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Your Worst Cache Found


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A couple of years ago we found a cache that was hidden in a roadside trash dump south of NOLA. Down in the Bayou (GCHMVZ) There were old washing machines, rusty iron, and a ton of broken bottles and glass. The cache was hidden under a rusty piece of metal. Not sure why anyone would see fit to hide a cache in a trash dump, nor why anyone would be silly enough to look for it. :lol: It definitely wasn't kid friendly. Too much broken glass. Also would not want to look for it wearing sandals.

I would be surprised if it's still there after Katrina.

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One that comes to mind was placed under a rotting sheet of plywood on a narrow strip between a highway and an auto body shop and under a billboard. Not an appealing spot at all. The container was a cheap, leaky plastic thing with a few pieces of wet junk.

 

Sounds like half the caches out there, right? I agree. But the really annoying thing was the cache page which made it sound really interesting. It tied in with a series of popular mystery books and supposedly by finding the cache you would solve some long standing mystery. There was no mystery, just a junky cache.

 

If the cache is lousy don't try to spice it up by making up some wild sounding cache page to attract people. :)

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The worst cache I ever found just happened to be the first one I ever found. It was in a tackle box (not weather-proof at all!) and everything was very wet and moldy smelling. The cacher who placed it is no longer active and only has a couple of finds to boot. I found it in early spring when the vegetation was low, but in the height of summer it was in the middle of a briar field.

 

The second worst cache was also wet and moldy smelling, and . . .you guessed it, in a tackle box.

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1) Please dont use cookie tins for cache containers- they leak and rust.

2)Please dont place a cache in a hobo-hideout, a crackhead haven, a gay-man hangout, junkyards, barren fields of mud, in smelly, thorny swamps, any roadside ditch.

In other words, please select an appropriate location to bring cache seekers too.

3) Please dont hide caches just for the #'s in your profile. Do it for the right reasons... :)

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2)Please dont place a cache in a hobo-hideout, a crackhead haven, a gay-man hangout, junkyards, barren fields of mud, in smelly, thorny swamps, any roadside ditch.

 

Interesting; one of the best caches in the area (Archbald Pothole -- GC7CE6) is hidden in a well-known gay-cruiser area. True, the cops cleaned it out about a year ago -- I guess that would explain the blank stares of about a dozen men sitting in their cars by themselves when I went two weekends ago just to relive my first cache experience.

 

- JD

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We went to find one recently that had been placed in an area that was littered with broken glass, large rusted drums, an old shed type structure, old wire fencing, etc. Looked like it was a moonshine haven years ago. The bottles that were'nt broken still had some type of liquid in them.

 

I must say we had a clue of what the area was like because we read other people's logs and we went anyway becasue we looked for 2 other caches in the same area that morning. I'm not sure we would have done this one if we weren't there anyway. The place was awful, I couldn't wait to sign the log and get the heck outta there.

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I think the worst caches I have found have been ones very near busy roads. Geocaching has taken me to some amazing places I never would have seen otherwise. I think the best caches are the ones placed in unique and beautiful areas. Instead of randomly hiding caches, I think the hider should attempt to take the seeker someplace special (made even better by the fact that a cache is hidden there).

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1) Please dont use cookie tins for cache containers- they leak and rust.

2)Please dont place a cache in a hobo-hideout, a crackhead haven, a gay-man hangout, junkyards, barren fields of mud, in smelly, thorny swamps, any roadside ditch.

In other words, please select an appropriate location to bring cache seekers too.

Well, as for #1, the cookie tin thing... "common sense" tells me that cokie tins should be a bad idea because they leak. Howevr, having said that, I must admit that the only cookie tin cache I have ever found, in Wilson, WY, near a trail along the Snake River, had been in place for years (per my rusty recollection of the cache listing page) and is in perfect shape, with perfectly dry contents. And yet the darn thing is buried in deep snow for 5 months out of the year. Go figure! So, far be it from me to unilaterally condemn cookie tins.

 

As for #2, which read:

)Please dont place a cache in a hobo-hideout, a crackhead haven, a gay-man hangout, junkyards, barren fields of mud, in smelly, thorny swamps, any roadside ditch.

 

I personally do not mind any of these placements, nor do I mind placements in garbage dumps, hazardous waste dumps, unremediated Superfund hazardous waste sites, or abandoned nuclear reactors. However, in such cases, I fully expect that the cache owner will have assigned an appropriate Difficulty/Terrain rating, and will have imparted any necessary warnings or cautions, along with mentions of gear or skills needed, on the cache listing page. This allows prospective seekers to pick and choose what they prefer, or, in this case, what they may prefer to avoid. As an example of what I would expect in a cache listing, one or two of our extreme caches bear suggestions on the cache listing pages that you may wish to have you tetanus shots and vaccinations up to date. One of these listing pages also mentions that it might be advisable to wear a Tyvek protective biohazard bunny suit complete with SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) gear.

 

Lastly, one of my favorite local caches, placed by the legendary Fergus, is smack dab in the middle of a thorny deep muddy stinky swamp. There is no way to get to the cache and get back out without sinking in mud up to nearly your hips. Total fun! I would go back there in a heartbeat.

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Oh, we're back on the 'gay cruising area' thread again? I've found ten or twenty in such areas. Only two had anything overt going on. I wouldn't do those at night, though. They were all in very nice parks.

What not to do? I see far too many of what I call 'nasty ' caches. Georocks in rock piles. Bison tubes in prickly evergreens. Bison tube in a forest. Ammo can in a concrete slab dump with the coords deliberately 170' off. There is something fun about this?!?

My philosophy is that if you're not smart enough to hide a nice cache, then don't resort to a needle in a haystack to inflate your ego.

I've had my fill of magnetic micros in guard rails at strip malls. Though, they are usually easy, there is nothing at all interesting about them.

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So far the "worst" ones I've found (actually hunted for but didn't really find because they were too creepy) have been a couple that required me to get too close to residences, children's play areas, or other public places where I felt really uncomfortable skulking around in the bushes.

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It's interesting that people are talking about gay cruising areas since I'm writing a book called "Gay Cruising Geocaching Areas in North America" that should be finished in a few months. If anyone has interesting stories about gay cruising areas while geocaching, please post them here so I can include them in my book!

Edited by Jacquee
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I done one cache in a bad neiborhood.... You can see it by reading the logs. Heap Big Rock is a film can in a rock, in the middle of a busy street, in an area with abandoned buildings and stuff like that

 

But not without purpose. There is an interesting history behind it so it qualifies for good historical signifigance. It just happens to be in an area you do not want to be after dark.

 

See my post on July 22. I made a comment about the business of the area like, try this at 3am when there is no traffic, and 3 finders afterward highly disagree with me (I grew up in Los Angeles)

 

c985b019-a910-4df1-805c-3bc66bbfdf5b.jpg

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Although I have unfortunately found quite a few caches I wouldn't look for again, if I was starting over, and I have looked for some unsuccessfully that I will not go back to again to clear up the DNF, the first cache that comes to my mind when I think about the worst cache I've ever found is one that is located in a difficult-to-access suburban alley in an area of steep hills, private driveways, and dead ends streets indistinguishable from the driveways.

 

It took a long time to find access to the dead-end alley and then the cache was in an icky black plastic bag.

 

In turning around to get out of the alley, I picked up a deck screw in a tire and got a flat tire . . . :anibad:

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As long as we're confessing (on topic)...

 

One of my first finds was a doozy. You had to park near an old railroad bridge along a river. There were broken bottles, garbage of all kinds (including used condoms - recent), then pass under a higway bridge loaded with obscene graffiti and the occasional dubious hobo (for which read crackhead or sexual deviant), then pass not one but two "No Trespassing" signs on barbed wire fences; then traverse a muddy, nettle-filled, smelly pasture to a half-acre of broken concrete slabs, under one of which was a moldy, wet, disgusting mess of a cache - with a FULL log book.

 

To make things worse, I DNF'ed the darn thing once and went BACK a second time!

 

These days, I'd drive past the suggested parking spot, and delete the stupid cache from my database. Not worth it.

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I do not like micros in the brush, I do not like them here or there, I do not like them any where. I do not like micros in the brush, I do not like them cache-I-am. But I will look for them.

I'm with you except for the fact that I don't bother with them anymore unlees they look like they are place in a good place ie. park or historical monument. I'm learning to use my ignore button though. No more Wally world micros or Gas and cache for me.

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here's my log from a cache I found today that almost broke my wife of caching...

 

Why?

 

The Adirondacks is a 6 million acre collection of the most beautiful places on Earth...why place this cache here?

 

Almost every tree in the woods surrounding the cache has sexually explicit grafiti and/or sexual propositions written/carved into it.

 

The woods near the cache are strewn with broken glass, rusty cans, and junked tires, among other garbage.

 

There is a raunchy mattress at the entrance to the woods, and ripped women's panties and bras right next to the cache hiding spot, which brought to mind serial rapists/killers waiting for victims to pounce upon.

 

When my wife and son and I were here, we saw a drug deal going on in the parking area.

 

I have to think that there are better spots, evening better parking areas, in which to place geocaches in the Adirondacks.

 

NFA

Edited by NFA
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I don't know if I have a specific "least favorite" cache, but I do have a least favorite type: Micros in uninspired places.

 

There is a group of 3-4 cachers in my area who love to hide micros miles and miles out in the rural areas. Usually they are just next to a fence post in the middle of nowhere.

 

No reason to be there...nothing around...just a micro in the stickers next to the road near a barbed-wire fence. The lame factor is through the roof. Waste of gas, and waste of time.

 

Ed

TB&TB

 

edit: grammer

Edited by The Badge & the Butterfly
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I dont think that i have a particular problem with one cache being sooo bad. You know no one is perfect and even the greatest of cachers is likely to place something dumb. But i do have a problem with one particular cacher, some interloper from some other state coming to SC and bombarding us with lame micros. I cannot stand another micro hidden in a palm tree that is hidden in a used hotel shampoo bottle...i cant take it. i guess im so addicted to caching i keep finding them hoping that, just one time, the next one will be better...not a chance...i am an idiot.

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the worst cache was in Indania My Webpage it was real close to a roadkill pit I have never head of this till I saw it!!gross we could smell it from 500ft away!! I also recommend NOT taking a three year old with you!! after you pass the pit you had to walk another 500 ft through barbs poison ivy and up and down hills and the difficulty wasn't very high either!! :P

Edited by the butterfly effect
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I agree with whoever said it up there, I don't think there is such a thing as a bad cache. Sometimes I like to find easy ones, sometimes I like easy terrain and a difficult find and sometimes I might want to sneak inside and area with armed guards like 007 to find a cache. I think that as long as it is rated correctly it's cool.

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Yes, there is such a thing as a bad cache. GCN6BJ in east Plano, Texas is the worst cache I've found. Its a micro placed in a dumspter enclosure behind and adandonded building. It features broken bottles, sacks of rotting meat, and other assorted trash. ;);)

 

Unfortunately the east side of Plano is rife with caches similar to this one. :)

Just an FYI if you plan to visit the Dallas area ~ stick to Dallas, Irving, Allen, Hurst, etc and skip Plano.

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I just found the nastiest cashe yesterday at a busy truckstop near Olympia,WA. Cache was in the back near a small shed. Surrounding the shed was tires, boards w/ nails, misc bags of wet rotten garbage, more dog poo :blink: than I have ever seen in such a small area, and a few "trucker bombs'(think porta-potty :) ) tossed in to make it all that much better.

Found the film canister tucked next to a telephone pole that is undoubtedly most male dogs first stop.

I just started Casheing recently and am praying I dont come across many more like this one. *shudder*

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How about the ones that are not waterproof? This has happened twice in my finds. Once was supposed to be a fake drain. Wasnt fake enough.... Second was a tupperware container, someone forgot to seal.

Here's the worst one, we didnt find....

At Myrtle Beach, was in the city park where there were homeless people following us around and watching our every move. We hoaned in on the coords and all we found was a homemade pipe for drugs. We came back three different times during vacation and never found it.

 

Moral of the story....seal your caches tight and no caches near homeless people.

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2)Please dont place a cache in a hobo-hideout,...

I have ran across a hobo camps caching a few times, always feel strangely like I am trespassing or something. Caches near these locations never seem to survive too long for some reason either.

Yeah there was a cache in Tacoma that was really creepy. The hide was within sight of a homeless person's log fort. This park was woodsy and paralleled the freeway. Think it's archived now, but I was on full alert as I hunted for the ammo box. Glad when the hunt was over.

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I remember one that I tried to look for on St. Simions Island, GA. I was there for a church youth group function that I was helping to chaporone. It was just .15 from where we were staying, so I decided to try it. As I got close to the cache I stepped down onto a rusted nail that went straight through the ball of my foot. Needless to say I never did find the cache. I do plan on going back sometime to find it, just so I can say that it did not get the best of me.

Edited by RebelJedi
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Yes, there is such a thing as a bad cache. GCN6BJ in east Plano, Texas is the worst cache I've found. Its a micro placed in a dumspter enclosure behind and adandonded building. It features broken bottles, sacks of rotting meat, and other assorted trash. :P:anicute:

 

Unfortunately the east side of Plano is rife with caches similar to this one. :cool:

Just an FYI if you plan to visit the Dallas area ~ stick to Dallas, Irving, Allen, Hurst, etc and skip Plano.

 

Caches like this should get absolutely torched in the logs. If it's a crappy location - say so and advise others to pass on it. I looked at your link and found people writing TFTC, and nice hide. Are you kidding me?? If I found junk caches like this, I'd just blast it in the logs, send an email to geocaching recommending that the cache be withdrawn because it doesn't adhere to the standards of cache hiding set by geocaching.com.

 

I got on a rant yesterday about people deliberately trying to scare fellow geocachers with their hides, I put this is the same category of messing with people who are out to try and have some fun. I'll have to read the logs a lot closer before wasting time on junk hides.

 

Even though there are losers out there trying to screw it up, this is still a lot of fun. Beats working!!!

Edited by JollyGreenGiant
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I had a ladies day out not too long ago with my 2 caching friends. We got to go caching without kids (something that rarely ever happens). We decided to do this 5/5 in our area. It was vigorous hike, probably close to 5 miles. It was a multi. At the final location the cache was a plastic bottle with absolutely nothing in it. It was very disappointing to hike that far for a small empty bottle. I just think a cache rated 5/5 should have a nice ammo can waiting at the end.

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I personally do not mind any of these placements, nor do I mind placements in garbage dumps, hazardous waste dumps, unremediated Superfund hazardous waste sites, or abandoned nuclear reactors. ... Total fun! I would go back there in a heartbeat.

 

Unless you have attempted a Phsyco Urban Cache by Vinney & Sue, you have no idea how serious they are about the above...

 

I'm attempting #8 this weekend coming up. Me and our team are getting our tetanus, TB boosters, and a course of prophylactic antibiotics out of the way on Tuesday ;)

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Oh, I dunno, I love teeny micros that are hidden in relatively public areas. Makes me feel like a secret agent. ;)

I have even, I think, gotten to the point where I prefer those to an ammo box full of goodies because they're such a challenge to find.

One of my favorites was a magnet with a log on the back of it, stuck to a fluorescent light fixture just outside a parking garage. Not exciting for some, but I was thrilled to have discivered the secret.

That's what makes the world go around, I guess. *shrug*

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One we did just a couple weeks ago was probably the worse I've seen. The area it was in was apparently somones dumping ground for road kill, or any dead animals. We started looking around and had to pass by 2 decaying deer, which wasn't pleasant to look at...even a less pleasant scent. Noticed other than that a lot of fur and bones all over the area. As I mentioned in my post hopefully they relocate this cache, as it really brings the find down in those surroundings.

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I have found a couple of caches in bad shape, or in bad spots, but generally still enjoy the hunt regardless...I have only had one cache hunting experience that was poor enough to prompt me to post a harsh log and ask the owner to archive the cache...

 

{{{QUOTE FROM MY LOG}}}

 

Why?

 

The Adirondacks is a 6 million acre collection of the most beautiful places on Earth...why place this cache here?

 

Almost every tree in the woods surrounding the cache has sexually explicit grafiti and/or sexual propositions written/carved into it.

 

The woods near the cache are strewn with broken glass, rusty cans, and junked tires, among other garbage.

 

There is a raunchy mattress at the entrance to the woods, and ripped women's panties and bras right next to the cache hiding spot, which brought to mind serial rapists/killers waiting for victims to pounce upon.

 

When my wife and son and I were here, we saw a drug deal going on in the parking area.

 

I have to think that there are better spots, even better parking areas, in which to place geocaches in the Adirondacks.

 

NFA

 

{{{END QUOTE FROM MY LOG}}}

 

I didn't feel in danger hunting the cache, but was glad that my wife and son didn't hunt it on their own...

 

Jamie

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I personally do not mind any of these placements, nor do I mind placements in garbage dumps, hazardous waste dumps, unremediated Superfund hazardous waste sites, or abandoned nuclear reactors. ... Total fun! I would go back there in a heartbeat.

 

Unless you have attempted a Phsyco Urban Cache by Vinney & Sue, you have no idea how serious they are about the above...

 

I'm attempting #8 this weekend coming up. Me and our team are getting our tetanus, TB boosters, and a course of prophylactic antibiotics out of the way on Tuesday :mellow:

 

Tony, we wish you and your team the best of luck this weekend in tackling PUC #8. However, for real thrills, you may wish to tackle you may wish to check out our Psycho Urban Cache #10 - Derelict Grunge Acropolis, GCT9NT. To get an idea of what I am talking about regarding this cache siting, you really should read the warning in bold orange on the cache listing page. However, to get a really good idea of what we are talking about, nothing beats an actual visit to the location -- what you will see in a few minutes is worth a million words of warnings. Some of the log entries give hints of what may be expected.

 

And, if you want the sickest challenge of all this weekend, with the concomitant chance to crawl in the bowels of an abandoned nuclear reactor, then you want #9 in the Psycho Urban Cache Series, named Psycho Urban Cache #9 - Hot Glowing Tribulations, waypoint ID GCTA5E

 

It is a lot of fun, and the alarm on your radiation dosimeter wil be screaming like a banshee, but the chances that anyone could suffer serious harm from the radiation or from the toxic chemical waste at the site or from the friable asbestos in the building, or even from the hantavirus present in the rodent droppings therein are rather small, so long as all seekers wear their protective suits and powered respirators (or SCBA apparatus.). Rather, the greatest danger is that someone could take a fatal or near-fatal fall trying to descend (or ascend) the 25 foot vertical shaft leading to the (now-abandoned) fuel rod storage room if they do not know how to properly use climbing gear.

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I took a picture of it but will not post it here (unless I can get a 75% yes vote) :)

 

I like to take my son to many of the caches with me. I lived in NY and now I'm in the midwest. There always seems to be a playground with graffiti sprawled across it. The graffiti is bad enough but sometimes it is the content of the graffiti that bothers me the most. At one park, I tried to "Wash" it off but ended up using a marker to "clean" it up.

 

Should I just be so inclinded to add "paint thinner" to the list of things to bring with me?

 

Dave

Edited by GPS_David
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