure minded person.

Where are you headed? We're going to go to Desert Aire, Near Mattawa. I guess we'll try to hit some along the way. Although I've already been told by the wife: "We are NOT stopping every time the GPS says we're near a cache!" I figure we'll get the four in Desert Aire, it looks like one is on the island, so that's gonna suck, I might have to swim to it. Wheeeee!

Thanks for the inputs. I'm going to head out to eastern washington and see how some of this higher rated caches look.