Out of town cache experiances.

[mrbeachroach]

What is your out of town cache experiance? Have you found that caching at home is the best, or are the other towns you been to more creative, exciting, or involved in caching? What about the fellow cachers? Have you meet up with other cachers you did not know before you trip and what was it like?

[+StarBrand]

20 of the 24 caches within 20 miles of my house are mine. Therefore - virtually all of my cache finds are out-of-town.

 

I have noted some regional preferences with cache hide styles. Each area seems to have a favorite. I believe that comes from the experience each cacher learned with thier first 40 - 50 cache finds. I really love to find at least 3 -4 in each area I visit. Not much else I can comment on.

[+BBWolf+3Pigs]

Well, with nearly half of my finds outside of my state (RI), and about a quarter of them in Virginia and Hawaii alone, I'd have to say I love the locals hides as well as hides elsewhere. There are different styles and preferences around the country, and different types of puzzles and hides, so the wider you roam, the more unique expereiences you get.

 

Some "out of town" stories....

 

There was a new cache that was listed as a 5+ hour hike on Oahu (that had been unfound for some time). It sounded like a good challenge, so I wrote the owner for more info (I was heading out on business). He wound up organizing a group of locals to go out when I showed up (12 in total!). We headed out one Sunday morning and we all had a terrific time, inclujding sharing beers and stories afterwards. I had never met any of the cachers before, but I have since cached numerous times with some of them, and have continued to meet more of the Oahu locals.

 

One an earlier trip to Hawaii, my friend and I ran into a woman who was caching (she had just found one we were headed to). We teamed up for a few more finds, and exchanged emails since. I was recently in Portland (where she lives) and she played tour guide as we went out finding several caches!

 

Lastly, I exchanged emails with a cacher from Norfolk, VA. It seems we'd moved each others travel bugs on separate occasions, in Hawaii and locally. He gets to New England occasionally for work, and me to Norfolk, so we have cached together a couple of times now. Coming from the tidewater region of Virginia, he had a rude awakening when he started tackling caches in the woods here in New England. Glacial erratics made finding caches a tad more difficult than when there are no rocks around!

[knowschad]

I've had mixed experiences, frankly. I took a geocaching vacation to the Black Hills in South Dakota this fall, and had a fabulous time! Almost all of the caches were superbly maintained, most that were outside of town were simple ammo box type hides, but when you're on vacation and time is limited, you don't want to spend hours trying to find the thing. But for the most part, they brought me to places that I would never have known about as a general tourist. I did DNF a couple (one took me a few hours to DNF, but it brought me to such a fantastic area that I didn't really care. I missed the cache, but I got the point!)

 

On the other hand, my experiences with caching in another nearby state has thus far been less than I'd like: throwaway plastic containers poorly hidden, rarely camo'd, and often badly maintained, dropped with little regard to a rich historical background and miles and miles of beauty (there ARE exceptions!!!). Such a shame, because that is one of the most gorgeous areas in the country and is rich with historical significance (I'm referring to my beloved U.P. of Michigan... I hope you guys get it together up there in what could be a geocaching mecca!)

[Neos2]

We love to take trips and cache along the way. Last spring we went to Crater of Diamonds state park in Arkansas and had the most wonderful time caching--along the way there and back (um, we took the "long" way through TN-AL-MS-LA-TX-OK-AR-MO-KY-IN).

 

Especially in the area around the park we had a wonderful time. There is one cacher who lives near the park and has loads of caches out for others to find. He had some fantastic hides--some of them made up laugh, some of them had us using a few choice words for a few minutes, and all of them were lots of fun to find.

 

We also had a chance that trip to meet up with someone from the geotrucker boards. My husband is one of the moderators there, and the other fellow is one of the two main guys who started it. DJ and his wife were headed east while we were headed west--but through a bit of advanced planning and a couple of cell phone calls we managed to meet near the LA-TX line for dinner and a few caches. We talked more than we cached, but we enjoyed the 5 or 6 hours we spent with them.

 

We often run into other cachers whereever we are, and usually end up doing at least a few caches with them. We live in an area that is fairly cache dense, so we run into cachers from other places quite often near home. We always try to be good hosts to our visitors and show them around a bit to some of the more interesting caches that a visitor might not try without a guide. I think the good karma from that has rubbed off on us, because we usually get the same treatment when we are the alien invaders.

 

Even if I don't end up running into a local guide I've never had a really bad experience caching on the road.

The key to it for me is that I am willing to spend a little time going through the cache pages of the caches along the way to look for some I am pretty sure to enjoy and focusing on those.

 

I run my caches along a route PQ, throw it into my maps and then scout out some that look likely (based on name and gut instinct, at first). I read the descriptions and a few of the logs to try to find a few caches that people rave about. Once I've latched onto a few caches that look promising, I look for other caches in that area by that same person--and make a mental note to watch for their names on other people's caches for ones they say they enjoyed, too. I pick about 5 caches for each town we'll stop in and make those my "must do" list and then plan my other caching around those caches.

 

I also delete any that look like they will promise frustration---if they have lots of negative logs (or lots of no finds without any redeeming praise (like "beautiful area, I've been back three times to hunt this one and loved it every time") and any that just look like waaaaay too much hassle to get to from the main road.

 

The worst thing that has ever happend was also on that same trip last spring...and it makes a great story. We went about 100 miles out of route just to get at least one cache in OK. It rained there the day we went after being dry as dust for weeks. The roads near the cache were red clay--and in case you didn't know it red clay dust gets very very slippery when it's wet. We'd found one cache and were headed to another when we made the big mistake of deciding to stay on the county roads instead of going 2 miles out of our way back to the main road. There we were, off on slippery red clay county roads, surrounded by crops higher than the rental car, with the sun going down fast and no real cell phone signal to speak of! We eventually bailed on the second cache when we came near another main road --but not before having to move over to the side of the road on a curve when a local came flying along with four-wheel drive--and feeling the rear end of the rental make a sickening slew toward the really muddy side of the road!

 

Thank goodness my husband is a professional driver, and he got us out of there in one piece, slightly muddy, but totally intact. We took the big road to the hotel for the night (in the fog) and woke up the next day ready to go try to find a huge diamond. Well, that didn't end up happening, but we could dream couldn't we?

[+briansnat]

There are a number of great cache hiders in my home area and most of them hide the kinds of caches I like - good hikes and/or interesting spots.

 

In recent years caching outside my home area has been a disappointment with few exceptions (Vermont was one exception). I used to use geocaching as a way to explore new areas. More often than not these days I find myself "exploring" strip malls and big box store parking lots. On several occasions after seeing what the area had to offer in the way of geocaches, I put my GPS away and grabbed some tourist brochures from the hotel. A shame.

[Dinoprophet]

While we have very scenic woods, rivers, and lakes in lower Michigan, we don't have much in the way of challenging terrain. My two current caches are in some of the hilliest terrain in this corner of the state, and no one seems to want to go there. So for that reason, I like out-of-town better.

[Tahosa and Sons]

Some places were just bag a smiley and move on. But then there were the special ones that gave you a good hike or a very challenging hide or a unique historical place to vist. No matter what I made the choice to look for it so I can't really complain, a lame cache is much better than a busy day in the kitchen.

[+scuba dude]

I have had both extremes from my out of town caching. I have seen some wonderfully creative urban hides for regular and larger caches. I have seen well camoflaged caches off of mountain trails, where I didn't care if I found the cache or not. Then I have also seen a slew(or slough, depending on your location) of mindless parking lot skirt lifters (which I ignored) and ammo cans sitting in the open with just a stick or two laying across it.

 

In the latter instances, I have taken the time to construct decent hides that blend well with the natural suroundings.

 

Overall I have found that caching when traveling results in seeing a good variety of techniques and ideas that make future hunts easier, and new hide styles to use at home.

 

SD

[+mtn-man]

I agree with Tahosa. As I traveled before 2001, I sat in the hotel and watched TV or maybe went to a local bar for a beer. I have now seen some remarkable places and my gallery is a testimony to that. Even a drive around my hotel still gets me out for a fun challenge and the occasional great hiding idea. I have traveled to event caches and have met people in states across the US and even attended a very special event in British Columbia.

 

If you don't like retail area caches, avoid them. Google maps show those lovely local parks as green patches, so to avoid retail area caches all you have to do is look for those green patches. The diversity of these local gems is great to explore. Pine trees, oaks, birch trees, hemlocks, cedars and even short dry scrub bushes all provide insight into the unique character of the local area. Some are lush, rich wet areas that make you feel alone in a large city and some are dry and arid but provide astounding views for miles.

 

One of the best things about Geowoodstock has been meeting new people and then going out later and going caching. If you go out of town and can drop in on an event, it will be one of the most fun things you can experience. Above all, if you are not having fun, move on. Google is your friend and a great tool. Ten or fifteen minutes worth of looking around the area before you head out can yield experiences and a gallery like mine.

[+GrateBear]

My experience has been related to "additional hints". I started in Chicago, and it seems there are many more "hints" for the caches there than other locations. Other than that, not a lot of differences.

[+PhxChem]

If any of you are ever in the Phoenix area, here's a hint for the non-micros...um...look under the rocks . No, the other rocks .

 

That's what we have here and by God, that's what we're gonna use!!

 

I'm guessing other parts of the country you have...you know...trees, manatees, and beavers to hide the caches behind...

Edited December 11, 2007 by PhxChem

[WashoeZephyr]

We have a lot of very creative cache hiders in our area. But I am starting to enjoy out of town caching more and more. Along the way in the last year and a half of doing this, we have met lots of great people with this hobby and we've been to quite a few events that we were not local to but were welcomed as if we were! As far as hiding styles, they do seem to vary from place to place but to me, that's what keeps it interesting! (Yes, I hate cattle guards no matter where they are!!! )

As far as non local caching. I like the places it takes me to more than the "cache" itself! We are just really bummed we weren't caching yet when we were in Hawaii a couple of years ago. It would have been cool to see some places that most tourists don't see!

[+joranda]

I have to go out of town all the time to cache now for over the last year or so. I pretty much have everything with in a 50 mile radius of my home cleared out so that's why I head out of town all the time.

[+Blaidd-Drwg]

I've cached in a lot of places, and what I've found is that a geocache in New Zealand, looks like a cache in Alaska, looks like a geocache in Ireland, looks like a geocache in Oklahoma. The thrill has always been in the hunt. Finding a cache away from my home area is always unique because of the location, while caches near home are often memorable due to the fact I get to cache with friends and love ones.

[mrbeachroach]

So, yeah, this out of town caching thing is amazing, I went to Cape Guirardue Missouri this weekend and let me tell you that those Cachers can bring it!!!!! Best Caching of my life. Its not even like geocaching, its like a taste of heaven. The Camo jobs are amazing, the hides are fantastic, the containers are sweet, and the locations are prime. I strongly encourage anyone heading around there to check it out. I had 2 days there and I loged 17 new caches. Wet, rained all day. I got started at 430 am day 1 and slept in day 2 till 6am before I got started. When you have a wife and a 2 year old you have to get started before the day starts!!!!!!

[+Harry Dolphin]

I've had some very nice experiences caches on trips. (I've met a number of visiting cachers in NYC, but that's only thirty five miles from home, so it's not really out-of-town. Voice in the distance "You're not going to find it. I have it." from cachers from Texas.) We plan trips with geocaching in mind. Off to Maine to visit my sister. One cache in Connectiut along the way. Overnight stop in Rhode Island (hey, I hadn't found a cache in Rhode Island!). Goddard Park looked interesting. Overnight stop in Warwick. Great park! Beautiful views. Nice caches. Visit to Odiorne Park near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Another beautiful place. On to Maine, and sixteen caches (and lot of benchmarks). Some Mass Pike caches on the way home. Found some beautiful places that I would never have known about.

Similar adventures on a visit to Maryland to find the Project A.P.E. cache, with stops in South Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, D of C, obligatory cache in West Virginia , and a number of very intresting places across Pennsylvania. Only way to travel!

[+2qwerqE]

...

On the other hand, my experiences with caching in another nearby state has thus far been less than I'd like: throwaway plastic containers poorly hidden, rarely camo'd, and often badly maintained, dropped with little regard to a rich historical background and miles and miles of beauty (there ARE exceptions!!!). Such a shame, because that is one of the most gorgeous areas in the country and is rich with historical significance (I'm referring to my beloved U.P. of Michigan... I hope you guys get it together up there in what could be a geocaching mecca!)

 

I could not DISAGREE more! Last Sept, I got an email from a Yooper cacher who tagged me because our monikers are simliar. We exchanged a handfulof emails and he and his wife invited this Indiana stranger to visit, stay in their sweet remote Lake superior cottage, and cache our hearts out. They spent three days showing me the best their slice of the lake had to offer and it was awesome! From Marquette, MI to Pictured Rocks SP and everything in between. Great hospitality from the nicest people you ever want to meet, cruising from one gorgous view to the next. Why look! Here's some Yooper beauty now:

 

My hosts: Quirktoo. Thanks, yoos guys! I had a grand time!

[+wimseyguy]

When you travel out of town don't you research where you will stay and eat? Don't you look for the interesting cultural and/or historical features that make your destination unique? Perhaps you are traveling for a performance or ball game. So why shouldn't you prepare your caching experience as well?

 

Anyone who has been disappointed by the caches they have found away from home has no one to blame but themselves. While it may be true that 'back in the old days' all caches were great and in fantastic locations, these ain't the good old days. So run a a few PQ's, read a few cache pages, contact a few locals, and use googlemaps.

 

My traveling experiences have been exactly what I have expected because I plan. Last weekend I was in New Orleans for a family event. But I still made time for a half day of urban finds, aiming for a large city park (Audubon) with a nice cluster. I just stopped at too many others along the way so that my time in the park was shorter than I had planned. I drove by a few that were in uninteresting locations and found the ones I wanted to look for. I also got to see an original part of the Eiffel Tower that was relocated there; and found time to explore the city via a few virtuals that I hadn't found on previous visits.

 

And no visit to NOLA is complete without stopping at the View Carre. I try to share this one with a different family member on each visit. Be sure to check out the gallery.

 

Back to those good old days-wasn't the Original Stash pretty much a roadside PnG? I know that the oldest active cache Mingo is.

[+usyoopers]

On the other hand, my experiences with caching in another nearby state has thus far been less than I'd like: throwaway plastic containers poorly hidden, rarely camo'd, and often badly maintained, dropped with little regard to a rich historical background and miles and miles of beauty (there ARE exceptions!!!). Such a shame, because that is one of the most gorgeous areas in the country and is rich with historical significance (I'm referring to my beloved U.P. of Michigan... I hope you guys get it together up there in what could be a geocaching mecca!)

 

Well....I'm not sure what part of the UP you have cached in, I might be a little biased on this though. We live in the UP, have cached every County of the UP and that statement isn't one I can agree with at all! I would invite you to come back and try it again...

 

The part about throwaway plastic containers, rarely cammo'd (some places insist the be clear plastic), dropped with no regard to historical or beautiful places etc,.... We have cached in 13 States, Canada, Mexico and Italy, caching is pretty much the same everywhere we have been. While in Michigan we use tree stumps and sticks, Nevada used a lot of rock piles, our urban caching in Italy were film canisters....it really is the same game whereever you go, some people play better or different than others, some people hide better than others, some people don't rehide well at all....and on and on.....

[+R.O.B]

I love out of town caching.

The first time I found an out of state cache I instantly felt connected to the larger geocaching community.

It was a great feeling.

And I still feel that way every time I find an out of state cache.

 

Neos2...WigWam Village was pretty cool, wasn't it...? We stayed in WigWam's 5 and 6.

Edited December 18, 2007 by R.O.B

[+Hotlanta]

The few times I’ve had a chance to cache somewhere other than home has been very enjoyable. I mean let’s face it, even at home you run across less than perfect geocaches. I started geocaching at home in Georgia, but was introduced to the sport in Texas. My folks live in Texas, so when I go to visit I take time to hit some local caches. The first couple times I just hit whatever was close to the house and it was kind of pot luck as to what kind of cache I found. Now that I’ve been geocaching awhile I tend to do my homework first and load a PQ of the area with what I think will be the most interesting type caches to me. Personally I like the Virtual caches. They seem to take you to the most interesting places and local sights of whatever area you are visiting. (GCE041) But then again, I was driving along outside Charleston, SC returning to my hotel after a morning of geocaching when a geocache icon popped up on my GPSr that I did not have the information for…left my PDA in my room. So I took a chance and trekked on over to the cache and it proved to be a really great traditional hidden along a old hiking trail winding through what use to be a rice plantation from the mid 1700’s that had reverted to a nature area. I got about a ½ mile along the trail before coming across my first warning sign for alligators. And about another couple hundred feet before I came across an ol’ 12 footer resting about 20 feet off the trail! I stopped and thought to myself, “I’m glad I’ve got my hiking stick with me. At least I can get in a couple good whacks before he chews my leg off!” But he must not have been hungry, he just laid there and hissed a bit but didn’t really seem too interested in my passing. (GCJ4VK) My latest out of town geocaching was in Nice, France. I had an emergency business trip there and only had about 5 hours to rush home from work, pack and get back to the airport to catch my flight. I did a quick search, downloaded a PQ, loaded my PDA and GPSr and rushed off to catch my flight. One thing I neglected to notice when I did my quick search was noticing that almost all the geocaches info pages are in French….DUHHH! I don’t read or speak French, so it made hunting and finding the caches very interesting. NO HINTS! And only once did I get stopped by the local French police wondering what I was looking for. I only wish I had it on video, the officer speaking little English and me speaking no French and trying to explain Geocaching to him. But we both parted with a smile and I was able to continue my search.(GC175XK) Needless to say, I don’t go anywhere anymore without my GPSr loaded and ready to go. Sorry about this being so long winded, too many cups of coffee this morning!

[+peppy]

My wife and I took a trip down the Oregon Coast last fall and had a fantastic time caching there. The local parks and rec department has placed a whack of caches in many of their parks. All of the caches were well maintained, and in interesting places. It got us to visit many locations we would never have gone to as regular tourists. A great idea for any town I think.

[+Sagefox]

We love caching while traveling be it in towns, cities or rural areas.

 

For the first 5 1/2 years and with the exception of 119 cache finds, all of our caching had been done out of town. Our range of frequently visited areas is a line drawn from Seattle to Bakersfield to Las Vegas with many branches off that corridor. Our motto has been "Need Cache - Will Travel" because our home county (Mendocino, CA) only ever has about 50 active caches. Six months ago we moved to a major urban region so now most of our caching will be done close to home.

 

We love caching while traveling.

Edited December 19, 2007 by Team Sagefox

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I have cached 28 states, from California to Florida to Massachussets, and loved every minute of it! Met some great folks, seen some great sights, found some wonderful caches and some not so much, but enjoyed every one of them!

 

My cache log from last weekend is typical:

 

Headed for the event with TazDevil around 10 a.m. He needed 25 caches to make 500, so we knew we could take our time and have a leisurely day.

 

Beautiful day from Birmingham to Montgomery, then hard cold rain and fog, visibility 50' at times, all the rest of the day.

 

Hooked up with BamaGeek for lunch in Montgomery. Good lunch, but I left my coffee cup on the table.

 

Arrived in Troy right at the event time, the site is a 15' open pavilion in the town square, under which stand BlueLew and Cookie2, all alone in the pouring rain.

 

Host never showed up, maybe the flash floods carried him off.

 

MCP1, Terry, arrived, a super nice guy and an immediate new friend to all. He had discectomies on 4 vertebra LAST WEEK but here he is in the driving rain at a caching event - I knew right off that he was my kind of guy!

 

We had a very nice hour or so chatting and visiting, I know the townsfolk driving around the square seeing us clustered in the center of that little pavilion (no walls, windy, did I mention it was raining?) to stay dry thought we were nuts! No, just geocachers. I floated the idea that maybe we might want to move to a restaurant, get out of the cold rain and sit down. Cookie shot that down right away... said heck no, we're geocachers!

 

BlueLew asserted his authority and did as Cookie told him... split for home so they wouldn't have to drive in that fog and rain after dark.

 

BamaGeek, MCP1, TazDevil and myself went cache hunting and pretty much cleaned out the non-hiking caches in and around Troy.

 

I have pictures of BamaGeek and Taz caressing a bull's balls and Taz with his head up a chicken's butt... if they don't pay on time I will post them!

 

Found "Are you afraid" in Prattville on the way home for Taz's 500th cache, that's a great night-cache, worthy of being a milestone.

 

Plotted and planned evil things we could do to wake BamaGirl up as we passed through Clanton at midnight. Couldn't find any fireworks stands, considered marine air horns outside her window, decided we'd improvise. We found the cache in front of her house then rolled up her driveway, Taz calls her on the phone and as soon as it starts ringing I set off the rather loud car alarm on my truck. That house is built like a brick outhouse; she never heard my truck alarm, answers the phone, she's up , we didn't wake her, and she acts like midnight visitors are the most normal thing in the world, invites us in for a visit! Bummer, all that plotting is overturned by grace and gentility! That gal is a class act. She doesn't have any coffee though.

 

Cached our way back home. We're leaving one DNF and I again leave my coffee cup (I always carry a spare!) on the truck roof. BamaGeek says I need a backup for my spare.

 

Taz is a dedicated cache hunter, but when he gives up and returns to the truck because the wind is so cold (Man, it was howlin'!) we call it a night and come home.

 

Woohoo! 350 miles, 32 caches, 1 event, fun with friends, what a great day!

 

The aforementioned bull and chicken are, by the way, large roadside statuary made of car bumpers.

 

Adventures like that are what keep me caching, in town or out!

Edited December 20, 2007 by TheAlabamaRambler

[+joranda]

You always find different ideas out side of your area that you can always bring home with you.