Two First Lamp Post Skirt Finds!

[+alienbogey]

Okay, first of all, everyone can see from my join date ( and my 32 finds and 3 hides ) that I've not been at this long, but I'm sure having fun. I've lurked on the forums a lot, read the FAQ's, asked a few questions, made a few comments.

 

As a result, although I had never found a magnetic-key-holder-under-the-lamp-skirt-cache, I was developing an agreement with the, how shall I put this, somewhat elitest attitudes of some towards this "classic". I agree that when possible a cache should be in a neat place with a clever hide, and while the lamp post skirt was clever for the original cacher who conceived it, the cleverness has long since worn off - at least for some.

 

For your consideration I submit two First Lamp Post Skirt Cache Finds, both made today:

 

Number 1. Today I walked out of my hotel with my GPSr freshly loaded with nearby caches. I picked one out because it listed a TB, got myself on the wrong side of the RR tracks, had to backtrack a mile to get across them, found myself starving, ate, had a long cell call, the weather turned unpleasant, gave up on the TB cache as too far away now, located the nearest cache in the GPSr and headed towards it in order to bag one before going back.

 

The GPS was taking me towards a huge mass transit complex - trains, planes & lotsa automobiles - I walked around the huge concrete parking garage - the red arrow was leading me out into a vast expanse of striped asphault dotted with street lights - my pulse was quickening, could this be the one? - 150 feet to go and I was in the middle of 10 acres of sparsely parked cars - 75' and a lamp post, no different than the 100's of others, was beckoning to me - my GPSr chirped to warn me that the big moment was at hand - I was standing next to that one very special lamp post and my receiver had zero'd - there was the metal skirt, do they really just lift off? - Yes!, they lift right up and ......... there it is, the magnetic key holder!!! - My day was complete, I had made my First Lamp Post Skirt Cache Find.

 

And you know what? It WAS special just because of all the rant and counter-rant posts I've read about them. It actually felt good, in a bag-of-Doritos-in-front-of-the-telly-watching-reruns sort of way, not necessarily the purest life experience ever but a little sorta-guilty fun in a schlocky, low rent kind of way.

 

Number 2. I've been telling my brother & sister about geocaching. They've been expressing interest so I launched a TB each of them to stir them up a bit. My brother called today from a Target store in Atlanta, GA. He'd loaded some caches in his GPSr and his kids into the car. Getting out of the car he pulled the GPS out of the dash cradle and without really thinking checked for the nearest cache. 185' away. With the kids they followed the needle until they were standing in the middle of the parking lot with, you guessed it, a lamp post right next to them. Not having read any of the forums, they scratched their heads and looked around for 5 minutes before lifting the skirt and finding it. My brother was psyched that he figured it out, and his kids were thrilled to death to find something hidden under there. Now, later they may look down their noses at lamp post skirt hides but for now they're excited about their find and there may be a new geocaching family.

 

So.....to whomever placed the caches in the Millbrae, CA BART lot and a Target store lot somewhere in or near Atlanta - thanks!

 

Edited September 20, 2007 by alienbogey

[+TrailGators]

LPCs are like listening to the news reports about OJ. The first couple of news reports are somewhat interesting. But after the X number of broadcasts talking about OJ (X is different for everyone), it gets really old. But I guess some people out there like to hear about OJ, so I will have to skip watching the news until the OJ trial is over and he is finally locked up.

Edited September 20, 2007 by TrailGators

[+jtbrady01]

LPCs are like listening to the news reports about OJ. The first couple of news reports are somewhat interesting. But after the X number of broadcasts talking about OJ (X is different for everyone), it gets really old. But I guess some people out there like to hear about OJ, so I will have to skip watching the news until the OJ trial is over and he is finally locked up.

 

Some are still interesting as part of a multi or off-set cache. Otherwise they're just a quick numbers thing.

[+Ambrosia]

Thank you for that funny, insightful post, alienbogey.

 

Perhaps part of the reason that they don't bother me is that I've probably found less than 10. I really can't remember how many, it's just a few. Not because I'm avoiding them, it's just happened that way.

 

I've found far more guardrail caches, but here in the Great NW, that's usually not a bad thing. The one and only guardrail that I found in Nashville was towards the bottom of my list, so perhaps it's a regional thing.

 

I remember when guardrail caches was the epitome of the worst cache type. Somewhere in there, it switched over to LPCs.

[+Rattlebars]

Very nice post. Enjoyed it immensely.

 

Everyone should own at least ONE LPC and every one should find at least one....

 

The only thing I don't like about them is - maybe you'll get nothing more than a nest full of bees for your trouble.

 

RATTLEBARS

[+BlueDeuce]

When the name of the town is 'Resume Speed' I'm glad there's a local Stuffmart. Sometimes you gotta cache.

 

 

 

edit: missing 'm

Edited September 20, 2007 by BlueDeuce

[+TrailGators]

Thank you for that funny, insightful post, alienbogey.

 

Perhaps part of the reason that they don't bother me is that I've probably found less than 10. I really can't remember how many, it's just a few. Not because I'm avoiding them, it's just happened that way.

 

I've found far more guardrail caches, but here in the Great NW, that's usually not a bad thing. The one and only guardrail that I found in Nashville was towards the bottom of my list, so perhaps it's a regional thing.

 

I remember when guardrail caches was the epitome of the worst cache type. Somewhere in there, it switched over to LPCs.

If you've only found 10 then you have not hit X. It think I hit X at around 50. I have not lifted a single lamp post in over a year so X is now a constant for me.

 

LPCs are easier to find than guardrails so that is why they are liked less than guardrails. In fact, they are the easiest cache to find once you've found a couple of them.

 

Anyhow, I'm glad Alienbogey had fun. Just watch out that X doesn't creep up on you too...

Edited September 20, 2007 by TrailGators

[Trinity's Crew]

Oh come on! Once you've read a few posts like the OP's they just get boring and repetitive.

 

Of course I'm kidding. Your post is great. Thank you for sharing it with us.

 

I've only found two LPCs. One brought me to a diner that I assume the owner probably liked and wanted to me and other cachers to discover. The second one was in a nature center. There were also regular caches there, but I assume the cacher thought it was funny that this particular lamp post (and a few others) were placed in anticipation of additional parking that never got installed. They were just sitting in an overgrown field. Neither cache blew me away, but I don't think they were supposed to. They were still fun.

 

Edit: Spelling, color commentary.

Edited September 20, 2007 by Trinity's Crew

[+Capt Biggins]

LPCs are like listening to the news reports about OJ. The first couple of news reports are somewhat interesting. But after the X number of broadcasts talking about OJ (X is different for everyone), it gets really old. But I guess some people out there like to hear about OJ, so I will have to skip watching the news until the OJ trial is over and he is finally locked up.

 

If the gun doesn't fit- you must aquit!!

[+sbell111]

... not necessarily the purest life experience ever but a little sorta-guilty fun ...

Never has a better description of the game (or reason to geocache) been posted. Edited September 20, 2007 by sbell111

[+StarBrand]

I remember my first LPC. It was cool. Way off in the corner of an abondoned 40 year old truck stop. I started planning how I could find a way to copy the style. Then I found another, and another, and another, and another...........sigh. Just another film can and scrap of paper.

 

If you can hang on to that feeling on #1 - then your set. If not, we will see in here again someday I suspect.....

[+tw3nty3ight]

The first LPC I ever did took me 3 trips cause I had NO CLUE what to look for lol

[Magician's Apprentice]

Many thanks to the OP for relieving my mind of the guilt that I felt cause I did enjoy my first LPC.

 

As the junior member of a team I rarely get to cache on my own but I was out of town on a business trip, kinda bored, did the same type of thing as the OP...it's called get out there and find a cache....SOON!!

 

I homed in on the parking lot, drove right up to the parking spot beside the post, checked for muggles, and nabbed my very first solo cache.

 

Maybe two hundred caches down the road, I will no longer feel a need to go after an LPC or and signpost or a guardrail, but for right now, they're all cool. And it's not the count that counts, it's the fun I'm having!!

[+sbell111]

Many thanks to the OP for relieving my mind of the guilt that I felt cause I did enjoy my first LPC.

 

As the junior member of a team I rarely get to cache on my own but I was out of town on a business trip, kinda bored, did the same type of thing as the OP...it's called get out there and find a cache....SOON!!

 

I homed in on the parking lot, drove right up to the parking spot beside the post, checked for muggles, and nabbed my very first solo cache.

 

Maybe two hundred caches down the road, I will no longer feel a need to go after an LPC or and signpost or a guardrail, but for right now, they're all cool. And it's not the count that counts, it's the fun I'm having!!

I'm well beyond two hundred caches down the road, but LPCs still hit the spot.

 

For me, this silly little game is not high art. Every cache doesn't have to take me to the top of the Eiffel Tower (now archived). Each cache (even LPCs) are a brief escape from 'real world' issues. They are a step back to the days of our youth when we could play silly little games and have fun while the rest of the world is oblivious.

[+tw3nty3ight]

 

I'm well beyond two hundred caches down the road, but LPCs still hit the spot.

 

For me, this silly little game is not high art. Every cache doesn't have to take me to the top of the Eiffel Tower (now archived). Each cache (even LPCs) are a brief escape from 'real world' issues. They are a step back to the days of our youth when we could play silly little games and have fun while the rest of the world is oblivious.

 

Very Nice Post!

[+tozainamboku]

An excellent post on how LPCs can be enjoyable. I hope your online logs were as interesting. As to TrailGators' point about seeing the same thing over and over, the same can be said about finding ammo cans under a pile of sticks. Its not always the hiding style or the interesting cammo job the hider has done. And its not always the neat location where the cache was hidden. These things can help, but really you have to look at the entire adventure. What happened on my way to the cache or while I was looking is far more important to me in determining if I had a good time.

 

I went caching last night. I found 9 caches and 3 of them were LPCs. Another cache was a small tube hidden in a planter. The log was soaked and according to the logs has been in this condition for most every finder. In spite of the fact that cacher owner had use a container that is inappropriate for location that was sure to get wet and hadn't done maintenance to fix this, it didn't really get me down. The next location was a larger container - a travel bug hotel - and it was my main goal for the night as I had a Mickey Mouse TB and wanted to leave in a cache near Disneyland. As I approached a convertible was parked in front of ground and a couple in it were talking. I staid back figuring I would wait for the muggles to leave and then go make my trade. But I overheard their conversation. I realized that they were geocachers. So I went up and introduced myself to some geocachers who were on vacation from Memphis, TN. The LPC haters will point out that I met the other cachers at the TB hotel so that I could've skipped the LPCs and still had that experience. I don't look at it that way. Had it not been for the LPCs and the time I spent looking for that wet log in the planter, I would have been at the TB hotel a lot earlier and wouldn't have met the other geocachers. I generally don't find LPCs when looking for just one cache, and when I do it's because I didn't have much time to cache and was only going to grab the nearest cache. In that case an LPC has given me a cache fix or at least allowed me to get one cache in the city/area I was in.

[+thedeadpirate]

I read something yesterday called the 90/10 rule.

 

10% of what happens to us is beyond our control. It's how you react to that 10% that determines how the other 90% will go.

 

Reading through this post and the other related posts proves this out. Some people approach this game in such a way that they can find enjoyment out of pretty much anything they come across. Some will find a problem with just about anything they come across.

 

I tend to be one of those in the middle. I don't enjoy every cache I find. But I don't obsess over those. I just go on to the next one. At the end of the day I probably enjoy 99% of what I find in some way or another.

[+TrailGators]

An excellent post on how LPCs can be enjoyable. I hope your online logs were as interesting. As to TrailGators' point about seeing the same thing over and over, the same can be said about finding ammo cans under a pile of sticks. Its not always the hiding style or the interesting cammo job the hider has done. And its not always the neat location where the cache was hidden. These things can help, but really you have to look at the entire adventure. What happened on my way to the cache or while I was looking is far more important to me in determining if I had a good time.

 

I went caching last night. I found 9 caches and 3 of them were LPCs. Another cache was a small tube hidden in a planter. The log was soaked and according to the logs has been in this condition for most every finder. In spite of the fact that cacher owner had use a container that is inappropriate for location that was sure to get wet and hadn't done maintenance to fix this, it didn't really get me down. The next location was a larger container - a travel bug hotel - and it was my main goal for the night as I had a Mickey Mouse TB and wanted to leave in a cache near Disneyland. As I approached a convertible was parked in front of ground and a couple in it were talking. I staid back figuring I would wait for the muggles to leave and then go make my trade. But I overheard their conversation. I realized that they were geocachers. So I went up and introduced myself to some geocachers who were on vacation from Memphis, TN. The LPC haters will point out that I met the other cachers at the TB hotel so that I could've skipped the LPCs and still had that experience. I don't look at it that way. Had it not been for the LPCs and the time I spent looking for that wet log in the planter, I would have been at the TB hotel a lot earlier and wouldn't have met the other geocachers. I generally don't find LPCs when looking for just one cache, and when I do it's because I didn't have much time to cache and was only going to grab the nearest cache. In that case an LPC has given me a cache fix or at least allowed me to get one cache in the city/area I was in.

But if you had skipped the LPCs then you would have been to the TB cache earlier and found that one hundred dollar bill laying on the ground.

 

Anyhow, "hate" is an extreme word that doesn't apply the majority of those that don't enjoy LPCs including myself. It falsely pushes us into a corner where we don't belong. There are actually very few things I "hate."

 

I do agree that it is all about the experience. The ammo box hidden under a pile of sticks got me on top of a mountain with a breath taking view or maybe it got me in a beautiful forest. Anyhow, the reason that I am at that spot is not because I like ammo boxes, it is for the pleasure of the "experience." I have learned what kinds of experiences that I enjoy more and I pursue those. So please substitute the word "ignore" for "hate" from now. There is no need to antagonize anyone.

[+wimseyguy]

I often refer to LPC's and guardrails as the snackwells of the geoworld. They may not be the tastiest cookie or pastry out there, but when you need a taste of something sweet, they will satisfy the urge just fine.

When you need a fine French pastry, you need to look somewhere else.

 

The most important thing about the OP and those that follow is that the experience was FUN!!! Isn't that why we do this?

[knowschad]

My mother was in the hospital following a stroke. I had been by her bedside for hours and really needed a break. Turned out that there was a LPC hidden in the hospital parking lot!!

 

Now, this particular hospital did have some very nice woods surrounding it that could certainly have held a larger (possibly better) cache, but given the circumstances that put me there, I wouldn't want to be gone that long. The LPC was perfect for my situation.

 

On the other hand, we've got about 20 of them hidden by the same user in the same part of town. I did a few of them on one trip at first, but now I just drive by 'em.

[Luckless]

We have only one lamp post cache in my city and it is the only member's only cache- go figure.

[+Team GeoBlast]

Okay, first of all, everyone can see from my join date ( and my 32 finds and 3 hides ) that I've not been at this long, but I'm sure having fun. I've lurked on the forums a lot, read the FAQ's, asked a few questions, made a few comments.

 

As a result, although I had never found a magnetic-key-holder-under-the-lamp-skirt-cache, I was developing an agreement with the, how shall I put this, somewhat elitest attitudes of some towards this "classic". I agree that when possible a cache should be in a neat place with a clever hide, and while the lamp post skirt was clever for the original cacher who conceived it, the cleverness has long since worn off - at least for some.

 

For your consideration I submit two First Lamp Post Skirt Cache Finds, both made today:

 

Number 1. Today I walked out of my hotel with my GPSr freshly loaded with nearby caches. I picked one out because it listed a TB, got myself on the wrong side of the RR tracks, had to backtrack a mile to get across them, found myself starving, ate, had a long cell call, the weather turned unpleasant, gave up on the TB cache as too far away now, located the nearest cache in the GPSr and headed towards it in order to bag one before going back.

 

The GPS was taking me towards a huge mass transit complex - trains, planes & lotsa automobiles - I walked around the huge concrete parking garage - the red arrow was leading me out into a vast expanse of striped asphault dotted with street lights - my pulse was quickening, could this be the one? - 150 feet to go and I was in the middle of 10 acres of sparsely parked cars - 75' and a lamp post, no different than the 100's of others, was beckoning to me - my GPSr chirped to warn me that the big moment was at hand - I was standing next to that one very special lamp post and my receiver had zero'd - there was the metal skirt, do they really just lift off? - Yes!, they lift right up and ......... there it is, the magnetic key holder!!! - My day was complete, I had made my First Lamp Post Skirt Cache Find.

 

And you know what? It WAS special just because of all the rant and counter-rant posts I've read about them. It actually felt good, in a bag-of-Doritos-in-front-of-the-telly-watching-reruns sort of way, not necessarily the purest life experience ever but a little sorta-guilty fun in a schlocky, low rent kind of way.

 

Number 2. I've been telling my brother & sister about geocaching. They've been expressing interest so I launched a TB each of them to stir them up a bit. My brother called today from a Target store in Atlanta, GA. He'd loaded some caches in his GPSr and his kids into the car. Getting out of the car he pulled the GPS out of the dash cradle and without really thinking checked for the nearest cache. 185' away. With the kids they followed the needle until they were standing in the middle of the parking lot with, you guessed it, a lamp post right next to them. Not having read any of the forums, they scratched their heads and looked around for 5 minutes before lifting the skirt and finding it. My brother was psyched that he figured it out, and his kids were thrilled to death to find something hidden under there. Now, later they may look down their noses at lamp post skirt hides but for now they're excited about their find and there may be a new geocaching family.

 

So.....to whomever placed the caches in the Millbrae, CA BART lot and a Target store lot somewhere in or near Atlanta - thanks!

 

 

I am not sure I have ever heard anyone say that they didn't like their first LPC, especially if it was their first cache. That was pretty cool to read about your first find and the thrill it gave you.

 

I'm going to make a prediction that you'll go on feeling like that for a little while and then things will level off. It will still be fun but just not a total thrill that first one brought you. I'll also predict that the first time you find a completely innovative and ingenious container that a semblance of this feeling will return. If you are like most, your desire to find another one of those unique and interesting hides will be one of the things that feeds your desire to continue caching, not your umteenth LPC.

[RWoodward]

So.. there's this cache at this mega store..and we're still newbies.. we've gone to the site 2x. The first time, I was directed to the middle of the parking lot.. but we didn't know what we were looking for. Got home, figured out what LP stood for in the clues... went back, too many muggles, but tried 1 of the 2 lamp posts. Wasn't there. So now, I"m itchin to go back to check out the other and finally get my first cache in a LP

 

Yes i'm still thrilled..even though it's just a light pole...