Ramblings of an old timer

[MTBguy]

Hello there. I'm MTBguy, based in Joplin MO. I've been a member since 2001. I found out about Geocaching through a newspaper article, and couldn't wait to buy a Magellan GPS 300 on eBay and get started. I couldn't even drive yet, so I used our dialup internet connection to download and print off the cache page within 40 miles, and took off on my bike. After I found all four caches, I started placing my own.

Fast forward ten years, and I rediscover geocaching through the app that I gladly paid $10 for, and set out to find more. This time there were caches all over town! I just had to walk across the parking lot on lunch with my smart phone to find one. This was great!

Fast forward five more years. Now I have 6 year old son, who loves to go hunting with me. We'll be off hiking, and he'll randomly say "I wonder if there's and geocaches here?" and we'll bring up the app and find one or two nearby. We don't do it very often though, maybe every couple of months or so.

Here's the random rambling part. I apologize if this is beating a dead horse, but I've been inactive in these forums for a decade.

When we plan ahead to go hunting, he'll go find little things of his that he wants to give to someone else in a geocache. We'll go out with a bag full of treasures and hunt for the few nearby. However, most of them now added tiny? What's up with that? Wasn't the point to find a "cache" with stuff in it to trade? Sure, the hunt is fun, but do was the trade. Now they're all tiny capsules with a scrap of paper. They're still fun to find, but when you do I always think "Oh man, another tiny one". My son goes home sad that we didn't get to trade anything.

As I mentioned, we only do this every couple of months or so. Except now I'm expected to pay monthly for something I may only use 4 times a year? Why are only the simplest easiest caches free now? That kills all fun and spontaneous hunts. No more pulling out my phone when wet think about it to go hunting. I'd gladly pay for another $10 app of that's what it takes. I think it's horrible that the paid app will be shut down in September.

It appears that this activity has become enormously popular in the last 15 years, especially with a GPS in everyone's pocket. That has been good, since I no longer have to travel 30 or 40 miles to find a cache. However all the creativity is gone. The challenge of finding a spot to hide an ammo can is gone. Technology has advanced a ton. No more printing out pages and typing on coordinates. However, now we have to pay monthly or annually for something, that we've already paid for.

I can now drive to caches in my air conditioned SUV, but I don't enjoy the outdoors as much and get the exercise I used to by riding my bike.

All this rambling to essentially say, I miss the geocaching of 2001. I guess I'm just nostalgic tonight. It just seems like with every positive improvement, there's a negative impact. It's been a zero sum game.

That's it. No point. Time to go confirm a find on my 14 year old virtual cache.

Have a good night.

Edited May 30, 2016 by MTBguy

[+Viajero Perdido]

Quick reply from phone.

 

Most of the 2-million-plus caches ARE available to a non-premium member IF you're using a non-Groundspeak app; there are many.

[MTBguy]

See, I didn't even know there were any, since I've just had the Groundspeak one for so long. Any recommendations out there for which one to use?

[+Viajero Perdido]

What kind of phone?

 

If Android, see my tagline. (Big learning curve, big payoff.) Apple, can't help ya.

 

PS, the old game of 2001 is still around, hiding inside the much bigger newer one. Takes a bit of effort to find; I search only for terrain=3 minimum.

Edited May 30, 2016 by Viajero Perdido

[MTBguy]

Nexus 6p. I'll check it out. Thanks!

[+lee737]

You don't have to use any app.... you can still party like it's 1999 (or 2001) by printing out sheets and typing in your GPS.

[+narcissa]

The game is what you make of it. The good caches are still out. Sometimes you need to work harder and use the website to hone in on them.

[+ByronForestPreserve]

You might try a few filters in the search for caches if you haven't yet. Sort for traditionals and sort out micros and unknowns. Then try clicking on the top categories to sort the list of results, for example last found (so you know it's there), or by favorite points. That should give you several that you might think of as destination caches, as in you head out to look for one or two and then use the app during the trip to find any others that happen to be around it. Those might be micros, but you'll be able to trade swag at least once each outing.

[+NanCycle]

Except now I'm expected to pay monthly for something I may only use 4 times a year?

 

I'm puzzled here. What are you paying for monthly, except the smartphone plan that you have regardless of geocaching? The apps (AFAIK) are either free or one-time purchases. Are you referring to a premium membership? If you only don't expect to use it more than a few times a year, you probably don't need it--anyway $30 a year is peanuts compared to a smartphone data plan.

 

Edited to fix a sentence that I changed in midstream.

Edited May 30, 2016 by NanCycle

[MTBguy]

Yes, I see that now. I've been in and out of it so infrequently throughout the years that I had no idea until today that there were other apps besides the official one. Thanks for informing me again.

[MTBguy]

And good idea sorting them and hunting for the good ones. There may still be just as few of those as there used to be, and that's ok.

[+cerberus1]

And good idea sorting them and hunting for the good ones. There may still be just as few of those as there used to be, and that's ok.

There are still plenty of caches to find large enough for trading, if simply using the site and a GPSr.

Takes a bit more time, just look on the map and find a spot off the road.

- Though I'm not the only one who has seen "trading" degraded to taking, emptying the container over time.

[+NanCycle]

Asked a question already answered.

Edited May 30, 2016 by NanCycle

[+digimuzik]

I'm always looking for creative ways to filter out poor caches. edexter had some great suggestions over here: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=336343&view=findpost&p=5583394, including finding some caches you really like and then looking for other caches by the same owner, or looking at that owner's lists of favorites.

[+dprovan]

Yes, caching is mostly about the search these days. Most people get bored with trading pretty quick and stop doing it. I know I did, and I have to admit, I don't miss it at all.

 

But, having said that, from what you're describing, I wouldn't be surprised if there were 40, or maybe even 400, reasonable sized caches within 40 miles of you, so I'd think you'd like that a lot better than the 4 you had in 2001. You seem to really enjoy being able to find a couple caches in the immediate area whenever you look, so surely you wouldn't want that to go back to the 2001 situation where the nearest cache was typically 20 miles away, would you?

[+hzoi]

I try to avoid micro caches. I'll be a happy guy when I can finally have more small or regular finds than micros. If you look at the size and other attributes before hunting, it can help you better decide whether it's worth you and your son looking for it. Or it will at least warn you ahead of time that, yup, it's another log-only micro.