ross&kate

"Aw c'mon guys - I promise I won't wear this gettup again - just let me come back to shore!"

Just in the past week I've seen a number of hits on my caches with people saying they are "Dipping their travel bug" to get the mileage up. What the heck is this all about? As far as I can deduce, they are symbolically putting the TB into the cache and removing it right away, and want to log this so that their TB gets more mileage. So why don't they jus sit back and log entries on dozens of cache's to get their find count up? Seems equivalent to me. C'mon folks - am I the only one who sees this as a defeating the intent of the whole TB system. We can all cheat at this game if we want. There's no prize for getting the most of anything (that I know about -Maybe I'd better check the website in more detail!) Is this dipping activity widespread, or has it just been invented by some folks around my area? -R of the R&K

I see your point Majbach - I think you were saying urban is good if it's really urban, but if it's in scruffy, garbage strewn areas just because those are easier to hides stuff without it being found - it's not too fun. The challenge is to find urban places that don't make you want to run home for a shower afterward. Thanks for the compliments on our first few Urban attempts, CLIFFY! We've enjoyed the response to those, and the chance to contribute a tiny bit to the 'art' of caching. I think the bottom line is that when you don't have time for an out of town hike, it's fun to try to find something in the midst of the urban hubbub. R+K

We've (Ross&Kate) been experimenting with urban micro-cache's (Ottawa Area - 3 in place now) I think it's pretty cool to have caches in very urban places. I still want to get one into the heart of downtown. The challenge is that the more intensly urban, the more probable that it will be swiped and disappear. However, I was inspired by one I read about in Germany, on a busy street where the cache hunters all bend over to pretend they're tying their shoes to extract it, go to the pub-patio next door to do the deed, then return it with a similar pose. The benefit is that it makes geocaching accessible to those without GPS's since they can accurately see the location relative to streets & landmarks on mapquest or mapblast either for placing or seeking. Any experiences with ultra-urban caches anyone? Or is this still largely unexploited territory. BTW - I tweaked a version of the geocaching 'manifesto' (ie the little 'this is a geocache' letter) suitable for 35mm containers micro-caches It's on the 'how to' part of the site. DISCLAIMER - Not trying to take anything away from a hike through the bush for remote caches - this is just another variant on the theme for a bit of fun & variety! -Ross&Kater