protecting from Clean Sweep?

[+paleolith]

My town is organizing a "Super Clean Sweep" event this Saturday -- lots of outdoor cleanup activities all over town. Many neighborhoods, including mine, are participating. I'm concerned (mildly) that this level of attention to details in a wooded park area has the potential to compromise the caches in the park.

 

What approaches have others used in this situation? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? I don't recall noticing any trash near any of the caches, so perhaps the areas near them won't get much attention anyway. I've considered disabling the more vulnerable caches and removing them for the day. I've also considered adding highly visible ID for the day.

 

There are ten caches listed in the chain of parks in my neighborhood. I own seven, and I maintain three placed by the city's Parks and Recreation department. One of the latter is currently missing and disabled anyway -- I'm letting it cool down before replacing it.

 

Of the nine in place, I have minimal concern about three -- they are hidden in places that trash-seekers just aren't likely to look. Of the other six, three are ammo cans, two of them (mine) chained to trees and all with good ID on the outside. (The city P&R caches have their own custom stickers, though they are rather understated compared with the GS stickers.) The other three (mine) are micros -- camo-ed matchsafes in two cases -- with ID inside.

 

Thoughts?

 

Edward

[TheNorseStar]

I would remove anything valuable (e.g. coins, TBs, logs, shiny things) from the vulnerable caches and replace them with fresh pages of geocaching information and a sample log. Hopefully someone will come across it and want to learn more. At worst, they COTO it and you'd have to invest in another container.

[+BlueDeuce]

Thoughts?

 

Any cacher who places a cache should expect it to be lost at some point. Best that it be from people picking up trash.

 

That said, any cache without the notification that is is a cache shouldn't expect special treatment.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

As long as it is, as you say, 'organized'....

 

You should make sure that the 'organizers' are aware of geocaching and that geocaches may be discovered by the clean-up crews. They and the 'crews' should be sensitive to the fact that there are things out there that are not trash. Otherwise, I fear you and your local Cache Owners are facing a number of archivals.

 

Simply put, if the crews are at least aware of geocaching and they find something that refers to geocaching, it should be left as they found it.

[+ngrrfan]

Disable all the caches.... go out and pick them up.... and after the CITO then put them back out and enable them.

Let your reviewer know what is going on so they don't archive any of them.

[+jellis]

As long as it is, as you say, 'organized'....

 

You should make sure that the 'organizers' are aware of geocaching and that geocaches may be discovered by the clean-up crews. They and the 'crews' should be sensitive to the fact that there are things out there that are not trash. Otherwise, I fear you and your local Cache Owners are facing a number of archivals.

 

Simply put, if the crews are at least aware of geocaching and they find something that refers to geocaching, it should be left as they found it.

I like your idea. Best to make them aware then have them call a bomb squad because they don't understand.

[+fuzziebear3]

Create a corresponding CITO event, and have all your local geocachers helping on the clean-up effort. Good PR for geocaching, and a chance to explain the game to the land managers and show that we are helpful, not destructive.

[+The A-Team]

Create a corresponding CITO event, and have all your local geocachers helping on the clean-up effort. Good PR for geocaching, and a chance to explain the game to the land managers and show that we are helpful, not destructive.

That's a great idea, but it's now too late for the OP to list it on the site. Groundspeak requires it to be listed at least 2 weeks prior, but the clean-up is this Saturday. It's something that others could do in similar future cases, though.

[+Shop99er]

I would consider disabling my cache(s) and pulling it/them until this is over.

[+paleolith]

Thanks for the ideas. I think the one about getting the word out to the organizers and crew is probably best in this particular situation. I have the neighborhood organizer's email address, and i can try to drag myself out of bed Saturday morning. There's only two trackables among the caches, and I might pick them up tomorrow.

 

A combined CITO might have been good if I'd thought about it in time ... OTOH this is a city-wide event, so a CITO event might have been anywhere, so it probably would not have been in my neighborhood.

 

Thanks again,

 

Edward