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Your Best Attribute As A Cacher?


TeamVilla5

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Since I've seen a large number of complaint/negative threads lately, I thought I'd ask something positive!

 

Whether it's hiding or finding, we all have something that we feel we do best within our sport... let's share what those positive attributes are! Do you feel like you are an exceptionally creative micro-hider? Are you a coordinates guru? Is The Force strong with you when you are searching?

 

For me, still green in the game... I think I do a pretty good job putting together creative themed caches with a lot of thought put into making them friendly for all ages. As a team, we are CITO pros; we CITO everywhere we go, and we take the trash home, so I can then separate trash from recyclables!

 

Who's next?

 

Happy Cachin'!

Lori V.

TeamVilla5

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I like to hide caches and I like to think they are mostly high quality. Of 135 or so caches I've hidden, maybe 5-6 may have been micros and about the same number have been park-n- grabs. Even with those I look for something redeeming about the spot. An historic site, or a nice view perhaps.

 

I generally don't do clever hides or puzzles. My caches are of the "Here are the coordinates, there is an ammo box out there and its a nice spot. Go find it" school of geocaching.

 

I'm also pretty good at DNFs too. :lol:

Edited by briansnat
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We find all of our DNF's...eventually. We currently have only two DNF's out there waiting to be removed from under the sun visor. One was verified moved quite some distance from the posted coords and is now back in place, so when we get up that way we'll find it. The other was a 2 part with a micro in a stone wall as part one. It was swampy and dark while we were looking for it, and now it's hunting season, so that one will have to wait. DNF's keep me awake at night....

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Things I think I do better than average:

- I usually trade up; in any case I never leave junk. And if there's nothing I want to take, I often leave something anyway. (That's hard when the cache only contains total dreck; you know that your gesture won't be appreciated much.)

- I try to move TBs on promptly. (It doesn't always work out.)

- I check (and, if necessary, repair) my caches after someone logs a DNF.

 

On the downside:

- I'm not very good at finding caches! For difficult sites I like to have my son along, as he's better at thinking "outside the box".

- I do sometimes drive past those "forest officials only" signs to save time.

- I will take a plastic bag which is wrapped round a cache. I see this as probably something I shouldn't do - OK, bags are deprecated, but the owner wanted it there - but I can't stand by and watch a leaking bag admit water and keep it nice 'n' close to the cache box.

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My best caching-related skill is probably remembering the details of previous caches. My co-crab can mention some vague recollection of some cache we found in the past, and right away I can tell him the cache name, the town it was in, what the weather was like when we went there, where we parked, which trails (and which wrong turns) we took, what the cache looked like, where it was hidden, and what we traded. (And what injuries happened along the way. "See this scar? It's from that cache.")

 

Unfortunately this skill is rarely of any use on future finds :lol:

 

Things that I enjoy doing (but wouldn't claim to be anywhere near the best at):

-- taking fun pictures of bugs before moving them on. (We rarely if ever have a "found it -- will move along" bug log.)

-- creating and releasing bugs with interesting goals

-- thinking up ideas for cache hides that are unique in some way

-- camouflaging containers (I'm still new at it, but it's a very fun, if messy, learning process)

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Well I guess that my greatest skill is bushwacking to caches. I like the off the beaten path type caches. The kids and I took the wrong trail to a cache and had to bushwack up a hill to get to the right trail. We got to see a really nice creek along the trail and got some good photos. I really enjoy trying to find my way with nothing more than the gps to point the way, no trails, no signs.

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I seem to be good at finding caches when the cords are off. I also am good at using what I learn from other caches to help find other caches. I always trade up, or not at all, and I move TBs on in a week or so and only place them in caches that are well hidden and in a good container.

I'm also good at tripping over just about anything, but that's another story... :mmraspberry:

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I'm awful at finding caches, but I've won some awards for my hides.

 

I like to hide really difficult puzzles where the cache itself is obvious once you solve for the coords, but it might take you days or months to solve one of my puzzles, but chances are you will never solve it.

 

I also like to hide tricky non-puzzle hides, and you might have to go back three or four times, and you'll definitely scratch your head over it, but when you finally do find it, you won't think it cruel, because the container was there and quite visible all the time but you just couldn't see it because you weren't thinking that particular way, or you weren't even thinking someone could hide a cache like that. I'd never toss a film can in a pile of leaves for example, but you might find a pair of sneakers hanging from a tree 30 feet up in the air over a fake stick pile. You'll search that pile and 50 feet in every direction but will you ever think to look up, inside the sneakers? How about if it was a 5 gallon bucket hanging up there? Yeah I've done that and stumped the best of 'em.

 

I also like to hide really big 20+ gallon sized "Hugh Jazz" caches and see how long it takes before they get muggled. Sometimes they don't.

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I am very proud of my cache hides. I pride myself in placing quality caches in interesting places. I always use quality waterproof clear containers where required and ammo boxes everywhere else. I stock the caches with items that will be interesting to adults and kids. I place the caches in locations with great history, beautiful scenery, or places that are not well known. I view the process of placing a cache as being a virtual tour guide so I try to include the story of the location as well as things to see and other activities the finder can participate in. At my rural caches I hope that finders will plan to spend the better part of a day hiking, exploring and enjoying the area as much as I do. Unfortunately all of my Shawnee National Forest Caches are members only to protect them form a cache thief. This has resulted in them only being found 4 to 7 times in a year.

 

(Check them out, I think they are the best)

 

I am also a stickler on cache maintenance. I get out to check any of my caches within a week after a report of a problem. I have also volunteered to assist in maintaining all but 5 of the existing caches in Shawnee National Forest. I check on these caches every time I am near just in case the cache thief has visited.

 

I try to be a friend to other cachers and if a cache is in need of assistance I will contact the cache owner and repair/replace any cache in my local area. I like to know that the next finders will find the cache in the best shape possible. I also help out any cache I find that is wet or damaged by cleaning/drying it out, placing everything in a Ziploc and repairing the box if possible.

 

Happy Caching

GEO.JOE

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I good at finding a way to get dirty from head to toe every time I go out caching. Doesn't matter if we walk three miles through the woods or 3 feet through a parking lot, I find some way to get dirty......

In fact I have a couple pair of jeans that are my caching jeans because they have slid down so many hills, gotten soaked from falling in water (I alway seems to be able to find the deepest spot in a shellow creek to fall into), that the stains just will not come out.....

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I like to hide caches and I like to think they are mostly high quality. Of 135 or so caches I've hidden, maybe 5-6 may have been micros and about the same number have been park-n- grabs. Even with those I look for something redeeming about the spot. An historic site, or a nice view perhaps.

 

I generally don't do clever hides or puzzles. My caches are of the "Here are the coordinates, there is an ammo box out there and its a nice spot. Go find it" school of geocaching.

 

I'm also pretty good at DNFs too. :P

Every 'Snat' cache that I have done, Has been a quality cache....

I know that I won't be disappointed when I go 'Snat caching' !!

Most are relatively easy finds too ...Just look in a crack or a crevice :)

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I was born with a great integrated compass. Can't get lost. May not know how to get "there" from "here", but I know where "there" is.

 

I trade up ALWAYS, hide better than I find (if possible), repair caches in distress (if possible), and am pretty competent with field surgery of the pocket-knife and tweezers variety.

 

Oh...and I'm always "in the mood".

 

For caching.

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Being only 17, I don't think 394 caches in a little over a year is that bad. I guess it's a combination of the desire for adventure and parents who realize that harmless adventure like this (as opposed to drinking, drugs, etc.) is actually a growth experience for me.

 

Not to mention my acute sense to pick something out of the ordinary -- with the very frequent exception. ;) I either find it quickly or take forever.

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I find the good parking spots. I've spent most of my life out in the fields, sloshing through the streams, etc etc. but when it comes to spotting a film canister stuffed inside a pine cone and suspended in a pine tree my better half has me beat. see the sig? It's for her.

 

Ohgr

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If it's easy, I can't find it.

If it's virtually impossible, that's my cache.

My DNF ratio is rising at a rate faster than anyone else alive.

Trouble follows me.

I have an uncanny knack for finding all the bugs in electronics.

Ideas on things come to me 24/7. Corporate America should hire me to do nothing but think things up.

Edited by Renegade Knight
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While I'm not always the fastest about releasing travel bugs, they're only held with the owner's permission and I try to show them a really good time.

 

This bug came with us to California after touring Europe for a few weeks. We've been holding on to him for a bit because we've just finished the school term (we're both professors) and don't mind an excuse to go to Vegas next week...

 

-Leanne

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I'm pretty good at spotting the cache location from 100+ feet. :):(

This is my strength as well. I haven't found too many from a hundred feet, but I am fairly good at spotting subtle camouflage from a distance. I am also good at planning and navigating. I take the time to check the topo maps, find the best route, etc.

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Always log DNF even when we have several on the same cache, will eventually resolve all DNF with a find, but leave the DNF logs on the cache page.

 

We didn't find it unless we sign the log so no padding smilies in our account.

 

Always log online when we get home, but I'm real slow at putting up pictures.

 

Even though I may cuss about certain hiders when I'm out searching for their caches I will always be polite when we meet. After all the more you make me cuss in the field, the more likely I am to want to try and find your caches. :(

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