[While Geocaching in the Woods..]

Do you walk close together with who you are with, and hold the branches for them until they can reach them?

 

Or do you walk far apart from each other?

 

(And of course there's always: Do you let the branches slap them?)

 

This question was answered in two different ways by people from two different regions. It made me think about it, and I have never been in the woods with anyone that walked far apart from me. (Although I have been in the woods with people that let the branches slap me)

 

So, is it a regional thing? Or just a matter of preference? .. Or maybe how you were taught when you were young?

You can't find a geocache with a bleeding eyeball, after all! You would have to do one of the two.. or three.

[Eye protection]

Is it a regional thing? Here, it is considered rude if you don't hold the branches for the next person behind you.. we always walk close together.

I'm going to post this question. I'm curious who does which.

[Eye protection]

Does anyone ever use some sort of eye protection when caching in dense brush? Seems to me that it would be prudent to protect against the sneaky thorned vine or similar hazard.

 

Rule number one when caching with others - Never walk close behind as their passing branch will slap you in the face.

 

Write it down.

Ha! You beat me to it!

[Eye protection]

Don't walk behind rude people in the forest. Or people that have never been to a forest.

 

They won't hold the branches and vines to the side and wait for you to grab them.

 

The headlamp previously mentioned is a great idea. Although I cut mine to keep tied around my hand, because I found that it won't quite illuminate where you need it to when you get to GZ, no matter how you contort your neck. Of course, for this problem you could always bring along a smaller flashlight.. My modification happened during a late night last-minute caching run. I don't tend to think things through at 3:00 A.M...

[what is your thought on gcrm]

As for this thread's original subject, I also agree with the previous posters who say that the intentions of the idea are good. It's the execution that's a nightmare.

 

If cachers had been allowed to replace caches they couldn't find and assumed muggled, we'd have a mess of throw-downs all around GZ of several of our caches. It's bad enough that they write in their logs that it's "without a doubt compromised", or that "the coords are bad", when it's there and they just couldn't find it. (Major discouragement to the next cacher who comes along..who probably could have found it, but decides not to because they assume it needs maintenance.)

Imagine being the next person to try to find it, and you go out there with a couple of family members, and you ALL find it.. or find containers, anyways. That doesn't seem very fun. Not to me, anyways. Others may have a different opinion.

[what is your thought on gcrm]

I learned something. I was under the impression that if you created a "power trail", that you also maintained it...even if it was a big chore.

 

I know that not every cache owner is a good cache owner. But I now have the impression that no power trail out there is currently being maintained by the people that created it. Is that the case?

[Teen Geocacher shot in leg for tresspassing?]

I've been following this story..

 

He got seven years in prison because they were not on his property, but along the edge of it. It appears that they had wandered a little far, but weren't on his property yet. Also, he told them to leave, and they were in the process with complying .. and he shot at them as they were leaving.

 

He says that he shot into the air, but we all know that a kid's not going to get a bullet lodged in his leg if you shoot into the air. *unless the person was a mile or so away* Maybe to the side, with richochet..maybe at their backs. That, we'll never know. We weren't there.

 

Yes, we have to be careful out there. Just as careful as we'd have to be doing anything else outdoors.

I was once kayaking with my husband and a couple of friends down a river in North Carolina. A man yelled at us from the shore, telling us not to mess with his trotlines. We just smiled and waved, and continued talking amongst ourselves. He yelled out, "THEY CALL ME 'THE GHOST!'" We nervously looked at each other, and then kept talking amongst ourselves as we floated by. He then yelled out, "YA'LL MAKIN' FUN OF ME?? I'M GOIN' TO GET MY GUN!" ..and runs to his house. We booked it out of there.

You can run into cRaZy anywhere, doing anything.

 

If somebody even mentions a gun, or is holding a gun or a weapon of any kind.. Get Out Fast.

[Ammo boxes being stolen?]

I once had a friend that stole my magnet off of my fridge. I went to his house and stole it back. He then came and stole it again. I went and stole it back, put it on my car, invited him for a ride somewhere. He stole it again. So, I went to his house while he was at work, and stole his fake deer out of his yard. Left the head in my yard, yanked the rest up a tree with a rope. He stole it back...along with my rope and a chair off the front porch...

 

See where this is going?

 

It not only never ends, it snowballs.

 

Granted this scenario had turned into a good-natured game.. imagine it snowballing without the good nature.

[i thought virtuals were coming back]

hmm... I have a different view. Not saying that other views aren't just as valid.. this is just a different perspective:

 

I look at all of geocaching as a challenge in the first place.

In the "traditional sense", somebody's posting coords for a place on the map and challenging me to go out there and see if I can find what they hid there. Which is challenging me to get up, get out, and do something. If I succeed I get to feel like I accomplished something (however small) and tell them all about it. (If I don't succeed I also tell them about it.. but it's a different feeling)

 

A challenge is basically the same thing to me.

 

Somebody posts coords for a place on the map and challenges me to go out there and see if I can do what they did. (Let's hope they did it, anyways.) Which, again, is challenging me to get up, get out, and do something. If I succeed- same feeling, same deal with telling them about it. (If I don't, same deal yet same feeling as if I didn't succeed in finding a cache.)

 

I know there's some that feel differently, some that like it old school. That's alright... nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But as for me? I fail to see much of a difference, and if you only do the challenges that you would be interested in, it can be just as fun.

 

Then again, I've only successfully completed three challenges... and I LOVE the goofy ones.. So what do I know?

That is not a bad explanation.

 

At first there was little doubt that geocaching was about hiding a container (or something else), and having other people find it using GPS. But even before the establishment of this website, Dave Ulmer was suggesting what he called the "Wondert Game", where just going to the location was the reward in itself.

 

In order to grow the game in the early years Groundspeak was much freer about what they listed on Geocaching.com. The idea of a virtual cache as way to allow the game to expand into areas where hiding a physical cache would be impractical or impossible was born and nurtured. Unfortunately allowing people to simply share locations this way caused its own set of problems. After a number of years of tweaking the guidelines to deal with various problems of virtual caches, Groundspeak determined that the best solution was to separate them out of geocaching. For practical reasons the existing virtual caches were grandfathered and allowed to remain as geocaches. (Also EarthCaches ended up remaining a part of Geocaching, after some negotiation between Grounspeak and EarthCache.org.)

 

Now, Waymarking should have ended up satisfying the need to share interesting places. Even though most Waymarking categories did not have the game dynamics or challenge aspect of most virtual caches, there were some attempts by individuals to start Waymarking categories along these lines. But these attempts at game play tended to get lost among what some saw as the clutter of Waymarking. Also there was no doubt that part of the popularity of virtual caches was that you could do them as part of geocaching. You didn't have to go to another site; virtuals were returned in your pocket queries along with physical caches; and finding a virtual cache added to you find count.

 

Challenges are Groundspeak's third attempt at finding a solution for virtual caches. It recognizes the need for game dynamics and uses the idea of a challenge to do this. Like hiding a physical cache and challenging someone to find it, challenges allow you to provide a action that must be done at a particular location and challenge others to go there and do it. Challenges are also listed on the Geocaching.com site, so they're no longer located on another site that some find hard to navigate. But so far challenges are not much better integrated with geocaching than waymarks are. You can't get the nearby challenges in a PQ along with geocaches; and while your completed challenge count appears with geocaching statistics, they don't count as geocache finds.

True, they don't count as "cache finds" but they do count as "challenges completed".. and are listed right next to find counts. I actually really like the way it looks. It's also included in the logs..

Are people really unhappy with this setup?

And they have mentioned something about including Challenges in PQs in the future, right?

[Why Do You Geocache?]

 

Because there's a different aspect of this game for everyone's tastes. With more developing all the time.

 

You like trackables? Set 'em out. Move 'em.

You like LPCs? More power to ya.. there's plenty.

You like long hikes? We've got those too!

You like planning parties and all the social aspects of life? There's plenty of room for you as well.

You're a loner and don't want anyone to really know what's up? All the offline cachers should be indicative that you can be one, too!

Like the goofy side of things? Come caching with us!

[i thought virtuals were coming back]

hmm... I have a different view. Not saying that other views aren't just as valid.. this is just a different perspective:

 

I look at all of geocaching as a challenge in the first place.

In the "traditional sense", somebody's posting coords for a place on the map and challenging me to go out there and see if I can find what they hid there. Which is challenging me to get up, get out, and do something. If I succeed I get to feel like I accomplished something (however small) and tell them all about it. (If I don't succeed I also tell them about it.. but it's a different feeling)

 

A challenge is basically the same thing to me.

 

Somebody posts coords for a place on the map and challenges me to go out there and see if I can do what they did. (Let's hope they did it, anyways.) Which, again, is challenging me to get up, get out, and do something. If I succeed- same feeling, same deal with telling them about it. (If I don't, same deal yet same feeling as if I didn't succeed in finding a cache.)

 

I know there's some that feel differently, some that like it old school. That's alright... nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But as for me? I fail to see much of a difference, and if you only do the challenges that you would be interested in, it can be just as fun.

 

Then again, I've only successfully completed three challenges... and I LOVE the goofy ones.. So what do I know?

[Damage to GZ]

Double post

[Damage to GZ]

Block letters at the beginning of the cache description, give it a month, and if damage is STILL being done, consider archiving. However, could it be muggles having seen cachers searching that are doing the damage?

Wouldn't muggles, not knowing what they are looking for, have a more open mind about what they ate picking up, & therefore muggled it by now? -edited out what the actual cache is-

[Damage to GZ]

It's a hard lesson to learn, every time I have to learn it. It's. A constant truth that one bad apple ruins the bunch, but I have to relearn it every time. I will give it another shot. I wasn't ignoring you,geotagbloger. I was taking everything read into consideration. Please excuse typos, on the phone now, after drinks. Ha

[Damage to GZ]

We're going to go to Lowe's & just fix it ourselves. & put down a better hint. & probably archive it as it will probably happen again. & we will fix it again if it does. But for the record; It's ridiculous. You either do what's right or you don't. If you don't, you don't belong in the game.

[Damage to GZ]

I try not to read the logs of a cache unless I get stuck. I sorta equate it to reading the hint.

 

We did the same thing when we started. Actually patted ourselves on the back for finding w/o reading the description. With more experience, we realized this was reckless as we often did not read critical approach and time restrictions that the CO had identified. It's the CO's responsibility to communicate these specifics, it's the finder's responsibility to read them.

 

To the OP, I'm curious about what was communicated to you by the property owner/manager. Do they want to hold you personally accountable?

They don't know yet. I get the awkward honors of not only telling them, but also trying to explain that not all cachers are like this. What evidence can I show them to the contrary?

 

I'll repeat it again. If ground zero cannot handle searching by heavy handed cachers there probably shouldn't be a cache there in the first place.

 

You will only go forth to damage your relationship with the property owners by stating that we're not all like that because there are always a couple of us that are.

...this cache wasn't put in a sensitive area. There really was no reason to rip a metal, tacked in sign off a brick wall. There was no reason to completely dismantle a otherwise sturdy outdoor lamp. Especially when they could email for a hint. Or ask a previous finder. (There was one.) I could see maybe accidentally falling into a bush, or trampling it. Or accidentally breaking a hinge on an electrical box if it was near one. But this was a little too far. This would be the equivalent of ripping an entire electrical box off the building, or yanking the bush out of the ground.

[Damage to GZ]

I try not to read the logs of a cache unless I get stuck. I sorta equate it to reading the hint.

 

We did the same thing when we started. Actually patted ourselves on the back for finding w/o reading the description. With more experience, we realized this was reckless as we often did not read critical approach and time restrictions that the CO had identified. It's the CO's responsibility to communicate these specifics, it's the finder's responsibility to read them.

 

To the OP, I'm curious about what was communicated to you by the property owner/manager. Do they want to hold you personally accountable?

They don't know yet. I get the awkward honors of not only telling them, but also trying to explain that not all cachers are like this. What evidence can I show them to the contrary?

[Damage to GZ]

It's killing me. It should be a relatively easy find. No, it's not the usual film canister, but it's still kind of obvious. Snake biting the nose obvious. *sigh* we thought they'd really like it. Oh well.

[Damage to GZ]

Do any of you have issues with cachers damaging the cache area around GZ?

I ask, because we have a cache that we have to check on often now, because the areas been damaged twice, pretty badly, since we put the cache there. I'm talking an outdoor lamp & a sign getting torn off a wall.

I've done two maintenance logs asking them not to do it...

So, if this happens elsewhere, what do you do? Do you move the cache?

I mean, I know it's something they probably haven't seen before, but they can email us for a hint. We'd even be willing to give them our number, no problem. I don't understand why they do it.

[Nano's need for an icon ?]

And I get really aggravated at hide-a-keys & Altoids tins being listed as smalls. To me, they can fit very little to no swag ..they are MICROS. If I can't fit a normal travel dog tag attached to a normal-sized keychain-like object in there, your cache is a micro.

 

You can put a camera in an altoid tin:

 

I'd love to find a camera in an Altoids tin! ...oh, wait.. anything I tried to trade for it wouldn't fit in the tin.

A $100 bill in a baggie would[remember trade even or up]

lol OK. Or...I could go buy a new one that hasn't gotten wet. Just an option.

[The lost art of logging]

Someone should probably write something like this up in "getting started".. I know I STAYED in that forum for a few months into the game. I can't be alone in that..

[The lost art of logging]

It's also nice to get commended for your logs. I've been complimented by log owners & also random cachers that have found a lot of the same caches. I'm not going to lie, it feels good when the effort is recognized.

[Would anyone be interested in Cache Containers?]

I love your spirit at 17 trying to do it! I think on ebay you might be able to if you come up with cool containers! I like to make my own as that is part of the fun for me but others might be into it! Good luck and I hope it works out to get you some cache!

-WarNinjas

Oh. Such a bad pun..

[Could not physically find my own cache.]

Oooh yup I've done that. It was our second hide, & I hid it well. So well that when I went back for the first maintenance run I couldn't find it! While I was laughing at myself and thinking, "no wonder nobody else can either.." my stepson found it. You've never heard such gloating .. ha

[Nano's need for an icon ?]

And I get really aggravated at hide-a-keys & Altoids tins being listed as smalls. To me, they can fit very little to no swag ..they are MICROS. If I can't fit a normal travel dog tag attached to a normal-sized keychain-like object in there, your cache is a micro.

 

You can put a camera in an altoid tin:

 

I'd love to find a camera in an Altoids tin! ...oh, wait.. anything I tried to trade for it wouldn't fit in the tin.