sgerbs
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Posts posted by sgerbs
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I'm doing my part to increase earthcaches. I've hidden at least one new earthcache a year since 2017. And I've taught two seminars on how to hide earthcaches. So far, it has had a positive impact and it has demystified earthcaches for COs.
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Like others, I received a message from Forrest-Ghost. I am not a coder. I built most of my cartridges with Urwigo, or took someone else's an altered it to make it do what I wanted to do.
I am a fairly organized person though, and would be willing to help in that area if needed.
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I like all of my earthcaches for different reasons, but two of mine that I will highlight here:
1) Re-routing a River https://coord.info/GC7KDEY It was only after living nearby for several years before I realized all of what had taken place. Not just the re-routing of the river, but all of the consequences that have gone along with that. That earthcache does not get found very often, but those who do find it, enjoy it.
2) Striking it Rich https://coord.info/GC7V56M This earthcache was the first earthcache (as far as I can tell) approved at Voyageurs National Park. From first contact, to final approval, I really enjoyed working with the rangers at Voyageurs to get this cache placed. I'm hopeful that in the future, more cachers will place earthcaches at Voyageurs. Also, someone created an earthcache based off of mine, just west of there. So it was cool to have someone follow my lead.
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2 hours ago, dprovan said:
I don't know whether those are mistakes or should be allowed, but it certainly would have made me mad if I'd seen them on my GPSr, walked a mile to where they started, and only then discovered I couldn't do them because I didn't have a smartphone.
Genuine question that has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but do you not look at cache pages before you go geocaching? Every single geocache I go after, I've already looked at the cache page on the computer or my phone. That way I know exactly what I'm in for.
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3 hours ago, fbingha said:
A "real" Letterbox can be hidden in such a way that you don't need to follow a trail of landmarks or clues. It is acceptable to tell the user where to go, via an address or "The Post Office on Main St", then where the box is hidden is made clear "behind the big flower pot".
Perhaps we're using different language, but I think we are saying the same thing. For your "real" letterbox example, you've used clues - not coordinates. It is very short and sweet, but you're using clues to get them to find a letterbox. For an LBH, even that is unnecessary.
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4 hours ago, IceColdUK said:
Now that we have 'Bonus' and 'Challenge' attributes, maybe the time has come to get rid of the LBH type completely, and to add a 'Stamp' attribute?
The way that LBH are used (and defined) for geocaching makes them seem like many other types with a stamp added. I went letterboxing long before I ever went geocaching, so when I started finding LBH, I was disappointed. Many were not letterboxes at all, but were traditional caches with a stamp. Here are two examples of my own that are like letterboxing:
If HQ actually defined LBH like a letterbox, we'd see a lot more interesting and fun caches being hidden instead of traditionals with a stamp. Letterboxing was invented before GPS existed, so they required landmarks and directions to get you to the letterbox.
As to why I would use a LBH as a bonus cache instead of a mystery/unknown; variety. Just because so many different things get lumped into mystery/unknown does not mean that they have to. Technically, shouldn't most bonus caches be multi caches since cachers visit other caches (locations) before finding the final. That is the very definition of a multicache. I use LBH as bonus caches because I want variety. HQ should be encouraging that, not inhibiting it.
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14 hours ago, geoawareUSA9 said:
Been there. One of my first got rejected entirely, in fact.
Same. Looking back on it, I understand why. It was hard at first, but I appreciate the advice I've received from GeoAwares. I'd like to think that my earthcaches only get better.
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Don't worry about your earthcache being sent back to you. My first 5 or 6 all came back to me to have them edited. The more you do, the better you get. If you want me to proofread it as well, send it over.
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12 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:
I don't like your chances of getting anyone from HQ to buy into the argument. Sometimes you just have to accept that there is no why.
While true, it is still frustrating. I've used LBH as bonus caches in the past, and would like to continue to do so. HQ's reasoning makes no logical sense and it can be easily remedied.
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My family and I will be hitting up a sand dune earthcache. It is one I have left unfound for International Earthcache Weekend, and it is time to find it. I live near Lake Michigan, so there are several dune earthcaches that I've found. This one is not unique, but it will get my kids and I the souvenir.
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On 4/19/2019 at 10:04 PM, STNolan said:
Earthcaches have gotten a lot stricter in recent years. In particular the policy regarding the "uniqueness" of the EC in a geographic area means that in the modern approval process, you wouldn't be able to see 8 ECs on obelisks unless each provided a different lesson. I would imagine (without studying Rome too closely) that a majority of caches you have issue with were published many years ago.
Earthcaches can be very difficult to hide nowadays. Whereas in the past that wasn't the case. In the US, we have tons of erratics, artesian wells and gauging stations. None of those would be allowed to be published today unless they can be proven to be uniquely geological. I find that a lot of those earthcaches were published because people wanted to hide an earthcache and it was easy to copy something someone else had done elsewhere.
Every earthcache that I have hidden, in my opinion, is unique (outside of one). They took quite a bit to create and several took a couple of tries to get published. In some ways, I'm glad that earthcaches are getting more challenging to hide because it keeps the junky ones out of the game. On the other hand, they can be such a challenge to hide that many people don't even bother. I hid one near Lake Michigan that had another possible earthcache essentially at the same location and I expected someone else to have published it by now - as far as I can tell, no one has tried.
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I know you've hidden your first Wherigo already, but I thought I'd chime in as well for your future hides. I would definitely echo what the others have said, the more simple the Wherigo, the higher chance it will be played and found. I have a really simple trivia Wherigo where cachers can park near an intersection and then they start answering questions. It is really easy, but it has a theme that ties it all together with the final cache. It has has 52 finds, and its only been out 1.5 years. Because of its ease of play and location, it gets found fairly often. I put out another one that had one zone and a simple question (it was placed for the icon). It was placed for a winter only series, and it was found 23 times in 3 months.
The more involved the Wherigo, the less likely it is to be found, but people who like adventure and Wherigos will still seek it out. I'm working on a cartridge right now that will be a detective type hunt at a historical location. It is based on a true story. I know that when it is finally hidden, it will be found primarily by the hardcore Wherigo players, cacher who like my caches, and cachers who like adventure. I'm more than okay with that because this is the kind of cache I would like to find. Knowing your audience, goes a long way in setting the tone for what you're doing and what you expect out of cache.
Wherigos are a lot of fun, and if you can bring your local caching community along, Wherigos will only strengthen that community.
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I've been submitting earthcaches over the last two years and these are the geoawares I have worked with:
GeoawareUSA7, GeoawareUSA4, GeoawareUSA2, GeoawareUSA1 and unknowingly may have received a bit of help from GeoawareUSA9.
I've had good experiences with the earthcache reviewers, although one of my experiences left a bad taste. Thankfully, that reviewer is not my local earthcache reviewer.
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Earthcaches have become my favorite type to hide, but they take a lot of work to publish. I recently had one publish in Glacier National Park and it took several months to get permission and then I had to get it published by the reviewer. I'm very thankful for the process because it does make my earthcaches quality, whereas they may not have been had I not had reviewer critique.
Having said all that, I would like photos to be a part of the logging tasks. I know this has to do with the GSA, but I like seeing pictures of people working on my ECs. Even though I don't have to, I post pictures with the ECs I work on. For my Glacier NP EC, having a picture would really require people to be there. You can't fake it. It proves you were in that spot and did the work. Another EC I have is on a sandbar on a lake. Someone sent in the "correct" answers, but it was obvious they didn't go out on the lake to get the answers because it was November in Michigan. Having to have a picture would have had them wait until they could get out on the lake.
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Best city in Michigan to geocache?
in Midwest
Posted
South Haven has some okay caches. Kalamazoo is a good area, and a bit further north, so is Grand Rapids. Holland, along the lakeshore, has a good amount of caches as well.