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I don't like looking for caches


The Rat

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Is anyone with me here? I don't like looking for geocaches. Before you say "then why are you a geocacher?" I'll point out some of the things I do like about geocaching:

Finding caches!

Hiding caches.

Reading the logs others have written (when they've put some decent effort into the log)

Planning the caching excursion, the route, researching the caches

Hiking or cruising around with a friend (or several friends) talking, laughing, or just admiring the scenery

working the puzzles (sometimes)

Solving the puzzles!

 

So there are lots of things to like about geocaching but I've never understood why people seem to enjoy actually looking for them. I find that tedious, boring, and often frustrating. Sometimes it's even dangerous or painful. I've had poison oak too many times to mention. Talk about misery. If I had my way every cache would come with a spoiler and I'd read it long before I ever got to the cache.

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Is anyone with me here? I don't like looking for geocaches. Before you say "then why are you a geocacher?" I'll point out some of the things I do like about geocaching:

Finding caches!

Hiding caches.

Reading the logs others have written (when they've put some decent effort into the log)

Planning the caching excursion, the route, researching the caches

Hiking or cruising around with a friend (or several friends) talking, laughing, or just admiring the scenery

working the puzzles (sometimes)

Solving the puzzles!

 

So there are lots of things to like about geocaching but I've never understood why people seem to enjoy actually looking for them. I find that tedious, boring, and often frustrating. Sometimes it's even dangerous or painful. I've had poison oak too many times to mention. Talk about misery. If I had my way every cache would come with a spoiler and I'd read it long before I ever got to the cache.

 

Stay with the low-difficulty hides that have been recently found. I agree that some evil hides are as frustrating as most puzzles.

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Is anyone with me here? I don't like looking for geocaches. Before you say "then why are you a geocacher?" I'll point out some of the things I do like about geocaching:

Finding caches!

Hiding caches.

Reading the logs others have written (when they've put some decent effort into the log)

Planning the caching excursion, the route, researching the caches

Hiking or cruising around with a friend (or several friends) talking, laughing, or just admiring the scenery

working the puzzles (sometimes)

Solving the puzzles!

 

So there are lots of things to like about geocaching but I've never understood why people seem to enjoy actually looking for them. I find that tedious, boring, and often frustrating. Sometimes it's even dangerous or painful. I've had poison oak too many times to mention. Talk about misery. If I had my way every cache would come with a spoiler and I'd read it long before I ever got to the cache.

 

So you're in it for the numbers. Maybe not just the numbers, but you are in it for the numbers. Was there a point to this or younjusntsaying why you geocache?

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That reminds me of one of the first cache we (finally) found with a friend.

 

Difficulty 1, Terrain 1

 

and we couldn't find it, going there, searching.....

 

We thought "if this is difficulty 1, the one hidden inside the Voyager 1 space probe must be difficulty 2"!

 

After we finally found it (it was a slim magnet paper rolled around the interior of a security pole!), no more similar caches would surprise us!

 

Experience...

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I love everything about geocaching, except for the finding part. I'm certainly not in it for the numbers, my piddly numbers speak to that. I get very frustrated if I can't find a cache right away. If I'm caching with someone else, I let them do most of the searching while I tend to take pictures. But caching is such an integral part of my life that I couldn't imagine what life would be without it.

 

I guess it's just a personality quirk. I can get quite vocal and emotional at cache finds that go bad. Lol. My worst experience was caching up by the Hollywood sign. I was on a long road trip, had a long hot hike up to it, was not feeling good physically at all, and that darn cache wouldn't show up after crawling around under pokey bushes for a while. I just sat down under a tree and cried. :rolleyes: But overall, I would still count that day as a good one. What a weirdo. :laughing:

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Wow, I've never heard of such a thing. There have been times when I've groaned "oh, noooo" while rolling up to GZ i.e. a bush hunt in full public view. But those are rare times. It reminds me of the days when I was just starting out and most caches seemed unfindable. What a joy when they finally turned up! I learned persistence, sometimes to a fault. I didn't give up easily, even if it wasn't there to be found. The magnet strip inside the pipe that was mentioned seems more like a D3 or so to me...

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For me, geocaching has always been an excuse to walk some place different every time. The more I geocache, the more often, when I have trouble with a search, that "a good walk spoiled" line comes to mind. If you've done any of the new Word puzzle caches over in Fremont, you'll know why I think they're the best hides ever.

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I wouldn't go so far as to say "I don't like looking for caches", but I do hear you. There's nothing about "evil micro", "devious hide" that thrills me. When I get to GZ, I want to FIND it, not so much to HUNT it ;-).

 

The good news is 2 part: I've long since gotten comfortable calling Not Having Fun, logging a DNF and moving on, not waiting to get frustrated first, and I've been doing this long enough that I've seen a good many "evil" hides before, allowing me to find 'em in a reasonable amount of time.

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So you like finding them but not looking for them? To bad you are missing out on a great feeling when you find that well hidden cache, but to each is there own. I can say yes, sometimes the search is a pain but if they were all the same and all the same type of hide so there was no searching needed there would be very few people that would geocache as they would be bored.

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Now let's ape this up a little. I hate caches in public areas, Chimpanzees in tweed suits get stared at all the time! People have no respect. Seriously, I enjoy the game, I hate caches placed in public places that require stealth. I like the caches that have history as the basis. I don't like physical challenges due to knee problems and anything to do with heights.

 

My immediate question is "Why are you still doing it?"

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To me, the search is the least interesting part of this game.

 

Getting there. Seeing what's there. Having a focus while hiking, kayaking, or biking. Taking a picture. Doing something on occasion with friends. Discovering places. Exploring. Writing a log when there is something about the cache that opens a small stream of conciousness. Visiting places that Aura Raines might find interesting. Viewing caching as a means of preserving our collective memories or learning about history. Letting the game take me places or allowing me to record places where I have been. Virtuals. Earthcaches. Well crafted letterboxes with room in the logbook to use my stamp. Wherigos. An ammo can in the woods. Did I mention getting there, particularly by kayak, and taking a picture?

 

So I agree with much of what the OP writes. Except for the puzzles. There are enough puzzling things in the world for me to want to take the time to do a puzzle in order to find most containers. But yes, I have no particular need to find another bison tube in a tree, a nano hidden in order to have people find a nano, or any container hidden in a parking lot. Searching in order to search is just not that interesting.

Edited by geodarts
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Is anyone with me here? I don't like looking for geocaches.

These days, I'm pretty much in agreement with you. But that wasn't always the case.

 

When I first started geocaching, I loved searching for caches. It was fun trying to get inside the hider's head and figuring out where they might have put the cache. The more evil, the better. I would put off looking at the hint for a long time. The wonderful Eureka! moment of finding the cache more than offset any search frustrations as I greatly appreciated the sheer genius of some of my fellow geocachers. I was thrilled at discovering my first LPC and laughed at myself for DNFing several before it. In the beginning, I generally avoided caching with others because I didn't want them spoiling the experience (even with Huckle-Buckle).

 

With time, the searches started to get stale. I knew where the most likely hiding spots were, and even the unusual ones aren't as hard once you know how to look. As the years went by, people started hiding more and more guardrail caches, LPCs, stop-sign bison tubes, and micros in spruce trees. While looking is often the least favorite part of geocaching for me now, it hasn't yet fallen to the level of disliking the search. I just better appreciate the journeys, the interesting locations, the company of others. And challenge caches have added interesting new twists to this activity (for me, anyway). This year, only 41 percent of our finds have been traditionals versus over 85 percent in previous years.

 

One of the best things about geocaching (again, for me) is how much you can shape it to suit your individual preferences, which might vary over time.

Edited by CanadianRockies
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It reminds me an old joke when we were kids... "I want to cut my hair, but I don't want the cut hair". ;)

 

Geocaching is to search.

Finding is just one of the possible outcomes.

 

How many times we had better DNFs than many Finds?

 

PS: Of course, I am assuming that a DNF has only search... while none Found. :)

Edited by Kelux
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I wouldn't go so far as to say "I don't like looking for caches", but I do hear you. There's nothing about "evil micro", "devious hide" that thrills me. When I get to GZ, I want to FIND it, not so much to HUNT it ;-).

To me, the search is the least interesting part of this game.

 

Getting there. Seeing what's there. Having a focus while hiking, kayaking, or biking. Taking a picture. Doing something on occasion with friends. Discovering places. Exploring. Writing a log when there is something about the cache that opens a small stream of consciousness. Visiting places that Aura Raines might find interesting. Viewing caching as a means of preserving our collective memories or learning about history. Letting the game take me places or allowing me to record places where I have been. Virtuals. Earthcaches. Well crafted letterboxes with room in the logbook to use my stamp. Wherigos. An ammo can in the woods. Did I mention getting there, particularly by kayak, and taking a picture?

 

+1

 

I like geocaching because it takes me places; it takes me places I might not otherwise go, shows me things I might not otherwise see, teaches me things I might not otherwise learn. The cache itself is a waypoint.

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I wouldn't go so far as to say "I don't like looking for caches", but I do hear you. There's nothing about "evil micro", "devious hide" that thrills me. When I get to GZ, I want to FIND it, not so much to HUNT it ;-).

To me, the search is the least interesting part of this game.

 

Getting there. Seeing what's there. Having a focus while hiking, kayaking, or biking. Taking a picture. Doing something on occasion with friends. Discovering places. Exploring. Writing a log when there is something about the cache that opens a small stream of consciousness. Visiting places that Aura Raines might find interesting. Viewing caching as a means of preserving our collective memories or learning about history. Letting the game take me places or allowing me to record places where I have been. Virtuals. Earthcaches. Well crafted letterboxes with room in the logbook to use my stamp. Wherigos. An ammo can in the woods. Did I mention getting there, particularly by kayak, and taking a picture?

 

+1

 

I like geocaching because it takes me places; it takes me places I might not otherwise go, shows me things I might not otherwise see, teaches me things I might not otherwise learn. The cache itself is a waypoint.

 

Wow - I am glad to read the above statements, which sum up my own feelings pretty well! I've only got a couple months at the game, and I've wondered if I were somewhat of a geo-misfit for not feeling overly enthused about the "search" in & of itself. Caches in the middle of town, or micros, or "evil" caches that are exceedingly difficult to find have no appeal to me whatsoever - I want to be out in nature, see some beautiful new spot, hike a great trail, maybe learn something new, spot some wildlife, etc. and spend some time at the location just enjoying *being* there - not simply dash in, grab the cache & then run down the highway to the next cache.

 

I know I'm limiting my geocaching a lot because of being "picky" about which caches I want to look for but so be it. I'm loving the game as I play it, I'm loving the hikes for caches that I do go for & look forward to discovering more nature preserves, little-known parks or woods, etc because of geocaching. I wish I'd gotten involved years ago, when ammo cans in the woods were the mainstay of geocaching - I love the bigger caches! I enjoy all the aspects mentioned above, and love trying to leave some nice swag for the next person too! I was leaving little handmade crochet stuffed animals initially (I need to make more!!) & I got a huge "warm fuzzy" when I read a later log where the finder specifically mentioned getting one of my critters & how much she liked it!! :) :)

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for me... I love seeing places since I do travel overseas...however, finding a cache in a high muggle area while overseas is NOT fun. Especially when the coordinates is really off. Being the only white guy and touching everything while searching does raise a lot of red flags. Those really good hints and spoiler pics are a big help for those that are the "wrong" color.

 

In USA, searching for caches isnt so bad in most places.

 

Finding the cache is one thing, but the searching part is where the trouble happens. <_<

 

However, when I am with someone thats from the country I am visiting, its alot easier. People dont look at me as much. <_<

 

In USA... some of those caches in poor black area of the cities does make me very uncomfortable. I have people in those area really watch me very close and even ask what I am doing in their HOOD! :blink: :blink: :blink: :blink: :blink: In other words, I am the wrong color in their "area"...

Edited by SwineFlew
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Self licking ice-cream, you want it but can't be bothered with it. So just give it up!

Well... I had gave up a lot when I get very uncomfortable. And try again at a better timing and once in a great while, never come back in that area. Sometime when you are traveling a lot, you dont always know the given area until you are there.

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There is a part of the OP's statement I can understand. The other day, I found a small magnetic cache on the side of a grocery store, it took about 30 seconds to find it. As I am walking back to my truck to get a pen (I parked within 20 feet of the cache so didn't bring my pen), a guy jumps out of his car and yells at me "You're scaring my wife!" So I ask him what I did to scare his wife. He said, "You're sneaking around the side of the store" and I said, "It's one o'clock in the afternoon, I am not sneaking at all". So the part I don't like is the fact that doing caching makes us look like we are up to no good. That is why I carry two Road Crew Vests to put on and I bring much less suspicion. So there is that aspect.

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Is anyone with me here? I don't like looking for geocaches.

These days, I'm pretty much in agreement with you. But that wasn't always the case.

 

When I first started geocaching, I loved searching for caches. It was fun trying to get inside the hider's head and figuring out where they might have put the cache. The more evil, the better. I would put off looking at the hint for a long time. The wonderful Eureka! moment of finding the cache more than offset any search frustrations as I greatly appreciated the sheer genius of some of my fellow geocachers. I was thrilled at discovering my first LPC and laughed at myself for DNFing several before it. In the beginning, I generally avoided caching with others because I didn't want them spoiling the experience (even with Huckle-Buckle).

 

With time, the searches started to get stale. I knew where the most likely hiding spots were, and even the unusual ones aren't as hard once you know how to look. As the years went by, people started hiding more and more guardrail caches, LPCs, stop-sign bison tubes, and micros in spruce trees. While looking is often the least favorite part of geocaching for me now, it hasn't yet fallen to the level of disliking the search. I just better appreciate the journeys, the interesting locations, the company of others. And challenge caches have added interesting new twists to this activity (for me, anyway). This year, only 41 percent of our finds have been traditionals versus over 85 percent in previous years.

 

One of the best things about geocaching (again, for me) is how much you can shape it to suit your individual preferences, which might vary over time.

 

Again arises my distinction between 'evil' and 'nasty'. Evil is when I say "Wow!" Nasty is when I say "Why did I bother?" I tend to leave hints that make the find easy (It's my puzzles that are evil!) Don't really want people to wonder why you are feeling up the fence. "Just south of lamp post."

Went looking for a cache yesterday. Thirty-degree slope of boulders. "If you were an ammo can, where would you be hiding?" Almost anywhere! With the coords 30' off, that was just nasty!

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Is anyone with me here? I don't like looking for geocaches. Before you say "then why are you a geocacher?" I'll point out some of the things I do like about geocaching:

Finding caches!

Hiding caches.

Reading the logs others have written (when they've put some decent effort into the log)

Planning the caching excursion, the route, researching the caches

Hiking or cruising around with a friend (or several friends) talking, laughing, or just admiring the scenery

working the puzzles (sometimes)

Solving the puzzles!

 

So there are lots of things to like about geocaching but I've never understood why people seem to enjoy actually looking for them. I find that tedious, boring, and often frustrating. Sometimes it's even dangerous or painful. I've had poison oak too many times to mention. Talk about misery. If I had my way every cache would come with a spoiler and I'd read it long before I ever got to the cache.

 

I totally agree with everything you have said, I really have zero interest in difficult to find micro caches and no it has nothing to do with the "numbers" game as others are suggesting. Yes I detest those that don't provide hints and appreciate the "spoilers" in the logs.

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Again arises my distinction between 'evil' and 'nasty'. Evil is when I say "Wow!" Nasty is when I say "Why did I bother?"
I've heard the distinction made between "good evil" and "bad evil", but of course, different people draw the line at different places. For me, a "bad evil" cache is something like a needle-in-a-haystack hide. Anyone can hide a fake rock in a pile of rocks.

 

In contrast, a "good evil" cache requires a little more thought. My favorite "good evil" caches are the ones where there is no haystack, where I've searched "everywhere" it could possibly be in 5-10 minutes, and then I have to figure out where and how it could possibly be hidden.

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If I had my way every cache would come with a spoiler and I'd read it long before I ever got to the cache.

I'm with you up until this last part. I prefer to find caches under my own power. But if I have to look for more than five minutes, I'll take hints. (And I mean useful ones, not "No hint needed" or "Where would you hide it?" Easy for you to say, person who knew where the cache was before writing the hint.)

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For me, geocaching has always been an excuse to walk some place different every time. The more I geocache, the more often, when I have trouble with a search, that "a good walk spoiled" line comes to mind. If you've done any of the new Word puzzle caches over in Fremont, you'll know why I think they're the best hides ever.

 

Yep, +1. I do it for the adventure attached to the process. If it was strictly the cache "finding" part, I'd have quit long ago due to boredom.

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I'll take an obvious ammo can under a pile of sticks over a devious nano any day.

 

Where is the fun in "finding" something you can see from a mile away?

I like caches that are hidden from the view of muggles, not from the view of cachers. The fun lies in every other aspect of the hunt. YMMV.

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I'll take an obvious ammo can under a pile of sticks over a devious nano any day.

 

Where is the fun in "finding" something you can see from a mile away?

 

If I could see it from a mile away I don't think it would be fun, but if other people enjoy looking for houses and phone towers and things that's cool.

 

Spotting a cache quickly once I get within a few metres is plenty of fun for me. I enjoy being outside and exploring more than I enjoy looking in a tiny space for a tiny thing.

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I too agree with The Rat in general - and many other posts in this thread.

 

Most of the time, for me the most fun is getting there. So it is the walk, and the crawl into the cave (for example - whatever it takes to get to the cache).

Once I am at GZ, I want to find the cache as quickly as I can. Not for numbers, but because that is the least fun part for me (generally). I don't want to spend an hour looking.

 

The exception is the difficult but clever cache. The ones in plain sight but I'm fooled and can't see it. I enjoy the challenge of those.

 

But if it is a "needle in a haystack"... not so much.

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Where is the fun in "finding" something you can see from a mile away?

That's good question. For me, the fun is in the trip to get there. It doesn't matter whether it's a hike through the forest or a walk around a neighborhood to pick up what other people would do as park&grabs.

 

The exception is the difficult but clever cache. The ones in plain sight but I'm fooled and can't see it. I enjoy the challenge of those.

OK, so I admit I appreciate the artistry of a clever hide, and I really want to encourage people to continue hiding them. So it makes me sad that when I don't find them right away and get annoyed about spending time searching for them. I freely grant that it's not their fault, it's just my problem.

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I love everything about geocaching, except for the finding part. I'm certainly not in it for the numbers, my piddly numbers speak to that. I get very frustrated if I can't find a cache right away. If I'm caching with someone else, I let them do most of the searching while I tend to take pictures. But caching is such an integral part of my life that I couldn't imagine what life would be without it.

 

I guess it's just a personality quirk. I can get quite vocal and emotional at cache finds that go bad. Lol. My worst experience was caching up by the Hollywood sign. I was on a long road trip, had a long hot hike up to it, was not feeling good physically at all, and that darn cache wouldn't show up after crawling around under pokey bushes for a while. I just sat down under a tree and cried. :rolleyes: But overall, I would still count that day as a good one. What a weirdo. :laughing:

 

This could have been written by me. I use caching to bring me someplace that I think needs the front side of my camera pointed at it. Finding the cache is secondary or even tertiary.

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Where GZ has been conducive to relaxed searching and the hide is a clever one I've been known to hunt for the cache for up to an hour - and even go back several times until I've finally nailed it.

 

Under the right conditions I enjoy the hunt.

 

Send me to a GZ where I'm constantly looking over my shoulder to see who might be watching me or a GZ that's a mass of thorns / rubbish / broken glass or an otherwise pointless location and the likelihood I'll just carry on walking is significantly higher.

 

If it's all about the journey and the location, why bother to look for the cache at all?

 

If it's about recording your experiences you could always just log a DNF - or even a note.

 

If you don't like looking for caches - you don't have to :huh:

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If I had my way every cache would come with a spoiler and I'd read it long before I ever got to the cache.

I'm with you up until this last part. I prefer to find caches under my own power. But if I have to look for more than five minutes, I'll take hints. (And I mean useful ones, not "No hint needed" or "Where would you hide it?" Easy for you to say, person who knew where the cache was before writing the hint.)

 

"Where would you hide it?"

 

I've already looked there, with no luck, and the other two (to me) obvious places... That's why I've looked at the clue.

 

And now there are people looking at me, as if I'm a suspicious person up to no good... :unsure:

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I'll take an obvious ammo can under a pile of sticks over a devious nano any day.

 

Where is the fun in "finding" something you can see from a mile away?

 

The adventure. Ammo cans and other regular sized containers tend to be off the beaten path. Micros (nanos included) tend to be in strip malls and big box store parking lots. Actually I can usually find a micro far quicker than I can find a regular sized cache. Micros are usually either magnetic, meaning they will be on the sign or guardrail, or in the knothole of a tree while a regular sized cache can very difficult to find, especially in the rocky terrain of the northeast. I've seen ammo cans with high DNF rates. Here is a large ammo box with close to a 50 percent DNF rate.

 

For me it's more about the adventure of getting there. Hiking a half mile or two or three, crossing streams, swamps, negotiating brush and other difficulties is far more satisfying (even if the location is evident when I arrive), than the most devious micro behind the 7-Eleven.

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I have some sympathy for the OP's opinion. I really don't care for a lot of extensive searching when expecting a "normal" cache.

 

I think that if the cache is clearly designed to be very well-hidden (but fair) then I don't mind spending considerable time looking for it, but it's when it's meant to be reasonably easy to find there should be a giveaway hint or spoiler too.

 

Probably the worst part of the game is grovelling about in soggy undergrowth, getting scratched and stung, when the only hint available is useless ("in the corner of the field" - yes, GPS told me that already - or annoying "no hint needed" - let me be the judge of that!). Particularly when you start to suspect that the cache has gone, but nothing in the description helps make you sure.

 

And perhaps there should be an attribute for "needle in haystack" hides. It's not fun if you're on your own and you realise that you're faced with a 100 square metre area to search with 1000 hiding places and you don't even know what type of container you are searching for. The CO would doubtless argue that it's difficulty 4 because of this but he should warn that it's also fun factor 1.

 

A good walk spoilt indeed.

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And perhaps there should be an attribute for "needle in haystack" hides.
That could be interesting, but what about caches that might or might not be a "needle in a haystack", depending how you approach them? I've found caches that could have been a "needle in a haystack", but which were much easier when the right TOTT was used. For example, if you know that the container is held to the camouflage with a magnet, then you can use a TOTT to search for the magnet.
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I solved a series of 4 puzzle caches and was really looking forward to finding them as I could see it was a walk from a village up into the hills along an old path with massive trees either side. Surely all sorts of forks and clefts to hide decent containers in? But all four were micros under bushes or rotting logs, and no hints. Detracted significantly from the enjoyment - conversely, I do like a "Yes, I'd've hidden it there too" moment.

Edited by Oxford Stone
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Is anyone with me here? I don't like looking for geocaches.

 

Sometimes (I'm with you), but not usually. I love the hunt.

 

Finding caches!

Hiding caches.

Reading the logs others have written (when they've put some decent effort into the log)

Planning the caching excursion, the route, researching the caches

Hiking or cruising around with a friend (or several friends) talking, laughing, or just admiring the scenery

working the puzzles (sometimes)

Solving the puzzles!

I'm totally with you here. Writing and posting the logs too. Found Its, DNFs and Notes - I love 'em all. I bet you meant to have this on your list too.

 

I find that tedious, boring, and often frustrating. Sometimes it's even dangerous or painful. I've had poison oak too many times to mention. Talk about misery.

When we lived in Northern California I traveled with poison oak clothes or, at least, a second set, because I had to get into it almost every full-day geocaching trip. I loved the challenge and somehow never got the rash.

 

But there are searches I don't particularly care for as others have mentioned. Needle in the haystack for no logical reason: Ivy hides, pokey juniper plantings, hedges and the like.

 

With lame hides I often hear myself grumbling but I can't say that I don't like looking for caches, especially if you mean that you don't like looking for all caches in general.

 

Nope. I still love this game. :D

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I'm with you. I'm not in it for the numbers, but I do like to geocache to go to some interesting areas and see some interesting things that the GC brought me to. I personally have no fun standing around staring for an hour and/or scraping everything in sight with my hand, just to claim a find. That's why I finally limited my search time down -- originally to 20 minutes, but now to 10. If the area isn't worth spending more than 10 minutes in, then I'm not going to spend any more time looking for a lousy cache!

 

I have no problem saying that I only look for easy-to-find geocaches because, again, I am in it for the experience of getting there and seeing the area that someone thought was cool enough to see that they went through the trouble of hiding the GC there. (One look at my statistics will tell you I'm not in it for the numbers.)

 

There are difficult-to-find GCs in interesting areas (I don't care about the cache then, just the area), as well as easy-to-find GCs in lousy areas (unfortunately which, I probably won't know that until I've been there, unless the logs state that); as well as everything else in between. I am definitely not a fan of caches that were placed in a lousy area but made difficult to make them "interesting". Bah humbug. Area is more important to me. It's a matter of choice.

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Where is the fun in "finding" something you can see from a mile away?

I like caches that are hidden from the view of muggles, not from the view of cachers. The fun lies in every other aspect of the hunt. YMMV.

Well said!

 

I get my fun by whatever goal I set when I go out caching. If it's for casual hiking and finding, I don't mind DNFs. If I have a goal with targets, and I feel time/effort was wasted not due to my own inability but an avoidable issue with the cache, then enjoyment drops. Quickly.

I kick myself if I search for 30 minutes only to find it the last second and it was ridiculously easy but somehow I missed it. That's a bittersweet success. Enjoyable and not at the same time.

 

Most enjoyable? 1) Being taken to a very very cool place, the journey and adventure; then walking away with a DNF doesn't matter, 2) Successfully finding a target cache of high value (solving a tough brain puzzle, or spotting the camouflage, or doing that crazy high terrain) though sometime just accomplishing a physical task even ending in a DNF is still enjoyable, 3) Successfully accomplishing personal goals and challenges

 

Least enjoyable? 1) Wasted time/money/effort, 2) High hopes/expectations being dashed (eg, sky-high favourite count for something fairly run of the mill?), 3) when past finders keep noting in logs how inaccurate the coordinates are but never provide their own readings (or owners don't make any attempt to sharpen their coordinates) :P

Oh and of course, hint: "no hint needed" (when you can't find it) *grrr*

Or sets of caches where all descriptions are identical and completely irrelevant to the hide. *fistshake*

 

I think it's really just about your own expectations while caching. It can be easy to get annoyed and frustrated; so lower expectations, or go out for different reasons. :)

 

I'd gladly walk a mile to find an ammo can. I can't say the same for a nano cache.

For me, depends through what I walk through, or where the nano is located :) I'll happily hike miles to find a nano at the top of a mountain or cliff for instance. Or climb 100 feet up a tree for a(n easily spotted) nano/micro. Moar treeclimbs! :lol:

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I'll take an obvious ammo can under a pile of sticks over a devious nano any day.
All else being equal, I'll take a devious anything over an obvious anything any day.

Would you take a devious something billed as an obvious something? For instance a micro hidden in a hedge with Difficulty 1 and "no hint needed"? To me they're the most frustrating.

 

My definition of a quality cache is that it is hidden exactly as you are led to expect (which doesn't necessarily mean that it's easy). If you don't enjoy it then it's your fault for attempting it. The annoying ones are those that you wouldn't have bothered with had you been told what to expect.

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