haber

Whenever you're outside walking, you can't help but think: That would be a good spot for a cache. Oh, that would be another good spot for a cache. That person looks suspicious. I wonder if they're geocaching.

I'm torn. My son would be great cover for the urban micros. We could be counting ants, collecting sticks, hide&seek in a bush. Kids can do anything without looking suspicious. But without the swag, he wouldn't see the point of an urban micro. Although after walking right past two micros today and deciding the 4-lane road and sidewalk were too busy for stealth, I've considered bringing him along for those, adding my own bribe, and pretending it was in the cache.

As far as guys having an easier time relieving themselves in the woods, that's not always true. Many moons ago, I was camping with a boyfriend on an island. Crown land. No designated campsites. No outhouses. I've pretty much perfected the squat but I still have to hike a lot further into the bush to feel that my cover is adequate -- unlike my boyfriend who goes to the edge of the clearing and pees into the bushes. But the next day, he needs to do a bigger job. He claims he's incapable of squatting and hovering. After searching the whole island and deciding there were no suitable logs for him to sit on, we take the boat to another island. I stand on the shore while he goes to find the "perfect log." A few minutes later...CRACK! ARRRRGH! Ya. His log broke.

Friday afternoon, before 3 P.M. I pull into the street and find parking. Seems to be a disproportionate number of muggles hanging around their driveways. Doesn’t anyone work, nowadays? Oh wait, I wasn’t at work either. Find the entrance to the trails. We could go along the fence but decide to descend immediately to the creek. It’s a darn steep hill. I’m holding the 4-year old’s hand, making sure he doesn’t fall. We stick to deeper snow, but at one point we had to cross some mud. Wipe out! My butt is absolutely covered in mud. I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to sit in the car and debating whether to go back or go on. What the heck, it isn’t that cold. I’m wiping my son’s one dirty hand with a hat (oh yeah, gotta remember to throw that in the wash) and thinking I should pull out the camera so son could commemorate my butt for the cache page. (See, I’m thinking of my fellow geocachers.) KA-BOOM!!! Across the creek and up the hill there are flames in the bush, and the distinctive laughter of teenage boys who just did something they shouldn’t have, but didn’t that blow up real good? “OK, time to go home, buddy. They’re playing with fireworks.” Get to the top of the hill. Muggle dog walker checking things out. I’m trying to edge past so my butt doesn’t show while discussing the bomb makers in the bush. Get back to the street where we parked. If you thought there were muggles out before, you should see how many appear when someone sets off a homemade bomb 200 meters away. So great, everyone is looking for suspicious characters and here is a someone hurrying out of the paths that only locals would use, looking furtive (it was to cover my butt, I swear), and getting into a car, after first rummaging in the trunk (for paper towels and a plastic bag to sit on, not to tuck away my bomb supplies.) If the police arrive on my doorstep because someone wrote down my license plate, you’ll back me up, right guys?

I love the idea of a rating system for caches. I'm all about the quality, not the quantity of the finds. I don't want to debate membership but if it could only be viewed by premium members, than presumably, only premium members could give ratings. I'd rather see lots of ratings. And seeing as I'm about the quality, I haven't done any terrible caches. There are caches that have sounded great -- in a nice wooded area near my house. I go to the trouble to map them and discover that yes, they're in the woods. A mere 30 feet into the woods beside a busy 4 lane road, with no parking anywhere for a mile around it. I don't want to walk (with my 4-year old son) along a busy road for 20 minutes just to spend a few minutes in the bush. I'd like a decent hike along a pleasant trail. It seems completely out of proportion to the effort required. On the other hand, I doubt those caches will get muggled. What sane (a.k.a. non-geocaching) person would go to all the trouble to walk in those woods.

There's an urban micro close to my office. I've gone out on a couple of lunch hours searching for it but haven't found it yet. (Also trying to be subtle with the lunch time crowd around). I haven't given up, and people have found it recently so I doubt it's missing, so don't see the point of a DNF. But after reading this thread, a note explaining all the humourous pains I've gone to so far might be in order. Now if only I can write the story without giving spoilers...

I’m late to this discussion but I’m fairly new to geocaching and only started wading through the forums a couple of days ago. I’m sorry the public consultation window has ended. I’m a letter writer from way back. I hope that the letter sent on Dec 13 prompted many more geocachers to write in before the deadline. I wonder if PC is still monitoring the e-mail account. I might write anyway. I’m probably committing some faux pas by addressing comments from a closed thread but here goes: To the people who claim that losing 2.5% of our land mass for geocaching is no big deal, the big deal is the slippery slope. Provincial parks will look to the national park system. The city parks will look to the provincial parks. Pretty soon we’ll have nothing left but ugly urban micros. No offence intended to those who enjoy the stealth aspect of those types of caches Not generally my cup of tea, although I do currently have one in my sights for a lunch hour mission. To the people who think it’s sad that others need a box of McCrap to visit our natural wonders, a valid point. I’ve been a long time park visitor and I will continue to visit whether I can geocache there or not. Unfortunately, my 4 year old son is a different story. Although we keep hikes short, and try to keep them interesting for him, he would still rather stay inside and play with his toys or watch TV. (As outdoor lovers, we’re rather horrified. ) We bought the GPS because of him. We figured treasure hunting would be the only thing to entice him off the couch. And sure enough, it works. He has a great time, with no whining or wanting to turn back. Of course he doesn’t want to turn back…he’d miss out on the treasure at the end of the trail! Virtual caches would be meaningless to him. Besides, isn’t the point moot? I haven’t waded deep enough in the forums to understand why GC.com doesn’t allow virtual caches, even in locations where physical caches aren’t allowed – that’s a whole other argument – but apparently they don’t and they aren’t going to change their policy to accommodate our problems. I find it annoying that PC isn’t going to announce a new policy until the summer. Another camping season wasted. When we were first considering buying a GPS, one of my first thoughts was how great it was going to be for camping. I figured there would be some fantastic cache sites in the parks and was looking forward to visiting them. Apparently I should have started this hobby a few years earlier. I don’t know why it takes so long for PC to form their final policy when they could quickly slap an interim ban on geocaching without any thought or consultation at all. All that being said, I do find the straw man policy on the BC Parks thread, and the links on the OGA website to the current policies of Hamilton, Niagara, and the Royal Botanical Gardens to be very promising. If those land stewards can come up with reasonable compromises that don’t inhibit the sport unduly, than I have high hopes that Parks Canada will do the same.

Although it may not hold any weight legally, I think the word "staff" should be looked at as key to the amount of bureaucracy an organization should be made to follow. Although I'm not familiar with the inner-workings of the OGA, I doubt they have any "front-line staff" when lifetime membership is free or $5.00. Could they afford to incorporate? I doubt it. Do the volunteers who all have day jobs have time to turn themselves into lawyers on weekends? No, they're out geocaching. I'm grateful for the amount of time they already spend on their incredibly useful website, and liasing with Parks staff. I just want to add that I'm a "member" of an astronomy club. I attended one astronomy event and someone asked me if I wanted to sign up. I asked what it entailed and he laughed. No membership fees, no charter, no real executive. Just an e-mail list, and a bunch of star-crazy guys who occasionally send out newsletters saying, hey, let's get together at Tim Horton's and discuss astronomy, or, dark skies forecast for Saturday night, and we're meeting at X location. Maybe I'm naive but not worrying about every last scrap of red tape seems warranted in this case.

But the question remains. How do bones get up and walk out of the graveyard?

Wow, what BC Parks is doing is so much more civilized than what Parks Canada and Ontario did with their interim policies (a.k.a. bans). It gives me hope that the PC and Ontario problems will be resolved in a positive manner. I'm coming west this summer. I hope to visit some of your provincial park caches.