Misleading description of Geocaching

[+Strapped-4-Cache]

Mods, it won't hurt my feelings if this thread gets moved. I couldn't find a better place to post it.

 

I recently picked up a copy of "The Last Englishman" by Keith Foskett, which documents his trip along the Pacific Coast Trail. It's a pretty good book, and the author does a great job of describing the scenery and character s in his book.

 

HOWEVER, I came across a passage in the book that referenced geocaching. The author made a brief attempt to describe geocaching, but failed miserably. Quoting the passage (emphasis mine), "A geocache is an item or items hidden in a specific location and most often buried, so that others cannot take it of wild animals happen across it. The coordinates are saved, usually by means of a GPS, so the owner can find it whenever they choose to. Elk had buried many of these along the length of the PCT the previous year, with staple contents that included canned meat, alcohol and pipe tobacco."

 

I can only imagine what park rangers would say if they come across this description and now think they can find such contents in a cache placed by a member of this site or another. I plan to write the author to ask that he re-define the term as a "personal stash" or something similar in order to distance it from what I have come to appreciate as a family-friendly hobby. What would I tell my kids if they found such contents in a cache we found???

 

Just spreading the word in case others would like to point out the error in the description to the author as well.

 

- Mark (S-4-C)

[nonaeroterraqueous]

"...so that others cannot take it of wild animals happen across it. The coordinates are saved, usually by means of a GPS, so the owner can find it whenever they choose to."

 

This isn't the same kind of geocache. This is something that the hider has placed for his own benefit. I would rather the author just called it a cache.

[+The A-Team]

"...so that others cannot take it of wild animals happen across it. The coordinates are saved, usually by means of a GPS, so the owner can find it whenever they choose to."

 

This isn't the same kind of geocache. This is something that the hider has placed for his own benefit. I would rather the author just called it a cache.

^This

The author is describing a cache, not a geocache. Apparently he thought these were synonymous, which we all know they are not.

[+T.D.M.22]

"...so that others cannot take it of wild animals happen across it. The coordinates are saved, usually by means of a GPS, so the owner can find it whenever they choose to."

 

This isn't the same kind of geocache. This is something that the hider has placed for his own benefit. I would rather the author just called it a cache.

^This

The author is describing a cache, not a geocache. Apparently he thought these were synonymous, which we all know they are not.

 

+1

 

This is referencing a cache(incorrectly called a geocache) as in a survival or end of the world situation, where this is a good, but not accurate description, which I won't get into because it's off topic. Context-you have to look at the hole story-or in this case just a paragraph.

[Mr.Yuck]

"...so that others cannot take it of wild animals happen across it. The coordinates are saved, usually by means of a GPS, so the owner can find it whenever they choose to."

 

This isn't the same kind of geocache. This is something that the hider has placed for his own benefit. I would rather the author just called it a cache.

 

I have one I just found out the other day was taken by wild animals for the 2nd time. I was going to tether it to a tree, but burying does sound appealing, now that you mention it.

[+kunarion]

"...so that others cannot take it of wild animals happen across it. The coordinates are saved, usually by means of a GPS, so the owner can find it whenever they choose to."

 

This isn't the same kind of geocache. This is something that the hider has placed for his own benefit. I would rather the author just called it a cache.

^This

The author is describing a cache, not a geocache. Apparently he thought these were synonymous, which we all know they are not.

 

+1

 

This is referencing a cache(incorrectly called a geocache) as in a survival or end of the world situation, where this is a good, but not accurate description, which I won't get into because it's off topic. Context-you have to look at the hole story-or in this case just a paragraph.

This is a problem when a land manager hasn't read the context of paragraphs in adventure books . It will be up to a CO to explain the finer points, when land managers have heard that "Geocaches are buried containers of canned meat, alcohol and pipe tobacco".

Edited May 16, 2013 by kunarion

[+and1969]

"...so that others cannot take it of wild animals happen across it. The coordinates are saved, usually by means of a GPS, so the owner can find it whenever they choose to."

 

This isn't the same kind of geocache. This is something that the hider has placed for his own benefit. I would rather the author just called it a cache.

^This

The author is describing a cache, not a geocache. Apparently he thought these were synonymous, which we all know they are not.

 

+1

 

This is referencing a cache(incorrectly called a geocache) as in a survival or end of the world situation, where this is a good, but not accurate description, which I won't get into because it's off topic. Context-you have to look at the hole story-or in this case just a paragraph.

This is a problem when a land manager hasn't read the context of paragraphs in adventure books . It will be up to a CO to explain the finer points, when land managers have heard that "Geocaches are buried containers of canned meat, alcohol and pipe tobacco".

 

Yes, it is probably an error to assume that nothing other than letterboxes, or orienteering paraphernalia, were hidden in the wild before the geocaching era.

 

Many years ago, when civilian-grade GPSR's still had 100m of error and were hideously expensive, a work colleague (coworker, for North American readers) gave me a photograph of a small cairn by a small lake, and a hand-written poem. This was a clue to the location of some "swag" on the Isle of Arran, which I'd said I'd be visiting. After spotting a similar lake, with a somewhat larger cairn next to it, I demolished the cairn and uncovered a 20cl bottle of whisky - probably Bells - which had been buried for several years. (The label and the lettering on the cap had long since become illegible) It is still, to this day, the nicest whisky I've had the pleasure of drinking, and I've tasted many expensive single malts.

 

PS. To this day I still wonder if I should have "traded", in case others had a copy of the same puzzle. In mitigation, at least I rebuilt the cairn...

[+edscott]

 

Yes, it is probably an error to assume that nothing other than letterboxes, or orienteering paraphernalia, were hidden in the wild before the geocaching era.

 

......

 

Actually Orienteering controls are not hidden, but are orange and white triangular bag,s 1 ft x 1 ft on a side, and hung in plain sight about 18 inches off the ground. The object is use your map to navigate to that spot. Once you are there they are easy to see.

[+ByronForestPreserve]

I won a geocaching book (along with some others) in an auction. It's a book about how to teach geocaching, and over and over the author describes them as "boxes of trinkets" and that the entire point is to find the "trinkets." Someone's going to be disappointed.

 

And ya, it's recent-2011. At least he didn't describe them as buried boxes full of tobacco...

[+jellis]

Me I like this part of the passage....

 

HOWEVER, I came across a passage in the book that referenced geocaching. The author made a brief attempt to describe geocaching, but failed miserably. Quoting the passage (emphasis mine), "A geocache is an item or items hidden in a specific location and most often buried, so that others cannot take it of wild animals happen across it. The coordinates are saved, usually by means of a GPS, so the owner can find it whenever they choose to. Elk had buried many of these along the length of the PCT the previous year, with staple contents that included canned meat, alcohol and pipe tobacco."

 

I would like to see an Elk bury a cache

Edited May 18, 2013 by jellis

[+cerberus1]

Me I like this part of the passage....

 

HOWEVER, I came across a passage in the book that referenced geocaching. The author made a brief attempt to describe geocaching, but failed miserably. Quoting the passage (emphasis mine), "A geocache is an item or items hidden in a specific location and most often buried, so that others cannot take it of wild animals happen across it. The coordinates are saved, usually by means of a GPS, so the owner can find it whenever they choose to. Elk had buried many of these along the length of the PCT the previous year, with staple contents that included canned meat, alcohol and pipe tobacco."

 

I would like to see an Elk bury a cache

Does sound funny I guess...

Some other hikers he met were Logic, Pockets and Bigfoot.

Would have been a riot if Bigfoot had buried them.