Hi everyone, I joined a few weeks ago and I'm really enjoying the website so far. I have even placed my first cache and a few people have found it.
However, I feel I might have been viewing the hobby through rose-tinted glasses when I signed up. I have only found 35 caches but out of those I have found empty plastic wrappers, mouldy food, used band-aids, offensive messages directed at players, pornography and solicitations for prostitution. While I understand the real objective and fun of the hobby is finding the cache and not finding the treasure, finding these things really puts a damper on my enthusiasm. Is this just a reality of the sport or have I had bad luck?
I have been trying to clean them up, by removing anything I would consider trash from the containers. One Sunday out geocaching in the woods I found all the caches in this particular area were full of mouldy food. It was evident that this food had been in the cache for a very long time and many people had logged it without removing it. Should I have just left it? Is it my place to remove trash from caches? The forest in question has a rodent and vermin pest control operation in place in order to help restore the population of native birds. Obviously having rotting food is not helping with this and attracts vermin. I was angry to say the least when I found this in caches.
I suppose this is what happens when you make the location available to any idiot with an iPhone.
Anyway, I am going mountain climbing this weekend and as it is a place relatively untouched by the masses I am hoping to find some good caches.
On the positive side of things, I have found some great caches in some cool places I didn't even know existed and that makes it all worth it in the end, doesn't it? I have been putting some old coins from the early 20th Century in the caches and I hope finding these coins has brought pleasure to some people.
Regards
Leon
