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caches you refuse to get


bone shaker

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We tend to stay away from the Playground caches. If we had kids, we'd use them as cover, but we don't, so I always feel like everyone is looking at us thinking we're perverts.

 

We also don't hunt the Wally World park and grabs. Not to say we wouldn't do it if we happened to be going there, we just wouldn't make a special trip there just to get the cache.

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Im not much on micros in general and urban caches have less appeal to me

my motto is its about the journey so I look for caches in rural settings with

hiking or light climbing somewhere i usually havent been... I also like

historical caches if they are a little remote even in a urban setting but

you will never see me log anything from a parking lot...

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I have gradually become more picky. I used to try for the urban lame micros, but now I just drive on by in favor of ones in a nicer area. If it is near a busy road or otherwise high muggle area I won't stop.

 

A few times I have gotten out of the truck, looked around, and just left, it wasn't worth the trouble of poking around peoples cars, or a businesses landscaping just for a smiley located in a bush or fixture. I think caches that deliberately make you act suspicious around other peoples property is disrespectful and not good for the game.

 

Edit: Wording

Edited by Airmapper
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There aren't many I REFUSE to get, but plenty I bypass, give only a cursory look for, and/or won't make a special trip for because they don't particularly interest me.

 

WRT micros, I'm actually more likely to bypass a micro in the woods than a guardrail or lamppost one; I just don't find spending ages looking for something tiny when I could be hiking particularly appealing - although I usually only bother with guardrail/lamp/dumpster types if I happen to be near them anyway, and have a bit of time to spare.

I'm also not a big fan of caches which require "stealth" by virtue of being placed in conspicuous areas of shopping centers, in front of stores, and so forth, althougj I may look for them if it's a place that can be accessed when the store is closed, or take a quick look if I happen to be there anyway.

 

As far as aborting a search - similar to other posters, I generally won't give more than a cursory look, or will turn back, if I find an area full of garbage or broken glass, smelling of urine, occupied by the homeless, full of ratholes, etc.

One of my UNfavorite DNF caches (which was finally, mercifully, archived after several complaints) turned out to be buried* somewhere in the ground cover under some shrubbery next to a dumpster - with live**, and obvious, rat tunnels all through the area. NO thanks; I wasn't sticking my hands in there!! I'm still amazed that the person who hid the cache was apparently ignorant of what those holes all over the place were. :laughing:

 

I will also bypass or quickly abort my search if I find that cache placement makes me feel as if I'm invading a resident's privacy - although I've only run into a few of those.

 

Caches near playgrounds, OTOH, aren't a problem for me; being a small 40-something female who caches with dogs, I don't set off anybody's alarm bells.

 

 

*Yes, buried. There was a thick layer of pine needles and mulch, and reading all the way back through all the logs revealed that it was literally buried in them.

**I had my lurcher with me, and she told me loud and clear that there were rats at home.

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Interesting way of putting the question. These aren't just caches we dislike, but are ones we would actually ignore. In order of frequency, here are cache types we have decided never to pursue:

  • Caches by a particular individual known to hide them on a daily basis, often done poorer than average.
  • Caches that require ignoring a "No Tresspassing" sign. I can hardly believe permission was granted. Do they, or do they not want complete strangers prowling about the place?
  • Caches in conspicuous places around a busy restaurant. I don't know what it is about restaurants, but they're more uncomfortable to search than most businesses.
  • Caches in front yards. I will not be your entertainment for the evening.
  • A particular cache hidden inside the pole for a street name sign. Requires the use of a ladder and removal of the street names to get at it. Too much disassembly required.

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Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single cache type that I would refuse to search for. Because I've gone paperless, I have the ability to review each cache page prior to commencing my hunt. Most of what I would consider to be lame hides don't make it to my GSAK files. The occasional stinker that does, gets filtered out by reading the page. If it looks like something I wouldn't enjoy, I delete it and move on. Life is too short to waste on not having fun while playing a game.

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Almost any "drive-by" virtual. Only virtuals I will do now is at some interesting historical or geological location where hiding a real cache would be destructive or illegal.

Most micros within a cities limits. As a matter of fact I will chase very few at all within city limits or other populated area. I don't like having to be stealthy or having to explain myself. To me geocaching is about being out in the boonies by myself for the solitude or with my family to enjoy the time together and share the experience.

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Let's see, I've done lamp post skirts in busy parking lots, WAL MART hides under surveillance cams, TARGET hides under surveillance cams, public telephone nanos, COKE machines in busy places, "OFF YOUR ROCKER" Cracker Barrel Restaurant front porches, traffic sign posts, front yards, rock fields, nanos in the woods, underwater, Police Stations, Playgrounds, trash piles and Library front entrances and bushes.

 

The only ones that turn me around in the other direction are the ones near homeless camps. A lot of those folks are "A few bricks shy of a load", and they just may be packing heat, and take offense at you going through their stuff. There have been three or four of these that I have just walked away from as fast as possible when I encounter them.

 

GM

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I hate when someone takes the fake rock and puts it in a rock pile. You know on the side of a reservoir/dam. If the cache description doesn't give me an idea of what I am looking for, then when I get to the location and it looks like it might even remotely be a rock cache, it is going to be passed up.

 

You could take the same fake rock and put it at another location, and I would look for it.

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We have a few caches in our region that are hidden in rough neighborhoods- the kinds of places that are so bad that the cache descriptions warn visitors not to go at night, and where when you do visit, there are usually lots of people walking around staring at you suspiciously because you look like you don't belong. Those usually go on the ignore list, and I consider it a safety issue.

 

With other urban caches (the high-stealth ones), I often pass them by when I'm alone, but I do save them for days when I'm caching in groups. They're more fun that way.

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We skip most no-reason-to-exist caches, but recently added a new category to our ignore list: median strip of a busy street.

 

:laughing: I've driven by some nicely landscaped medians, but never thought twice about placing a cache there :D

 

The kinds of caches I avoid are simple:

 

Parking Lot Caches. (exceptions made if there is something historic, or scenic to visit)

Caches in Homeless encampments. (Risk of MRSA, Physical Assault risk, etc)

Caches hidden in full view of housing tracts.

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I would not define the caches I avoid as "bad" caches. I call them not-my-kinda-caches, and they're mainly the puzzle ones. I spend my entire work-day thinking, analyzing and problem-solving; I'd rather not spend my free time doing the same thing with my hobbies.

 

For example, this cache made my brain hurt. It's not a bad cache, I'm assuming, because people seem to genuinely enjoy it. But it's not for me.

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We skip most no-reason-to-exist caches, but recently added a new category to our ignore list: median strip of a busy street.

 

:laughing: I've driven by some nicely landscaped medians, but never thought twice about placing a cache there :D

 

The kinds of caches I avoid are simple:

 

Parking Lot Caches. (exceptions made if there is something historic, or scenic to visit)

Caches in Homeless encampments. (Risk of MRSA, Physical Assault risk, etc)

Caches hidden in full view of housing tracts.

 

So simple, that I agree!! No. 1 and 3 are always avoided by me, and plonked on the ignore list. Except I don't come across too many homeless encampments. I'd replace that one with something I've come across way too often. Caches near teen party pits in the woods. Lots of empty beer cans and other garbage, grafitti, including the alway present pro-marijuana statements, lawn furniture, and even the occasional tarp shelter. Not to mention these caches seem to get muggled every single time for some odd reason. :D

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I simply ignore all micro and smaller caches. I think there should be a field on a geocache that lists the largest dimension so we can search on those caches. Like, measure your vitamin container. If it's 3 inches diameter by 5 inches tall, the largest dimension would be listed as 5 inches. That's a fair-sized cache. I'm not one for solving puzzles like "which of the 100 branches on that tree could be hollow and hide a nano cache?"

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The kinds of caches I avoid are simple:

 

Parking Lot Caches. (exceptions made if there is something historic, or scenic to visit)

Caches in Homeless encampments. (Risk of MRSA, Physical Assault risk, etc)

Caches hidden in full view of housing tracts.

 

Ditto for me on the above... :laughing:

I will do a parking lot cache ONLY if I happen to be in the same parking lot by chance...I will not make a special stop.

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I may give up on most micros, but not yet. I haven't done enough urban caching to get that jaded.

However, I'm not going to try any Off Your Rocker caches. I have always hated Cracker Barrel - I don't understand what the appeal is. So, I try to stay as far away from them and their patrons as possible.

 

Also, I've been seeing a lot of caches in my area recently where the owners are completely ignoring maintenance requests. That irks me. I'm not going to try to find some cache with a log that has been a pulpy mess for the last six months. With that being said, I think this statement holds water:

"There are no bad caches, only bad cacheowners"

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The kinds of caches I avoid are simple:

 

Parking Lot Caches. (exceptions made if there is something historic, or scenic to visit)

Caches in Homeless encampments. (Risk of MRSA, Physical Assault risk, etc)

Caches hidden in full view of housing tracts.

 

Ditto for me on the above... :D

I will do a parking lot cache ONLY if I happen to be in the same parking lot by chance...I will not make a special stop.

 

This is not a hard temptation to resist!!! There's a parking lot micro at a Target near my house, that I've probably been within 100 feet of a dozen or more times (and it's only about 2 months old). My hands ain't never touching that skirt. :lol:

 

Editing to say I see Briansnat said basically the same thing. In both cases, I'll bet the lampskirts in question are not lonely.

Edited by TheWhiteUrkel
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I've done a couple where I had to park along a major highway with very little shoulder to park on. Not fun, don't feel safe. Desided to avoid those caches.

 

Also, if the previous 10 logs say "The coords are way off" or "The coords are 100m off" or "everything is wet inside", this shows the owner of the cache has no real interst in the upkeep of his cache. I tend to skip those.

 

But....To flip the coin here, it's attitues like that that could kill all interset in this hobby... I guess it's up to the hidder to think well ahead when hidding a cache for the finder.

 

Paul.

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The caches I refuse to get are the ones where drug dealers or homeless people hang out, at or on trash dumpsters, illegal dumping sites, legal dumping sites, near wastewater treatment facilities, industrial areas, storm drains, attached to electrical transformers, or are on private property.

 

I have nothing against micro caches if they take me some place scenic or interesting, but I am sick of 35mm film canisters randomly stuck in shrubs outside of K-Mart, Wal-Mart, grocery stores, etc. There is a guy in our area who owns about 30 of these and I've gotten to the point where if I see this guy is the cache owner, I delete the cache from my list. I have also decided to start avoiding caches placed under the skirts of street lights. It's not very clever, it's not public property, and it is potentially dangerous.

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I have a friend who has encountered a "new dilemma." He only looks for caches with high terrain ratings. He has also been bitten by the Geocoin / Jeep TB bug. He is finding out that cachers like to place these highly sought out items, in their caches to attract finders. The problem my friend is encountering is that these hides are the type of caches he can't stand.

 

His solution is to grab the Geocoin or Jeep, and then post a note on the cache page. :D

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I don't tend to "refuse" most caches. I'll happily find the random lamp post mico etc if I am with a group and someone wants to get it, or if I somehow park right by one or something.

 

But those are caches that I generally would only get when group caching and otherwise tend to ignore. I don't have a problem ignoring the baggie under a dumpster up the street or the micro on a gaurd rail by a busy road with no parking or view etc.

 

I have outright refused to get caches where I pulled up and found that I would be trespassing to get the cache. I also have refused caches in the yards of people I don't know. I know that some people like those, but they make me uncomfortable and so I just don't do them if I don't know who lives there.

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I've done a couple where I had to park along a major highway with very little shoulder to park on. Not fun, don't feel safe. Desided to avoid those caches.

 

Also, if the previous 10 logs say "The coords are way off" or "The coords are 100m off" or "everything is wet inside", this shows the owner of the cache has no real interst in the upkeep of his cache. I tend to skip those.

 

But....To flip the coin here, it's attitues like that that could kill all interset in this hobby... I guess it's up to the hidder to think well ahead when hidding a cache for the finder.

 

Paul.

Yesterday I went on a FTF hunt. It was a micro attached to a small historical marker. The coordinates were off and I finally discovered it on the shoulder of the highway. Also, the description stated that I would have to reach inside a fence to get it. He didn't mention that it was barbed wire!!! Needless to say, this one wasn't as much fun as his previous caches.

 

Recently, I hid my first cache. I spent a lot of time searching for the right spot...It is located near a former dumpsite which is behind my property. I placed it in a clean area with a description as to where the broken glass is located. I want people to come and have fun...not turn them off. Also, since the cache is located in my "backyard" I can keep it maintained with nice swag.

Edited by Nevada Stars
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what's your definition of a "bad" cache?... one that when you pull up to it, you just say " forget it!" I have seen a few... very high muggler area, on a trash can, ...etc. What would it take for you to say, no way!

 

I only have one cache on my Ignore list right now and it is a cache where the past logs have mentioned things such as soiled underwear and used condoms near the final location. Too bad because it originally looked like an interesting cache involving doing some projections and things.

 

Remember cachers: your online logs are a basic form of quality control so put some effort into them!

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"OFF YOUR ROCKER" Cracker Barrel Restaurant front porches

 

YEAH those are hard to be stealthy getting. Maybe if you went at like 2am or something.

 

As far as what I won't go after... I haven't come across one that I haven't at least *tried* to get yet. There have been a few that I gave up early due to muggles or just that feeling that you're doing something *wrong*.

Edited by Retcon
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I would not enjoy almost all of the caches brought up in this thread. However, I don't really don't mind finding a micro in the woods because I don't trade and I enjoy challenging hides (as long as the coords are accurate). But I don't enjoy challenging hides if I've hiked a long way. Anyhow, this thread is like a bad caching dream. It's hard to believe that we actually have to write about some of these types of caches. I also think that if some people think they don't mind most of these caches now, then keep on finding them because you will eventually see the light! :D

Edited by TrailGators
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However, I don't really don't mind finding a micro in the woods because I don't trade and I enjoy challenging hides (as long as the coords are accurate). But I don't enjoy challenging hides if I've hiked a long way.

 

Of course, there's a difference between "needle in a haystack" hard and "clever" hard. I don't mind the occasional micro or small cache in the woods as long as it's a clever or interesting hide that challenges me to think outside the box, but the previously mentioned rock in a boulder field or tree of 100 branches get old fast. Those hides aren't about a challenge, they're about either luck or endurance, and I often lack the patience for them :D .

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I don't know about refusing...however I will take a pass on any cache that I just feel comfortable doing, whether it is in the wrong part of town, or too close to the edge of a cliff. It doesn't bother me at all to walk on by a cache. I'm not that obsessive.

I am becoming more selective with my hunts though. Unless I'm with a group I'll pass on most micros and urban caches.

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I avoid caches placed near active homeless encampments and at/near police stations & courthouses. I prefer not to do caches in close view of houses, but I will do them in certain circumstances (rural houses).

I avoid caches that have had more than two DNF's in the past four or five logs.

 

I will do just about anycache, including parkinglot micros, if I feel I can do it quickly and stealthfully.

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I don't think I'd refuse to get any cache. Some of the more uninteresting ones, will get pushed to the bottom of my list constantly, but I'm sure that I will eventually find them. I don't do a lot of puzzle caches, not because I refuse them, but I just can't figure out the darn puzzle :lol: Some caches right next to the roadside I'll keep pushing off until I go caching with somebody else. Two sets of eyes will find the cache quicker, lowering the chances of one of us getting hit, by somebody adjusting their radio. :D

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However, I don't really don't mind finding a micro in the woods because I don't trade and I enjoy challenging hides (as long as the coords are accurate). But I don't enjoy challenging hides if I've hiked a long way.

 

Of course, there's a difference between "needle in a haystack" hard and "clever" hard. I don't mind the occasional micro or small cache in the woods as long as it's a clever or interesting hide that challenges me to think outside the box, but the previously mentioned rock in a boulder field or tree of 100 branches get old fast. Those hides aren't about a challenge, they're about either luck or endurance, and I often lack the patience for them :D .

I also detest needle-in-the-haystack hides! I also do not appreciate hides that involve bushwhacking through thick brush that tears up your body/clothes. I do not appreciate caches hidden in places that cause plant goo to get all over you. I also do not appreciate having to find a cache in poison oak infested or tick infested areas. Of course, there are attributes to warn you about those hazards but the attributes don't tell you the severity. So I'm talking about the extremes.
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