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Cache Trash Protocol


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We visited a cache today with an amazing amount of crap in it. What is the protocol for "filtering" out someone elses cache? For an example: a non-lighting pen light, a melted candle, a couple of really goofy (and obviously well used) rubber balls, a pack of gum with no contents, a set of personal headphones (god-only-knows, who's ears they've been plugged into), an open pack of tissues, and a lot more, etc.! What would the seasoned Geocacher do????

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quote:
Originally posted by Shylock & Fiona:

What would the seasoned Geocacher do????


You might want to check out this thread.

 

If it was my cache, I would weed out what I considered to be truly crap. Of course, this is a judgement call on my part. If it was someone else's cache that I was visiting, I would leave everything as it was and let the owner decide, except that I would "trade out" any food and matches or other inflammables. Invariably I take a photo of the cache contents and post it with my found logs, so the cache owner gets the chance to see what I saw. Cheers ...

 

~Rich in NEPA~

 

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=== A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ===

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Let me throw out another angle on this topic.

 

What if you visit a cache, and you are only the second or third cacher to find it, and it looks like it was pretty sparce on the contents right from the start? This happened to me over the weekend, the container was under a pile of rocks about 30 feet from the side of the road, it contained 5 items, 3 of which looked as if they had been sucked on by an infant and dropped on the ground a few too many times. The other 2 items looked like someone cleaned out the drawers in their bathroom old bathbeads that hadn't seen the light of day in about 4 or 5 years.

I logged it as TNLN, but I know some first time cacher would find this and be very disappointed.

 

Lost? I'm not lost. At least I don't think I'm lost, well............OK, maybe just a little.

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I've seen a couple of forums that refer to geo-trash, and I'm sure there are plenty of them out there that i haven't seen. I've seen things that are obviously junk--lots of pens and pencils, fast food toys, etc. but I'd have to agree with the general sentiment in that it's a judgement call whether or not to remove geo-trash, and the cache owner should be informed. The cache owners are supposed to see the logs for their caches as they are posted--I've had a couple of cases where I've complained about Glad-Ware and the like cache containers falling apart, and they were replaced with something more substantial by either the cache owner or the next cache hunter. Happy cachin'!!! 15T

 

www.1800goguard.com

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quote:
Originally posted by Shylock & Fiona:

What would the seasoned Geocacher do????


 

I'm no seasoned cacher but I have came across some "weak" caches before & if they're in need of "usable" items I try to leave a few extra out of my bag hopeing that my interpretation of "useable" is the same as most other folks. After all, the owner is not the one getting cheated, it's the next visitor.

I know where you're coming from as I have saw some pretty strange stuff in caches but then one man's trash is another mans treasure.[icon_biggrin.gif]or so I've heard.

 

Sometimes it is tempting to just dump it out & start all over isn't it?

icon_wink.gif

 

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

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quote:
Originally posted by Shylock & Fiona:

What would the seasoned Geocacher do????


 

I'm no seasoned cacher but I have came across some "weak" caches before & if they're in need of "usable" items I try to leave a few extra out of my bag hopeing that my interpretation of "useable" is the same as most other folks. After all, the owner is not the one getting cheated, it's the next visitor.

I know where you're coming from as I have saw some pretty strange stuff in caches but then one man's trash is another mans treasure.[:rolleyes:]or so I've heard.

 

Sometimes it is tempting to just dump it out & start all over isn't it?

icon_wink.gif

 

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

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I really like Rich's idea of taking a photo and posting it with the log. Placer gets to see the condition of the cache; finder makes a point.

 

"One man's trash is another man's treasure" notwithstanding, and with geo-trash hard to define, I think most people know it when they see it.

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What I've done a few times is to TRADE for the garbage. I figure as long as I leave something that's worth more than what I took, it's a perfectly reasonable solution to the problem. How much do you really need to leave to have it be "worth" more than "a non-lighting pen light, a melted candle, a couple of really goofy (and obviously well used) rubber balls, a pack of gum with no contents, a set of personal headphones (god-only-knows, who's ears they've been plugged into), an open pack of tissues?"

 

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I have found only one cache like that, It was this weekend, an I pulled out some stuff from my cache goodie bag(all usefull stuff) and replenished the cache a bit. Hopefully others will add to caches like that.

 

Took food, chewed McToys, soaken notepads, donated placitc ziploc's for the logbook and the whole rest of the cache box(gallon bag for that) Left usefull goodies, maybe not all would agree...(toy cars2, colored pencils, new bug spray, gemstone, small coloring book, and a can of wd40)

 

I do like the picture idea.

 

Now where did I set my GPS???

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What a great solution. Duh! Thanks for all your imput, everyone!

 

BTW: We emailed the cache owner and told him of its condition. And he said he would check it out. Who knows?

 

Next time we'll be a little more prepared. Trading out the contents and/or taking a picture to send to the owner seems much more proactive to enhancing this wonderful sport!

 

quote:
Originally posted by Web-ling:

What I've done a few times is to TRADE for the garbage. I figure as long as I leave something that's worth more than what I took, it's a perfectly reasonable solution to the problem. How much do you really need to leave to have it be "worth" more than "a non-lighting pen light, a melted candle, a couple of really goofy (and obviously well used) rubber balls, a pack of gum with no contents, a set of personal headphones (god-only-knows, who's ears they've been plugged into), an open pack of tissues?"

 

http://img.Groundspeak.com/user/25021_1200.gif


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There have been a couple of posts dissing McD's toys as geo finds. I'm not sure they're entirely a bad thing.

 

I cache exclusively with (and at least somewhat becuase of) my six year old and he's delighted with such trinkets. I regulate what goes in and out to be sure he trades things of comparable value and coolness. There are a lot of little cachers in this area for whom that sort of thing is ideal. We've passed up $20 bills, computer hardware, and things of much greature interest to adults to score a Pokemon top or McBeanie Baby.

 

Obviously, chewed or broken toys are a different matter and more closely match the "trash" banner. But a McToy that's been played with 30 minutes might get anoter 30 minutes in the spotlight of a child's attention when recycled in a cache. And some McToys (from whatever restraunt) are seriously lame, so don't take it as a blanket endorsement.

 

If someone replaced all the trinkety toys in our local caches with, say, 128Mb SIMMs, the game would become somewhat less fun for us. So please remember that not everyone is in it for the loot.

 

I am, of course, not suggesting that empty gum packages would be so treasured.

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