denjoa

Yes, they do go missing! About half of our travelling trackables - that is, excluding our vehicle and our name-tags - have gone missing. And we agree, the reasons include inexperience, lackadaisicalness (yes, it's a word!) and maliciousness! With respect to one of these missing trackables, we sent e-mails to all the cachers who had visited the last cache where it had been placed to ask about it and a number of them answered but some didn't - which, of course, narrowed down the list of possible delinquents - but that was as far as we got in tracking it down. On a brighter note, we had a trackable travelling in Europe - in Germany, in fact - and it was in a cache which was destroyed by a violent storm in which trees were ripped out of the ground and so on. We know that, because the owner of the cache wrote us to tell us the fate of the cache - and, of course, our trackable! He spent some time searching the area for the cache but in vain. In due course, we arranged with him that if we supplied a replacement, he would place it in a comparable cache in the same general area and it has travelled on since being placed. So that was a very positive experience - and we now know a cacher in that part of Germany whom we would have no hesitation in contacting if we were going to be in the area! The trackable concept is a great one and it is fun to follow them. So we continue to put them out from time to time but we spend less time than we should, probably, in keeping track of them!

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. I guess I have three thoughts! The first is that if the requirement is that one sign the in-cache log to record a "Found it" log - and one response was the quote to that effect from somewhere in the regulations - then that's the way we want to play it - and that's what we have always done; even when a CO has said to claim a find, we have waited and gone back. The second is that I am pleased to hear that so many - well, everyone who has answered so far! - agrees with that point of view. The third is that one response said something to the effect of not worrying about what others do because it's not our problem and I believe that's wise advice - just hard for this member of this team to swallow! So, given the responses we've had so far, we're satisfied and really need no more but thanks again!

We're not newbies but we seem to be "fuzzy" on what constitutes a "find" and cannot seem to find it elsewhere although we have the distinct feeling that we've seen it somewhere at sometime. Over the years, we have discovered cache sites and even spotted the cache itself but been unable to access it to sign it because it was frozen in place or because it was too high for us to reach on that occasion or because of high water between us and the cache. We have always retired gracefully and returned when the conditions were better and only when we have signed the in-cache log have we considered that we have "found" the cache and proceeded to log a "find" on-line. However, we are coming across on-line logs of finds where the cacher has been unable to sign the in-cache log but, because he/she has spotted the container - in ice, way up there or way over there - he/she feels entitled to log a "find" on-line. What is the official word, please, on what constitutes a "find?"

We infer from what we have read above that there is no regulation regarding how close a letterbox can be to a geocache - or vice versa! We signed a log in a letterbox a couple of days ago and were only lucky to learn that it was not the cache we were seeking because it was within a couple of metres of the cache which, I hasten to add, we went back to find. Is there no way to legislate a distance within which a cache cannot be placed from a letter box - or vice versa? (I'm not sure I've placed this question in the right spot but one can only try!) denjoa