Your Worst Cache Found

[Puntise]

my worst cache is one where the clues on the sheet weren't clear and i had to ask 3 or 4 other members for help.

 

i have been back 3 times now still haven't got it.

 

i have also found a "vandalised" cache lying 100 metres from where it should have been.

 

only found it because a friend was looking for a good stick to put his name on.

[+Poidawg]

I was introducing my friend to geocaching. We had a couple of really good finds. My friend was excited until we starting walking to another cache nearby. What a mess. We had our dogs with us, and this is an area where people go to frequently with their dogs, well we had to go a bit further, and it turns out just behind this hedge of bushes is a foul lake complete with half submerged cars, refrigerators, and sunken boats, there was a disgusting film over the water. We grabbed the dogs before they could jump in and either severely injure or kill themselves on submerged metal. We continued on, and had to walk right next to a homeless encampment complete with garbage strewn everywhere...I apologized to my friend and said that this was not a usual place to hide a cache, or even make someone walk through to get to a cache. I felt so bad, especially knowing that many cachers which frequent the area have kids. I am still appalled!!!

[+Poidawg]

OOps I hit the reply button twice...

Edited February 16, 2006 by Poidawg

[+TetrAmigos]

Worst cache I ever visited was one of my first (GCH9YQ) and is not archived. It took a short while to find it because it looked like... trash. When I picked it up, I realized it was covered in soot and I ended up getting it all over my clothes. Everything inside smelled like cheese. Bleh.

[+ghs]

Other than a cache that would have been trivial to find but wasn't because it was described as something radically different than it was, the only "bad" one I've gone to look for (out of my 33 attempts so far) is one that I couldn't get to in the first place because I overestimated my all-wheel drive car's ability to take on snow and ice-covered narrow Pennsylvania dirt mountain roads. (But I'm going back. It's hidden somewhere that should make it an actually very good cache.)

[+supertbone]

The worst one was one where there was a big pile of human excriment and a huge sex toy with in a foot of the cache. I had one where a hooker approached me for sex.

[+TetrAmigos]

The worst one was one where there was a big pile of human excriment and a huge sex toy with in a foot of the cache. I had one where a hooker approached me for sex.

 

Ok that takes the cake so far.

[+evergreenhiker!]

I was introducing my friend to geocaching. We had a couple of really good finds. My friend was excited until we starting walking to another cache nearby. What a mess. We had our dogs with us, and this is an area where people go to frequently with their dogs, well we had to go a bit further, and it turns out just behind this hedge of bushes is a foul lake complete with half submerged cars, refrigerators, and sunken boats, there was a disgusting film over the water. We grabbed the dogs before they could jump in and either severely injure or kill themselves on submerged metal. We continued on, and had to walk right next to a homeless encampment complete with garbage strewn everywhere...I apologized to my friend and said that this was not a usual place to hide a cache, or even make someone walk through to get to a cache. I felt so bad, especially knowing that many cachers which frequent the area have kids. I am still appalled!!!

good grief! What did that cacher have in mind when she/he hid it there????

[+russell_53040]

Ok mine are any events at restaurants! Now come on do you work for the dang place or what? Other than that really don’t mind places I have been to. For not putting caches in swamps. Don’t see anything wrong with putting them there.

[+Team Encore]

A puzzle cache marked as a traditional cache or a multi. I hate showing up and finding a puzzle.

[Mr.Yuck]

The worst one was one where there was a big pile of human excriment and a huge sex toy with in a foot of the cache. I had one where a hooker approached me for sex.

 

Ok that takes the cake so far.

 

OK, I'll throw in a second vote for that one The worst caches (and I've found like 5 of these), are the ones that are not only hidden in areas strewn with garbage, but the container itself is hidden under a piece of discarded trash. This whole very old thread is a moot point though; sadly, no matter how bad the cache, be it a Wally World Micro hidden on private property without permission, or on the side of a street in a residential neighborhood in view of dozens of houses, there will always be an ample supply of geocachers who will go out and gleefully find them

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

The worst one was one where there was a big pile of human excriment and a huge sex toy with in a foot of the cache. I had one where a hooker approached me for sex.

 

Ok that takes the cake so far.

 

Well, such things are quite common in many urban parks nowadays. My own feeling is that it is fine to place a cache in such a setting -- particularly if other factors about the setting warrant it -- but that it is very important to then assign the cache an appropriate Difficulty and Terrain rating, and to explicitly warn about some of the, ahem, distractions available, on the cache listing page. Consider as an example a great cache which we placed recently. Afte painstaking web and foot research, we found an abandoned military fort from the late 1800s, replete with dark underground tunnels and ramparts, in Baltimore; it and the surrounding area had been converted into a rather poorly-cared-for city park. We managed to place a cache deep in the bowels of the ancient fortress, but we were a bit surpised to read some of the log entries filed by past finders of a virtual cache which is also located in the park. Those logs and our initial visit to the park to place the cache showed us that is was rather chock-full of all of the phenomena often encountered in modern urban parks. Rather than let that deter us -- after all, Abraham Lincoln wrote "It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. He who hates vice hates men." -- we decided to place the cache anyway, but to assign appropriate D/T ratings and to list some of the more commonly-encountered distractions on the cache listing page.

If you wish to visit the cache listing page for a look, you may find it at:

 

Psycho Urban Cache #10 - Derelict Grunge Acropolis

 

The cache turned out to be a big hit, and some of the log entries are quite hilarious, with none of the painful confusion often noted in the log entries for the nearby virtual cache, the listing for which does NOT bear such caveats!

Edited February 23, 2006 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+N8andLiss]

The worst one that me and my wife have found in our relatively short time caching was just a couple days ago. Somebody decided to place an ammo can on the concrete foundation of a rural water tower in a well farmed field 10 feet from the road. As if the hide itself wasn't lame enough, when I opened it up I discovered a half empty bottle of power steering fluid, a flyer for a hand tool company, and a couple other just plain stupid items. I think the worst part about it was that when I went to log the cache I found that the power steering fluid and tool flyer were ORIGINAL CONTENTS! along with a USED can of chewing tobacco. I'm still upset about this one.

My wife and I have run into a slew of badly stocked caches, but this one was the worst. Our motto is trade even or trade up... If my son wants a toy car out of one cache, I will leave an equally valuable children's toy. Usually we try to trade up, just to give the local caches something worth while.

 

I just don't get it.

[+MT CatRancher]

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

My vote for yes has been added

 

MT CatRancher

[+Team Tigger International]

We parked in the parking area and took the obvious trail. Within 10 feet we found a fresh dead deer (no idea how it died, but hadn't been there long) so we back tracked to a different track. Not far in we found bones but kept going. The area where the cache was contained wondeful things like shattered car batteries, smashed TVs and a large sheet of plywood with a target painted on it. Numerous shell casing helped us to work for a quick find and run.

The owner was quick to archive it once we'd emailed him our discovery.

 

Wulf

[+Search4Lancer]

I interuppted a drug deal once, in the parking lot of a nice woodsie park (that being, picnic tables and fire rings on the edge of the woods, w/ trails). One of them even took another trail for a smoke, kinda worried me when I realized that trail would bring him back to me.

[+BilboB]

I found one in a junkpile for old transit buses in New Jersey. It sounded great because it was from the Wierd NJ series, but what a waste of time. I had to go through a hole in a fence and search through a bunch of old, rusty crappy buses. I did find it though, but my thoughts were, what a waste of time.

[+Orion74]

It would be great if Groundspeak could add a rating system where on logging your find, you could select 1-10 to rate the quality of the experience. When travelling, it's difficult without a lot of research, to find caches that take you to interesting areas. It would be nice to pick the top 20 caches in an area for exploration.

[Team Firebird]

I agree that a rating system would be good. Unfortunatley, it would probably be availiable to premium members.

[+Search4Lancer]

I agree that a rating system would be good. Unfortunatley, it would probably be availiable to premium members.

How is that unfortunate?

[+Intermountain Angler]

I agree that a rating system would be good. Unfortunatley, it would probably be availiable to premium members.

How is that unfortunate?

 

I agree completley and am starting my premium membership in the hope they do this

[+Alibags]

I don't know if they have them in the States, but here (UK) they have special waste bins for disposing of bagged up dog poo. The worst cache I have found so far was a breath strip micro attached by a magnet to the bottom of one of these bins. It stunk to high heaven. Also, it was a micro in a big park - if they had stuck it to a bench it may have been lame but at least would not have been so disgusting!!

 

Dishonourable mention also goes to a micro crammed behind a bird crap encrusted drainpipe in a rubbish strewn alley amongst the bins round the back of a chinese resteraunt.

 

What were they thinking?!!

[Team Firebird]

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

My vote for yes has been added

 

MT CatRancher

I vote yes!!!!

[Team Firebird]

I agree that a rating system would be good. Unfortunatley, it would probably be availiable to premium members.

How is that unfortunate?

 

 

I meant only to premium members. It isw very anopying to be excluded form certain things because you don't want to have to pay to geocache well.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

I agree that a rating system would be good. Unfortunatley, it would probably be availiable to premium members.

How is that unfortunate?

I meant only to premium members. It isw very anopying to be excluded form certain things because you don't want to have to pay to geocache well.

 

I am not sure that I understood your meaning correctly, and so I have thus re-read your reply several times. However, if you meant that this is unfortunate only for premium members, then I do not at all understand what you are saying and ask you to explain.

 

If, on the other hand, you are actually trying to say that you feel that this is unfortunate for those who are not premium members -- and this, I suspect, is what you were trying to say -- then I must confess that I am stunned at your reply. Who do you think pays for this wonderful website and service (including the database and the forum) that you get to use daily? It sounds like you may be severely lacking in gratitude and appreciation for what the geocaching.com site offers to you, for what the people who run the site do for you, and for the offerings of this wonderful world in general. I frankly am a bit amazed if that was your meaning.

[Versius]

Lets keep it on topic. Forget about the Permium Member vs Unleaded Member stuff.

 

My worst cache was actually one of my most recent.

 

This cache was located a crowded parking lot. The cache was hidden in a small "landscaped" island where a chain-resturaunt has it's garbage dumpster. So along with the stench of trash, you had the flocks of seagulls swarming the place leaving their leavings behind in ample supply. Further there's people's food waste laying about who were too lazy to throw it out in proper locations.

 

So you end up kicking around rocks and bones covered in crap next to a dumpster in a crowded parking lot where everyone's looking at you funny.

 

Discusting.

 

~Versius

Chris + Val

[Trail bandit_blood hound]

I think the worst one i found is a trash trap located in Roseville MI

[+Trezurs*-R-*Fun]

After all the criticisms for poorly placed micros and the general consensus that the light post micro is un-inspiring at best, here is a new listing as of today (GCTWM2). Those who don't read these forums and think they are re-inventing the "great" hide are bound to repeat the poor hide. Not only is this a lamp post but its hidden in a lamp post behind a large department store, can't even look at the nice neon signage. I was FTF with a friend but the description was so lame I wasn't sure what I was getting into until I drove up to with 4 feet of the lamp post. With so many great areas of either scenic, historical or simply interesting value, why would one hide a cache in such a lame place. Fortunately geocaching doesn't discriminate against the lazy or un-imaginative, after all it is about the numbers....LOL!!!!

 

Happy caching

[haber]

I love the idea of a rating system for caches. I'm all about the quality, not the quantity of the finds. I don't want to debate membership but if it could only be viewed by premium members, than presumably, only premium members could give ratings. I'd rather see lots of ratings.

 

And seeing as I'm about the quality, I haven't done any terrible caches. There are caches that have sounded great -- in a nice wooded area near my house. I go to the trouble to map them and discover that yes, they're in the woods. A mere 30 feet into the woods beside a busy 4 lane road, with no parking anywhere for a mile around it. I don't want to walk (with my 4-year old son) along a busy road for 20 minutes just to spend a few minutes in the bush. I'd like a decent hike along a pleasant trail. It seems completely out of proportion to the effort required. On the other hand, I doubt those caches will get muggled. What sane (a.k.a. non-geocaching) person would go to all the trouble to walk in those woods.

Edited March 24, 2006 by haber

[+Search4Lancer]

I love the idea of a rating system for caches. I'm all about the quality, not the quantity of the finds. I don't want to debate membership but if it could only be viewed by premium members, than presumably, only premium members could give ratings. I'd rather see lots of ratings.

 

Well then maybe it could be set up so that everyone can give a rating, but only premium members can view the ratings.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

I love the idea of a rating system for caches. I'm all about the quality, not the quantity of the finds. I don't want to debate membership but if it could only be viewed by premium members, than presumably, only premium members could give ratings. I'd rather see lots of ratings.

 

Well then maybe it could be set up so that everyone can give a rating, but only premium members can view the ratings.

 

And in the meantime, until geocaching.com implements a rating system, you may wish to start using the geocache rating system found at KeenPeople.com on your cache listing pages. I place the code near the bottom of our HTML cache listing pages.

[+Strider - King of Gondor]

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!

 

You might want to change the name of the book to: Broke Back Cache Why is it that some of the nicest parks, and several good caches have the "lone cowboys parked on the range", which they have every right to do so, just like we do the caching thing. The hardest thing is that the "cowboys" typically are rather alert muggles, so discrection is difficult. I have never had problems at these suspect "herding" areas, but never hangout to long after the find, and definitely avoid the nocturnal visit.

[Hypo_Mix]

so far my worst is Double Overpass

 

don’t get my wrong it was a great cache, however there was a bag there than had been ripped open and partly buried. Inside was many bones, and when you can only see the top of the bones, they could easily be human.

 

Lucky i had a nurse by trade with me who assured me it wasn’t human.

phew.

Other wise that would of been my last cache, exhuming bodies is where i draw the line in hobbies

[+flyingRfarms]

a few weeks ago my wife and i went caching on a sunday after noon we went out after some thathad skunked us a week or two earlier! the first was a very nice experiance the cache had been undersnow all winter but i found it in good condition! the next one required a bit of a hike! so of we went we watched a herd of deer as we hiked to the cache site on the rim of the canyon! from the clues my wife (who thought caching was dumb till she went with me once) found the second cache! nice ammocan hidden in rocks and brush! this was suppose to be a postcard exchange cache! the last loged visit was from a freind of mine from back in november! i had chated with him he said there was a dozen or so cards!! upon opening the cache my wife stareds pulling ziplock bags out and handed me the one with the log!! I get to do the Writing while she decides what to take! next she set a bag next to me and asks what is that!! as i read the log book i found a log of a full page stating that the bag was full of human stool samples and used toilet paper and that the same person had taken everthing in the cache valued at more then $.50 including all the postcards ! trust me it did not go back in the cache!! i checked the computer later and no one else had logged since november!! i hate people who cant respect others!!