WRASTRO

This is one of the most common themes of questions, and that is because most every new cacher is concerned about being seen searching for, retrieving and replacing the cache. One of the key factors is to learn how to blend in, meaning you need to look and act like you belong in a place doing what you are doing. When you can do that people will ignore you. When you look out of place, nervous, or as if you are trying to be sneaky in some way, people WILL notice you. I have always found it is far easier to search in very busy areas when there are two or more cachers. But I usually cache alone. So what do I do? I assess the situation and decide if I can reasonably search for the cache, retrieve it and replace it without people wondering what the heck I am up to. I have found over the years I can look and poke around in an awful lot of very public places without drawing attention by simply ignoring everyone else in the area. If I am not concerned about others watching me they tend to not watch me. If I am constantly looking around to see if anyone is watching, someone is more likely to notice because I am not acting like I belong where I am and doing whatever it is I am doing. One very important bit of advice for those times when someone asks what you are doing. It is almost always best to tell the truth, after all you are not doing anything wrong or illegal. If you are approached by law enforcement or security never, never even consider lying to them about what you are doing. Tell them you are Geocaching and explain as much as you need to what Geocaching is. Worldwide game, GPS, containers hidden all over with logs to sign, techie geek thing, fun for the whole family... Welcome to the game and I hope you have a great time!

I always go with the philosophy that other cachers may and will have differing opinions and outlooks on life than I do. If another cacher thought something was worth leaving in a cache I am generally fine with that. I will remove stinky, smelly, moldy stuff, but I will never remove printed material from a cache unless it clearly violates the guidelines. I will remove porn if I find it but I will not remove political or religious materials, neither of which I believe are inherently offensive. And guess what? In 10+ years I can't remember ever removing material from a cache because I thought the material was clearly offensive to the next finder of the cache.

hey Sol. Since we were ahead of you we never would have known you were playing in the same woods that day. No event. It felt strange enough starting a thread. MtnMutt, I always try to look on the bright side and I use you as one of my examples of how to do scouting as well as caching. I did pick up the coin and it has visited a few special places, including all of the WA Parks caches we have found so far. It occupies a special place and I frequently look at it and think about many good times.

Why not just place the additional caches? Then there will be more caches in the park to entice more visitors.

Yep, we appear to have reached some sort of a milestone. After caching for more than 10 years we somehow managed to find cache #3,500. As always, we did not plan any particular cache to make note of our progression. We would love to get back to the point of averaging one find per day. Not likely, but it would be pretty cool if we can manage to do it. We keep on having fun and that is all that matters.

Just found 55 caches last Saturday while using my Moto Droid as our primary GPS. Elroy had our trusty Map 76cs which performed very well in the mountains. Clearly both GPS and current versions of cell phones work very well for caching.

If you can figure out how to change your forum avatar, you automatically get upgraded to Platinum membership. Ohhh I see, so it's an "us" and "them" kinda deal. A secret/elitest group of *spesh* members. Wait! The avatar is only for the Free-Masons on the forums? Guess I will just have to be doomed to the mediocrity of having a default avatar, forever I can confirm the Freemasons have nothing to do with your caching avatar unless you chose to create a connection. I will also say that your life has very likely been positively influenced by one or more Freemasons even if you do not realize it happened. We work quietly and we do great things. OT, last Saturday my 24 yo son and I hiked 12+ miles in the mountains while finding 55 caches. Our previous daily find record was 34 or so. I am 57 and I certainly don't think my best days are behind me. Many fun days are behind me but I am confident many more are to be enjoyed in the days to come.

Depending on the park physical caches may be allowed. Earthcaches seem to be popular these days. Washington State has been a leader in getting caches allowed to be placed in National Parks thanks to Hydnsek who has been the WSGCA President for several years.

When did this become yet another competition?

Well yes, since you are a few weeks newer to the game than we are. No wait, lots of folks have been playing for a long time. Anyone who has been playing the game for more than ten years really should be recognized in some way. Lots of folks signed up but only a few of us has continued to play the game.

Welcome to the club! We celebrated ours while visiting our daughter in Nashville. She was 10 when we started and is now 21 and living on her own most of the way across the country.

You are so right about that. I geocache to find caches. Not finding the cache is frustrating. Example, cache in a large slippery rock pile slope with bouncy coordinates and no hint. Memorable for all the wrong reasons. Even if I find it I end up all grumbly. Keep it in the green zone. I have not yet managed to define a statement to post here, but I am going to add my strong opposition to the stated 5 minute rule. To me this means a cacher is only in the game for a smiley. The smiley is the only positive experience in this mindset and I will never agree with this philosophy. I guess I can say the experience is what makes a cache memorable to me. They are not always positive experiences. Most of them are or I would not still be caching after 10+ years.

I once found a cache at the posted coordinates! Seriously, we have had chats with LEO and security, many muggles and DNF'd our own cache. Not really crazy, but a part of the life experience of a cacher.

The Geowagn moved to Tennessee in September so we no longer have the plate. Our other one was WRASTRO but we gave that up last July when we traded in our trusty Astro van.

I prefer the forums but I play in both mediums. I think the forums are doomed over the next several years.

I always read the cache page before I search. I rarely will search for a cache if there a bunch of people milling about and I can't figure out a way to search discretely. I never feel like an idiot for not searching when the situation makes me uncomfortable. Just a part of the game.

I bolded a claim above that is absolute nonsense. I can't speak for you personally, but I know I and many, many other cachers have travelled for far more than a 1/2 hour trip just in the hope of finding just one cache.

Oh yes, I have tried this and have been slammed by those who I contacted. Every time. Gave up. I play the game the way I like to play and have given up trying to influence others unless they ask for advice or input.

Many would argue that the game has devolved since 2004. Maybe. But you'll still find a whole lot of people for whom numbers don't matter much. Some don't even log their finds. Others will log their finds and not be the least concerned with anyone else's numbers. Many won't pay attention to FTF at all. Many choose to ignore power trails and geo-art. Many take the time filter out caches they are not likely to enjoy. Many will will say that the only thing that has changed is how much effort they need to put in in order to have fun. Of those, some portion will claim then need to put in more effort, and others will claim that will all the caches to choose from, it actually takes less effort. ^^^Yep^^^ The numbers I have only matter to me. I really don't care about the FTF game although I have played. Power trails and geo art look like cachers have fun with them but they don't do anything for my caching fun meter. I still do something related to geocaching every day even though my stats don't show it. If a bunch of cachers want to claim a bunch of fake FTFs I don't care. I am glad they are enjoying the game the way they want to play. It does not matter to me if they want to play the game in a way that would not be of interest to me. I cache to have fun and when it isn't fun I don't cache. I can have fun finding LPCs, or not. I can also have fun exploring an area I have not previously visited. Sometimes I find really cool caches. Sometimes I find caches. I almost always have fun because I enjoy the game and I don't play when it isn't fun for me.

Well said. The CO shouldn't have to check the cache after every DNF. Also, there much too much attitude especially among new cachers that " if I can't find it, there must be a problem." Are you kidding? Well said? Read it again. Both viewpoints stated in the same posting! New, or one of the first ever players it doesn't matter .... If you can't find a cache LOG A DNF! If you get a series of DNFs, go check on your cache! If you find the cache and it's got problems .. like soaked, or whatever, THEN post a NM. First, let's take everything except the first sentence. He says some cachers (especially new) are too quick to post NM. That's the majority of the message. Agreed. Back to the first sentence. He says that only in the case of a 1/1 will he, an experienced cacher, post a NM after a thorough search. I agree with you that NM should be used after seeing the cache. However, there may be limited cases where more than DNF is called for. Slippery slope? Maybe. Post a note? Okay. Suppose the cache is well-known as a tree cache, maybe even with posted photos. You go there, and for 100 meters in every direction trees have been removed. I'd post DNF with a description. I wouldn't criticize a NM post. NA is possibly warranted but a bit extreme. I am going to have to only consider the first sentence. Really? I consider myself to be a fairly well seasoned cacher after 10+ years. If I can't find a cache I assume it is because I can't find the cache. I don't care if the cache is a 1/1 or a 5/5. If I can't find the cache I have no option other than log a DNF. Anything else is pure speculation unless I have other information regarding the hide and the location. The last example here works for me as additional information.

I only have one cache these days that is intended to be difficult to find. There have been others in the past. I am not talking about needle in a haystack hides, rather difficult to find or recognize hides. They are intended to be a challenge so I won't just give out hints with no effort from the cacher asking for a hint. For starters I require a DNF log. Over the years I have had a few cachers object to this, but that is their problem, not mine. I ask them to tell me what they have tried when searching for the cache and what ideas they may have about the container or style of the hide. I ask questions that guide the cacher to figuring out how to make the find. It makes zero sense to me to take the time and effort to develop and place a creative and challenging cache just to tell someone precisely how to find it. There is no thrill or reward to signing the log of a challenging hide if you have the cache handed to you. Go find an LPC. Look for the cache and make an honest effort. Log your experience. Ask for a hint. Repeat as necessary.

I pretty much always assume I am simply not able to find the cache. My most recent DNF, actually FTDNF. "FTDNF. No joy this afternoon for George and Elroy. Felt like we searched every possible hint item so perhaps we just didn't have the right idea, or we were blind today." Turns out the cache was missing, but I think my log did the job without causing any drama. When we were fairly new we would log that we wondered if the cache was still there. Then, as we became just a bit more seasoned, we learned to accept our shortcomings regarding finding caches. We also changed the way we log DNFs. We NEVER post a NM or a NA unless we have personal knowledge the cache is in need of attention.

Simple. I do not "pay" cachers to find my cache. When I hide a cache I assume some people will find it over time.

I may not have as many as you do, but I like people to find mine as well thus they are premium so they last longer. For my area I am going to have to claim "some exclamation filled diatribe that disputes the current thought process" regarding premium member only caches lasting longer since none of my caches are premium member only and they are all doing fine. Three are ammo cans and the others are good quality non-ammo cans. I try to go with the philosophy that someone will need to be at least a little bit adventurous to find my hides. The only hide I had to archive since 2006 was a highly cammoed container that was pretty hard to find. Some local decided he/she didn't like the cache and kept trashing it and leaving the bits and pieces laying about. I did have to archive two ammo can hides because the undeveloped land got posted with no trespassing signs. So as a premium member since I joined, I say I have no evidence to support the claim that PMO caches last longer. Well placed and well hidden caches last longer.

Great pic!