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Year of the Hide


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From the latest Blog article:

 

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We realize it’s not always easy to decide if a cache has reached the end of its lifespan. For instance, many caches from the early 2000s are going strong (and provide fun opportunities to complete the Jasmer Challenge). Just because a cache is older or rarely found doesn’t necessarily mean it should be archived. But there might be one you own that most local geocachers have already found and the location is not frequented by tourists. It could be time to archive it and free up the area, or you might consider creating a new and improved cache!

 

To my way of thinking, a cache has reached the end of its lifespan when it's no longer viable and either the owner has left the game or doesn't want to continue maintaining it. Any cache that's in good condition is going to be a fresh experience for newcomers to the game and visitors to the area regardless of how old it is. When I started caching in 2013, many of the most enjoyable caches were the older ones as they were not only in interesting places to visit, they also had lots of history in their logs.

 

My experience locally is that it's rare for a new cache to appear when an older one has been archived. Of the eight caches of mine I've archived, none has had a new cache appear within 161 metres of the original. Most of the time around here, when a cache is archived by either its owner or a reviewer, it just becomes another empty spot on the map.

 

Out of curiosity, I went through all my active hides to see how many finds they've had in the past year. The average is 6.6 but the highest, 23, was on a cache I adopted that was created in 2005. In fact across all my caches, there's no significant correlation between the age of the cache and the number of finds in the past year. Three of those caches, hidden in 2016 and 2017, had no finds at all in the past year and one of those (GC6FQN8) was last found in 2019. That cache is still its original container and logbook so maintaining it isn't a burden at all, and the waterfalls are still there waiting to be discovered by new players and visitors, but would older players who've already done it really want to revisit those falls? In late 2020, an old (2009) cache at Ironbark Creek falls was archived by its owner as he was no longer in the area and couldn't maintain it, so I placed a new one there as part of my Chasing Waterfalls series. It's now had 17 finds but most of those are by visitors from outside the region who never found the original cache. By and large, the locals who'd found the old cache haven't been interested in the new one, I guess because they've already seen the falls so going back wouldn't be a new experience.

 

But maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. For me, one of the great attractions of caching is finding new places I'd never have known about were it not for the cache, but I guess in the wider world the game is much more about accumulating smileys, filling grids and extending streaks. By and large, people don't do a car park cache for the location, they do it for the smiley. For those sorts of caches, regularly recycling and refreshing them is probably a good thing even though it's not something I'd find appealing.

 

On the other hand, I mentioned in the Goals thread that a traditional near home had recently been archived by its owner after the container was destroyed in a hazard reduction burn. It was the one and only cache on the headland above Phegans Bay and its owner messaged me to suggest I might want to put something new there.

 

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It's not a place I've particularly coveted as I already have caches around here offering a similar view and others with similar caves, but I do think it's a location that deserves a cache and it'd be a shame to see it sit devoid of one. One thing I won't do though is put a traditional in the same or similar hiding spot to the original cache, rather what I'm thinking is a multi taking in the site's variety of features with a good-sized themed container at GZ. I'd be just as happy though, maybe even more happy, if someone else came along and put something there, although that's pretty unlikely as the only other player who's regularly placing caches down this end of the Central Coast only does urban hides.

 

So it'll be interesting to see what they come up with in their Year of the Hide and whether the emphasis is on caches that bring you to a new location or locations that bring you to a new cache.

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10 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

To my way of thinking, a cache has reached the end of its lifespan when it's no longer viable and either the owner has left the game or doesn't want to continue maintaining it. Any cache that's in good condition is going to be a fresh experience for newcomers to the game and visitors to the area regardless of how old it is. When I started caching in 2013, many of the most enjoyable caches were the older ones as they were not only in interesting places to visit, they also had lots of history in their logs.

<snip>

But maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. For me, one of the great attractions of caching is finding new places I'd never have known about were it not for the cache, but I guess in the wider world the game is much more about accumulating smileys, filling grids and extending streaks. By and large, people don't do a car park cache for the location, they do it for the smiley. For those sorts of caches, regularly recycling and refreshing them is probably a good thing even though it's not something I'd find appealing.

^This, 1000 times ^this

Geocaching is a pastime which is IMHO by definition restricted by locations and caches should accumulate a history of logs. Deal with it!

Archiving caches just because the majority of close by living cachers have found it and generating only new GC-Numbers in place is absolutely against my idea of geocaching.

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As a newcomer to this game, I’ve rediscovered the thrill of the find and recently discovered the thrill of the hide. So far, I only own two, but I have a handful of new ones in the making.

 

12 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

 

 

 

 

But maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way. For me, one of the great attractions of caching is finding new places I'd never have known about were it not for the cache, but I guess in the wider world the game is much more about accumulating smileys, filling grids and extending streaks. By and large, people don't do a car park cache for the location, they do it for the smiley. For those sorts of caches, regularly recycling and refreshing them is probably a good thing even though it's not something I'd find appealing.

My idea of geocaching mostly goes along those same lines, but for me there is also another side to this. Exploring and discovering new places is the greatest reward I get from the game, and with this in mind my emphasis would totally be on chaches that bring me to new places. But exploring new places is something that I only manage to do on holydays or the occasional weekend. I do, however, enjoy playing it all year.

I joined in 2008, but never really got to it, came back in July 2021, so there are still a lot of caches for me to find in my area, but thinking of those who have nothing new to find near their areas, reviving an archived cache will give them something new to find on those times when your life does not allow you to go caching far from home.

One of my caches was placed on a spot where an archived cache used to exist. In this case, for most people, there would be no new place to find, right? So, I thought: let’s make it a new experience to have. Don’t just drop a medicine bottle on the ground, make it something fun, or something challenging, something that will be worth the visit even for those who have already been there. This is the sort of thing that, to me, makes it also important to have the same place bring you to a new cache.

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19 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

My experience locally is that it's rare for a new cache to appear when an older one has been archived. Of the eight caches of mine I've archived, none has had a new cache appear within 161 metres of the original. Most of the time around here, when a cache is archived by either its owner or a reviewer, it just becomes another empty spot on the map.

 

I had a GeoArt along the Hudson River Walkway in New Jersey, with views across the Hudson River to New York City.  It was a popular series with a lot of favorite points.  Most of the cachers love the walkway and the views.  Six years after I had to archive them, there have been  no new caches hidden there. 

This was the most popular one.

2 Dolphin.jpg

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20 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

My experience locally is that it's rare for a new cache to appear when an older one has been archived.

 

Just to play devils' advocate for a bit, I'd keep in mind that the blog post (and GeoCaching HQ in general) operate on the basis of what they know. And places around GC HQ would be quite saturated, and a lot of the complaints they would see would be of the "there are too many old caches here, can I put caches less than 0.1 miles apart" variety. I don't think this post is aimed at caches that fit all the other criteria they mention but are also miles out into the scenic outback bushland. Similar story up here in Darwin - lots of old, poorly maintained caches but the saturation is so low you could add thousands of caches to the map within the city limits and still have space for more.

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1 minute ago, Darwin473 said:

Similar story up here in Darwin - lots of old, poorly maintained caches but the saturation is so low you could add thousands of caches to the map within the city limits and still have space for more.

 

Yeah, I just posted this screenshot in another thread in the Off Topic forum but this is the cache saturation level in my own little urban area:

 

CacheSaturation.jpg.229d19d12af26a005a47c643a1e05b03.jpg

 

There used to be a lot more caches around here but most got archived.

 

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Hadn't read that blog post, and I must say I'm surprised. I think it somewhat goes against the hiding guidelines where it's said that "When you go to hide a geocache, think of the reason you are bringing people to that spot. If the only reason is for the geocache, then find a better spot." and "Hide your cache to have a long life".

 

I haven't seen a "2021 year in review" blog post yet, in last year's review it was stated that 434,439 caches were hidden during 2020. Maybe that figure went down in 2021? This new blog post may be an attempt to get better numbers in 2022...

 

I have recently found a couple of caches from the early 2000s. In this case the orignal CO has passed away but the surviving caches have all been adopted by others. Many of these caches would probably not be permitted today, due to stricter placement and permission rules or new natural reserves and such. If they were archived, many interesting places would no longer host a geocache.

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Hearing or reading the word "hide" used as a noun to describe a hidden geocache hurts my ears.  But I guess that's a thing now.  A new geocaching-ism.

 

"How many hides do you have?"

"How many caches have I hidden?"

 

Those of you who geocache but use a different language as your primary (or your environment is such that English isn't the primary language) - what do you call geocaches?  Do you have a "hide" slang too?

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10 minutes ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

Those of you who geocache but use a different language as your primary (or your environment is such that English isn't the primary language) - what do you call geocaches?  Do you have a "hide" slang too?

In Swedish it is sometimes called "gömma", which is kind of the same thing. "To hide" would be "att gömma" in Swedish. But this noun is not entirely exclusive to geocaching.

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Thanks for bringing up this Blog post, barefootjeff. The title of 'The Logbook' article caught my attention, but as I read on my reaction became more neutral. In my immediate urbanized area (SW Connecticut, USA) there are no parks that don't have a micro hidden in them already. I have to go 10+ miles (16 km) to find spots where I can plant a new container. Do I secretly wish some of the closer ones would be retired so I can get a new one in? For sure. Do I think the owners of those caches should retire them because they have been out for some time even while they are still getting Found It logs? Absolutely not. In one case there was a historical park that I do volunteer work for (keys to the facility and everything) that had a micro - I messaged the owner asking if he would consider retiring it so I could build a themed replacement container. He politely said no, so that was the end of story. He got there first, is still an active player, so dibs for the .10 mile radius are his. So long as the player is active and it is being logged (regardless of how often), and there are no outstanding NM alerts, players should not be guilted into archiving their active hides.

I did, however, set up a Notification I call 'Vulture' to watch for local openings. I ain't proud. 😉

 

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12 minutes ago, Lostboy1966 said:

 

I did, however, set up a Notification I call 'Vulture' to watch for local openings. I ain't proud. 😉

 

capture.jpg

I suspect there are some armchair loggers out there that have a similar notification set up - athough not always that local. It is not unusual to see a few online logs pop up just when it appears that the logbook has gone missing. When a cache I went after proved to be missing - confirmed by the CO - there was suddenly an online log claiming that someone found it in 2015! Hard to check that now...

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1 hour ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

Hearing or reading the word "hide" used as a noun to describe a hidden geocache hurts my ears.

It is not as painful to my Swedish ears. But isn't there a need for a short, snappy noun for this purpose?

 

"I have hidden ten geocaches" - a bit too long
"I have hidden ten" - but only five of them were geocaches
"I have ten hidden" - and another five left out in the open

 

Besides, "Year of the Hidden Geocache" would be a silly title for a blog post. Maybe hidee? As in employer/employee? :)

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4 hours ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

Hearing or reading the word "hide" used as a noun to describe a hidden geocache hurts my ears.  But I guess that's a thing now.  A new geocaching-ism.

 

"How many hides do you have?"

"How many caches have I hidden?"

 

Those of you who geocache but use a different language as your primary (or your environment is such that English isn't the primary language) - what do you call geocaches?  Do you have a "hide" slang too?

I've been a Member since 2005, and have always used the word 'Hide' as a descriptive (noun) for a container.

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We've nouned "hide" for so long, it sounds perfectly natural to this hardened cacher's ears.

 

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Look to Canada for one great example, the annual Vancouver Island Hide and Go Cache (HAG).

 

But you still can't convince me that "cache" is anything but a tangible object.  Geology lessons, tasks, gatherings, please, that's gaslighting.

 

Edited by Viajero Perdido
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On 1/5/2022 at 11:06 PM, GeoElmo6000 said:

Those of you who geocache but use a different language as your primary (or your environment is such that English isn't the primary language) - what do you call geocaches?  Do you have a "hide" slang too?

My native language is German, and the local community does not have a simple noun to mean "hidden geocache". When someone, who has hidden 10 caches, wants to tell that, they would probably use phrases like "Ich habe 10 eigene Caches" (lit. "I have 10 own caches", maybe better translated as "I own 10 caches") or "Ich habe 10 Caches versteckt/gelegt" ("I have hidden/placed 10 caches"). The literal translation of the noun "hide" in German would be "Versteck", but I have never heard anyone say "Ich habe 10 Verstecke". Also, even though many English words are often used untranslated in German geocacher circles, "hide" is not one of them.

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On 1/5/2022 at 5:06 PM, GeoElmo6000 said:

Hearing or reading the word "hide" used as a noun to describe a hidden geocache hurts my ears.  But I guess that's a thing now.  A new geocaching-ism.

 

"How many hides do you have?"

"How many caches have I hidden?"

 

Those of you who geocache but use a different language as your primary (or your environment is such that English isn't the primary language) - what do you call geocaches?  Do you have a "hide" slang too?

 

What about "Find"? "How many finds do you have?" is pretty much identical grammatically to "Hide" as a noun. Well, it is. :P  Hide is just the owner's version of Find.  But I'm with you when people use "Hide" to refer to non-physical geocaches :)

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9 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

 

What about "Find"? "How many finds do you have?" is pretty much identical grammatically to "Hide" as a noun. Well, it is. :P  Hide is just the owner's version of Find.  But I'm with you when people use "Hide" to refer to non-physical geocaches :)

 

"Finds" is the same.  "How many finds do you have?"  "You mean, how many caches have I found?"

 

I admit I use finds more than I should (hypocrite!) :-)

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6 hours ago, GeoElmo6000 said:
16 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

 

What about "Find"? "How many finds do you have?" is pretty much identical grammatically to "Hide" as a noun. Well, it is. :P  Hide is just the owner's version of Find.  But I'm with you when people use "Hide" to refer to non-physical geocaches :)

 

"Finds" is the same.  "How many finds do you have?"  "You mean, how many caches have I found?"

 

lol, that's literally what I just said :)  Using 'finds' as a noun like 'hides'

Nothing new around here...

 

11 minutes ago, kunarion said:

"Geocaching: hide hide and find find."

 

The game where, hiding from muggles, finders find hides hidden by hiders for the finding to become finders' finds!

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On 1/5/2022 at 2:07 PM, Harry Dolphin said:

I had a GeoArt along the Hudson River Walkway in New Jersey, with views across the Hudson River to New York City.  It was a popular series with a lot of favorite points.  Most of the cachers love the walkway and the views.  Six years after I had to archive them, there have been  no new caches hidden there. 

This was the most popular one.

2 Dolphin.jpg

 

Great spot, but I would take one look at this pier and think "great location, but no way I could hide anything on here that wouldn't get muggled quickly, except for something like a nano that I would hate looking for."

 

On 1/5/2022 at 5:06 PM, GeoElmo6000 said:

Hearing or reading the word "hide" used as a noun to describe a hidden geocache hurts my ears.  But I guess that's a thing now.  A new geocaching-ism.

 

"How many hides do you have?"

"How many caches have I hidden?"

 

Those of you who geocache but use a different language as your primary (or your environment is such that English isn't the primary language) - what do you call geocaches?  Do you have a "hide" slang too?

 

I have X Finds and Y Hides. 

 

Better question: is the answer to how many hidden geocaches you have your lifetime total or your current count?

 

 

On 1/6/2022 at 2:15 PM, Viajero Perdido said:

But you still can't convince me that "cache" is anything but a tangible object.  Geology lessons, tasks, gatherings, please, that's gaslighting.

 

A physical geocache must be placed, but they are not necessarily hidden i.e. concealed, despite geo-lingo to the contrary.

 

If Labs, Virtuals, Earthcaches, and Virtuals were spun off into a separate hobby I would probably quit physical geocaching in favorite of geo-virtual-seeking. Assuming the website and app were better than what we have with Waymarking.

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From the original blog post:

 

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When and how to refresh the gameboard is just one of many cache hiding topics we’ll invite you to discuss in 2022. How do you decide when it’s time to say goodbye to your cache?

 

Yesterday I was out doing a post school holidays check on two of my Patonga caches. One was fine, but the other, a multi (GC664DZ), hasn't fared too well in our la Nina summer of almost constant rain and strong winds. The area around the listed coordinates is now almost buried in thorny asparagus weed, with lantana poised to engulf it as well, while the waypoint object, a charred wooden log in a fake campfire, is rotting away although the outer shell bearing the instructions for WP2 remains intact. While the other three waypoints and final are in good condition, the once popular walking track leading to them past a series of waterfalls is becoming difficult and dangerous to traverse due to fallen trees and wash-aways. One of my friends has said he wants to have a go at doing it this weekend, but after that I'll likely archive it as the site is really no longer suitable for a cache like this.

 

However this raises a broader problem, as that cache is number 4 in my Bushranger series and its climax provides a key story element for the later caches. One option, which I'll do anyway, is to provide the cache's storyline reveal in my archival log, but it's prompted me to have a look at how the rest of the series is performing, particularly in light of this Year of the Hide's emphasis on clearing the game board of older and less popular caches. Of the nine caches that form the series' 1850s storyline, only three have had more than five finds in the last two years and one of those was a 2021 replacement for the original number 6 that I had to archive due to frequent muggling. So I'm really wondering whether it's time to put the whole series to bed, even though all the other caches are likely to still be in good condition (I'll do a complete check once we get some drier weather). On the other hand, most finders have just done them as individual caches rather than as a series, so maybe it doesn't matter if the story becomes fragmented.

 

I'm under no delusion that archiving the series will result in new and exciting caches springing up in their place, as there's no-one locally hiding anything in T3+ locations any more, nor is anyone from outside the region likely to want to put a cache here as it will only ever get a handful of finders. It's really a question of whether it's worth maintaining a disjointed series like this for the sake of the one or two finders who might do a couple of them each year, particularly as caches like these that take a bit of time and effort to complete have generally fallen out of favour.

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What's happened to the Year of the Hide? Is it over now? In the Inside Geocaching HQ podcast recorded on the 23rd of February, Rock Chalk said, "There’s gonna be a lot more coming out of that over the next several months, a lot of projects and what have you" but several months have now passed and since then, nothing. Incidently, there haven't been any more podcasts since then either, but I guess that's a different matter.

 

My own attempts at refreshing the game board have been pretty lacklustre. Late last year, a traditional on the headland at Phegans Bay (GC41F6J) was archived by its owner after its container was destroyed in a bushfire hazard reduction burn-off, so I decided to create a new multi there (GC9M6X5), taking in not only the expansive water views that the old cache showcased but also the site's impressive sandstone caves. It was published in mid January and had two finders the next day, both travelling up from Sydney, but in the four months since then it's had only one other find.

 

A couple of months ago, I archived another of my multis (GC664DZ) after the track up past a series of waterfalls to GZ was pretty much obliterated by months of heavy rain. That archival opened up an area of the reserve at the top of the gully, accessed from the main road along the ridgetop, and last week I placed a new traditional there (GC9TW3Y) in a cave with some nice water views. So far it's had one finder, again someone from Sydney, and nobody's put it on their watchlist, so I don't hold out any great hope of a rush of locals going out to this refreshed location. Time will tell I suppose, but so far all I've seen of "refreshing the game board" is new lonely caches because the locals don't want to revisit a location they've already been to, even if it means another smiley for them.

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On 5/22/2022 at 10:18 AM, barefootjeff said:

A couple of months ago, I archived another of my multis (GC664DZ) after the track up past a series of waterfalls to GZ was pretty much obliterated by months of heavy rain. That archival opened up an area of the reserve at the top of the gully, accessed from the main road along the ridgetop, and last week I placed a new traditional there (GC9TW3Y) in a cave with some nice water views. So far it's had one finder, again someone from Sydney, and nobody's put it on their watchlist, so I don't hold out any great hope of a rush of locals going out to this refreshed location. Time will tell I suppose, but so far all I've seen of "refreshing the game board" is new lonely caches because the locals don't want to revisit a location they've already been to, even if it means another smiley for them.

 

I missed the last one. Next time I'm in Patonga!

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