Muggles...

[+Ranger5400]

So, when I approach a cache site and others are sitting in cars or are walking around, what is the prefered method to detemine if they are muggles? Sometimes it is obvious but other times I have found myself leaving an area rather than give away what I am doing. Then I think, maybe I can introduce someone else to this great game. Any thoughts?

[+Renegade Knight]

Cachers look suspicious. Or are trying to hide their GPS. Or are looking in the bushes. Or are talking on an ugly cell phone. Muggles are actually interested in the view, not what's hidden in the view.

 

If they look like muggles but won't leave, odds are they are cachers waiting for you (who they think are muggles) to leave.

[+Team JSAM]

I don't run into many cachers while out seeking so it's our rule if there are people around we leave the cache for a later time, I would not want my impatients to ruin a cache.

Edited April 13, 2006 by JsamFam

[Nighteagle]

If they look like muggles but won't leave, odds are they are cachers waiting for you (who they think are muggles) to leave.

 

Thats the best case senario........Here what happend to me...

I was at a park going for a cache and noticed a couple parked cars there....So I decided to wait for them to leave before I went into the woods with my GPS. After about 5 mins one guy gets out of his car, drops trou and openly starts to "pleasure himself", I never left a parking lot so fast in my life. According to the police its been a problem in that park for a while.

 

So beware, if your in a secluded parking lot and there are guys just sitting in thier cars.......they might not have caching in mind

Edited April 13, 2006 by Nighteagle

[+Renegade Knight]

... So beware, if your in a secluded parking lot and there are guys just sitting in thier cars.......they might not have caching in mind

 

That's only something I've heard about. I'm sure we have pickle parks here as well but I've just never been in one at the wrong time looking for a cache.

[+WizCreations]

If your asked, just say its a scavenger hunt or something similar. If they press for more answers, explain geocaching. Usually people wont be inconsiderate enough to destroy the cache.

[+Woodbutcher68]

... So beware, if your in a secluded parking lot and there are guys just sitting in thier cars.......they might not have caching in mind

 

That's only something I've heard about. I'm sure we have pickle parks here as well but I've just never been in one at the wrong time looking for a cache.

 

We've got a few Brokeback Forest Preserves in the Chicago area. I'm sure they are everywhere. Fortunately, I haven't had any problems there.

[+Kacky]

There's a micro in my town at a bus stop. It's in front of a popular convenience store where people like to buy coffee and lottery tickets. They sit in their cars along the street for up to 15 minutes to do their scratch tickets while drinking coffee. The sidewalk has benches where people from the nearbly traffic court and surrounding office buildings come out to smoke cigarettes. If you try to get it on a weekday, the cache owner can see you from the window of his office. Weekends there would be almost as many muggles because it's a popular spot for people with no place to go during the day. It's one of the few areas where folks seem to behave themselves so the cops won't shoo you away. I'm still new, and I was on foot so I didn't have a lot of gear with me, so I used a 5X7 looseleaf notebook that was still in my pack from my Eastern Star meeting the night before. That with the GPS-r and my phone made me feel like an official Sidewalk Inspector - whether I fooled anyone I do not know! I wouldn't be surprised if some of the people in the cars might be scoping the cache.

[+gsm_family]

If they press for more answers, explain geocaching. Usually people wont be inconsiderate enough to destroy the cache.

 

That's what the indians thought about the forests and the land.. you can usually tell the type of people that would destroy a cache!

 

Dom

[Lopezman]

Ewwwww. Thats never happened to me. Im on an island outside of washington state. Basically it's hippie land.

 

There are about 20 caches around here. Im going to plant about 4 more.

[+JohnAengus]

What do I do? I don't like urban micros. I like to find the caches out in the woods and not bother about anyone wondering what I am doing.

[Hike Idaho]

I plan on doing some out of town in the future. It does seem rather conveinant for after work to just go find one or two when they are so close though.

[+Cpt.Blackbeard]

To find out if a person is a muggle, just walk up and ask them, "Are you are Muggle?" If they know what a muggle is, they aren't.

[+Team Red Oak]

Or they may just be Harry Potter fans.

[+emb021]

I'm not comfortable asking if someone is or not, unless I'm pretty sure they are.

 

I've only run into fellow gcers 3 times on the trail. One they pulled up to a site I was looking for. I didn't think anyone else would do so other then gcers, and my suspecions were proven when they spotted my GPSr and showed me theirs.

 

Second encounter was similiar. I approached a site with others are there. I try to be secretive, but one of them spotted my GPSr, and asked if I was geocaching.

 

Third encounter was a little different. I approached a group at the cache site, no one else around and they couldn't be doing anything else but caching. Plus I recognized one from a recent M&G.

 

I look for signs like geocaching wear (t-shirt, hats, pins, buttons), also GPSr.

[+TheCarterFamily]

Cachers look suspicious. Or are trying to hide their GPS. Or are looking in the bushes. Or are talking on an ugly cell phone. Muggles are actually interested in the view, not what's hidden in the view.

 

If they look like muggles but won't leave, odds are they are cachers waiting for you (who they think are muggles) to leave.

 

I always have my GPS out in the open. This way more people know what I'm doing. I make sure they don't seem me find the cache but I don't heasitate if someone sees me looking. Is this wrong? (My logic is... if you walk down the main street with a sword straped to your back it's legal. The minute you put it in a case or conseal it... it's illegal, as it's a consealed weapon ) If your wondering on that comment I used to take kendo and I asked the police about it.

 

Although on one find I had to leave as a guy was watching me like a hawk. Went down to the water to play with my wife and daughter. He finally left.

Edited April 18, 2006 by MikeyCarter

[+JohnnyVegas]

Then I think, maybe I can introduce someone else to this great game. Any thoughts?

This might not be a good idea. Most people are not going to run out and buy a GPS just because someone shows them a cache. This may also increase the chance that the cache will be stolen or destroyed. Your best bet would be to just use more stealth, or just come back anohter time.

[+Pegasi]

I almost always have a backpack with a Bird Identification Book and a Local Tree or Flower ID book. If I get questioned I tell them I'm looking for a Bird or tree that someone spotted in the area. Most people give you a strange look and leave you alone.

 

We did have one nearby Cache - since archived - that was a "pickle park" as well as a drug spot. I did leave that one in a hurry.

[+TotemLake]

It depends largely on the experience level of the cacher as to how to identify muggles from cachers.

 

1. If they are experienced, they will look and act like a muggle all the while drifting closer to the cache location. They may even watch the newbie intently to see if the newbie's action may give away the position of the cache (See #2).

 

2. If they are newbies to the hobby, then they will beeline straight to the cache regardless of who is watching and inadvertently give away the cache location.

 

3. If they are muggles, they will watch you very closely if you look like a stranger in their park while doing something deliberate that is not considered normal in their park. (Also see #1.)

 

-=-=Edited for clarity=-=-

Edited April 18, 2006 by TotemLake

[catcher28]

I've only done a few, but the few I've done all the people exept 2 I met new about it because other geocatchers had been there. 1 actually helped us!

[jamieb520]

To be a muggle or not to be a muggle, who the f___ cares? Geocaching isn't illegal. Cache's should be hidden well enough that a person could be standing over its hiding spot, someone appears and asks what we're doing, you tell them 'geocaching' maybe explain it a bit, then walk away to look elsewhere, then come back to retrieve it when they're gone. Information about geocaching is out there for everyone to see, it's no big secret. I'm new to this, but I'm not stupid enough to lead people to a cache, but what makes a person a muggle? Does the rules of the secret Geocaching society say that I can't take friends geocaching with me because they're labled as "muggles"?

[+TotemLake]

To be a muggle or not to be a muggle, who the f___ cares? Geocaching isn't illegal. Cache's should be hidden well enough that a person could be standing over its hiding spot, someone appears and asks what we're doing, you tell them 'geocaching' maybe explain it a bit, then walk away to look elsewhere, then come back to retrieve it when they're gone. Information about geocaching is out there for everyone to see, it's no big secret. I'm new to this, but I'm not stupid enough to lead people to a cache, but what makes a person a muggle? Does the rules of the secret Geocaching society say that I can't take friends geocaching with me because they're labled as "muggles"?

 

Lighten up. You misconstrued the question and the answers.

[+Spot check]

Sleight of hand!

 

I recently had noncachers about and instead of not doing it in front of them, I just looked at every OTHER tree in the area just as close as I did the cache tree.

 

Then I walked back to my car with the micro, signed it, then touched all the trees again.

 

no one saw me pocket the micro, and I didn't single out a specific tree.

[+TM331]

After about 5 mins one guy gets out of his car, drops trou and openly starts to "pleasure himself", I never left a parking lot so fast in my life. According to the police its been a problem in that park for a while.

 

you should have gone up to him and said "ahh, a micro cache!"

 

he wouldn't have gotten it but it woulda made a great story for here!

Edited April 22, 2006 by atltom331

[aqx99]

I try not to give away cache positions by waiting until I can slip away unnoticed by others in the park. Until that time, I usually act like I am studying the trees, even to the point that I pick up "specimins" from the ground and put them in my pack. I try to be as discrete as possible while back in the tree line as well. I will stand behind a tree and scan the area for likely spots, then move to them when the coast is clear. I prefer to practice "better safe than sorry."

[+emb021]

To be a muggle or not to be a muggle, who the f___ cares? Geocaching isn't illegal. Cache's should be hidden well enough that a person could be standing over its hiding spot, someone appears and asks what we're doing, you tell them 'geocaching' maybe explain it a bit, then walk away to look elsewhere, then come back to retrieve it when they're gone. Information about geocaching is out there for everyone to see, it's no big secret. I'm new to this, but I'm not stupid enough to lead people to a cache, but what makes a person a muggle? Does the rules of the secret Geocaching society say that I can't take friends geocaching with me because they're labled as "muggles"?

 

Take a chill pill.

 

You don't seem to get it.

 

A muggle is just a general term for anyone unaware of what geocaching is all about. While geocaching isn't illegal (but you wonder when you see some of the reactions for certain people), nor a secret, a lot of people don't know about it. There are a lot of things that go on in the world we may not be aware of. Just because something is 'on-line' or mentioned in a paper, doesn't mean people will know what it is (or even that they will be favorable toward if they do. Note the recent anti-geocaching site that thankfully is gone and anti-geocaching 'letters to the editor' or land managers out there)

 

We are secretive about caching because of the people who don't get it, and who will take/destroy a cache if they find it.

 

There is no rule about not taking friends/family geocaching. Its one way of introducing others to the hobby/sport and getting people involved.

[+Airmapper]

I'm not sure, but I think the person driving is a Mugle...