Chokecherry

The problem with high value swag is that a lot of people don't carry around high value swag to trade with. If I knew ahead of time I should bring something of some value for trading I probably would my normal old swag is stuff that is worth between $1-$5.

Logs in sealed bags get damp too. If that bag was opened on a moist day and sealed that log becomes a wet moldy mess in no time because it can't breathe.

I really have no reason to rate the quality of a cache owner. I know which cache owners in my area maintain or don't maintain their caches. I can avoid as needed. When I go out of my area I can look easily at logs on caches and at other caches an owner has and figure out if I want to look for the cache. If people put up NA logs on caches like they should be abandoned hot messes wouldn't be a problem. But finders don't. We have NM logs that are left standing for sometime. We have a lot of vacation caches where I am. Sometimes those owners fix them (many times not and many times there is no actual plan to maintain them). But it's obvious from the cache page if it's a problem or not. Again an NA log is all it takes to resolve those problems. Winter can be problematic here. Some caches break in winter and then can be accessed until sometime in summer. They sit with NM. Doesn't mean the owner doesn't want to fix it. Just means it can't be got to. The owner doesn't suck... the weather does. Really it's just not that big of a deal. If someone has problems with the caches in their area they need to get active logging NA's and clean it up a little bit on those problem caches.

OOohhh... that's a toughie. I remember struggling with that when I first started caching. Really, I think the "proper" answer would be to ask them to check with the cache owner. In reality, though... it happens all the time and is (at least in my neck of the woods) considered the socially acceptable thing to do. To tell somebody to ask the cache owner would really be considered a rather snippety, stand-offish thing to do. What you could do is to ask the cache owner if they mind if you give a hint. Also, I will add that I am referring to run-of-the-mill, fairly simple hides, not those that are intended to be particularly difficult, and even more-so if the cache is pretty new. Requests for help on something like that should definitely go to the cache owner. It's the norm here as well. But realistically we have about 3-4 active cachers in the area. I helped someone last year on an unmaintained puzzle cache (as in the key to the puzzle was essentially unusable at that point). But chances are we are all going to talk about the hard caches with each other. Chances are we are going to share some info so it's just not that looked down upon here. And you would probably be seen as snippy and stand offish if you told someone to only talk to the cache owner.

After looking at those photos, I am traumatized for life. Thanks. That is so going on the list of caches I must do in my life.

Chances are I won't pay more than $5 for parking for any earth cache.

I've worked with a couple different communities where I am to get permission to put caches out. Explaining what geocaching is was a combo of showing them the website, bringing along some literature, showing them pictures of examples of geocaches and taking full responsibility for the stuff I put out. So basically promising I won't deliberately put something out in a way that will likely cause injury to people, making sure it doesn't become garbage, giving them my name if something goes wrong they can call me and I will be there asap to fix it (so mostly meaning I'm going to stick around town to take care of it), making sure it's away from stuff that the city doesn't want damaged, etc. It really isn't that hard in the grand scheme of things to work with a community as long as you approach it as a team effort between you and the community instead of going at it and being adversarial (stomping feet and saying it's public land and I want to have it here regardless of the problems it may cause for example). Personally I would work with the township people in this case. While the airplane may stay under the ownership of the airport people the reality is this is going to be a community park. And if the people who live around that park are having issues with something occuring near their property it's the township people who are going to hear about it and then potentially remove your hobby from their park. It's far better to be proactive about these things than reactive and try to undo a mess after the fact.

I was just updating my personal tracking info on my travel bugs. Noticed a couple of my big travellers have come up missing. Didn't put two others on because they made it to one cache before going missing. I have a bunch out there so the fact that a few come up missing doesn't ruin it for me. I have like 3 more ready to be released and I didn't put too much money into my travel bugs in case these happened. It's hard to lose them but it's not as hard if you have a bunch out there traveling that may move.

I've only replaced a cache container once and it was a trade up for the cache which was at that point a rusty coffee can with an inherently ill fitting lid. But I also lugged a cache of comparable size out there and placed it exactly where the old cache was. Added some new swag and salvaged the old log book. It wasn't a cache that was often found and it was quite a trek up there and the cache owner isn't around much anymore. I wish more emphasis would have been put in the newsletter on cache owners taking care of their own caches instead of throwing stuff out there and ignoring problems. There's a prolific cacher in the area that has a ton of caches out that are never maintained. So basically the article insinuates that to be a good cacher I have to maintain those caches for him? How about he doesn't put out stuff he doesn't intend to take care of?

It's not my job to continually buy free gifts for people. I stock my cache initially with swag and may go back and put more stuff in it as I desire but I in no way feel it's a part of cache maintenance to continually fill it with stuff for people to take. That's a complete waste of money. That being said when I'm out caching and if I find a decent cache that is hurting for swag I will sometimes dip into my swag bag and put some stuff in there even if I don't take anything. I also don't feel obligated to do that either but sometimes I like to.

Just goes to show everyone caches differently with different goals and methods. Like Knowschad noted up thread those not involved in the social aspect of the hobby don't necessarily log everything. I have friends who intermittently log finds and DNF. If we're out as a group and there's something to say only one of us will log a DNF as we find it redundant and silly for all of us to put the exact same thing typically. I'm not really engaged in the social aspect of the hobby. Some one highly engaged in the social aspect would not like how we cache.

My favorite part of this thread is that not so far away here in the forum is another thread where an owner is deleting DNF's. Everyone plays different with they're logging preferences. Some log everything. Some log nothing at all. That includes finds and DNFs. Getting worked into a knot because you don't feel that it's up to your standard is going to just create undo stress for you and suck any enjoyment out of this hobby for you. You can't control everyone or what they're going to do. You can only control you and your reaction to it. If it's so distressing then maybe this isn't the hobby for you.

For a difficult hide I'll usually log my first DNF. Then I will only log subsequent ones if there was something new to say that either is relevant to me, the cache owner or other seekers. Honestly there it's not often that there is new stuff to say. For not so difficult hides I log a DNF sometimes. Usually only if I stopped and felt I honestly looked. Sometimes I stop and don't really look at all because I'm tired or distracted or whatever. If I have absolutely nothing to say with my DNF I don't log it either. I use it to convey information to the cache owner and other finders and make mental notes for myself. It's not about shame of the DNF for all of us. Some of us, like me, just don't particularly want to spend time writing pointless notes.

I have barely been able to get to the main page for the last 2 hours. First hour it didn't load at all. Now I'm getting nothing but ugly when I go there. Basically just a list of links all on the left side.

Oh my goodness I couldn't imagine the muggles that would develop because of having a tour guide bringing you cache to cache basically. Personally I wouldn't go on a pre-organized geocaching holiday like that. I found that if I use caches to find the interesting places where I'm going I'm rarely disappointed but I am perfectly capable of picking out my own caches when I go somewhere.

The two night caches I've done have required both GPS and following trails so it seems to fit nicely into either puzzle or multi cache with an attribute added. There was finding of multiple containers in each one which required a GPS to get to the next start of the reflectors. Couldn't just be done by finding the start and following reflectors.

Like as an event?

I see a distant future where maybe in an urban area there won't be a place to put a cache. But I look at the wide open expanses rurally where I tend to cache and see miles after miles of places one could hike to place caches if their heart desires.

You should talk to the cache owner about enabling it. It is on his shoulders and no one else's and from the looks of it he doesn't particularly care. If he doesn't particularly care about it, why doesn't he just offer it up for adoption? It sounds to me like a container similar to the original was put in place, at the same location and all it really needs is for someone that *does* care enough about it to keep it maintained and all the drama about Mingo can be put to rest. Yes, it's possible that it'll be muggled again, but, if it is, that's something the new owner can/will deal with. If the cache owner cared about his cache and the "history" behind it I would assume the owner would adopt it instead of just letting it fall into this state of both cache page and cache neglect. From my outside perspective and not particularly caring about his cache (because there will always be an oldest cache)this looks like someone who can't or isn't willing to deal with and the community is putting infinitely more importance on his cache than he does.

You should talk to the cache owner about enabling it. It is on his shoulders and no one else's and from the looks of it he doesn't particularly care.

I'd be more than happy if the guidelines were changed to a half mile apart. There's lots of wilderness in Wisconsin that could use a cache and that there would be absolutely no trouble with saturation.

Reviewers here will archive disabled caches after a period of time.

We don't take ftf seriously so everyone who was there I'd share it with. Personally I like the suggestion up thread about not even mentioning it your log and keeping a personal list. There must be something more interesting to talk about than find order when a herd of cachers are there.

Or dude can just maintain his cache and listing problem solved. Doesn't seem like that hard to me. If he can't or won't do either it's time to put it out of its misery. Usually around here caches needing maintenance and disabled are archived pretty quickly. So again my out side perspective looks at this as him getting ample special treatment and kid gloves. He can't even step up to maintain the cache page.

The less words the better. I find the geocaching print outs to be awfully wordy to read when battling mosquitoes or the elements.