I remember the first time we went caching, it was in a tract of land with real trails, only problem is we didn't know where they were. Only one of our group of seven had a gps, and this person only ever found one cache. We walked through the bush for over an hour in rain, sleet, snow and rain again. We were really apprehensive about what he was telling us we were going to find, and thought this all better be worth it. We did eventually find the cache. It was an ammo box hidden in the old ruins of an abandoned farm house. I remember the contents of this cache perfectly as they were very nice, like real treasures. Our gps owner walked away with a nice marble gobblet and we walk away hooked.
It is still the ammo boxes that are so exciting and the really nice places that they are hidden. You can't hide an ammo box under a street lamp. If our first cache was a ruddy old margarine container with a few inches of icky water in the bottom and a log book so stinky and wet you couldn't sign it, I doubt we would have enjoyed the sport so much.
If you look at our profile page you will see that we have a lot of varying hides, and use a lot of different areas to hide them in. I will admit there are a few that are not the greatest, and if you have ever been to one of our caches while it is still fresh...and I quote "Fresh", you will see that we always try to make your find worthwhile and that the cache is well stocked. We get notices everytime someone vists one of our caches, and if any of these cachers reports a problem we pay close attention and act on it immediately. We, as cache owners all get these notices for caches we own. It is our responsibility to keep a close watch on our geocache as we do not own the land that we have placed it on. We want to make the find for the next cacher as enjoyable as we would like it to be for ourselves. It is when these caches do not get the visits, the containers breakdown, or the land that these caches have been placed in, need a refresher cache, this is then that we need to archive them.
I think there is a lot more interest in the sport since we have become involved and I feel it is only right to open the door when needed to make room for these new cachers to hide in a different place in the same track of land. I applaud those who are giving up their spare time to see that this is being done in a polite as possible way. Lets face it, no one likes to be told they have to do something, and worse, no one likes to be the teller.
Instead of dictating to each other how we should, and who should take care of the caches that need to be archived lets all help to keep a positive interest in this sport for all the new cachers that are getting involved. I really think this getting to be a mountain from a mole hill.