With the hider when cache was placed

[+ThePropers]

Ok, I know it's bad form to log a cache as "found' if you're with the hider when they place it. Of course I've never been in that situation so it hasn't come up, but I might be in this situation shortly. Obviously I wouldn't log it as a find.

 

So what do you guys do with it? Do you just chalk it up as a cache you will never find?

 

I have this nagging suspicion that I will be annoyed everytime I look at my map of unfound caches see this cache that I will never feel right about logging. Sitting there with it's little waypoint marker mocking and laughing at me. "Hahaha...you will never be able to 'find' me....muhahaha!"

 

I guess it's the same thing as when two different people "own" a cache....only one of them technically owns it, and it must be returned in the others' pocket query as an unfound cache, correct? Or maybe you ignore the cache, but still add it to your watchlist.

 

Or maybe it just doesn't matter to anyone but me. Not that it really matters all that much to me either I suppose, but just curious what other people do.

Edited September 14, 2006 by ThePropers

[+EraSeek]

I would and have logged them as a find, just not right away. Let there be a legit "first to find" before you log it.

[+Blue Power Ranger]

It is for this very reason that I purposely avoid going with other cachers when they are hiding something.

 

I want to be able to log a find therefore never go along for the hide.

 

My opinion is that if you are with them, you really shouldn't count the find as a find but if you do, you should at least be honest about it in your log.

[+ThePropers]

It is for this very reason that I purposely avoid going with other cachers when they are hiding something.

 

I want to be able to log a find therefore never go along for the hide.

 

My opinion is that if you are with them, you really shouldn't count the find as a find but if you do, you should at least be honest about it in your log.

 

Yep. Like I said, I probably would never log it as a find, since I just wouldn't feel right about it. Maybe I'll hang back 1/4 mile while they hide go hide it, then I'll go find it.

 

Of course, then I would feel guilty that I found it before it was published on the site (also considered bad form). Curse my conscience!

[+Robespierre]

-when I found the spot and placed the cache for another cacher, I did not, and never will, claim it.

 

-when I helped physically locate the cache, but did not choose the spot, nor develop the multi, I did claim it.

[+The Leprechauns]

I helped my daughter hide The Elves' Cache for Kids. It's sat on my unfound list as my closest cache to home for nearly two years. I've managed not to go insane from looking at it, and I've managed not to log a "find" on a cache whose location is already known to me.

 

One can reasonably question whether logging a smiley on such a cache demonstrates that someone's geocaching watch is wound just a bit too tightly.

 

I will make one exception to my personal rule for not logging a find on a cache whose location is known to me. That will be for when I complete The Pennsylvania DeLorme Challenge. That cache is hidden under a joint account involving one of my multiple personalities. I think it's a special case because of all the work involved. And, I would still have to make a very long hike to put my name in the logbook once I've completed all the preliminary requirements.

Edited September 14, 2006 by The Leprechauns

[+ThePropers]

I've managed not to go insane from looking at it

 

If you can do it, I can! Sure it'll be annoying, but I'll perservere. Somehow...

[+sbell111]

If I actually helped them find it, I would ignore the cache.

 

More likely, I would step away when they approached ground zero and let them hide the thing. After they were done, I would accept their coords and go find the cache. Basically, I would beta test it to see if there were no unforeseen hiccups. I would then log my find on-line, but not until a 'real' FTFer has logged the find.

[+ThePropers]

If I actually helped them find it, I would ignore the cache.

 

More likely, I would step away when they approached ground zero and let them hide the thing. After they were done, I would accept their coords and go find the cache. Basically, I would beta test it to see if there were no unforeseen hiccups. I would then log my find on-line, but not until a 'real' FTFer has logged the find.

 

That does sound like the right thing to do. That goes along with what I was saying about hanging back 1/4 mile or so and then finding the cache after they had hidden it and given me the coordinates.

 

But waiting for a "real" FTFer and then logging it sounds like a good idea.

[+briansnat]

So what do you guys do with it? Do you just chalk it up as a cache you will never find?

 

Yep, that's exactly what I do. Until one of them recently went missing it was for some time, the nearest unfound cache on my list. Didn't bother me a bit.

 

More likely, I would step away when they approached ground zero and let them hide the thing. After they were done, I would accept their coords and go find the cache. Basically, I would beta test it to see if there were no unforeseen hiccups. I would then log my find on-line, but not until a 'real' FTFer has logged the find.

 

I wouldn't log a find in these cases because I feel that I was spoon fed about 90 percent of the hunt. Finding parking was already taken care of, as was choosing the route to ground zero, which is often the most difficult part of the hunt. All that is left is the uncovering of the cache, but even then I'd know the general vicinity. I'm not saying people who do it are doing anything wrong, but its something that doesn't feel quite right to me.

Edited September 14, 2006 by briansnat

[+sbell111]

I think it would prevent any unnecessary angst from those cachers who race for FTFs.

[+Aquacache]

...I would step away when they approached ground zero and let them hide the thing. After they were done, I would accept their coords and go find the cache. Basically, I would beta test it to see if there were no unforeseen hiccups. I would then log my find on-line, but not until a 'real' FTFer has logged the find.

Several of the locals (myself included) have done this exact thing. A friend went with me a couple months ago for one of my hides and once we got to the spot I wanted, he waited a couple hundred feet down the trail until I was done and then verified my coordinates for me. He then waited until after someone else had logged it to claim his find. Perfectly legit.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

What EraSeek said!

 

I rarely cache alone and therefore have often been on both sides of this - had folks with me when I hid one and been with them when they did. In each case we all logged it but did not claim FTF.

 

Do what's comfortable to you, not what other people tell you is 'the way' to play!

 

Ed

[+BlueDeuce]

I would just wait a good amount of time, then go back out and sign the log.

 

My opinion is that it is just a low difficulty cache.

 

Did you ever walk up to a cache site and see the cache laying out in the open? Ya claimed that one didn't cha? Not much difference to me.

 

 

 

edit every/ever

Edited September 14, 2006 by BlueDeuce

[Clan Riffster]

I only have one cache that fits this criteria. It was hidden by my daughter, Mogwai913, with me along for technical assistance. It involves 3 camo'ed bison tubes leading to an ammo can. Fortunately for me, I've got a serious case of CRS, which significantly hinders my ability to remember the fine details of the hides. I know I wouldn't be able to find the can without getting the data from the bison tubes, and there's no chance I'd be able to find the bison tubes from memory. Some day, I'll head out there to do maintenance on a puzzle cache I own across the street, at which time I'll hunt hers down and find it.

 

If it was a standard hunt, with the can in an obvious location which I could remember, I would back off and allow the other person to make the hide. Then, after a legitimate FTF, I'd go hunt for it.

[+EraSeek]

"One can reasonably question whether logging a smiley on such a cache demonstrates that someone's geocaching watch is wound just a bit too tightly"

Yes, but in my case quite the opposite is true. If you look at how long I have been caching and my relativly low numbers you will see that. Although I respect the ethics of what you think you are doing (and there are many caches I will not log) this is a case where I simply do not feel it is an important issue. Example in case; when coming across a cache and cacher already there with cache in hand, do I log it? When finding in a group and I personally was not the one that found it, do I log it? Should I hide my eyes and turn away and then search? That's rather silly. I have had others wait around the corner till I'm done. That's silly. Make caching a social thing when others are there, not a silly thing. It isn't the numbers, it is the experience.

 

So what constitutes a find. Fullfilling the cache requirements. That usually involves physically logging in the log book. Not just seeing it. Not just seeing the velcro where it was. Physically fullfilling the requirements of the cache. Being there. Logging it.

[+GoBolts!]

Log it as a find after the FTF.

[+Rich the Bushwhacker]

I add them to my ignore list, and my Watchlist. That way I get the messages, but it doesn't show up on my PQ's or nearest caches list.

[+DocDiTTo]

I was with 2 others in another state when one of them placed a cache. The other 2 of us logged it as "found while beta testing", in other words, we didn't claim FTF since we had the inside scoop on where it was, and we signed the bottom of the log sheet with a note that we were with the hider when it was hidden. A couple months later I changed my mind about logging it as "found" and went back to change my online found log to a note because it felt too much like cheating to me. Technically though, your name is in the log book and you were at the posted coords when you signed the log, so I could see how some people would consider it OK to log a find this way. But I've decided this isn't how I want to play the game.

[+ThePropers]

I was with 2 others in another state when one of them placed a cache. The other 2 of us logged it as "found while beta testing", in other words, we didn't claim FTF since we had the inside scoop on where it was, and we signed the bottom of the log sheet with a note that we were with the hider when it was hidden. A couple months later I changed my mind about logging it as "found" and went back to change my online found log to a note because it felt too much like cheating to me. Technically though, your name is in the log book and you were at the posted coords when you signed the log, so I could see how some people would consider it OK to log a find this way. But I've decided this isn't how I want to play the game.

 

Well, you know me and my obsession with clearing out my map, which is why I'm asking. Like you, I would feel I was "cheating" to log a find if I already knew where it was at.

 

At the same time, I'd hate to have a cache on my map that I would never be able to log a find on.

 

Maybe I just won't go with him when he hides the cache, but it sounded like a fun hike. That'll solve my dilemma.

[+The Leprechauns]

"One can reasonably question whether logging a smiley on such a cache demonstrates that someone's geocaching watch is wound just a bit too tightly"

Yes, but in my case quite the opposite is true. If you look at how long I have been caching and my relativly low numbers you will see that. Although I respect the ethics of what you think you are doing (and there are many caches I will not log) this is a case where I simply do not feel it is an important issue. Example in case; when coming across a cache and cacher already there with cache in hand, do I log it? When finding in a group and I personally was not the one that found it, do I log it? Should I hide my eyes and turn away and then search? That's rather silly. I have had others wait around the corner till I'm done. That's silly. Make caching a social thing when others are there, not a silly thing. It isn't the numbers, it is the experience.

 

So what constitutes a find. Fullfilling the cache requirements. That usually involves physically logging in the log book. Not just seeing it. Not just seeing the velcro where it was. Physically fullfilling the requirements of the cache. Being there. Logging it.

My comment was addressed solely to the topic at hand, i.e., logging a find on a cache that you helped hide. You cannot "find" something if you already know where it is.

 

The other situations you mention -- I've been there, done that many times. I have no problem logging a find when I'm with a group, or when I'm lucky enough to come up on another group who already has the cache out of its hiding place. To the contrary, if someone asserts that it's not a find if someone else in your group spots it first -- as is happening in another active thread right now -- I would say that *their* watch isn't set to the correct time. But those situations aren't the topic of this thread.

 

Being familiar with your record, EraSeek, and having had the privilege and pleasure of finding several of your caches, I can state with confidence that your watch keeps accurate time, and is wound just right.

[+denali7]

I add them to my ignore list, and my Watchlist. That way I get the messages, but it doesn't show up on my PQ's or nearest caches list.

 

Ditto for a cache I hid with my daughter. I did most of the work, but she picked the general spot and wanted it to be her hide. I will be maintaining it, so it goes on my watchlist. Remember, "IGNORE" doesn't mean "bad cache that sucks so badly I don't want to be aware of its paltry existance." It's more of a "you're a cache that I would prefer not to appear on my queries, please."

[+the hermit crabs]

It looks like you might have a legitimate way out of this dilemma!

 

According to your profile, you are part of a three-person team. But from your original post, it sounds like only you will be going along with this friend to hide the cache (since you say "I" and not "we").

 

So... could you return with the rest of ThePropers some other time, and stand back while they find it, and then log it as a find under the family account?

[+EraSeek]

Thank you Leprechauns. I do understand the aurgument against and respect that. I make my choices. I have one more example (a minor one) to present. The other day a cache came up in my area that I knew exactly where it was. Exactly! Didn't need my GPS, the hint, the cache page in hand. I went and found it anyway.

Edited September 14, 2006 by EraSeek

[+ThePropers]

It looks like you might have a legitimate way out of this dilemma!

 

According to your profile, you are part of a three-person team. But from your original post, it sounds like only you will be going along with this friend to hide the cache (since you say "I" and not "we").

 

So... could you return with the rest of ThePropers some other time, and stand back while they find it, and then log it as a find under the family account?

 

Yeah, I don't think this hide is a hike that the rest of my "team" would go on. My "team" consists mostly of me doing 95% of the caching by myself, with the occassional tagging along of the other two members.

 

But yeah, that's a way out of it if I can get them to go some other time.

[+yyzdnl]

I may a newbie but I already am enjoying methodically clearing my map & lists of all the local caches so I understand your predicament. If you want to log it to clear it off your list go ahead why sweat logging a single cache.

 

If you need to justify claiming it as a find to clear your conscience. Try looking at it this way. You were participating in the hobby when you went with your friend, you made the trip, took the hike, and helped them “Find” just the right spot to hide it. That’s more effort than it takes to find an easy “park & grab” cache.

 

The biggest shame is if you didn’t participate in the hide or held back that last ¼ mile. You would just rob your friend of companionship and help. So enjoy the perk you earned it. I thank you for helping in placing another cache for me to find.

[+budd-rdc]

If you don't want to ignore it, there's another solution which I've applied a few times.

 

Log a find when you go back to maintain it. People'll appreciate it if you drop off a TB or swag in the process. You are the co-hider, so that's within reason.

[+Isonzo Karst]

Somewhat off topic, but it occurs to me more and more how fortunate I am that the nearest cache to my home when I discovered geocaching didn't appeal to me. I knew (in a general sense) where it was. Didn't want to go there. Still haven't found it - so i don't have the whole "clearing out my map issue". This was before the ignore option.

 

I don't make light of it, people are driven by what drives them.

 

Ive done a bit of hiding with others, we split up and then beta test coords and placement. Nobody signs logs, so they're pristine for the finders after publication. I still haven't logged the last 3 I did that way, as I've not been back to sign the logs.

[+wsgaskins]

To add my 2 cents to this discussion...

My policy as a hider is that if someone is social enought to come along with me when I'm hiding a cache (maybe we are going to also try to find another cache in that area together), then my rule is that that other person must come back with someone else in order to log the cache... The presumption is that the friend that s/he brings along the next time will be the one that actually 'finds' it.

 

It's kinda my 'pay it forward' rule of geocaching. It gets geocachers together and it gives everyone the chance to find something on a particular outing, as well as to log caches that may otherwise be a bothersome unfound nit in their 'near home' pocket queries.

[+wimseyguy]

Twice I've been part of the team that hid the 1K challange cache for a friend. They are both on my ignore lists and watchlists. I helped hide them and created some of the evil containers. There would be very little satisfaction in claiming "I found it". But they are on my watchlists, because I get great satisfaction of seeing that someone else can claim they survived the ordeal. These are not ordinalry caches.

 

I have never been with someone when they hid an ordinary cache. I suppose I would lag behind a few hundred yards while they chose the final placement, continue along with them, and then return another day to seek it.

[+tozainamboku]

I go ahead and claim a find if I am with the hider, especially if there is a group and everyone else claims a find. I then add this information to the Truth In Numbers section of my profile so that the puritans can figure out how many cache I really found . I don't claim a find if my name is included in the 'Placed By' field along with the cache owner's or if the 'Placed By' field indicates it was placed by a group.

[+LadeBear68]

I have been watching a cache in MD that was hidden by two people. Both names appear as cache owners and both owners have now logged the cache as a find.

[+NotThePainter]

I helped both my pre-teen kids with their first hide. At the time, I cared about my cleared radius and both their caches were within it.

 

I waited until I had found some far away and I logged those two caches as "Notes" and logged my kids' caches as "Finds."

 

I didn't know about the ignore list, that sounds like a better solution to the problem.

 

Paul

[Clan Riffster]

I didn't know about the ignore list

The "Ignore" button is a wonderful thing, but not necessarily an option for us. We personally reserve the "Ignore" list for those caches we believe to be too crappy to hunt. I would feel odd including Mogwai913's cache amongst so many film canisters & hide-a-keys.

[+edscott]

If I actually helped them find it, I would ignore the cache.

 

More likely, I would step away when they approached ground zero and let them hide the thing. After they were done, I would accept their coords and go find the cache. Basically, I would beta test it to see if there were no unforeseen hiccups. I would then log my find on-line, but not until a 'real' FTFer has logged the find.

 

Agree !!!! this is the fair way to do it and has the added advantage of verifying the coordinates for the hider.

[+BomberJjr]

I recently helped my dad in hiding a cache. Didn't log it and I can live with that.

[+The GeoGadgets Team]

So, what do you do when a Geocacher friend asks you to beta-test a cache? This has happened to us on numerous occasions. The first time it was on a nine-stage multi that actually took three days to find, because the coords on two of the stages were incorrect. The final cache had a combination lock on it, and when the owner realized that he'd transposed two of the numbers, we had tried three times to open it with no success. Good thing he was a licensed Amateur Radio operator (as are we) and we shouted for him on the radio to ask WTH? Then it took him two days to come to the conclusion that the error was his, and that we weren't doing something bass-ackward. Yeah, we claimed FTF on that one. We earned it, and no one would have been able to find, no less log it, had we not done the leg work.

 

On another occasion, a friend asked us to test a cache he'd placed near a business. We found it, signed the log, but the cache was never approved, so regardless, there was no FTF.

 

But I've never helped another cacher hide a cache that I didn't get credit for helping hide (as in, my name is on the hide, too).

 

I do have an issue with husband/wife teams who go out, hide a cache together (sometimes two or more in a day) and then the spouse logs it as an FTF while he/she helped hide it! The second it would go live on the GC.com website, a FTF log would pop up. To prove it, I went out the next day and sure enough, the other spouse had never signed the logbook. I put in my log that we were the first to log it, as no one else had signed the log, and it went on my FTF list (for my own personal gratification). Another team that caches with them does the same thing, and I just think that is BS, and not only because I'm an acknowledged FTF Ho (Hello, my name is Lori... ). It would be no different than if I claimed to hide a cache, got it approved and published, let just my friends log it as a find on the first day, and when no one else could find it (it didn't really exist you know), archive it... but my friends all got to log a find. Might as well start logging pocket caches... sheesh.

 

Say what you want about Teams, but we hide as a Team and I don't send my kids out with new user names to log them as FTFs.

[+Lighteye]

I have been on a couple of dozen hikes with a pal, and one of the things we like to do is create another hide or two or three along the trail if the area warrants it. I personally won't log these as found, but always log a note to my co-conspirator on the cache page letting them know it is in good shape, or that I performed maintenance...basically a status check.

 

I couldn't, with a clear conscience, log any of them as "finds". I have even gone so far as to beseech my other half not to log them as finds, even if she DOES find it by herself. She understands and agrees with the philosophy. I guess to each his own. Just my $.02.

[+olbluesguy]

So, what do you do when a Geocacher friend asks you to beta-test a cache? This has happened to us on numerous occasions. The first time it was on a nine-stage multi that actually took three days to find, because the coords on two of the stages were incorrect. The final cache had a combination lock on it, and when the owner realized that he'd transposed two of the numbers, we had tried three times to open it with no success. Good thing he was a licensed Amateur Radio operator (as are we) and we shouted for him on the radio to ask WTH? Then it took him two days to come to the conclusion that the error was his, and that we weren't doing something bass-ackward. Yeah, we claimed FTF on that one. We earned it, and no one would have been able to find, no less log it, had we not done the leg work.

 

On another occasion, a friend asked us to test a cache he'd placed near a business. We found it, signed the log, but the cache was never approved, so regardless, there was no FTF.

 

But I've never helped another cacher hide a cache that I didn't get credit for helping hide (as in, my name is on the hide, too).

 

I do have an issue with husband/wife teams who go out, hide a cache together (sometimes two or more in a day) and then the spouse logs it as an FTF while he/she helped hide it! The second it would go live on the GC.com website, a FTF log would pop up. To prove it, I went out the next day and sure enough, the other spouse had never signed the logbook. I put in my log that we were the first to log it, as no one else had signed the log, and it went on my FTF list (for my own personal gratification). Another team that caches with them does the same thing, and I just think that is BS, and not only because I'm an acknowledged FTF Ho (Hello, my name is Lori... ). It would be no different than if I claimed to hide a cache, got it approved and published, let just my friends log it as a find on the first day, and when no one else could find it (it didn't really exist you know), archive it... but my friends all got to log a find. Might as well start logging pocket caches... sheesh.

 

Say what you want about Teams, but we hide as a Team and I don't send my kids out with new user names to log them as FTFs.

 

Let me get this straight .someone puts out a cache,and wants you to beta test it before it's published just to see if everything is right.

You do so,and claim a FTF?

Regardless of the problems you encountered you still had an inside track on this cache.

No beta tester should claim a FTF. A lagit find after a lagit FTF is fine. just my.... 2C

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

If you are truly beta-testing and all you are given is the coords, heck yes, you found it and you found it first!

 

However, I have done such a coordinate test for friends before, but did not log FTF (or even a find), because it would be a discourtesy to my friend and because while you do not have any find advantage, you certainly have first-to-find advantage.

 

I think you can count on this - if your friend asks you to beta-test the coords and you claim FTF, especially if you take the FTF prize - you won't be asked again!

 

Ed

[+The GeoGadgets Team]

If you are truly beta-testing and all you are given is the coords, heck yes, you found it and you found it first!

 

However, I have done such a coordinate test for friends before, but did not log FTF (or even a find), because it would be a discourtesy to my friend and because while you do not have any find advantage, you certainly have first-to-find advantage.

 

I think you can count on this - if your friend asks you to beta-test the coords and you claim FTF, especially if you take the FTF prize - you won't be asked again!

 

Ed

 

Yes, I was given only the initial coords and told to go for it. I suppose I should have clarified that he'd given the same coords to another cacher who couldn't find it, before giving them to us. So, essentially, we started out the same as anyone else, but with the addition of a request of "could you do this now for me?" Also, keep in mind that this was five+ years ago, when the number of Geocachers where I lived was, well, our Team and two other people. First-to-Find prizes were more to get folks to actually go and look for the cache, not something to compete for. The only person we ended up competing with was a group from 100 miles away who used to drive out to our neck of the Geocaching geography in order to one-up us on finds, and we'd have to get up at 6 a.m. to beat them to our own neighborhood caches. They don't even cache anymore... sad.

 

And yes, not only did the person who asked us to beta-test his cache ask us to do it again on another cache, but asked us to adopt those caches after he'd moved. Go figure...

[+edscott]

Yes, I was given only the initial coords and told to go for it. I suppose I should have clarified that he'd given the same coords to another cacher who couldn't find it, before giving them to us. So, essentially, we started out the same as anyone else, but with the addition of a request of "could you do this now for me?" Also, keep in mind that this was five+ years ago, when the number of Geocachers where I lived was, well, our Team and two other people. First-to-Find prizes were more to get folks to actually go and look for the cache, not something to compete for. The only person we ended up competing with was a group from 100 miles away who used to drive out to our neck of the Geocaching geography in order to one-up us on finds, and we'd have to get up at 6 a.m. to beat them to our own neighborhood caches. They don't even cache anymore... sad.

 

And yes, not only did the person who asked us to beta-test his cache ask us to do it again on another cache, but asked us to adopt those caches after he'd moved. Go figure...

 

Anyone else?? It seems like there was only one other person let in on the location.

[+The GeoGadgets Team]

Yes, I was given only the initial coords and told to go for it. I suppose I should have clarified that he'd given the same coords to another cacher who couldn't find it, before giving them to us. So, essentially, we started out the same as anyone else, but with the addition of a request of "could you do this now for me?" Also, keep in mind that this was five+ years ago, when the number of Geocachers where I lived was, well, our Team and two other people. First-to-Find prizes were more to get folks to actually go and look for the cache, not something to compete for. The only person we ended up competing with was a group from 100 miles away who used to drive out to our neck of the Geocaching geography in order to one-up us on finds, and we'd have to get up at 6 a.m. to beat them to our own neighborhood caches. They don't even cache anymore... sad.

 

And yes, not only did the person who asked us to beta-test his cache ask us to do it again on another cache, but asked us to adopt those caches after he'd moved. Go figure...

 

Anyone else?? It seems like there was only one other person let in on the location.

 

Yes, Ed... er, actually TWO other people. Please read my statement about the LACK of local cachers...

[+OHMIKY]

I have this nagging suspicion that I will be annoyed everytime I look at my map of unfound caches see this cache that I will never feel right about logging. Sitting there with it's little waypoint marker mocking and laughing at me. "Hahaha...you will never be able to 'find' me....muhahaha!"

 

Wow, some folks are easy to disturb!

 

I would probably put it on my watch list and take pleasure in seeing who found it and what their experiences are.

 

(edited for spelling - which doesn't get done often enough)

Edited September 22, 2006 by OHMIKY

[+The 4 F's]

 

So what do you guys do with it? Do you just chalk it up as a cache you will never find?

 

 

Yes. Can't "find" it if you know where it's hidden.

[Clan Riffster]

Yes. Can't "find" it if you know where it's hidden.

Unless of course you forgot where it was. Then, technically, you'd need to "find" it again to do maintanance, etc.

[Tahosa and Sons]

To each his own. I've come across this situation several times. And in my opion if you help me find a spot to place a cache, then you have found it. I get a smiley for hiding it and you get a smiley for helping me. As to FTF's, oh well go look somewhere else for your bag of fun.

[+Pablo Mac]

I get a smiley for hiding it and you get a smiley for helping me.

When did we start earning smilies for hiding and helping to hide caches?

[+Sono/Rad]

Personally I can go either way on this. Usually I will log it as a find sometime after several others have logged it first and I note I was there at the time the cache was hidden. After all, if you are out searching for a cache with another person and he sees the cache before you do, don't you log it as a find? But he "found" the cache and you technically didn't. Not exactly the same, but a similar situation in reverse.

 

Rad

[+KA7CJH]

I was with a fellow cacher not to long ago. And he decided to hide a cache at a "Confluence".

Well it took both of us fighting our way through the brambles and poison oak just to get close. But after a long hard battle we one-out. Yes I logged the cache but only after another cacher found it and logged a FTF.

 

So if you help hide a cache, by all means you should be able to log it. Just don't claim to be FTF.

 

You still get the same smiley face.

 

Chris