By Boat and By Land

[+GraceThalia]

I have a cache in the works that I'm placing on a very small lake (less than 1mile long). I love hydrocaches and am encouraging people to find this using the rented paddle (pedal) boats the lake offers. However, these are seasonal, cost a couple bucks and not everyone is interested in geocaching by boat. (Bringing your own watercraft is not allowed.) This cache is also available by an off-trail walk in the woods. I would like to appeal to both kinds of cachers: landlubbers and hydrolovers.

 

My question is what the terrain rating should be and what attributes to include. I know many people search for caches available by boat by looking for level 5 terrain ratings, but I suspect many (possibly most) people will choose to walk to the cache and I don't want them to ignore it because of a T5. As far as attributes go, is it appropriate to include both "boat required" and "less then 1km hike" since it could be found either way?

 

Thank you in advance for any help. I searched the forums but couldn't find an answer for this dilemma.

[+K13]

If a finder can walk to the cache, why would a boat be required?

 

Is it on an island, which also has a bridge?

 

It would seem that if I can walk less than 1 km to the cache location, what would make it a 5T cache?

[+cerberus1]

Since bringing your own watercraft is not allowed, list the terrain at whatever the trail would be rated.

I'm not sure you'd be able to encourage others to use the rental boats on the cache page anyway ( that commercial thing), since paying is their only option.

You could probably make mention of a fun option if anybody would be interested.

- Check with your reviewer.

 

Since a boat isn't required, I wouldn't put that attribute on the cache page.

[+niraD]

As others have pointed out, the location doesn't require specialized equipment (the boat), so there is no reason to give it a 5T rating.

 

I've hiked trails that connected parking lots on opposite sides of a park. Imagine a cache near the eastern parking lot of such a park. It should have a low terrain rating, because it is near the parking lot, with very little (if any) hiking required. Sure, someone could spend all day hiking from the western parking lot, but that shouldn't affect the terrain rating.

 

There are any number of ways to create an additional challenge for yourself getting from point A to point B. Rate a cache's terrain based on the easiest, most straight-forward approach.

[+GraceThalia]

Thank you for your responses. I have rated the terrain based on walking.

 

The point of this cache is to make locals and tourists aware of this wonderful little lake and the paddle boats available, which I have spent many afternoons enjoying. I do make it clear that it is available by walking, but that the most fun way is by paddle boat.

 

I asked about the attribute because I wanted to make it easily identifiable as a cache that CAN be found by water. I search for such caches by using a pocket query for caches with the 'boat required' attribute. Although I also search the map for caches near a lake.

 

I have seen many caches that make it clear it's to be found by boat, it had the boat required attribute, it's rated T5, but people still find a way to walk to it. Whether that's a T5 walk, I don't know, but I doubt all of them are. Personally, if I knew a cache could be found either way, I would choose to find it by boat. And I'm sure there must be others like me.

 

My listing was pre-approved by a reviewer when I asked him to check the saturation for unpublished caches. I asked him about this dilemma, but he must have missed that part of the email because I didn't get a response. I know they're very busy.

 

I have included "Paddling" in the cache title, so hopefully that will be enough to attract a hydrocache lover.

 

If anyone is curious about the lake, here is a map of Country Park Lake Five B

[+T.D.M.22]

I would rate it by the lowest terrain-in this case walking to the cache.

 

It's not my problem if they choose to bushwack through the thick brush, bike on a trail, take a boat, or fly a helicopter there.

 

Now if a boat was required that would be a different story. I'm also not sure that wanting people to take a boat to the location is allowed in this case, as you said they would have to rent the boat. I don't see why you can't use your own boat. I don't think that's right, or possibly even legal. It's like saying you can come to my neighborhood, but you have to rent a car, not use your own.

[+GraceThalia]

I don't see why you can't use your own boat. I don't think that's right, or possibly even legal. It's like saying you can come to my neighborhood, but you have to rent a car, not use your own.

 

This lake is very, very small. (You can see it on the map). There's nowhere to put in a big boat. There's a reason there are only paddle boats; that's about as big and powerful a boat as this lake can handle. It takes minutes to paddle from one end to the other.

 

The paddleboats are what's fun. I don't know of any other place in the city that rents them and many people don't even know about this place.

 

There are many other larger lakes in Guilford County, NC where bigger boats are allowed and worth the effort of putting in a lake.

 

But all hydrocaches in this area require that you pay, either a boat launch fee or a rental fee. No way around it, unless you're one of the people that bushwacks to hydrocaches.

 

I had a "duh" moment and decided to name my cache the title of this thread: "By Boat or By Land". I think that pretty much sums up the cache and makes it clear to everyone.

[+GraceThalia]

I'm not sure how I missed this email but my local reviewer DID reply to me. I wanted to add his/her response for future reference to those that might search the forums with a question like mine:

 

"Use of both attributes is fine. A lot of folks use terrain 5 to indicate boat use, but in this case you may want to consider not doing this. A local hider to me has similar hides to this, and he doesn't want non-boating folks to miss out, but encourages boat use...so he sets his Terrain rating as 4.5. "

[+geofry25]

Another thread that answers a question for me to a degree so again, instead of starting a new one I was simply curious if a hide on an island that requires the use of a watercraft of some sort makes it a 5? Is that both for difficulty and terrain?

[Blue Square Thing]

Another thread that answers a question for me to a degree so again, instead of starting a new one I was simply curious if a hide on an island that requires the use of a watercraft of some sort makes it a 5? Is that both for difficulty and terrain?

 

Just for terrain - the difficulty needs to be how hard it is to find it once you're there.

 

The help centre sort of explains it - well, it has an ideal guide anyway. Here

[+geofry25]

Another thread that answers a question for me to a degree so again, instead of starting a new one I was simply curious if a hide on an island that requires the use of a watercraft of some sort makes it a 5? Is that both for difficulty and terrain?

 

Just for terrain - the difficulty needs to be how hard it is to find it once you're there.

 

The help centre sort of explains it - well, it has an ideal guide anyway. Here

 

Makes Sense To Me, thanks