Mick McPhee

I have been a member since 2003. I have placed 91 caches in SW Colorado. We have lots of cachers both domestic and foreign who visit Mesa Verde National Park. I like to place large caches where one can leave trackables as well exchange SWAG, especially for the kids. I have purchased about two dozen plastic "tool box" sized containers. I have placed lots of SWAG including strings of beads, marbles, small toys, dice, plastic animals or dinosaurs, foreign coins, polished rocks, fool's gold, etc. But when I go back to replace a log or check on the condition of the cache I find gum wrappers, old business cards, scraps of fabric, rusty bolts, grungy paper, broken toys, used tickets, bottle caps, etc. Nothing of value or worth taking in trade. It seems to me the fun of geocaching for the kids is really being destroyed by inconsiderate slobs who call themselves geocachers. Has anyone else been experiencing this? There seems to be an increase in the number of cachers who just want to boost the number of caches they find. They are respectful, report their findings, and send comments on how they liked the cache or the Cowboy stories I write for each cache. To those I salute you. To those who trash my caches, well I got another response inappropriate to describe here.

Yes, my friend was an author and yes he published the coordinates in his book prior to finding out there was an existing cache as this is a VERY REMOTE area. He will handle it and like I said I put multi-cache in the search at the top of this page prior to publishing and said I found nothing, I never said there was nothing. Seems those of you who frequent this forum have a big chip on your shoulder about your Geocache knowledge. This poor guy is putting out his first caches and asked me about multi-caches. I never visit them nor make them and did not know the answer and came here to help him. I will forward your information. BTW I joined this outfit in 2003 and have out over 60 active caches and have never run into a proximity issue as I live in the Wide Open SW Colorado.

I have a friend who placed a cache too close to an existing cache. He has already send the coordinates to a book publisher as he was not aware of the 0.1 mile rule. He has asked explained his error to the CO and asked if their cache could be moved a few hundred feet. This is in remote BLM land and the CO said NO. There are miles between the existing cache and the new proposed one. Is it possible to make a muli-cache with nothing more at the book published site except a marker with coordinates which directs the searcher to the real cache placed further away than the 528 feet of the existing cache? In other words, can the first stage of a multicache be closer than 528 feet. I searched this forum and found nothing that gave me a clue about the legalities withing Geocaching for this kind of cache.

I encrypt the logs that give too much information about my caches. I also encrypt logs that I feel disrespect my cache placement or content.

I stopped by a travel bug hotel to drop off two trackables. Inside were three trackables so I decided to move them along. When I started logging the tags I found two of them from different cachers were not logged as drops. The last record was missing in 2009 for each. The third trackable was logged in as dropped off but it had also been missing at the same time as the other two. This third trackable was a stuffed bear with a trackable that contained only numbers, no letters as it was one of the originals and released in 2002. It had traveled 7700 miles. Then disappeared in 2009. The same cacher that claims to have dropped all three off in 2009, dropped the stuffed bear with rare, old trackable tag in April 2013. This doesn't add up. I sent geocaching emails to all three owners telling them their trackables have been found and that I have them in my inventory now. I asked each what they want done with the trackable....moved on or returned to them. Lost/missing trackables is an unfortunate part of the game I know. I have lost 4 out of 20 so far. But I have had several travel thousands of miles and to many countries so that keeps me going in placing new ones.

Mick McPhee after McPhee Reservoir, my favorite fishing hole. Wife is Horseluvr and Grandson is Cowboy. All my caches are Cowboy cache followed by the name of the cache.

I make 3 inch pvc pipe caches all the time. I live in a remote area of SW Colorado. My caches go through a snowy winter, rains, thaws, etc. and they remain dry I use a dustcap that I buy from the Plumbing Store for the ends. No complaints. No trouble. I guess if you live in a urban site then you have a heightened sense of potential danger than those of us who live in lightly populated rural areas. I am more concerned about finding a cache that has a snake, scorpion or other critter nearby. We have cougars and bears also. To each his own. I say my cache is a camo pvc pipe and it that is not good enough to tell the cacher looking what they will find then don't visit that cache.

One cacher contacted me as I have about 50 caches out and many in ammo cans. The cacher suggested I delete the word "ammo can" and use large container instead as they have lost all of their ammo cans to someone looking to take them. Their cans were metal and cost about $15 each and mine are plastic which I bought on sale for $5 each but I did as they suggested and edited the descriptions.

We all play the game... but most of us play it for different reasons. Some play to find large caches with lots of SWAG and for the kids and family. This is the game I enjoy most. There is nothing better than having a 9 or 10 year old kid discover the cache and see the glow in his/her face or the excitement when they open the lid. Then there are the FTF fanatics who often snag a cache in minutes after publication. The 'numbers' cachers will go to great lengths to add to their total numbers of found caches. They crave new caches in new states, new types, etc usually only leaving a canned statement TFTC or Nice Hide sent in my an automated logging program. The trackable fanatics race to the caches to grab any trackable available just for the sport (and hopefully move them on). There are undoubtedly numerous other cachers looking exclusively for geocoins, challenges, signature pieces, puzzles, etc. Me.... I like to hide caches. I like to hide my caches so well that it may take a couple of trips for someone to find the cache (but they are there near GZ). I like to see the DNF's show up. I don't dig holes. I don't drill holes in poles or posts. I rely on the designing the perfect camo and seeking an unusual placement. I feel if you find my special caches, then you win and I lose. But if I have you standing there scratching your head while you are with 5 feet of my cache then I win. I like beating the FTF and numbers cachers best of all. As I said in the title .... we all play the game for different reasons. Some say the game has changed. I say the game has transitioned into whatever each of us wants it to be.

I live in a remote area and 99 percent of the time no one is around. However, caching in town is another matter. I was in a larger city and in a large parking log. There was a lone pine tree along the street. I always carry caches with me so I picked out a microcache and walked over to the tree. I was looking among the branches for a place to put it when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I turned around to see a small boy looking up at me. "What are you doing" he said. Thinking quickly I said "Getting pine cones". With a puzzled look he said, "Gee, there are plenty right here on and ground. Why don't you just get those?". Then he whirled around and ran off to his mother.

Tried today to glue some neomodyium magnets to plastic bison tubes and failed. JB Weld did not work. Came loose 24 hrs of drying. Gorilla Superglue did not work. Tried Liquid Nails adhesive and it would not stick to the plastic. Will try the Gorilla glue that mixes with water tomorrow when I can buy some.

I think there should be a alpha/number in the cache so that the finder uses this number to prove they found the cache. Similar to the number on trackables. Logs get abused, wet, torn, scribbled on, incredibly small such as in nanos, and honestly they mean diddly squat to me. What is important to me is what is logged on line and what each cacher said. I HATE GSAK caches who use Nice Hide or TNLN or TFTC. What the heck does that mean. Nada to me for sure. I know I will get flack from all you purists but this is a forum to speak your mind. That is what I am doing. I have a cache where the cacher visited 12 of my caches in one day and who knows how many more. Two days before his visit I got a notice from another cacher that the machinery that had the magnetic cache was gone from it's location. Yet one of these numbers guys posted that he found it. BS. I could care one way or another except he was happy to log another find even when the cache no longer exists. Make me wonder what his thousand of numbers logged represent. Just so many bragging rights which that and a buck will get you a cup of cheap coffee.

I have a family member who is a cacher and a good friend who is a cacher. They are active premium members. I am sending them unique caches I have invented to place in a new area where the locals do not already know about this type of cache. If I place a cache at my home area such as inside a rock, then the locals know that is my method of hiding and the rock caches are no longer new or unique. But when placed in a new area they are unique and never seen before. BTW, the rock cache is not one of my new inventive caches. And my deal would be that I provide the other cachers with 5 caches to place and they own four of them and place (and monitor) one for me. That way I get the pleasure of reading all the posts about my Cowboy story as a lead in to the cache description and seeing their comments on what I have made. And the other cachers I would work with are cool with that.

I live in an area where it can be muddy at times. I have had some cachers complain about the mud when they visit one or two of my caches. And yesterday I had on a pair of good shoes as I was caching on the way home from a business appointment and ran into an area around the cache that was real muddy. Needless to say I went anyway, but I was wondering if an attribute showing it may be muddy would be valuable????

I use my iPhone to show nearest caches which it does well. And it gives all the info that is on the website. I use the distance feature for placing new caches. But I use my Garmin to mark the coordinates as the iPhone coordinates tend to float more and do not work well in the mountains for me. I do use the iPhone for finding as it is convenient. I do not know how to download coordinates as I can do with the write feature to my Garmin.

I would like to send a cache to a buddy of mine living in another state. Any rules against him setting out a cache and maintaining it for me and yet I submit the cache as the CO?

Anyone ever have a reviewer question your ability to maintain a cache because it was 250 miles from your home site? I just did. However I have a family member who geocaches that lives close by the cache. I told the reviewer that the cache will be maintained. I can't believe there are not lots of people (who when traveling) do not stop to place new caches.

I vote with the others. Not funny for SWAG. If the CO put that stuff in their cache, I might deem it appropriate to exchange some road apples from my horse Rocky.

Can you claim a FTF if you only sign the log and don't go to geocaching.com and log your find? The reason I ask is today I saw a cache that on line had never been logged. It had been out about two weeks. I went out to find it thinking I could get a FTF, but there were two logs in the book and they never logged on line. So I get a FTL...... First to LOG.

I had six trackables either hostage or MIA. I sent emails to the three I knew were hostage and all three were released. And those have gone to new caches several states away. Thanks. I have to wait longer to see if the other three MIA (gone and zero miles logged). Then I will make proxies. I just ordered 8 more trackables for 4 bucks each and will decide whether to release them or just use the numbers on other items.

I look at it as a game of hide and seek. I hide caches and you try to find them. If you find them too easily then I failed. I hide easy ammo can caches for the weekenders and kids with lots of SWAG. But i also hide hard to find and devious caches for those who love to play for the love of the game. The cache is usually small with a log. But I hide it and it is there so you try to find it. If you fail I win. If you find it I lose. That is my game. If you don't like it then visit someone elss's caches. If you like the challenge, then I am game and I tell you up front in the description. Cowboy

I have 15 I put out in Aug/Sept. So far three are missing. All were registered but missing out of the first cache they were placed in. They have zero miles. I have asked those cachers who visited the cache location if they saw them and they replied NO travel bugs present. Must have been mugglers or a cacher that just kept them and never logged them. I also have 3 travel bugs picked up and logged by fellow cachers who have sat on them. I attempted to contact those people and got one of the three moving again. The other two cachers never replied back. I been a geocacher since 2003 but recently started placing travel bugs for my Grandson. However, the ones that are missing are the cutesy types he wanted and if I buy more they will be generic and maybe even just use the number for another item instead.

I have to disagree that a pipe with caps makes a lousy geocache. It all depends on where you live and where you place it. I live in SW CO. I have 6 or so 4 inch black camo PVC pipes with removable end caps. I leave a space of white pipe where I write GEO with a felt marker. I put the white down for concealment and put the cache in a bush, under a log or in some rocks. This makes a wonderful inexpensive cache that takes the harsh winters and summers well. Lots of room for SWAG and lasts for years. Putting such a cache in an urban area may not be advisable, but if you live in an area with lots of sagebrush, pinyon, scrub oak, pine trees and empty space the cache is just fine.

As a CO of about 50 caches I often get people looking for personal hints. Then when I give them they say things like "Easy Find". I think they are using some program like GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) and logging multiple caches at the same time using the same phrase. Often just TFTC. And often found with a team. I hate it. I am devious. I now go to great lengths to make hard to find caches that even the numbers cachers with thousands found will have trouble finding. I also make easy ammo can type caches for older folks and kids who like caching. I say so in my write ups.

I currently have two International geocoins that I have retrieved. I want to send them on. My experience locally has been that my personal TB's have been picked up by some Premium Members and have never been relogged. It has been about 3 months and I shall contact them. I have three others that have not been logged since they were placed and now have disappeared. I do not want the International geocoins to go into someones collection or be picked up an never logged again. I want those special geocoins to move on as they were intended. I was wondering what others do to try to make sure these kinds of special coins continue their journey????