Danger - what won't you touch for a cache?

May 30, 2007

I noticed a lot of people like to attach cache containers to power boxes, water drains, light posts, sticking them on by magnet in a container that looks like it belongs there. The other day I came across a cache that you had to either be a really good climber or a giraffe to get to it. Last week, I was led to a dirty deserted back road where my GPSr pointed me to a swampy patch of trees -- it looked like someone dumped the contents of their attic in there and I saw a half a snake hanging out of a cracked water pipe.

You never really know how much danger you are getting into when you are hunting for a cache. Suppose the thing on the power box was not a cache container? Should you really pull on it?

I do touch odd knobs on power boxes and light posts and I guess I would climb to get a cache. But I draw the line when it comes to looking for a cache under trash and dead snakes. I mean, there are caches hidden in places where I'm not sure I want to put my hand.

What are your limits? At what point do you say "I'm not going there. It's not worth the danger" ?

May 30, 2007

What are your limits? At what point do you say "I'm not going there. It's not worth the danger" ?

Usually when the voltage is coursing through my body I decide it wasn't worth it.

I once went down into a cave that had about a 15" diameter opening and a 10' drop to the bottom (though there were places to get a foothold). The cave continued about 30 feet and included a point that was crawling on all fours through another tiny opening. I logged the cache and got out fine but it admittedly wasn't the smartest thing to do alone. Cool cache, though!

4k · May 30, 2007

I think it is a fine line. Some i can see as being dangerous or too much. Others if put together well, wouldn't bother me. For electrical stuff what i was thinking is that if you have to take apart stuff with tools to search- its a bad idea. Here is one that we did that i thought was especially cool. It did have a geocaching sticker on the side of the box which gave it away though.

May 30, 2007

I think it is a fine line. Some i can see as being dangerous or too much. Others if put together well, wouldn't bother me. For electrical stuff what i was thinking is that if you have to take apart stuff with tools to search- its a bad idea. Here is one that we did that i thought was especially cool. It did have a geocaching sticker on the side of the box which gave it away though.

OMG, that is exactly what I mean! How would you know if it's okay to open that? In your case there was a sign. But I see many that have no indication until you open it.

:blink: You have to admit, that WAS pretty clever.

May 30, 2007

Please tell me he didn't pull the sandwich out of the cache. I definitely would not touch that! :blink:

May 30, 2007

I wonder how they managed to get this pretty girl inside such a tiny box ???? :blink:

4k · May 30, 2007

OMG, that is exactly what I mean! How would you know if it's okay to open that? In your case there was a sign. But I see many that have no indication until you open it.

You have to admit, that WAS pretty clever.

Couple of things...

- The Geocache sticker on the side.

- The flexible conduit under the cache went nowhere. (It was a dummy end.)

- The cover plate is meant for inside use only and it was outside.

- It was not an electrical outlet but a light sensor switch (couldnt get hurt touching it)

- Upon getting there it easily opened and no tools were needed.

If a screwdriver was necessary then i would have not touched it. I liked the hide. Very cool. Its been there for a couple of years i think.

May 30, 2007

How often are things hidden in electrical looking things? I stay far away from that stuff. I'm the kind of person that would end up with a short in the heart from disassembling a live electrical box thinking I'm geocaching.

May 30, 2007

What are your limits? At what point do you say "I'm not going there. It's not worth the danger" ?

I saw some like that on Ebay. I would DEFINATLY NOT stick my hand anywhere where it could be a danger. Or grossness. Its not right. :blink:

May 30, 2007

Live animals. Molten Lava. Spinning helicopter blades. Wrapped presents. IEDs disguised as wrapped presents. Exposed mercury. Tribbles. What's-his-face who Geocaches in the buff.

I guess there are a lot of things.

10.1k · May 30, 2007

Lessee. I was looking at the PVC water line with two valves within a foot of each other, and figured that one of them must be fake. Before I did anything, I e-mailed the CO. The cache was a fake bolt about twenty feet away. Don't do anything dangerous.

4k · May 30, 2007

You never really know how much danger you are getting into when you are hunting for a cache. Suppose the thing on the power box was not a cache container? Should you really pull on it?

Have you found a PVC pipe bomb yet?

May 30, 2007

I think it is a fine line. Some i can see as being dangerous or too much. Others if put together well, wouldn't bother me. For electrical stuff what i was thinking is that if you have to take apart stuff with tools to search- its a bad idea. Here is one that we did that i thought was especially cool. It did have a geocaching sticker on the side of the box which gave it away though.

OMG, that is exactly what I mean! How would you know if it's okay to open that? In your case there was a sign. But I see many that have no indication until you open it.

You have to admit, that WAS pretty clever.

I've seen that one too. In my opinion, in the absence of geocaching sticker real bad idea, no matter how clever. Bad precedent to set that electrical equipment should be openned in search of a cache. Same with fake sprinkler heads, as I have seen vandalized heads near cache sites, which very may well have the work of cachers.

4k · May 30, 2007

I wonder how they managed to get this pretty girl inside such a tiny box ????

Aww thanks. She blushed a lot when i told her what you said.

5.9k · May 30, 2007

I must express my shock and outrage that there is a child with a sandwich so near a geocache! Don’t you know that food isn’t allowed in a geocache? Crumbs could fall into the container and attract rodents that will chew their way inside the box, waiting in hungry rage for the next finder to come along and open it, then vault from the container into the face of the unsuspecting geocacher, where they’ll chew through an eye until they reach the brain, then assume control of the host body. Then you’ll have trouble, big trouble.

24.7k · May 30, 2007

You never really know how much danger you are getting into when you are hunting for a cache. Suppose the thing on the power box was not a cache container? Should you really pull on it?

Have you found a PVC pipe bomb yet?

Great. Now I'm going to have to tweak my mental image of you. Note to self: Knight2000 has cute kids, but still has that slightly disturbing avitar....

24.7k · May 30, 2007

...What are your limits? At what point do you say "I'm not going there. It's not worth the danger" ?

When I feel that I'm in danger. There are trees that can't support my weight. I don't climb those. Sometimest here is a rock climb that is beyond my comfort level. I don't do those either. So far that's about all I have encountered that had a limit issue.

May 30, 2007

http://www.transmogrifier.org/ch/comics/86/08/06.gif

May 30, 2007

Snakes - I will NEVER touch a snake to get a cache. I'm always nervous when a cache is in a crevice or small caves (this is the result of my 3 brothers scaring me with a snake when I was 10 - I guess I will never get over it). I see so many snakes on the trails and on/around the rock formations (I just want to run away every time I see one). I always use a really really really long stick to make sure there's not a snake in the rocks before I go for the cache.

10.1k · May 30, 2007

Great. Now I'm going to have to tweak my mental image of you. Note to self: Knight2000 has cute kids, but still has that slightly disturbing avitar....

Well, I was going to list "Judge Judy" under scary things in the Off-Topic thread.

May 30, 2007

I encountered a multi cache about a month ago that required me to stick my hand and arm up to my elbow inside a hole in a tree to recieve the first set of coordinates. This might not seem dangerous to some cachers, but I am highly allergic to bee's and the thought did cross my mind before I stuck my hand in there.

I have also seen photos of fake bee's nests that are actually the hidden cache. I don't think I would take the chance to find out if it was real or not.

2.3k · May 30, 2007

Snakes - I will NEVER touch a snake to get a cache.

I WILL!!!

3.9k · May 30, 2007

I do not touch sprinkler heads, nor real plumbing, nor fake plumbing, nor any real live electrical transformer boxes, distribution boxes, switchboxes or fuseboxes, nor anything near them. Period. Why? These are not only distasteful placements but also overly dangerous in terms of risk. As for lamp posts, I avoid most of them, and will occasionally -- perhaps once per year -- go for a lamppost cache, so long as I am not wet and standing in a puddle. Oh, and I never reach inside anything -- including the hollows of lamp posts -- which contains wires.

However, I will slither among rattlesnakes, spiders and crawly insects, will climb precarious ladders, will crawl many hundreds or thousands of feet inside caves or storm drains, will brave cold rough waters in a kayak (while wearing suitable protective gear and a PFD), will climb cliffs using gear, will descend cliffs using climbing/descent gear, and I will hover in a helicopter a few feet above a one hundred foot tall sheer vertical stone pier in the middle of a violent river in order to place or find/retrieve a cache. I will even enter West Virginia to place or find a cache. Why? These are situations which present only very sane, manageable and reasonable risks.

4k · May 30, 2007

Great. Now I'm going to have to tweak my mental image of you. Note to self: Knight2000 has cute kids, but still has that slightly disturbing avitar....

Although we love Judge Judy i'll switch to my kids for a while. LOL. Now thats really throwing you a curveball!

May 30, 2007

I do feel some caches are placed in unsafe scenarios, If you are at a cache and do not feel safe, it is better to dnf for sure. I was at geowoodstock and we cached one that was a fake electrical cable. I wouldn't have even attempted to touch it with the exception that my crew was dumb enough to go for it first.

14.3k · May 30, 2007

Great. Now I'm going to have to tweak my mental image of you. Note to self: Knight2000 has cute kids, but still has that slightly disturbing avitar....

Although we love Judge Judy i'll switch to my kids for a while. LOL. Now thats really throwing you a curveball!

That reminds me....it's only 3 minutes to Wapner...

May 30, 2007

Let's see what I've done:

Various Electrical box caches, yep

Sprinkler caches, yep,

Snake caches, yep,

Pile of Carp cache, yep,

Cliff-hanger cache, yep,

20 foot crawl into a NASTY culvert cache, yep,

Alligator/Snake/Panther infested swamp caches, yep,

Spider/Chigger/Tick infested area caches, yep,

Tree-climbing caches, yep,

Underwater caches, yep,

Homeless camp caches, yep,

Urban alleyway caches, yep,

Police/Fire Station caches, yep,

High bridge caches, yep,

Busy streetcorner caches, yep,

Dumpster/Garbage can caches, yep,

Mysterious looking Cammo'd PVC pipe caches, yep.

The only ones that really put me off are:

FRONT YARD CACHES!

Edited May 30, 2007 by Gator Man

4k · May 30, 2007

That reminds me....it's only 3 minutes to Wapner...

OK Raymond!

5.6k · May 30, 2007

I wonder how they managed to get this pretty girl inside such a tiny box ????

And what did you trade to keep her?

May 30, 2007

Any container guarded by one of these:

or ANY of it's relatives!

11.3k · May 30, 2007

Oh, then you wouldn't like this cache, "Arachnophobes Not Invited."

14.3k · May 30, 2007

Any container guarded by one of these:

or ANY of it's relatives!

We have those in the wild around out here. Two of my neighbors had them on their doorsteps! Very cool! But I haven't found a cache with one guarding it yet...

2.5k · May 30, 2007

I don't mess with Wasps, Bees, Hornets, yellow jackets, or other armed aerial assault capable insects. They can have a cache, I'm going to get the heck out of Dodge. (Unless I find an effective means to kill them, then the cache is mine!)

May 30, 2007

Just yesterday I took a pass on a cache which would have required me to walk 100 yards through a field of nice, dry, mature cheatgrass -- the stuff whose seeds work their way through fabric parts of boots and scratch your skin and are the devil to get out.

Then there's this TB ... Nun the wiser ...

And this cache quardian ...

Edward

May 30, 2007

Live animals. Molten Lava. Spinning helicopter blades. Wrapped presents. IEDs disguised as wrapped presents. Exposed mercury. Tribbles. What's-his-face who Geocaches in the buff.

I guess there are a lot of things.

Ol' nude cacher.

May 30, 2007

Snakes - I will NEVER touch a snake to get a cache.

I WILL!!!

Me too! I laughed when a baby garter bit me

4k · May 30, 2007

Snakes - I will NEVER touch a snake to get a cache. I'm always nervous when a cache is in a crevice or small caves (this is the result of my 3 brothers scaring me with a snake when I was 10 - I guess I will never get over it). I see so many snakes on the trails and on/around the rock formations (I just want to run away every time I see one). I always use a really really really long stick to make sure there's not a snake in the rocks before I go for the cache.

Dont go caching with this guy then!

May 30, 2007

I am only interested in caches in the woods, so electrical equiptment is really not an issue. The one thing that I will abandon a cache for is shifty looking men hiding in the bushes.

5.9k · May 30, 2007

I am only interested in caches in the woods, so electrical equiptment is really not an issue. The one thing that I will abandon a cache for is shifty looking men hiding in the bushes.

May 30, 2007

Snakes - I will NEVER touch a snake to get a cache.

I wouldn't touch a snake, but I have found a foolproof method of getting them to slither off into the brush. All I have to do is reach for my camera, and off they go, never to be seen again.

Now bees ... I won't mess with bees.

May 30, 2007

I am only interested in caches in the woods, so electrical equiptment is really not an issue. The one thing that I will abandon a cache for is shifty looking men hiding in the bushes.

Shifty looking men in the bushes might be busy. I wait till they get back on the path.

5.9k · May 30, 2007

I am only interested in caches in the woods, so electrical equiptment is really not an issue. The one thing that I will abandon a cache for is shifty looking men hiding in the bushes.

Shifty looking men in the bushes might be busy. I wait till they get back on the path.

We're usually just waiting for something fun to happen.

6.5k · May 30, 2007

Electrical boxes-yes

sprinkler heads/plumbing-yes

lampposts-yes

tree holes-yes

hornet's nest-yes

rusty junk in the woods-yes

tree climbers-yes

ivy/tick/chigger filled woods-yes

swamps-yes

snakes-yes

swamps with snakes-yes

the blue butt of a mandrill-no way

shifty men in the woods-won't touch them, but have no problems walking right past them

Edited May 30, 2007 by wimseyguy

May 30, 2007

I just turned down a complete trail over taken by nasty man eating briars. I usually take snips and deal with them as if in a war but this was too much!

Very careful sticking my hands in holes. Ususally won't do it. I've seen reluse spider bytes and snakes and little rodents.

Will not get too risky if a bad fall could result. Don't like steep really loose surface. I keep losing skin.

I take wet ones along to clean briar scratches - probably need something better.

18.9k · May 30, 2007

Over the year's I think I have only walked away from several that tweaked my comfort zone. A few examples:

Garbage strewn brackish green water buzzing with bugs - cache was under a bridge and clue made it clear that wading should be involved. Most previous finders had waited until Winter ice.

Tool/valve box in the middle of a city park. I refused to look through it - owner later confirmed it was placed under a board at the bottom (no permission).

Placed about 25 foot up in a tree in public park. I am about 6' 3" and about 250lbs - too much for the limbs in my estimation.

Arrived at the scene and saw that it had been used over the years as a place to dump household trash (beds, appliances, old clothes, broken furniture, etc) - no thanks.

May 30, 2007

Couple of things...

- The Geocache sticker on the side.

- The flexible conduit under the cache went nowhere. (It was a dummy end.)

- The cover plate is meant for inside use only and it was outside.

- It was not an electrical outlet but a light sensor switch (couldnt get hurt touching it)

- Upon getting there it easily opened and no tools were needed.

If a screwdriver was necessary then i would have not touched it. I liked the hide. Very cool. Its been there for a couple of years i think.

I think you had reasonable criteria there.

I've seen a questionable cache here and there and tend to take a similar view of things. I use my head, check it out first without touching and see if there's anything that clearly tells me this is the cache, and if in any doubt at all I'll walk away and take the DNF. A good hider will usually put something on there indicating the cache for those who are actually looking. Some sublte signs I've seen were a small geocaching symbol, initials of the cache name, even the GC code marked somewhere just out of obvious view but visible to a cacher.

Like I said though, regardless of the hide... if in doubt, don't. There's no shame in a DNF.

May 30, 2007

I am only interested in caches in the woods, so electrical equiptment is really not an issue.

That gives me an idea for an amusing cache

May 30, 2007

I havn't taken a pass on very many caches, but yesterday a new one popped up about 5 miles from the house. I shook off leaving for work early to grab it (I've done that), but only because it was in the wrong direction. After I got home for the evening I headed up after it, still no find on GC.com. I get there, and it is clear to me that it is in an upright pipe on a street corner. I cracked open the hint which verified the placement. The cover consisted of a dirty pop bottle (soda bottle for the rest of you) upside down, floating on about a foot of nasty looking standing water. I didn't have elbow length rubber gloves with me, and I had absolutely no intention of putting a hand down in there. I fished around with a stick, hoping the cache might come to the surface, but finally left in disgust. When I got home, not an hour after checking the thing and loading it into the GPS it was disabled. Somebody else must have found it inapppropriate before me.

Snakes probably no problem. Spiders will die. Critters except skunks tend to run off, but that scummy water just looked like typhoid or polio or some darn thing to me.

hairball

4k · May 30, 2007

The cover consisted of a dirty pop bottle (soda bottle for the rest of you)

LOL Isnt that the truth.

11.3k · May 30, 2007

I am only interested in caches in the woods, so electrical equiptment is really not an issue.

That gives me an idea for an amusing cache

Sort of like this one, "What's This?."

Danger - what won't you touch for a cache?

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