ben31cache

So, I bring up a subject and say my piece and then get told the problem is me. It is getting harder and harder to place caches. The amount of hoops one now must jump through is making it very difficult for anyone to do anything out of the ordinary. It is almost like we can play, but only in the little sandbox, for which we're given. Honestly, who the heck is going to sue the reviewers or GC in general? There are caches on the side of cliffs! If someone falls while trying to get it, whose fault is that? It is exactly what I said up front, it sure seems like the reviewers are more and more like over-eager Home Owner Association board members. They want everything to be, look, and act the same. Some of the answers above seem to back this up. The latest I got on a cache I just tried to publish is I now must go get the county's permission to place a cache on a county right of way. Like the county gives a hoot what is there. All this craziness is for, is to make it so difficult to do something out of the ordinary, that one simply says screw it and drops it all together. How is that good for the community?? What about the old phone booth caches? Would those now need the permission of the phone company to place them? Yes it is equivalent to this. I don't get it, obviously.

I took a break from Geocaching (especially placing them), since it seemed the "Standards" of geocaching were becoming a bit much. The volunteers reviewing the caches began to question the need for things like: the number of caches along a trail; why a certain type of cache would be placed in a wooded area; etc. The craziest was when I tried to hide a geocache at the edge of a family cemetery. I had the permission of the family. I even talked to the Georgia State Patrol officer, who used that parking area to radar speeders. He said that it would be a great location (he also was a geocacher). However, the reviewer deemed it too near a set of railroad tracks and refused to publish it. Why? There was a parking area for use in visiting the cemetery, so people stopping there would not have been a problem. The reviewer refused to relent. Now that I have tried to start again, it seems to have become worse. The reviewers seem to have become like the board members of an overactive Home Owners' Association, where the they want to dictate the type of curtains you put in your windows. I can see asking newbies some basic questions, but to ask the same questions with every single cache is a bit much. And to ask if I am going to be able to check on the cache at least once a week is crazy. The cache is in the woods in a fairly remote area and checking on it that often would be nearly impossible. Is this really a hobby for the enjoyment for all of us, or are we trying to limit the number of caches and those caches may only be placed by someone who has a degree in geocache hiding? I would really like to know before I try putting out any more caches.

I travel...a LOT! All over the place (worldwide). Before I found geocaching, I'd sit in my hotel room. I may go out for an hour or two, to look around, but that would be it. Now, I look forward to finding time during the trip to look for geocaches. I'm almost never in my room, unless it's dark and I'm going to bed. I forces me to exercise, it forces me to explore new places, it forces me to find new friends, thank God I found this hobby!