Damaging a cache area.

[+CSpenceFLY]

I need to vent. I have a cache that I placed a couple of months ago. It was designed to be a night cache but can be done during the day. After a pointed log entry and then a username created to clame a find and complain somemore I decided to go check on the cache to re-evaluate it and possible make some changes in the cache layout and or the description. I was not prepared for what I would find. Someone seeking the cache took a machete with them into the woods. You can nearly follow their trail from one point to the next all the way to the final. Cuts have been made in the trees that my stages are in. The final area,where you have to find three points and then look for the cache inside the area formed by the points, has been defined with the machete. I can not believe that any cacher would do this to a cache area. I have no way of knowing who did this, weather it was the last person to log or if someone else has been there since it was logged.

 

I decided to re-write the cache page to make some of the hints a little more obvious and bring to light the method I thought people would use to seek this cache. One thing for sure, it's not hard anymore.

 

End of rant.

[+StarBrand]

Sorry this happened to your cache. I have seen what a very small handful of cachers with "Search and Destroy" techniques can do to an area. Those very few give us all a black eye.

[+Glenn]

I've never seen anything that severe. When I lived in Southern California I found a couple of caches were someone used twigs or stones to made an arrow pointing at the cache. One time I returned to a cache I had found before (a TB hotel) and noticed that someone had recently painted an arrow pointing to the cache hiding location on the boulder the cache was hidden under.

[+Renegade Knight]

...

I decided to re-write the cache page to make some of the hints a little more obvious and bring to light the method I thought people would use to seek this cache. One thing for sure, it's not hard anymore.

 

End of rant.

I'd archive the cache. The location has been comprimised and a doofie has gone and ruined the experience for everone.

[+Renegade Knight]

Sorry this happened to your cache. I have seen what a very small handful of cachers with "Search and Destroy" techniques can do to an area. Those very few give us all a black eye.

 

Ditto. I lost a cache to that search method. The area was completely changed. I changed my entire hiding philosophy to adapt to the new reality.

[+9Key]

I've seen this type of stuff in my area occasionally with cachers bringing hedge clippers to cut thorny vines and some even spraying weedkiller on poison ivy. I've sent them a gentle email reminding them that the area of the cache is not their back yard and it should be left in its natural state.

[Luckless]

[+ReadyOrNot]

I've seen this type of stuff in my area occasionally with cachers bringing hedge clippers to cut thorny vines and some even spraying weedkiller on poison ivy. I've sent them a gentle email reminding them that the area of the cache is not their back yard and it should be left in its natural state.

 

If an area is so sensitive, that cutting down some invasive blackberries is going to cause such a big problem, maybe you shouldn't be placing a cache there??

[+StarBrand]

.....If an area is so sensitive, that cutting down some invasive blackberries is going to cause such a big problem, maybe you shouldn't be placing a cache there??

Blackberries are actually native to some spots.......not invasive.

[+Sagefox]

.....If an area is so sensitive, that cutting down some invasive blackberries is going to cause such a big problem, maybe you shouldn't be placing a cache there??

Blackberries are actually native to some spots.......not invasive.

 

True, they are sometimes native, but they are always invasive. County crews along the west coast need to do major blackberry whacking along miles of rails-to-trails to keep them open. What one person can do to trim a trail nature can undo in a short growing season. When blackberries get whacked the plant is not usually killed.

Edited August 28, 2007 by Team Sagefox

[+Kiwi Nomad]

Maybe temperary disable it to allow the plants to recover go back everyone couple of months until it is not quite so obvious where the damage was done.

[+Team Cotati]

.....If an area is so sensitive, that cutting down some invasive blackberries is going to cause such a big problem, maybe you shouldn't be placing a cache there??

Blackberries are actually native to some spots.......not invasive.

 

And of course the converse is: Blackberries are actually non-native to some spots........and invasive.

[+briansnat]

I've seen this type of stuff in my area occasionally with cachers bringing hedge clippers to cut thorny vines and some even spraying weedkiller on poison ivy. I've sent them a gentle email reminding them that the area of the cache is not their back yard and it should be left in its natural state.

 

If an area is so sensitive, that cutting down some invasive blackberries is going to cause such a big problem, maybe you shouldn't be placing a cache there??

 

If they can't deal with thorny vines and poison ivy maybe geocaching isn't the sport for them.

[+Corp Of Discovery]

I've wished I could use a machete on more than a few caches, but to actually use one? Yikes!

[+CSpenceFLY]

I guess that would be my one main point in all of this. Yes, I have been to caches that I would like to use a machete to clear a path but I would never think of doing that. If I am not enjoying myself I leave.

[GPS-Hermit]

I've seen this type of stuff in my area occasionally with cachers bringing hedge clippers to cut thorny vines and some even spraying weedkiller on poison ivy. I've sent them a gentle email reminding them that the area of the cache is not their back yard and it should be left in its natural state.

 

If an area is so sensitive, that cutting down some invasive blackberries is going to cause such a big problem, maybe you shouldn't be placing a cache there??

 

Quacking up the woods in general on the way to a cache is a real good way to get us all band from ever state park and wma in the country - I never met anyone who did that unless establishing a new trail.

[+UncleJimbo]

I need to vent. I have a cache that I placed a couple of months ago. It was designed to be a night cache but can be done during the day. After a pointed log entry and then a username created to clame a find and complain somemore I decided to go check on the cache to re-evaluate it and possible make some changes in the cache layout and or the description. I was not prepared for what I would find. Someone seeking the cache took a machete with them into the woods. You can nearly follow their trail from one point to the next all the way to the final. Cuts have been made in the trees that my stages are in. The final area,where you have to find three points and then look for the cache inside the area formed by the points, has been defined with the machete. I can not believe that any cacher would do this to a cache area. I have no way of knowing who did this, weather it was the last person to log or if someone else has been there since it was logged.

 

Wow. There are some really clueless geocachers out there. Maybe there should be some sort of "entrance exam" before people can join this site?