CascadeHandmade

Those are really neat! I did something very similar with several of my travel bugs. I posted pictures somewhere in these forums before; but I don't remember where - or how long ago. So here's a few of mine. And yes, the concern is real. People do steal/keep them. Many of mine have gone missing/are not in the location their logs say they are supposed to be. One was picked up by a newbie who was so excited to find it, and even mentioned that they would take it somewhere else to drop it off. Weeks, months and years went by with my travel bug still in their inventory. I guess they left the game - because their profile shows they haven't logged on in years. But I always hold out hope, because I myself have found travel bugs belonging to others that have been roaming around without being properly logged online for years, and suddenly turned up, alive and well. It's always a joy to be able to re-discover one and message the owner that their long-lost bug is found.

One morning I went out to run some errands. I bought a few things I needed and as just out of curiosity, I checked my geocaching app to see if there were any caches close by. There was one listed across the parking lot and about a block down. I figured there was no reason to drive, I would get a little exercise on a nice brisk morning. I put my purchases in the trunk of my car so I didn't have to carry them with me, and walked down the street. Before I even got to GZ a car pulled up behind me and a man's voice yelled out "Excuse me, Ma'am. What you're doing is illegal." It startled the heck out of me. What was I doing that was against the law? I hadn't even started looking for the cache yet, I wasn't poking around in the bushes, or tinkering with any public utilities like a lamppost or electrical box. So I turned and said "Huh?" And the guy, sitting in his car yelling through the window said "Abandoning your car in a public lot and walking away is an indication that you are up to some kind of fishy activity. I am calling the police". At this point, I was more than happy to have him call the police because I felt that a creepy guy in a car stalking a woman walking by herself seemed pretty fishy too. It seemed pretty odd that he would consider what I was doing so "illegal" since it's pretty normal for people to park in a busy shopping area parking lot and visit multiple stores in one trip. Anyway, I calmly told him to go ahead and call the police, and decided not to continue on to the cache. I went back to my car, and he slowly drove behind me the whole time, following everything I did. When I got back in my car, he stopped his car behind me so I couldn't back out of my parking space. At this point, I was getting really scared, but tried to remain calm. Luckily I noticed that the parking space next to me was vacant and even though the strange guy was parked behind me, if I was quick about it, I might be able to maneuver my car and get out of my parking spot anyway. I did this and quickly made for the exit to the parking lot. The guy was right behind me, following very closely. If I had stopped, he would have hit the back of my car. I drove straight to the police station. He said he wanted to call the police on me, so I figured I would make it easy and go directly to the police in person. They could decide which of us was doing something "illegal". Oddly, the guy did not follow me into the building. Humm. Guess he really didn't want to report me after all.

I love the idea of making your own trackables. Here are my homemade ones. Unfortunately, like most trackables, they keep getting stolen, or "held hostage" by other cachers who find them and don't place them in another cache. For that reason I hesitate to spend a lot of time and money on them. If they go "missing" (they are reported NOT to be in whatever cache inventory the last finder says they are) then I can easily just make replacement. If they are "hostage" (held by the same person for several months or a year) I politely email that cacher and ask that they be moved on. If the cacher doesn't respond to me, I "grab" it back, make a replacement and re-release. Frustrating; but it works. I also like to make my own swag - things like carved/painted wooden tokens/coins, beaded bracelets, tiny crochet toys. There is another Hide it - Find it type game around my area that involves painted rocks, so I typically do not place those in a geocache, since it's part of that separate game which is designed mostly for children who do not have/understand how GPS works.

I can't speak for everyone; but as for myself - I've been in the game for only a few years with just over 200 finds. Both my dad and my brother have started geocaching; but have even less experience then I. All three of us would love to become "hiders" as well as finders; but we understand it is a responsibility not to be taken lightly. We've found enough soggy, broken, and unmaintained caches to know what we don't want to do. We've seen enough boring pill bottles under lamp skirts to know we want something more exciting. I once adopted a couple caches from someone who moved away, and maintained them successfully for over a year. What's stopping us from hiding more is: 1) finding a good location that isn't already saturated with hides 2) figuring out who to contact for permission. When submitting a new cache for review, we cannot in good conscience check the little box that says "I have obtained permission" unless we have ACTUALLY talked to the right person - be that a land owner, manager, park ranger, city official, whatever. Finding the right person has been problematic so far. Nobody seems to know who is authorized to grant permission. Basically, if we're going to be cache owners, we want to be good ones who follow the rules and create a fun experience for our finders. Not sure if this is what has stopped other potential new hiders.

I agree with you OP, in most cases. A pen or pencil should generally be one of those things a cacher ought to always bring along. But I do understand there are reasons why somebody might not have one; because I have been in that situation once or twice myself. Once I found the cache, reached into my bag and - no pen! What happened? I usually carry two! Then I remembered. My mom borrowed one the other day, it stopped working/ran out of ink and so she had to borrow the second one and apparently didn't give it back. Another time I had a similar mishap as the one Barefoot Jeff mentioned, where I discovered the pen was not in my bag where it should have been. I walked all the way back to my car to find it had fallen out of my bag and rolled under the seat. I retrieved the pen and trekked all the way back to sign the log.

I love this idea of naming a cache after your favorite songs. I've often thought that when I'm finally ready to go out and hide some caches, I would like to name some of them using memorable quotes from my favorite movies or books. Not so much the title of the film or book itself, but a quote from it. Ideally it should have something to do with the hide or the cache container; but I suppose it doesn't have to. For example, I want to hide a really clever and difficult cache and name it "From Hell's heart I stab at thee". (A quote spoken by Captain Ahab in the book Moby Dick - The White Whale). (It was also re-quoted by Khan in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) Or maybe if I hide a cache near an observatory, I'd name it "That's no moon. It's a space station!" (Spoken by Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Episode IV) Hide one near a race track and call it "I feel the need - the need for speed!" (Spoken in unison by Maverick and Goose in the movie Top Gun)

I understand your frustration and loneliness. I have not experienced the same difficult separation from my husband; but I can say my husband is always busy with work, going out with his guy friends, or watching sports on television. He is never interested in any of my activities and hobbies. I also have nobody with whom to go geocaching (or hiking, bicycling, walking, boating, etc). Everyone always suggests that we go to geocaching events to meet other cachers in the area. You mentioned that you were concerned you might see your ex there. As for myself, I tried going to a couple geocaching events in order to meet other cachers; but I'm a pretty quiet person and it's hard for me to just walk into a group of strangers and start a conversation. I met a few people who politely said "Hello", and one nice cacher even took the time to explain a little bit about how to acquire permission from local city governments to hide my own caches in a park. But soon other people arrived. I got ignored and the conversations turned toward old stories and "inside jokes" which only people who had been around for a long time would know. I can't fault them for being close friends with each other; but I certainly didn't fit in with their little group. Like you, I typically cache alone. I am unable to search for any of the more interesting or remote caches, or the ones way out on the hiking trails, mountains, or forests because I know it's silly and dangerous to go to those places alone. Even if I'm strong and healthy, if I were to twist my ankle, take a wrong turn or my car got a flat tire out on a distant dirt road, I'd be out there lost all alone. So I'm stuck searching only for the simple, sometimes boring urban caches that are in my town. I've tried to invite family members or neighbors to go geocaching with me. They never seem interested. I guess I don't have a really helpful suggestion for you to help you find any friends in your area - since I can't find any for myself! It's too bad we live so far away from each other. However: Once I was in a craft store looking for supplies to make little handmade gifts to leave inside of the geocaches I find. I met another lady who was also buying beads. She asked me what I was making, and when I told her it was for geocaching, she said she likes to geocache also. So we got together one time and went geocaching; but unfortunately she moved away a few months later. So maybe craft stores are a good place to meet geocachers?

I must admit, compared to others in this forum, I am pretty inexperienced myself (only 207 finds) and I've only been to 1 event. However, I've been looking at events near me (wishing I could go) for a very long time. And I can tell you what they had planned. - some meet at a nice bicycle or walking trail and do a planned walk/ride. - some reserve a picnic shelter at a park and use the BBQ grill for burgers and food. - some do a CITO (Cash In Trash Out) where they all bring a garbage bag with them and pick up litter in a certain area while they are also looking for geocaches. - some meet at a body of water (lake, river, etc) with canoes, kayaks, rowboats or whatever they've got and do a big paddling convoy - some meet at a pub or winery and taste local beers or wines - some organizers plan way ahead of their event/gathering and hide several caches for the attendees to find (the organizer should commit to maintain these caches for at least several months after the event so other folks can also enjoy them) - some organizers just select a location for their event that already has several caches nearby, and attendees of their event meet up and go find those. At any or all of these meetups, cachers can talk, share stories about caching, the veteran cachers can teach the newbies, those who also participate in the Trackables side game can trade and share their trackables. The thing to remember with event caches is - like any other kind of cache, always get permission from whatever land manager or authority person you need to in order to hold a gathering somewhere. And always submit your event cache enough days ahead of time for the review folks to do their thing, and for the potential attendees to put in on their calendars and show up. *edited to add: I forgot to mention, several geocaching events around here (especially recently) have been centered around watching some big, memorable event such as an eclipse, a meteor shower, or even a city fireworks show.

Yep, it has happened to me. In fact, I told the story here in these forums some time ago (although now I can't find the thread to link to). Anyway, I was running errands and realized there was a cache near one of the stores I was shopping at. After making my purchase, I locked it in the car and walked out of the parking lot and across the street towards the cache. I hadn't even arrived at GZ yet or started looking around when a guy drove up behind me and started yelling out his window that I was suspicious and acting like a "terrorist". He had watched me put something in my car and walk away, so of course he assumed I planning something horrible. He ranted and threatened to call the police. Then he drove slowly behind me as I walked back to my car and followed me out of the parking lot. So, who is more "suspicious"? me minding my own business - or a guy who watches and follows a single women around, then yells threats and accusations at her?

I might sound strange to some; but my worst geocaching experience happened because it was too sunny and warm. I prefer cool, overcast days with soft grey clouds and perhaps a light sprinkling rain. My body is intolerant of heat - I get heat exhaustion or even heat stroke easily. I sunburn easily, even if I wear a hat, sunscreen and all sorts of other precautions. I get horrible headaches from the brightness of the sun - even if I were dark sunglasses. To quote Adam Savage of the Mythbusters "The sun and I don't really get along" I guess that just make me sound like a wuss when it comes to hot summer days - but it's a medical condition that perhaps some of you can relate to. More of you can understand however, that warm sunny days also means more non-caching public (muggles, as they are often called). So my worst caching happened on a day where the forecast called for rain and instead the morning clouds rolled off and it ended up being really hot out. When I got to the park where the caches were, I couldn't find parking - let alone look for caches in the crowds of people that were there. I came home hot, miserable, and with no smileys.

For me (and I've read posts of others who say similar) discovering a new location that I didn't know about before is the best part of Geocaching. I don't know how many times I have looked at the geocaching map and thought "Humm, looks like there are a few caches over there, let's check it out". So I go and find a park, or a trail, or beautiful view, or interesting historical landmark. Then I think "I've lived in this area my whole life and never knew this was here!!! Or, cache owners often give you the local secrets about areas I don't live in. Last year I visited Scotland. Some people in our tour group wanted to take a side trip to see a monument on top of a hill, but it appeared we would not have time to walk all the way around on the road and back again before the bus returned to pick us up. I had researched the caches in the area and said "actually, there's a little trail that goes up the the back of the hill through the trees. We should have time to go up that way." The group was amazed. How did I know about this obscure little shortcut? Geocaching!

I like to leave handmade items too. You may have noticed there is an alarming trend of cachers taking the "good" SWAG and leaving cheap stuff, broken toys, trash or nothing in it's place for the next visitors. I rarely take anything from a cache; but it's sad to think about the disappointed kids who come with their parents in search of a treasure, only to find rubbish. SO, I like to make beaded bracelets, hand carved wooden pendants, small crochet toys, handmade hair accessories or clothing embellishments (made with beads, feathers, ribbons, buttons, crochet flowers...) Just keep in mind that even though you might spend several hours/ several dollars to make these items, most everyone else leaves items worth 25 cents or less. If you feel generous and want to leave the good treasures to brighten someone's day and lead by example (in hopes others will be inspired to leave nice SWAG too) then that's great! We need more folks like you!

I have seen many cachers add the prefix "geo" to describe something or someone who is familiar with geocaching, or used for Geocaching. For example; geo-dog refers to a dog who goes geocaching with it's human geocacher companion. A geo-car is a vehicle used by a geocacher to get to a location where they will be geocaching. One can have a geo-spouse, or geo-kids. The word "ignorant" is described in the dictionary as 1. lacking knowledge or training, unlearned. 2. Lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject (in this case geocaching) So, put it together "geognorant" Maybe that sounds too clunky and difficult to say.

You're my kind of CO! I love big containers with room for SWAG and trackables! But you're right, seems to happen a lot. Not many people follow the "trade even or up" rule of leaving something equally as nice (or better) than the SWAG item you take. Most people don't even carry SWAG with them, so they have nothing to leave; but they see something in a cache that they want, so they take it anyway and leave trash in it's place. I try to lead by example - I rarely take anything from a cache; but if I find one with a nice big container with plenty of room, I might leave four or five nice little SWAG toys for the next cachers. It's kinda fun to look at the cache logs again a few days/weeks after I have found it just to see what the folks after me say. Often it's logs like "Oh, wow! Nice SWAG! We really love the *whatever*" There are plenty of people who just take the stuff and say nothing; but at least if a few other cachers after me have been inspired to leave better SWAG, great. You can find inexpensive but still nice toys and trinkets just about anywhere. Or, as my name suggests, it's fun to make handmade SWAG so you can leave something really unique. I don't know why it's so hard for cachers to just always carry a few in their bag, along with their pen and other cache tools. If I ever get an opportunity to travel to your area and find your hides, you can bet I'll leave some of my best stuff in those big containers you mentioned!

My Dad and I used to play that way for the first year or so of geocaching. We didn't own smartphones or a GPS device at all. We looked at the map on the computer at home, then just set out on a journey looking for the treasure. We'd say, "looks like it ought to be about halfway down this trail, just before you reach the fork in the road. There appears to be some sort of stream not far away." So we'd walk until we found something that looked like that and then just poked around until we spotted something that appeared to be a likely hiding place - an odd stump, or a peculiar pile of sticks, a rock that didn't quite match the surrounding area. One day we invited my step brother to go with us. He logged into the app on his smartphone and showed us the little arrow pointing us to within a few feet of the cache. Well, that took all the fun out of it. My dad said it felt like cheating. Nowadays we use GPS navigation just to get the correct coordinates; but we still don't download the cache info into it or follow the arrows. We print out the cache description and coordinates before we leave home. We read off the coordinates and slowly move slightly North, or East, or West, or South until we are standing close to the given coordinates on the cache page. Only a few times when I'm by myself and just in the mood for a quick one, do I "cheat" and use my phone app.

Those are my two biggest reasons for giving up my search. If I'm having trouble finding the cache, I check the previous logs. If several other people before me have also DNF, I quit looking a lot sooner than if they'd all claimed a Found It. But honestly, the muggle factor is the biggest one for me. If I'm in a secluded area looking for a cache and nobody is around to notice me poking around in the bushes, I'll keep looking for up to an hour before giving up. But I leave ground zero pretty quickly (5 minutes) if other people are around to notice me. I hate having to explain my reasons for being there, I hate people watching me, I hate curious onlookers, I hate interruptions. I'm a grumpy old lady, I guess.

My guess is that this is exactly the motivation for stealing caches in this case and would only encourage him. I would say the opposite, that it happens all the time and doesn't matter at all. I once explained geocaching to an adult who asked me about it, and his first question after my explanation was "What would happen if I took a dump in the cache?". I was baffled how this could be the first thing that comes to mind... Unfortunately, this type of behavior is hard to fix. There are those who just derive pleasure in spoiling the game for everyone else. It's just like a bully who kicks down a little kid's sand castle or smashes someone's beautifully carved pumpkin. They're usually quite satisfied with themselves for having robbed dozens or perhaps hundreds of other people from enjoying looking at it as they walk by.

Problem solved, I guess. It was on a website for a support group I am in. We were talking about other hobbies that we enjoy in order to keep our minds off our problems - so to speak. Several of us explained to the poster why they shouldn't share the tracking codes off the travel bugs and they have since deleted it. I saw someone else do it on another social media site too; but the codes were all for his/her own bugs, so whatever. Seems like a boring way to play the game; but it's their choice at least.

grrr! It's bad enough that this person is hoarding other peoples travel bugs and geocoins instead of moving them on to another cache. They are now proudly posting pictures and a list of all the codes on social media so anybody anywhere in the world can discover them virtually and mess up the mileage and true location on the bugs page. I'm sure the owners will be real happy about that... I don't know if I'm allowed to say where I saw this, or post a link to another forum... But I feel like the owners of those bugs should know so they can lock their bug if they want. What should I do?

There have been more and more encampments around my area too. I am concerned about safety mainly because I am a woman who sometimes caches alone. There have been recent local news stories about people being attacked/assaulted, so I actually have not been able to cache as often as I would like because nobody is available to accompany me. I have been approached by a homeless person once or twice; but so far they have only politely asked for money and have not acted threatening - so far. The part that makes me sad is when I find an abandoned homeless camp while I am out caching. It's always littered with trash, empty bottles and food wrappers, dirty discarded blankets and clothes, or stolen shopping carts. It frustrates me to see s beautiful part of the outdoors turned into a garbage dump. When possible, I try to clean up a little; but I am always worried there could be drug needles or something.

Well, one cache I found was very close to a lavender farm, so that was nice. I suppose during most of the year, the lavender is not in bloom, so most other finders are not treated with such a lovely smell. Another cache was behind a coffee shop. The smell of fresh brewed coffee was ok, if you are the type who really loves coffee. I don't; but it wasn't bad. A third cache that ended in a DNF was hidden near some wild rose bushes. Even though I didn't get the smilie, I enjoyed the smell!

I agree that this has been one of my pet peeves/frustrations as well. When I find a whole grouping (or powertrail) of micros using up some nice locations that could easily support larger or higher quality hides, it bugs me a little. I imagine that some of the cache owners hide micros for this very reason. Too many finders who don't respect the rules and appreciate the work that was put into a quality cache - so the cache gets vandalized or stolen, damaged, looted. Eventually the hiders get tired of spending their own time and money replacing expensive containers, filling them with nice SWAG,etc. So they just hide cheap micros instead. And, there are many threads on this topic... much of this was brought on by the free phone apps which have made it so much easier for everybody to try caching.

As Happiness mentioned, the rock group that the artist participates in is painted on the back side of the rock. Here in Western Washington State, there are dozens of different cities/towns that each have their own groups. In addition to Port Angeles and Whidbey Island, there's Des Moines, Tacoma, Sequim, Puyallup, Kirkland, Burien, Edmonds, Redmond, Bellevue, Renton, etc. Most are Facebook; but some also use sites like Twitter to post. My neighbors kids enjoy finding the rocks; but love even more getting to see when someone else has found one of theirs. But it's true what others have said; it's like travel bugs - many of the rocks are found and kept by the finders who never go online to post about it, so the artists/hiders just have to be satisfied that if their rocks disappear without anyone posting about it, somebody else must have found it and enjoyed it enough to keep it - even if you don't know who. Edit to fix typo

The rock painting thing is/was very popular around Western Washington State. I think it started in Port Angeles and Whidbey Island; both heavy tourist areas. Tourists who discovered it there then returned home and started rock painting groups in their own towns. My neighbors kids are big into it. It seems to have slowed down a bit when school started up again in September; but there are still quite a few people who participate. It does not use GPS. The rocks are just left anywhere and the finder has the option of posting that they found it on whatever online group it has marked on it or not. Then they keep the rock or hide it somewhere else. It seems to appeal mostly to kids because it's kinda like finding Easter Eggs.

Unfortunately, that seems to happen A LOT. I have had a couple of my travel bugs disappear from the very first cache where I released them. Others have been moved on. Many cachers are new, and maybe don't know or understand how they are supposed to log when they take or move one. Some cachers are too lazy to log it correctly, some have good intentions; but just forget. Sometimes people confuse the trackables for SWAG and think they can keep them. And some people are just jerks. They know they aren't supposed to keep them; but they do anyway. Then that's just stealing. But it is always the risk you take when you release a trackable. And I agree. It is frustrating and disappointing. I know some people who just don't release their travel bugs at all. They just carry it with them and "dip" them in each cache they themselves visit. I feel like that kind of defeats the purpose of a tracksble. I release mine. And yes, some have gone missing. But I've heard plenty of stories about how tracksbles have reappeared months or even years later. They have been moved around and nobody logged them correctly. Finally some good cacher finds them and goes online to log correctly. Yay! So don't lose hope. Just know that it is VERY likely that your tracksbles might go "off the grid" from time to time.