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cache hiding places


alma

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QUOTE ..I actually do have opinions on poor caches....which I choose to keep to myself for fear of flaming!

 

Nobody should resist passing an opinion for fear of flaming...a carp cache is a carp cache...Ive found loads and set a few i guess.If nobody says anything then the trend will continue.My favourite gripe at present is the explosion in poxy micros....theyre breeding like rats,especially in areas that would support proper caches.still...easy to throw out a micro without stopping the car isnt it B)B).

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I have a suspicion that the "explosion of poxy micros" in some areas may be due to the fact that perhaps many (most?) cachers don't bother with getting permissions sorted out for micro caches. Hence, they are easy to put out.

 

.....these are turning to be a real gripe of mine on Dartmoor. There're over 365 cache-permitted square miles out there to put caches on - and yet there are still people who put micros on the Moor.. (particularly the "this has been one of my favourite spots for years" type caches. If it's been your favourite spot for that long, why not put a bit of effort into hiding a decent cache, instead of the spare film pot you happened to have in your bag when you found the spot!)

 

Edited to add - and yes, I've been quilty of it in the past too.

Edited by keehotee
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I won't open a new thread for my whinge (and it's a very mild whinge) which is ....

 

Parking spaces that are illegal/impractical.

 

Occasionally often I see parking spaces suggested that are little more than passing places, or are lane-ends where parking could cause other people inconvenience.

 

Doesn't really bother me because most of our caches are on long-ish walks so we never really need to park near the cache, but I've learnt from experience never to use a cache-suggested parking place as a walk starting point.

 

So thanks, o cache setters, for all the lovely caches you set, but do give the parking location a second thought... Think a bit more about safety and legality and a bit less about proximity B)

 

Whingelet over.

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So thanks, o cache setters, for all the lovely caches you set, but do give the parking location a second thought... Think a bit more about safety and legality and a bit less about proximity B)

 

Whingelet over.

There's a thought. Maybe the cache setter will think twice about parking co-ords and then not bother at all! Suggested parking doesn't mean you have to park there.

 

B)

 

B):DB):D:DB)B););):P

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So thanks, o cache setters, for all the lovely caches you set, but do give the parking location a second thought... Think a bit more about safety and legality and a bit less about proximity B)

 

Whingelet over.

There's a thought. Maybe the cache setter will think twice about parking co-ords and then not bother at all! Suggested parking doesn't mean you have to park there.

When, exactly, did I say you have to? Did I even suggest it? As I said, I personally generally don't use cache-suggested parking spots (nice bit of selective quoting). It would be better for a setter to suggest no place than an illegal one, or one that blocks a passing space.

 

Setting a decent quality cache does require a bit of effort.

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So thanks, o cache setters, for all the lovely caches you set, but do give the parking location a second thought... Think a bit more about safety and legality and a bit less about proximity :(

 

Whingelet over.

There's a thought. Maybe the cache setter will think twice about parking co-ords and then not bother at all! Suggested parking doesn't mean you have to park there.

When, exactly, did I say you have to? Did I even suggest it? As I said, I personally generally don't use cache-suggested parking spots (nice bit of selective quoting). It would be better for a setter to suggest no place than an illegal one, or one that blocks a passing space.

 

Setting a decent quality cache does require a bit of effort.

Personally not seen "illegal" parking suggestions on cache pages. Can you point me to one?

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Personally not seen "illegal" parking suggestions on cache pages. Can you point me to one?

 

It's against the highway code to park in passing places, within 10 metres of a junction and various other restrictions. I'm not going to "name & shame" individual caches, but I have seen both of the first 2. Whether the HC carries the status of law I'm not sure.

 

You seem to suggest that requiring setters to take care over giving correct parking instructions will necessarily put them off from setting caches. I think that's an over the top reaction to polite request that people consider the parking options a bit more seriously.

 

I made a - quite gently worded - suggestion for improvement. If you think we should sacrifice quality for quantity, and not bother tryint to improve then I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

Edited by Team Sieni
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It's against the highway code to park in passing places, within 10 metres of a junction and various other restrictions. I'm not going to "name & shame" individual caches, but I have seen both of the first 2.

 

Parking co-ords which took you to within 10 metres of a junction? Maybe when the placer marked them they were 11 metres away but your gps readings were slightly different? :lol:

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We are new to geocache. We've been out and located a few. And have enjoyed our failures as well as the finds. We are getting stuff together to make up our first cache. We have been reading your forum and it does not mention or suggest where a "good" cache should be. Anyone got any ideas? :lol:

 

My suggestion is to wait until you've done a few dozen before placing your first cache.

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We are new to geocache. We've been out and located a few. And have enjoyed our failures as well as the finds. We are getting stuff together to make up our first cache. We have been reading your forum and it does not mention or suggest where a "good" cache should be. Anyone got any ideas? :lol:

 

My suggestion is to wait until you've done a few dozen before placing your first cache.

This is a good suggestion because there is no rush.
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I won't open a new thread for my whinge (and it's a very mild whinge) which is ....

 

Parking spaces that are illegal/impractical.

 

Occasionally often I see parking spaces suggested that are little more than passing places, or are lane-ends where parking could cause other people inconvenience.

 

Doesn't really bother me because most of our caches are on long-ish walks so we never really need to park near the cache, but I've learnt from experience never to use a cache-suggested parking place as a walk starting point.

 

So thanks, o cache setters, for all the lovely caches you set, but do give the parking location a second thought... Think a bit more about safety and legality and a bit less about proximity :lol:

 

Whingelet over.

I'm very grateful to those very few cachers who actually provide parking coords. It makes it so much easier to do trip planning. Of course, when I get there sometimes I don't agree with the cache owner that his suggested parking is appropriate in which case I'll then make my own arrangements. But let's not discourage cachers from suggesting parking places just because sometimes some of the suggestions are less than perfect.

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Now, on a different slant, what's this current trend for placing caches without a container? We've seen three in the last couple of weeks, all by different cachers and in different areas, where the "container" is just a bag, mostly plastic. Aside from the weatherproofing issue, surely it must be obvious that such a container isn't sufficiently durable to leave in the woods for a while? What's happened to ammo boxes, which when we started was the cache container of choice?

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We are new to geocache. We've been out and located a few. And have enjoyed our failures as well as the finds. We are getting stuff together to make up our first cache. We have been reading your forum and it does not mention or suggest where a "good" cache should be. Anyone got any ideas? :huh:

 

My suggestion is to wait until you've done a few dozen before placing your first cache.

 

That's certainly sound advice. After you've done a few, you get a feel for what works and what doesn't.

 

In particular, you spot the tricks people use to effectively hide the container, and the types of containers that work best in types of locations. It's important to match the size of the container to the hiding place - micros in the woods drive some people nuts, when there's plenty of good hiding places to put something bigger.

 

Lee

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I posted the following for a cache recently...

Found it, but not sure I really wanted to.

Having got home and read all the previous logs, only some cachers have mentioned the rubbish that is strewn around, but let's be honest, it is not the most salubrious of locations. I guess those that visited when the nettles were high got off likely. This really is a good location for practising CITO. Unfortunately I hadn't come prepared with a couple of black bin bags and I didn't have a few hours to spend here.

Now that may seem a bit harsh to some, but quite literally it is a fly tipping area in the trees at the side of the road. Included in the debris were 'sanitary items'.

I got a short email reply from the owners of 'Grow up'.

I'm sure they are probably quite responsible cachers, but the fact is that their much loved first placed cache is quite literally in a (fly) tip.

I have no wish to have children going to such caches. A cache should be a nice place to visit.

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Now, on a different slant, what's this current trend for placing caches without a container? We've seen three in the last couple of weeks, all by different cachers and in different areas, where the "container" is just a bag, mostly plastic. Aside from the weatherproofing issue, surely it must be obvious that such a container isn't sufficiently durable to leave in the woods for a while? What's happened to ammo boxes, which when we started was the cache container of choice?

See my post above on 2 Sep- Report them to the mods if the cache is not of a suitable construction to last more than a few hours! Be truthful in your log, let everyone see that it is a bad cache. if we were all abit more honest about these things, we could improve the standard. Don't let the bad caches let the sport down.

Edited by careygang
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We are new to geocache. We've been out and located a few. And have enjoyed our failures as well as the finds. We are getting stuff together to make up our first cache. We have been reading your forum and it does not mention or suggest where a "good" cache should be. Anyone got any ideas? :D

Like you, I'm keen to place my first cache, and I must say the advice given that you get at least 20 finds under your belt is good. That's how you are going to find what makes a good cache. It's working for me. I've found the forums and reviewers very helpful in that respect. This thread has been instructional on what makes a bad cache. :) But don't worry about the abuse seen here. they should know better :D You also jumped into quite a flaming thread! :D

 

My way of harnessing the power of any scorn poured out here is to make a dozen micros and spread them about the poster's neighbourhood! :D:):D </sarcasm>

 

Now... back to our correspondent at the wrestling. :D:):D

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Now, on a different slant, what's this current trend for placing caches without a container? We've seen three in the last couple of weeks, all by different cachers and in different areas, where the "container" is just a bag, mostly plastic. Aside from the weatherproofing issue, surely it must be obvious that such a container isn't sufficiently durable to leave in the woods for a while? What's happened to ammo boxes, which when we started was the cache container of choice?

See my post above on 2 Sep- Report them to the mods if the cache is not of a suitable construction to last more than a few hours! Be truthful in your log, let everyone see that it is a bad cache. if we were all abit more honest about these things, we could improve the standard. Don't let the bad caches let the sport down.

As I understand it, reviewers prefer not to get involved in discussions about cache quality. So long as the cache complies with the guidelines then it will be, and generally should be, listed. The only applicable guideline is that a cache must be placed for a minimum of three months. A plastic bag and contents could easily last that long.

 

No doubt a reviewer will be along shortly to give the "official" view, but poor quality caches - whatever the reason and however defined - tend not to last very long and so are self-policing. Either the owner will then take the hint and improve the quality, or the cache becomes abandoned and the reviewers then need to archive it because the owner has lost interest.

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I posted the following for a cache recently...

Found it, but not sure I really wanted to.

Having got home and read all the previous logs, only some cachers have mentioned the rubbish that is strewn around, but let's be honest, it is not the most salubrious of locations. I guess those that visited when the nettles were high got off likely. This really is a good location for practising CITO. Unfortunately I hadn't come prepared with a couple of black bin bags and I didn't have a few hours to spend here.

Now that may seem a bit harsh to some, but quite literally it is a fly tipping area in the trees at the side of the road. Included in the debris were 'sanitary items'.

I got a short email reply from the owners of 'Grow up'.

I'm sure they are probably quite responsible cachers, but the fact is that their much loved first placed cache is quite literally in a (fly) tip.

I have no wish to have children going to such caches. A cache should be a nice place to visit.

I hardly think it’s the owner’s fault that the area has been fly tipped. It was probably clear when they set the cache. I’ve read a few of your “found it” logs and you seem to be very critical on many occasions.

Actually, you seem to be very critical of other people in your “write note” logs and your “maintenance” logs too. Why?

If you were to log my caches like that, you’d find you’d have to amend them and resubmit to claim a find – and I’ve never deleted a log before. You say you should be truthful in your logs but I think you should learn the art of being subtle. You’re visiting caches that other people have gone to the effort of putting out; some are better than others but at least they’ve put them out.

Perhaps when you have had a bit more experience of setting caches yourself you will realise that it’s not always that easy to maintain them as they were intended.

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I posted the following for a cache recently...

Found it, but not sure I really wanted to.

Having got home and read all the previous logs, only some cachers have mentioned the rubbish that is strewn around, but let's be honest, it is not the most salubrious of locations. I guess those that visited when the nettles were high got off likely. This really is a good location for practising CITO. Unfortunately I hadn't come prepared with a couple of black bin bags and I didn't have a few hours to spend here.

Now that may seem a bit harsh to some, but quite literally it is a fly tipping area in the trees at the side of the road. Included in the debris were 'sanitary items'.

I got a short email reply from the owners of 'Grow up'.

I'm sure they are probably quite responsible cachers, but the fact is that their much loved first placed cache is quite literally in a (fly) tip.

I have no wish to have children going to such caches. A cache should be a nice place to visit.

I hardly think it’s the owner’s fault that the area has been fly tipped. It was probably clear when they set the cache. I’ve read a few of your “found it” logs and you seem to be very critical on many occasions.

Actually, you seem to be very critical of other people in your “write note” logs and your “maintenance” logs too. Why?

If you were to log my caches like that, you’d find you’d have to amend them and resubmit to claim a find – and I’ve never deleted a log before. You say you should be truthful in your logs but I think you should learn the art of being subtle. You’re visiting caches that other people have gone to the effort of putting out; some are better than others but at least they’ve put them out.

Perhaps when you have had a bit more experience of setting caches yourself you will realise that it’s not always that easy to maintain them as they were intended.

 

Actually, the only 2 I can think of where I have been similarly critical in the past have been one that was plastic bag hung in a tree at a fly tipping area (which was disabled by the mod after I commented) and one of the Newark Bridges series where fly2live2fly used my comment as ammunition to contact the local council over their clean up policy. Much better that the comment 'great location' irrespective of the health hazards around.

 

As to your comment about setting caches, think about it, the reason that I have not set a multitude of them is that I do take care and set them in suitable places, not just chuck them out anywhere as some others do. The fact that I do have 'maint logs' is actually a good clue that I do bother to keep my caches maintained and check out when there are DNF etc. It's a case of 'Quality' not 'Quantity', I see you have lots out and hopefully they are all very fine caches, but the fact is that the rules state 'As the cache owner, you are also responsible for physically checking your cache periodically', so don't put out more than you can maintain is surely the inferred rule.

Edited by careygang
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Ok opinion from a reviewers point of view :)

 

Reviewers do not get into policing quality for many reasons. Personally I do not want to have to try and decide which caches are quality and can so be published just from information on a cache page. The issue of quality is best policed by the community, as they are the the people to physically find the containers and locations.

 

What is needed is Honest and helpful logs rather than TNLNTFTC that seem to be made to a lot of caches. At the end of the day education of the community by the community will win out, and not the current monkey see monkey do situation we now have. If newcomers to the hobby find poor quality caches, they will believe that is the accepted standard and will follow that. If you wish to see standards rise, place and keep maintained quality caches, make helpful and honest logs to every cache however many cache logs you have to write. And over time the No of poor quality caches will go down. If you wish to see standards rise be proactive!

 

Plastic bags as containers, Groundspeaks official position is that a plastic bag on it's own does not constitute a container. Each case will be dealt with on a case by case basis, by reviewers using their experience and local knowledge.

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Plastic bags as containers, Groundspeaks official position is that a plastic bag on it's own does not constitute a container.

Thanks, Dave. That's useful to know. Is it documented anywhere? If not perhaps you could suggest it for a future revision of the guidelines? Something like:
As the cache owner, the choice of container is up to you. Consider that the container should be appropriate for the hiding place and robust enough to withstand the elements and the curiosity of animals. Plastic bags and similar containers are unlikely to be sufficiently durable.

It might be possible to work into that the usual "no plastic bags" guideline that we prefer in the UK but I'm not sure what other countries would think of that.

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Our transatlantic cousins have a thread on terrible cache containers here Worst cache containers found. it includes several comments about idiots who put out plastic zip-loc bags and believe they have placed a cache.

Not much in the way of pictures, but plenty of descriptions.

One cacher on that thread has his worst list as ...

 

It was one of these:

1) A crumpled up piece of paper hidden under a rock.

2) A Centrum vitamin bottle (with label) under a lamp post cover next to a garbage dumpster with just a crumpled piece of dirty paper inside. I'm thinking that they got the bottle and the log from the dumpster.

3) A wadded up piece of paper crammed behind a plastic sign outside the entrance to a gas station.

4) An actual sprinkler head that someone removed the sprinkler from and put a cap on and crammed a ziplock bag inside. I guess they forgot that water would still fill the sprinkler head...

 

Deceangi says it all - we have to improve the standard by speaking up. Being all 'pink and fluffy' or just totally dishonest in our logs does nobody any favours. I'm not advocating being nasty about it, just HONEST. There's an old adage 'reap what you sow', if we let the rot set in now, we will easily reach 250,000 caches in this country, the problem will be that few of them will be worth visiting. :)

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To date I've done 6 crash barrier caches and 3 dog poo bins so they must be quite popular. I've found caches hidden in places like disabled muck spreaders and even hidden under a wheel-arch of a car inside a suitcase. The worse one was hidden in a farmer's rubbish pit where the very waterlogged cache container was hidden inside a sharp rusty barbwire covered former oil drum :)

 

And yet, they don't annoy me as much as micros hidden in dense woodland :)

 

I think the sheer amount of caches being emptied of swaps or cachers not trading fairly/evenly has put a lot of people off from placing anything larger than a micro. In one instance one of my largest caches had three visitors in a row who admitted to taking two items and not leaving anything, with one person even taking my laminated cache notice :(:(

 

So it wouldn't just be hop of at each stop, find it attached to the shelter or post easily.

What do you think about that?

In Nottingham there is a great 'Tram Series'. Just get a day ticket and off you go :(
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