[APE Cache Found! Your thoughts?]

It should be restored to active Project APE cache status in its original location.

 

I went to Brazil and found the last remaining Project APE cache 3 years ago. I never got the chance to find any of the others and I think it's sad that they were archived. I would have traveled anywhere to find them. Finding the one on Brazil was one of the best geocaching adventures I've ever had.

 

Seeing the box on display at HQ or at an event would not interest me at all. Letting people log it as a find in other places than the original location would make it a lot less special and sort of ruin the point. Finding a special cache type like this should require more effort than visiting HQ or an event.

 

I don't even mind if Mission 9 gets activated with a new container. The important thing is that the original listing becomes active again. I would have loved to see some of the others come back from the dead as well - original containers or not. The 90 days to unarchive rule is so new that it shouldn't be relevant.

 

These caches are old - a part of geocaching history - and should be kept active at all costs. If Groundspeak asked me what the #1 thing they could do to make me more excited about geocaching, this would be it.

 

Let's hope Mission 9 will be unarchived. I will come to the US to find it as soon as I can!

 

kjerstih, Norway

[Challenge Caches]

What do you like most about challenge caches?

The statistics are an important part of geocaching to me. Challenge caches gives me new goals to work towards - more challenging and meaningful goals than just finding as many geocaches as possible.

 

What do you not like about challenge caches?

- The inconsistency that you can sign the log before you qualify. Which date is the found date then? The date you signed the log will mess up the order of when people qualified. The date you qualified will mess up your location stats, making it seem like you were two places at the same time. The rules are not good enough.

- There's too many of then in some places and they take up space where regular geoaches could have been placed. It's no fun for beginners.

- Some requirements are meaningless and silly. Challenge caches should be challenging, not just some random requirement like finding caches named A-Z.

- Difficulty rating (and even terrain rating) is sometimes based on the placement of the container and other times on how hard it is to qualify. We need rules.

 

What would you like to see changed about challenge caches?

- A rule that says you can't sign the log without qualifying first.

- A rule that says the difficulty rating should be based on how hard it is to qualify, while terrain should be based on where the container is placed - just like with mystery caches that can be difficult to solve but still wheelchair friendly and terrain 1.

- Archiving old challenges with silly requirements that would not be approved with the new rules.

- Own icon.

 

If you could describe your favorite challenge cache type, what would it be?

No challenge is too hard, but I must have fun while working towards the goal and I should be able to do so at my own pace. Anything that rewards me for choosing to find quality geocaches instead of quantity/power trails is good. Some of the requirements I enjoy working towards include:

- "360 degrees" caches (finding caches on every degree within a country or region)

- Finding geocaches in a number of different countries/states/counties (NOT within a certain amount of time)

- Completing the D/T matrix

- Collecting TB hotels

 

What types of challenge caches do you avoid?

- Anything time resticting, like finding a given number of caches in a day or other amount of time.

- Streaks. Geocaching should be fun, not a duty.

- As many geocache types in a day as possible (only possible a few places in the world).

- Random silly requirements like finding caches named A-Z.