+Ma & Pa Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 How and why would you retire from caching? We were really sorry to hear that a cacher from this general area has decided to retire from caching We have always been impressed with his caches. We loved the history, the locations, the fun, the quality. It was always a pleasure to meet him at events. The fact that he took the time to write this retirement letter is certainly another sign of the kind of gentleman he is. Here is an edited version of the letter. ******************************* Hello Fellow cachers : I would like to take the opportunity to provide an update on my personal commitment regarding geocaching. Especially I would like to outline my continuing process of archiving the geocaches I have placed over the past several years as a prelude to retiring from the past time. I have almost finished the last posted list of to be archived caches My intentions are this : 1) To retrieve and archive ALL my owned geocaches OR 2) Have anyone who wishes to do so adopt my caches. My deadline for doing this is still early summer 2016. I have a LOT of hides .. still over a thousand out there so it takes a long time.. I have been archiving older and/or unpopular caches first. I will shortly be moving on to pretty much retrieving any of my caches in an area whenever I happen to be there, regardless of what they are ( exceptions for AWHILE are the xxxxxx and the xxxx puzzle series ) . I invite anyone who is planning to find some of the targeted caches in the next little while to contact me in advance and get permission to find and retrieve as they go… thus getting the sometimes coveted ‘ last-to find ‘ . Many dear caching friends have asked why I have taken the decision to do something else rather then geocache. Quite a few know some of the reasons 1) Declining physical health making it not so much fun to do what I could a few years back 2) general reduction of interest in the ‘sport’ of it. 3 ) escalating costs as it is expensive to travel as I like to, to geocache out of province and even within. 4) revived ( new too ) interest in some other recreational pursuits . 5) Not fun personal conflict. There’s a few other reasons I could list but this should give you the idea. I began geocaching in order to have FUN! When it stops being that to a significant degree, there is absolutely no point in doing it. So I am not going to. I will include here the geocache groups I am most likely going to archive in the near future. 1) xxxxx series 2) xxxxx Ghost series caches 3) Legends and Lore series 4) Any remaining puzzle caches I have 5) XXXXXX road caches 6) XXXX road ‘ Shakespeare quote’ caches 7) Several very small trail groups I have eg XXXXX, XXXXX’s cross, ‘ off rte 13 series’ and Snake trail series to name a few .. there are others. If you have any interest in finding/retrieving any of these groups let me know in advance. Ditto if you would like to adopt any. Thanks to XXXXXXX for forwarding this message with his extensive geocache mailing list. I hope everyone is still enjoying the daily XXXXX releases and finally Cache on people ! - XXXXXXX Quote
+SwineFlew Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 I dont care how you break it down, its still a geocide. Quote
+narcissa Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 I take breaks now and then for various reasons, but I don't know what it would take to make me leave forever. Quote
+niraD Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 How and why would you retire from caching?When it stops being fun, I'll stop doing it. There have been times when I haven't done much geocaching because I've been busy with other things, but since I still enjoy it, I've resumed geocaching once things have settled down. Quote
+cerberus1 Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 How and why would you retire from caching?For why, similar to niraD, when caching stopped being fun. Our finds last year amount to what we sometimes found in a month in previous years, so I don't see it being something that we'd fret or have withdrawal over. How's easy, archive what's left and fugget about it. Quote
+Pinki24 Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 I don't think you are ever too old to geocache. However if the fun has come out of it, take a break and see how you feel in a couple of months time. Owning caches does put a bit of pressure on you in that you need to maintain them, but adopting a large portion out may reduce the pressure and the demand on your time. As with anything in life, sometimes we need to take time out for a while. Quote
+Chrysalides Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 How and why would you retire from caching?When it stops being fun, I'll stop doing it. There have been times when I haven't done much geocaching because I've been busy with other things, but since I still enjoy it, I've resumed geocaching once things have settled down. This. And also if I'm physically unable to do it any more. Quote
+WarNinjas Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 I think he is doing it the right way. A lot of people would just stop and let there caches just go on until they are archived. Sad he is leaving the game but seems he played it well. Quote
+wmpastor Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 Retire from geocaching? I thought people retire to geocaching! Quote
+Walts Hunting Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 To paraphrase a NRA quote "When they pry my GPS from my cold, dead hands!) Quote
+L0ne.R Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 I think he is doing it the right way. A lot of people would just stop and let there caches just go on until they are archived. Sad he is leaving the game but seems he played it well. I agree. It's great that he gave people a reason and a heads up. More often you see that a long time cacher suddenly archives all of their caches - no explanation, nothing about retrieving their caches. I agree with that cacher, when it's not fun anymore it's time to retire from the hobby. We have done that on a smaller level. Sometimes maintaining a cache isn't fun anymore. It becomes a chore. When that happens it's time to retire the cache (no matter how old or how nice the location or whether it's a good grid filler). Quote
+Ma & Pa Posted January 30, 2015 Author Posted January 30, 2015 When I started this thread,I thought many people would enjoy reading and commenting. I removed some of the references that would identify the cacher and the location as I was worried that the item would be moved to a local discussion. In case you are now interested, here is the full version of the letter as posted on the forums at the ACGA site. http://atlanticgeocaching.com/index.php/forum/52-announcements-milestones/94430-olewaif-retiring . Quote
Mr.Yuck Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 I think he is doing it the right way. Note to self. Keep drama to an absolute minimum in my Geocide note, and people won't even realize it's a Geocide. Quote
+dprovan Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 I think he is doing it the right way. A lot of people would just stop and let there caches just go on until they are archived. Sad he is leaving the game but seems he played it well. Eh. If he wants to do it that way, of course that's OK with me. But I don't think it would be less right to just stop. A note announcing the change and opening up the caches for adoption is a good idea. But assuming they're not junk caches -- and there's no reason to think they are -- I'd rather he just left any not adopted in place and let nature take its course. While it's a very good idea to stress personal responsibility in cache ownership, I find that lesson more important for new people thinking about planting caches, and perhaps a little less important for active cachers maintaining their caches. But in my opinion, an established owner with a long record of quality caches should feel comfortable backing away from the hobby and not being too worried about what happens to his old caches. When they have issues, the community knows how to deal with it. As to "why would anyone quit?": the only reason we're even asking that question is that geocaching is a relatively new hobby. People have started and left other hobbies for a century. No one wonders how anyone could possibly give up knitting, for example. Quote
+GilkerscleughCachers Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 I would only ever stop if it was banned in the UK or I became physically unable to continue be it due to old age or other causes. Quote
+NYPaddleCacher Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 How and why would you retire from caching?For why, similar to niraD, when caching stopped being fun. Our finds last year amount to what we sometimes found in a month in previous years, so I don't see it being something that we'd fret or have withdrawal over. How's easy, archive what's left and fugget about it. I'm fairly close to retirement and it's precisely because it's not as much fun for me as it used to be. I do very little caching locally but still will grab a few when I travel, so I haven't place any new caches in a long time (if I'm not out finding caches locally it's a lot more difficult to maintain local caches) and have archived quite a few of them. I found this section of the OP interesting: I will include here the geocache groups I am most likely going to archive in the near future. 1) xxxxx series 2) xxxxx Ghost series caches 3) Legends and Lore series 4) Any remaining puzzle caches I have 5) XXXXXX road caches 6) XXXX road ‘ Shakespeare quote’ caches 7) Several very small trail groups I have eg XXXXX, XXXXX’s cross, ‘ off rte 13 series’ and Snake trail series to name a few .. there are others. Other than the puzzle caches it sounds like the cacher has focus on quantity rather than quality (why place 1-2 caches when you can place 20-30 caches and make it a series). Perhaps if the cacherfocused on quality rather than place a bunch of caches in a series and played the game more causally rather than as a competition they wouldn't retire completely. Quote
+Chrysalides Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 I think he is doing it the right way. Note to self. Keep drama to an absolute minimum in my Geocide note, and people won't even realize it's a Geocide. It's only a geocide if you post "I QUIT!" in the forums and archive all your hides in a hissy fit. They don't even bother to fill out the form RK-666. Quote
+SwineFlew Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 I think he is doing it the right way. Note to self. Keep drama to an absolute minimum in my Geocide note, and people won't even realize it's a Geocide. Oh there is DRAMA... Hes was downplaying it, but we all know... 5) Not fun personal conflict. There’s a few other reasons I could list but this should give you the idea. I began geocaching in order to have FUN! When it stops being that to a significant degree, there is absolutely no point in doing it. So I am not going to. Drama is often the main culprit of cachers quitting. Quote
+Michaelcycle Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 For me geocaching is usually an adjunct to some physical activity, usually bicycling or kayaking. If, God forbid, the time comes when I cannot engage in those activities then geocaching will wind down. Quote
+Ma & Pa Posted January 30, 2015 Author Posted January 30, 2015 I found this section of the OP interesting: quote I will include here the geocache groups I am most likely going to archive in the near future. 1) xxxxx series 2) xxxxx Ghost series caches 3) Legends and Lore series 4) Any remaining puzzle caches I have 5) XXXXXX road caches 6) XXXX road ‘ Shakespeare quote’ caches 7) Several very small trail groups I have eg XXXXX, XXXXX’s cross, ‘ off rte 13 series’ and Snake trail series to name a few .. there are others. Other than the puzzle caches it sounds like the cacher has focus on quantity rather than quality (why place 1-2 caches when you can place 20-30 caches and make it a series). Perhaps if the cacherfocused on quality rather than place a bunch of caches in a series and played the game more causally rather than as a competition they wouldn't retire completely. I guess my editing may have left the wrong impression. Here is the actual comment I will include here the geocache groups I am most likely going to archive in the near future. 1) Older Funky Flea-find series 2) Coastal Ghost series caches 3) Legends and Lore series 4) Any remaining puzzle caches I have ( excluding PEI premier series ) 5) Princetown road caches 6) Mill road ‘ Shakespeare quote’ caches 7) Several very small trail groups I have eg Breadalbane, Kelly’s cross, ‘ off rte 13 series’ and Snake trail series to name a few .. there are others. Olewaif is a PEI geocacher with more than 1000 caches. This does not mean that he concentrated on quantity rather than quality. Some of the series' brought us to little known local trails, or to discover out of the way woodlots with nature trails. His Funky Flea series was a fun series mostly along old red dirt roads and abandoned roads. His sense of humour was evident in the objects he used as caches or to hide the caches. You will note in his letter that he plans on retrieving archived caches. Many of the series involve history. For example his Coastal Ghost series covers shipwrecks along the coast and brings you all over PEI. Here is what he says on the cache pages. Clearly he spent a lot of effort researching and hiding the caches Coastal Ghosts Series: I’ve always been intrigued with tales of the sea; when you grow up on Prince Edward Island, it’s impossible not to hear of the exploits , successes and failures of the mariners of the past.. PEI was first visited by Jacques Cartier on July 1st, 1534 , beginning the connection between sailors and this island which continued over the almost five centuries since that day. Trade, warfare, settlement, and exploitation of the natural waters around PEI have brought tens of thousands of vessels to our waters. Some never left. The North Atlantic is not a mill pond . Storms did and do still roar up the Northumberland Strait and along the Gulf of St Lawrence. In the age of sail the ships were often more or less at the mercy of the wind and it often took them to their doom. The coast of PEI alternates between rugged sandstone cliffs and low sand-duned beaches. Vessels came to grief against both. The water around the island is shallow with many offshore sandbars and reefs and a great many of the shipwrecks along this coast are a result of running aground on these. Some got off but many were beaten to pieces by storm waves and loss of life was often heavy. No part of PEI’s coast is free from a share of these disasters, large and small. Over 800 documented shipwrecks have occurred off and on these shores. In this series I take you on a complete circuit of PEI along the various coastal roads and as best I can, to the nearest land point opposite the described wreck for each cache. Access to the caches varies but mostly you can drive fairly close and the caches are available at all times. There are a few which require a beach stroll and these might only be accessible at lower than high tide. I tried to use the many public access roads, of which there are many. Many of these roads are not open in winter. If you do the entire series you’ll log over 1200 Km.s of road tour and see some parts of PEI that not all that many people ever see. I quite deliberately picked and chose my shipwrecks to maximize the breadth of experience for the geocacher. There’s some very beautiful spots along this tour and I urge you to explore them well. If you come on a stormy day perhaps you can imagine the day when the named ship for that place was wrecked.; often right on the cliffs or, at most a mile or two off shore, well within sight of the land where they would have been safe. Most of the shipwrecks in this series resulted in some loss of life, often the dreaded phrase “all hands lost” was used in the reports. A moment of thought about those perished people might be appropriate as you visit the site of their demise. Quote
+luvvinbird Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 To paraphrase a NRA quote "When they pry my GPS from my cold, dead hands!) Thanks for the chuckle on this otherwise dull day at work. I've slowed down quite a bit for various reasons, sub-zero temps and snow don't help either. But I enjoy going out with a buddy and grabbing a few local ones and I'm always up for a cache when travelling. BTW, on a trip to San Francisco a couple of years ago, I sought out and found a cache placed by a forum contributor who had posted many comments. I was disappointed he quit geocaching.....sounded pretty peeved about something. I can't see me getting to that point. Quote
+DadOf6Furrballs Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 Pretty easy answer, really. When it's no longer fun. Fortunately it still is, with either hat on. Quote
vagabond Posted January 30, 2015 Posted January 30, 2015 I only found 44 caches last year and was debating whether to renew my premium membership this year, I've been caching for almost 14 years and it isn't as much fun as it used to be, I've been taking breaks of a month or 2 for the last 6 or 7 years. I've been think of quitting when I hit 10001 which may be next year or maybe 5 years who knows :D Quote
+terrkan78 Posted January 31, 2015 Posted January 31, 2015 One of the nice things about geocaching is I can do it a lot, or I can skip it altogether for months on end. As long as I keep my own hand full of caches maintained, nothing else really matters. As such, there's no reason to ever retire. I admit that if I found myself embroiled in caching-related drama, that would probably spoil it for me. I try to keep my life far removed from drama - my knickers don't take much twisting before I say something I later regret. So a good solid knickers twisting could possibly get me to retire. I think this cacher is approaching his retirement in the right way. It bugs me when people leave their caches to rot, even if their caches are good ones. Quote
+NYPaddleCacher Posted January 31, 2015 Posted January 31, 2015 One of the nice things about geocaching is I can do it a lot, or I can skip it altogether for months on end. As long as I keep my own hand full of caches maintained, nothing else really matters. As such, there's no reason to ever retire. +1 Getting to the point where you can stop for a month or two, and you're okay with that, and you can just start up again when you feel like it. I haven't found a cache yet this year, but I've got a couple of possible business trips planned over the next few months and I've been looking at the caching opportunities that might await me when I'm there. Quote
+Team Dredd Posted January 31, 2015 Posted January 31, 2015 Not sure if there is any one thing that would make me quit, with the exception of some unforeseen health issue that would prevent it. Although we have only been caching a few years compared to most of you, we have already seen the decline in quality caches and the increase in cache trashing etc. I think if we ever did just quit (and were still able) I would post on all our cache pages that our caches are up for adoption, and monitor our email for adoption requests. We have a mix of typical caches and some very creative or special containers, I would hate to see the special ones go away from lack of maintenance. For the ones that did not get adopted I doubt we would pick them up, would probably just let them run their course. Quote
+Mudfrog Posted January 31, 2015 Posted January 31, 2015 One of the nice things about geocaching is I can do it a lot, or I can skip it altogether for months on end. As long as I keep my own hand full of caches maintained, nothing else really matters. As such, there's no reason to ever retire. I admit that if I found myself embroiled in caching-related drama, that would probably spoil it for me. I try to keep my life far removed from drama - my knickers don't take much twisting before I say something I later regret. So a good solid knickers twisting could possibly get me to retire. I think this cacher is approaching his retirement in the right way. It bugs me when people leave their caches to rot, even if their caches are good ones. This is the way i feel about it all. Finding the stuff that's hidden these days is just not fun for me so i don't go out looking for caches very often. My find count increase has slowed dramatically over the last few yers. Watching for and finding those rare caches that i am interested in is what keeps me from dropping the finding portion of geocaching all together. Placing caches and goofing around on the forums is still fun for me these days. Conversing, having a difference of opinion, and debating is what i expect here but i hate to see people cause big time drama when they take our hobby too seriously. I've seen quite a bit from the sidelines but luckily it's never really come my way. I suppose that if this drama ever got bad enough, i might think about leaving geocaching all together but i wouldn't go out of my way to leave a retirement note. Quote
4wheelin_fool Posted January 31, 2015 Posted January 31, 2015 (edited) A nice idea would be to have a retirement event and declare you are finished for good. Give a variety of excuses and list the event as being 4 hours long. After an hour and a half arrange for someone to list and publish several caches nearby. Run out and find them and don't return. Write an apology on the event page, saying that something came up and go back to finding caches as normal. Three months later hold another retirement event and explain that because the last one was cut short, this one will be for real. Then do it again. And again. And again. Write a longer and more detailed apology at each one to try to make it sound sincere. After it gets old have a sock puppet ready to thoroughly criticize you and complain about the fakery. Make it bitter enough that nobody suspects anything. Then announce that "this is it" and you've "had enough" and archive several hides, and adopt a few out, saying that it was no joke and you were just putting it off. Next hide a milestone cache under the sock account, celebrating the sock's 100th find, and post a picture on the page of you holding a 100th find card. Then go out and simply resume caching like normal.. Edited January 31, 2015 by 4wheelin_fool Quote
+funkymunkyzone Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 I don't think there is such a thing as retiring from geocaching... just a reduction in activity down to the level of about 5 million of the accounts on geocaching.com. Quote
nonaeroterraqueous Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 A nice idea would be to have a retirement event and declare you are finished for good. Give a variety of excuses and list the event as being 4 hours long. After an hour and a half arrange for someone to list and publish several caches nearby. Run out and find them and don't return. Write an apology on the event page, saying that something came up and go back to finding caches as normal. Three months later hold another retirement event and explain that because the last one was cut short, this one will be for real. Then do it again. And again. And again. Write a longer and more detailed apology at each one to try to make it sound sincere. After it gets old have a sock puppet ready to thoroughly criticize you and complain about the fakery. Make it bitter enough that nobody suspects anything. Then announce that "this is it" and you've "had enough" and archive several hides, and adopt a few out, saying that it was no joke and you were just putting it off. Next hide a milestone cache under the sock account, celebrating the sock's 100th find, and post a picture on the page of you holding a 100th find card. Then go out and simply resume caching like normal.. Also known as the Cher method. * * * I'm basically done with geocaching, but I don't see any reason to officially call it quits. I might still use the activity as something to do with my sister's kids, or whatnot. A couple of years ago, I changed perspective on the hobby and switched from a finder to focusing on coming up with new cache designs. Basically, it was an arts and crafts hobby at that point. That really helped me to keep an interest in it for a little while longer. Right now, I'm changing the nature of the game for myself and trying to find caches without any help from the website. It's a whole lot harder that way, looking for physical evidence and searching for likely spots, but it gives me a new angle and a renewed interest. Eventually, I'm sure I'll tire of the whole thing and hike those trails for their own sake, again. I've never had any activity keep my interest forever, though geocaching certainly holds the record, so far. Quote
+Packanack Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 I like the idea of the OP, he explains his reasons, his approach and gives opportunity to basically say his good byes. Very gentlemanly approach. I often wonder what happened to so and so or wonder if something happened to a particular person, so explaining it goes a long way. We have had a tone of cachers just walk off into the sunset, leaving their caches behind as a reminder of their visit to the game. That is not the way to do it. Quote
+Alkhalikoi Posted February 5, 2015 Posted February 5, 2015 I've been a moderately consistent cacher since I started in February '09, getting to 2200 caches in that time at a fairly steady pace. But this past year I probably 15 caches since September and nothing since mid-November. Too much work and family stuff and that I've picked off most of the close caches. But I doubt I'd ever not cache at all. The killer app of geocaching has always been that it encourages me to take the side road or go to a park I didn't know about. That remains my interest going forward. I'm off to Little Rock on business in a couple of weeks -- having lived there in 1997-98 -- and I'm taking half a day to drive down to Vicksburg, MS, to see where my g'g'grandfather fought with the 9th Connecticut. There is -- of course -- a cache right there at Grant's Canal. And I'll go to the birthplace of Muddy Waters in Roaring Fork, MS as well (where there's a cache). If caching is around in 2040, I'll still be doing it. Maybe just a few dozen a year, but it's been such a great new way to mark my travels. I can't imagine stopping altogether. Quote
+MMaru Posted February 6, 2015 Posted February 6, 2015 I think I would retire from geocaching if I got caught up in messy geopolitics or drama. I have zero tolerance for that and tend to just shut the door on that sort of thing rather than put up with it. As to how... I'd just stop. I don't currently have any caches of my own to look after, but if I did at the time of retirement, I'd probably try to adopt them out, and if no one wanted to tend to it, I'd archive. As a hunter, I sometimes get frustrated when I see a cache that has a NM note, or several logs commenting that it needs some help, and nothing has been done in months to maintain it. Then see that the CO has not registered any activity on a long time, and possibly has quit the game and left his/her caches to rot. I would not want to be that CO to another hunter, so I'd try to be responsible. Kudos to the writer of the letter in the OP. I maintain a "Bucket List" cache list, and I'd appreciate a heads up if one of them was about to get archived, so that's great that he's giving some warning. Quote
+Ma & Pa Posted February 6, 2015 Author Posted February 6, 2015 To paraphrase a NRA quote "When they pry my GPS from my cold, dead hands!) Quote
+ras_oscar Posted February 6, 2015 Posted February 6, 2015 In 2013 I set a person goal of 1,000 finds for the year. I tracked it internally as 21 per week. I would find whatever struck my fancy during the work week and make up the balance on the weekend. I suceeded, but that goal was a mistake. I burned myself out. It became a chore. The result is in 2014 I did hardly any. I'm looking into doing a bit more than none this year, but nowhere near the earlier pace. Short answer, like others, I'll stop when it's no longer fun. Quote
+instep_guy Posted February 6, 2015 Posted February 6, 2015 After reading the farewell letter included in the OP’s comments I’d just like to say I used to really enjoy the geocide letters that used to frequent this board. I miss the drama, the angst and the heartfelt display of bitter emotions as a cacher declared that they would never return and the rest of us were instructed to make a journey to an uncomfortable destiny. Good Times!!! Quote
+MountainWoods Posted February 6, 2015 Posted February 6, 2015 You could say that I'm semi-retired from geocaching. Any more I only do it when I go to a state where I haven't found any yet (yeah, I'm collecting states), or if I'm going to be visiting someone for a few days. Even then I find that I spend more time Waymarking in the latter case, but I occasionally do look for a geocache. If/when I collect all 48 contiguous US states, I may retire altogether. I don't know. Just depends on how I feel about it at that time -- still a long way off. Reason? I'm just too lousy at it! I only look for D=1 to 2 caches, and I get tired of seeing everyone but me logging Find Its on D1.5 caches that I cannot find! (Unless there were a lot of other non-DNFers out there on said caches.) Quote
+niraD Posted February 6, 2015 Posted February 6, 2015 To paraphrase a NRA quote "When they pry my GPS from my cold, dead hands!) That reminds me of this one from the Pictures - Cool Cache Containers (CCC's) thread: Just think how much cheaper it would be to have a painted ammo can as a tombstone, rather than one made of carved stone. Quote
+edscott Posted February 10, 2015 Posted February 10, 2015 When the only caches left to find are parking lot micros. Quote
GPS-Hermit Posted February 26, 2015 Posted February 26, 2015 (edited) Slowing down - mostly due to other interest taking over - have always used it as a back burner -spur of the monent activity - but now it takes quite a while to find a cache I want to pursue due to all the Lame ones! It use to take me 5 minutes and now it might take a hour! Still love it and still want to go! Take me somewhere interesting! I have a better camera now! Edited February 26, 2015 by GPS-Hermit Quote
+jellis Posted February 27, 2015 Posted February 27, 2015 First Hello Fellow cachers : I would like to take the opportunity to provide an update on my personal commitment regarding geocaching. Especially I would like to outline my continuing process of archiving the geocaches I have placed over the past several years as a prelude to retiring from the past time. I have almost finished the last posted list of to be archived caches My intentions are this : 1) To retrieve and archive ALL my owned geocaches OR 2) Have anyone who wishes to do so adopt my caches. To adopt them out he/she will have to unarchive any caches and then adopt it out. The reasons I have seen are; Drop out of sight- no word, just disappeared. Marital issues - spouse can't put up with the absences. Financial- lost job or just costing too much Tired of maintaining the caches Cachers from near the beginning can't handle the way caching is going. Just not the same anymore Just lost interest or found another hobby that takes up all your time. Quote
+BigM&DJ Posted March 1, 2015 Posted March 1, 2015 Wow, we are sorry to hear this. PEI has been a fairly regular summer geocaching trip (Well, we visit family too!), and Olewaif contributed to many fun and interesting finds. From the aptly named Funky Flea series to the informative Coastal Ghost Series---and more,---an Olewaif cache was sure to please. We have never met Olewaif, but we have thanked him from our logs many times. Hopefully not a full on Retirement, maybe more of 'P&G' style of activity rather than sine die! We feel our retirement day will come when the physical demands become an issue. Hopefully, that day is a long way off yet. Quote
+Ma & Pa Posted March 1, 2015 Author Posted March 1, 2015 Wow, we are sorry to hear this. PEI has been a fairly regular summer geocaching trip (Well, we visit family too!), and Olewaif contributed to many fun and interesting finds. From the aptly named Funky Flea series to the informative Coastal Ghost Series---and more,---an Olewaif cache was sure to please. We have never met Olewaif, but we have thanked him from our logs many times. Hopefully not a full on Retirement, maybe more of 'P&G' style of activity rather than sine die! We feel our retirement day will come when the physical demands become an issue. Hopefully, that day is a long way off yet. MA and I agree with everything you say. And we have had a few discussions about the bold item. So far all is OK but we figure we may eventually have to stop the snowshoe caches, the hike caches and the bike caches. Hopefully that day is far away Quote
+Team OPJim Posted March 8, 2015 Posted March 8, 2015 To paraphrase a NRA quote "When they pry my GPS from my cold, dead hands!) That reminds me of this one from the Pictures - Cool Cache Containers (CCC's) thread: Just think how much cheaper it would be to have a painted ammo can as a tombstone, rather than one made of carved stone. Our local mortuary sells ammo and for this purpose for $55. I told them I can get the same can for $12-20. Quote
+Team OPJim Posted March 8, 2015 Posted March 8, 2015 (edited) I think drama is a big culprit. Interactions with other cachers has become a great sort of enjoyment for me. However a bad interaction has in a few cases nearly driven me to quit as well. In Arizona we had a prominent long time cacher quit due to drama. Left a lot of great caches up in the air as a result Edited March 8, 2015 by Team OPJim Quote
+Sol seaker Posted March 10, 2015 Posted March 10, 2015 I'll stop geocaching when other things in my life become more important. I'm finding that happening more and more, and I think it's probably a good thing. I certainly can't imagine quitting due to physical problems. I've injured my back a few times pretty badly, once I couldn't walk over 20 feet. I just learned to appreciate drive-up caches. I had complained about LPC's before that. I got the chance to clear quite a few off of my map. I can't imagine ever totally quitting. The amazing adventures I've had because of geocaching would not have otherwise happened. I've explored many islands among other things, that just wouldn't have happened. I've got my eye on a remote island up in the mountains that you've got to hike a boat a few mile up to (lake is too big and cold to swim) and inflate it and paddle out to the geocache on the island. What other reason would there be to do that? Quit no. Cut down, maybe. Quote
+NYPaddleCacher Posted March 10, 2015 Posted March 10, 2015 I've got my eye on a remote island up in the mountains that you've got to hike a boat a few mile up to (lake is too big and cold to swim) and inflate it and paddle out to the geocache on the island. What other reason would there be to do that? Fishing? Camping? Quote
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