Awesnap

Ha hah. The earthcache that inspired me to start this post cost me a $50 permit fee, and the permit was only about events, what I will be protesting, and how will my group be identified.

I am almost 2 months waiting for a park to follow up with earthcache placement permission, and I started thinking about how many times I have trudged up this slow hill to get a virtual marker placed. This hasn't been my longest wait, and I am grateful the park is still responsive with my follow up emails. Then I think of all the emails I have sent out that have never been responded to, and how nice it was that when I mailed letters through the postal service I have gotten 100% feedback. I started thinking back to some of my more memorable landowner permission quests. Once I tried to place one at a church once and got back this in all caps "WE DO NOT THINK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA THANK YOU." I contacted a college president once, and she pushed me over to the Geology Professor. People who think that simple earthcache questions are like taking a quiz have no idea. That was a full on exam! I was sweating that one out. The even walked over to the stone and sent my earthcache page back and marked all my mistakes (mostly grammar and spelling) in RED. LOL Another time I got passed around the offices of the City of Baltimore once for over a month. Each department more confused than the last. One of them asked how long would I be needing to rent the entire park out. I was like "Rent? What you talking about, Willis?" Finally I think they were sick of me, and where like "You are not putting anything there. Great. Sure. Go ahead. Just go away!" Twice I had to attend zoom meetings with officials to get earthcaches placed. One of those was really cool because the Maryland Environmental Service came back and asked me to place another one for them elsewhere in the state, and they took me out by boat and gave me a tour of Hart Miller Island. My friend FloridaFinder2 has me beat. He once had to attend a Town Council meeting to propose his Earthcache as "new business." He swore never to place another earthcache after that one (but he did).

I grabbed GC19AXJ in 2017. It is a nice little pull off with a great view. As for visiting more earthcaches, I was lucky enough to pick up four new ones while in Bristol, VA last week. That is probably it for the year. I can't complain, as I found 32 earthcaches in 2024. I am attempting to place a new one in the Bristol area. It is all written up, but now I am awaiting for landowner permission responses. Have a great new year!

I look forward to this weekend every year! Because if you own a bunch of Earthcaches like I do, you get swarmed with answers for 3 to 4 days. It's like the Super Bowl of being an Earthcache owner. I may be in the minority, but I really enjoy tracking each log and responding to all answers. Last year I had 118 logs, and 140 for the year before. I just love it, as I treat it as a test of my organizational abilities. I am hoping I can find one, but that is tough because I eagerly track down any of the lower terrain earthcaches within a 100 mile radius after they publish.

You know, this reminds me of one of my earthcache "wish list items." I wish there was a way that I could post and file my land owner permission permits only in the edit page. That way only the reviewers, Groundspeak, and I could see them, but they remain out of public view. Most of my government applications have my address, phone numbers, email addresses, and other things that I would not like seen in a log note. Some state require a new permit be filed annually, so this allows a safe place to store these.

Geoawares, Why is that reviewers have their messenger option turned off on their profile page? The only option is send an email. Just being curious. Thanks, Snap

So, in lieu of these AI answers... should I be making photos a find requirement on my cache pages? As of now, I only ask is that the earthcache logging answers are sent on a majority of my EC's. It just seems exhausting to have to enforce a photo requirement in everyone's logs too.

I agree that this optional guidance is easy to implement. Though I kind of rolled my eyes about the character counts. So I am to assume finders have only a basic knowledge of geology BUT I also should make my UNIQUE cache pages shorter like they ones they made in the olden days. You know, the golden days of earthcaching, back when earthcache creators found an information sign, made people answer questions directly based on the information from that sign (or signs), and maybe have them answer a question about what animals they saw on their visit that day. Or the ones that have a commonly used diagram on their cache page to identify what type of WATERFALL or WETLAND we are looking at. Perhaps the geocaching guidelines and the earthcache guidelines should sync up more to make it clear for BOTH the hiders and the finders. Give clear timelines and procedures for both the hider and cache owner that has to be followed for a before a log gets deleted. It should be clear that if someone makes observations, sends send their logging requirements, that right or wrong, they will not be hasseled or deleted. There should be a timeline that the cache owner has to bring up logging requirement problems, so that one day months down the road they wake up and have a problem with your answers they can't delete you. That If a cache finder has to send answers in, it probably should be required that the cache owner responds. It's polite. Also.. maybe not a requirement, but some language preventing cacheowners from panhandling for more intersting logs or favorite points when they respond to answers. It's just tacky. That if a photo is required on an earthcache, the sender should have the option of emailing, messaging it, or posting it to their logs. Also caches should not require more than one Required photo per earthcache.

A geocaching friend sent me some rock photos from Japan to see if I could help her identify it. I am drawing a blank. I have attached two photos. Looks like some sort of granitoid, yet there are these large rectangular crystals that resemble fossils. Metamorphic? Probably not. I am leaning to these being just big crystals. Either way it is a pretty fascinating looking rock. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I agree, and they do. Both GeoawareUSA9 and geoawareUSA10 have been great to work with. I have had 14 of my 67 earthcaches published without getting permission (though a few of those 14 I proved that I made serious attempts to reach out to their local government agencies). I have only had 5 that I remember where I failed to get landowner permission (Only one that gave a flat out "NO!") that were never published.

GeoAwareUSA9 busted me on this early on when I started making earthcaches. He was right (I joke now that I was just testing his "parameter fences" to see what I could get by). As I already had park permission to list something there, I just buckled down and reconfigured my listing and made it more unique. It actually made the earthcache lesson much better. Yesterday was thank a volunteer day, so from the bottom of my heart and a day late "Thanks GeoawareUSA9!"

The trouble it takes to find an earthcache pales to that of the effort going into placing it. Almost all cache types can be dropped in a shopping center parking lot in the blink of an eye without breaking a sweat. But if someone wants to list an earthcache highlighting a geological feature in that same shopping center, we are expected to contact the owner of the property and get consent. I have written plenty of emails, sent posted mail, attended zoom meetings all in the name of earthcaching. I have reached out to many different levels of government from delegates to mayors. Recently a friend of mine had to attend a Town Hall meeting and present his idea to the council. A few of my earthcaches took months of back and forth to get a "yes"' or "no." Let me tell you, the "no's" really sting after you go through all that effort. As to why some are more complicated now than the past is that the earthcache has to be unique to that location. No longer can one focus quote signs, or a copy of one a listing that already exists and duplicate it. In my opinion, you don't have to get them all right, just show that you put in the effort, and possibly learned something from the lesson. That the writer has to be careful developing them not to go down "too many rabbit holes" and bogging down the cache write up with too much information. Some EC owners do a horrible job of presenting the lesson and you may have to watch a youtube video or read their references. I have some easier earthcaches, and some harder ones. I get plenty of bad answers usually accompanied by "I usually avoid earthcaches because it feels like homework" logs, and that is okay. Because the rules are go to the location, make some observations, and send whatever answers you come up with. The guidelines don't say they have to be perfect (or correct), as an owner I just want you to visit and have a good experience. That said not all Earthcache owners are the same. Geocaching has something to offer different types of cache personalities. I have tunnel crawls, tree climbs, and enigma puzzles on my map I will never do, and that is ok. I do like finding earthcaches as I like learning, and I like being an earthcache owner regardless of the extra hurdles we have to jump through to place and maintain.

You're welcome.

At first I just wanted one published to diversify my stats. I didn't realize then that it would awaken a geology lover in me, or that I would love the research of making them. Each one of my Earthcache creations has its own backstory which makes it special to me. Did a particular location just fall in my lap? Did I have to go deep into research to even understand it? Was it a long grind getting landowner permission? That being said my favorite that I have done was the Indian River Inlet in Delaware.

In my opinion you don't have to be brilliant about geology, only that you made an reasonable attempt to understand the geology at the location. As a point, I try and reply back within a week to everyone who took the time to send me answers. This comes from a place from my frustrations of having dealt with difficult earthcache owners in the past. That being said, responding quickly and in more depth is a little tougher during International Earthcache Weekend, but I tend give geological feedback on answers that I see as being pretty far off.