TheAuthorityFigures

Has any cache owners purposely hidden a geocache in a patch of Jumping Cholla? Or actually on one of the plants itself? From the description I read about the Jumping Cholla one would have to be a sadistic, cruel and evil (insert vulgar expletive here) to do so but would do so because they think it funny or just simply because they can. The thing is I actually know people who would do such a thing. No these people are not my friends, I just know who they are. They would actually throw a piece of Jumping Cholla at another person as a means of playing a prank or joke on them. Yeah, I know of some pretty messed up people. Not to my knowledge. I've been to a few caches that were uncomfortably close to cholla, but it was just incidental to being a open desert cache. If someone purposefully hid a cache in a cholla cactus, more than likely if someone were able to retrieve it without massive blood loss, it would surely be re-located by an angry cacher pretty quickly. And rightfully so.

Hmm, lets see. Probably the most encountered wildlife in my neck of the woods is either rattlesnakes or Africanized bees (not counting the furry cute jack and cottontail rabbits). Especially starting now when its starting to get really hot. I've encountered both caching. But my job is one that has me outdoors in remote Arizona desert, so I've seen just about everything the Sonoran desert has to offer as far as toothy, stingy, spiny, pokey, scratchy, bitey. I've had close encounters with all manner of snakes, Gila Monsters, javelina, angry swarms of bees, flying ants, bats, coyotes, mountain lions, black widow spiders, scorpions and tarantulas... but by FAR the most feared creature in our neck of the woods isn't an animal at all, but a plant. The infamous Jumping Cholla. My heart rate shoots up when I see it. There are areas down here that are a literal ocean of it. You do not touch it. You do not approach it. You do not dare make eye contact with it. You live down here long enough and you will have an encounter with it. I swear it was developed in a secret military compound, some sort of cold war black military project to weaponize a plant. It escaped its developers and captors and now roams the desert extracting its revenge on unsuspecting cachers. Horrible, evil stuff Cholla is. :::::shiver::::

I have several TB's out in the same situation. I simply look at as they're keeping me updated as to its whereabouts. As none of my tb's have any specific goals, I don't mind this at all and I actually appreciated it. Pics included? Otherwise, you really don't know that they even have it anymore. We've seen some supposedly lugging around a dozen or better cache-to-cache. The size of some, I find that hard to believe. Just logging codes. I wish, posting pics of TB's is a rare thing. Perhaps I'm deluding myself but I still appreciate it.

I have several TB's out in the same situation. I simply look at as they're keeping me updated as to its whereabouts. As none of my tb's have any specific goals, I don't mind this at all and I actually appreciated it.

I think it's great. Good luck and hope people have fun with your cache. Looks like you've already have someone inquiring as to the legality of lock picking tools! Shocking.

The goals seem reasonable. Maybe you should add a few more like visiting the Sea of Tranquility or the bridge of the Titanic? Go big or go home I guess! Good luck keffi!

Hmm... lock picking. Very interesting. I too would follow this cache just to see what happens. My guess is less than 1/10 of 1% of all geocachers have the tools, much less the skill set. I guess with the internet though you can learn any skill set these days. I envision a large increase of people typing "how to pick a lock" into search engines in your area and a few eyebrows raised in the local FBI field branch.

Are people that sensitive? It's like a 4 year old throwing a tantrum.

And yet you haven't posted a NA log?? Because I'm curious to see how long it lasts.

I vote for this.

This one made me laugh because its true. When a cacher does this, what is going through his/her head is this; "hmm, surely this could be done better... I'll help this clueless CO out. My altruism knows no bounds. Give myself a nice pat on my back."

my choice is archive. Some won't like that and say it depends on how they do things locally. In my area, a cache can go for literally years with dnf's, cache owner long gone, and for some reason when another cacher attempts to find the unfindable, they log another dnf and no NM or NA. For some reason the locals in my area have an aversion to submitting those kind of logs, and will post their concerns for maintenance or archival in a note instead. I find it funny really. Here is a typical example of what I speak of, GC1899N. I drive by this cache (who am I kidding, its a virtual) everyday for 15 years to and from work, and the past construction destroyed it long ago. Owner, long gone. I'm now curious how long it will remain on the map, and look forward to more (will not) finders writing notes to a non existent owner. If you place a throwdown, you're propping up negligent or non existent owner, imo.

It would seem your TB fell victim to a one month wonder cacher. Really the only thing you can do is wait and see if this person picks up geocaching again someday, but as of now they haven't been active since October of last year. It's the risk all TB's take when released in the "wild".

it would seem a finder posted a pick of your bug with the code clearly showing back in 2010. I would also try to delete that photo from the log. Then open your favorite adult beverage and take pleasure in deleting all the bogus discoveries. Not sure if this will stop all the bogus discoveries in the future, but with that pic off the log it might slow them down considerably.

Well, I guess "easy" is a relative word. It certainly doesn't seem like you've experienced any difficulties. I guess what I'm not understanding is "I was unable to find an easy tutorial on how to pick up and drop off a TB." When anybody types in geochaching dot com into their browser, the first page of the web site has a link in that beautiful mountain picture that says; "learn more about geocaching and..." which leads to just about anything you wanted to know in the geocaching universe, including TB's. I'm not an IT person either, but I find the TB side of the geocaching game just as easy to understand and play and logging a found/not found on a cache. But then again I don't geocache the way most do nowadays with their cell phone (at least this is how it appears). My cell is for calls and the occasional text, i.e. no data plan. I use a gps'r and plan my geocaching forays in a nice little log book, hand written! The Horror! The advantage is, I actually look at the cache page or TB page on my home computer before my boots even hit the ground.

I'm not the OP, but what he was referring to is attaching something more than just the TB tag to the traveler. Some folks attach a laminated card or sheet with explicit instructions as to its "goal" and or instructions on how to log the TB properly on gc dot com. Sometimes this is referred to as a "passport" or "goal sheet". I myself attach a Travel Bug Buddy along with TB tag to all my travel bugs. It does the same thing except state the goal of the TB (which none of mine have anyway).

You are correct sir, and you did the right thing. The others... not so much. Did you also post a NM log?

That's pretty cool finding a tb that old in the wild. I'd say go for it, but if you're concerned, I'd just email the TO and ask if that would be ok. After 11 years I can't imagine they'd have a problem with that especially if your taking to a place it's never been to before. I looked at the owner and I'm not sure if he/she is still active (last log in around April 2015). If it were me, I'd take obi wan camping and to the islands.

GC5G7DY Maybe?

I understand your frustration, so we should all take your post as a vent or rant that I think it is, and NOT (hopefully) as a legitimate threat. I think most cachers are nice. But I also think many (note I said many, not all) cachers are, how should I say this..... self absorbed? Which I guess makes geocachers pretty representative of general populations of humans in general. Yes, I get frustrated that people don't read the TB page. Yes, I get frustrated that people don't log. Yes, I get frustrated with some peoples casual indifference to other peoples property (both caches and TBs). But I'm also reminded by so many cachers in my neck of the desert of how wonderful they are, how well they play the game and set an example for all to follow (writing great personal logs, always logging TBs and KNOWING if they can or can't help a tb). I certainly pay attention, and try my best to model my geocaching behavior from these individuals.

I hear ya. What's a mystery to me is the lack of response. I've sent a few email/messages to a few cachers also (always friendly), and my experience is about a 30% response rate. Every email/message sent to me has gotten a timely response. It seems geocachers are as a whole, an uncommunicative bunch. For what reason, I don't know why.

My online log would have looked something like this: "Hmmm. Last signature in the cache log before mine today, _ _ 2014. That's curious! Thanks for the cache!"

The FTF crew in my neck of the woods seem like a pretty good group of guys. From what I can tell, they are a bit older (retired) and seem like a very amiable group that has known each other for years. I've never met any of them, but if I didn't have 50+ hour work weeks, I would love to do what they are able to do. Work gets in the way too much of me having fun.

The TB in question actually belongs to my daughter and her husband. It is called HunterPilot1393 and the id is: TB6QHB9. This is a family race with 6 TBs and I am in charge of it. Out of the 6 TBs 3 are MIA, so I would really like this one to register the miles correctly. Thanks for any help. Have you tried emailing or messaging the current holder? Like others have said, it needs to visit or be placed in a cache for the miles to register.