Madness522

My wife brought up a good point about safety while on a hunt. She asked would someone set up a cache deep in the woods with the hopes of luring people back there with the intent of harming them. (Yes she likes to watch horror movies). This question got me to thinking about geocaching from a safety standpoint. Being a man with a concealed carry permit and former IPSC shooter I will go just about anyplace with little worry about what might happen. How do you women here plan for safety when out caching. This applies even to local parks where you do have to go off the beaten path. There are caches in some of the most populated parks around in my area and some of the caches placed are far away from most of the people in the park. Do you always have a partner with you. Do you keep aware of your surroundings and not just focus on the GPSr screen. Do you file a flight plan with someone. (Let someone else know where you are going and about how long you plan to be there) I really don't want to need answers to these questions posted here I just wanted to give you something to think about....your SAFETY!

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Let me hike up my skirt so I can get some work done! Care to imagine what walking by a bush full of chigger would do to your hangers? No thanks! I'll stick with jeans.

I have rarely traded. I enjoy the hunt much more than trading a pocket full of trinkets. I would rather do a multi than a single. Come on now how hard can one really make a single? I also enjoy the games. There is a series of them in my home area. I got one down and the rest to go. Check out zip 28027 for them if you're interested.

We couldn't possibly call them chites could we........?

If the GPSr was exactly correct all the time and each cache had exact coords posted how much fun would it really be? Part of the fun for me is have the GPS get me close and then for me to have to look around and think like the hider. "That stump looks like a good place"...stump is empty then move on to the next likely looking spot. I know I get bored easily and if this were too easy I would quickly tire of it.

The problem with inviting everyone you meet in the field to play the game is that you don't know which ones will remove/destroy the cache right after you leave. I believe that I owe it to the cache hider to protect his cache. One way I do this is to hide my actions from muggles. Obviously, if a police officer askme what I am doing, I will explain the game to him. If a muggle asks, I will either give him/her a very vague explanation, or I will lie. I think telling some one (a muggle) what geocaching is all about is a great idea and I even printed some of the cards to take with me should I happen upon a curious muggle. I really don't care about the strange looks and wrinkled brows or what muggles think I'm doing. But I don't think I will take one with me to a cache just in case they come back and mug it later. If they are interested enough they can pursue it on their own and if I like them enough I'll even let them know how to contact me if they want to get started in this activity. There is one thing that has really surprised me about the geocaching community. And that is the ability for geocachers to police themselves and respect the cache, the game, and the area in which they hunt. Some of the above posters stated that they don't like the term muggle and that it make us somehow better. While I don't believe it true that we are any better I do believe that it does set us apart in that we are more respectful of what and where we are hunting.

Seems to me that "trade" items are for personal ownership. You take something you want and it becomes yours and you leave something that you own in trade. Since TB's really shouldn't be considered ownable items I feel ok about taking one from one spot and dropping it off in another. Since the owner of the TB theoretically remains the owner for the life or journey of the bug it wouldn't be in the best interest to make it a tradeable item. Since we have already stated that a tradable item is an ownable item. If you find a bug and can help it fulfill it destiny then do so else leave it and another will be along shortly who can.

Thanks for the responses! I appreciate all the input. Hope someone else got something out of this as well. I like the term muggles and will use it freely and abundtly with no mailce intended or implied. Where would a person get a hold of those cards introducing muggles to geocaching? Might be better than looking suspicious. Thanks!

Being new to geo-caching I was wondering what kind of etiquette should be used when there are muggles around. Especially when searching for stages on an multi hunt. The situation I was in yesterday evening went like this....Mrs. Madness and I were out on a multi stage hunt looking for a stage. We closed in on the location and there were a group of muggle sitting on a bench about 75 yards from us. They weren't paying us much attention so we proceded to hunt for the clue. When they started to leave up the trail toward us I pulled us out and we started walking another direction until they were gone. I do know better than look for a final location cache when muggles are around but how close is too close? Is there something we should have done differently?