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Parking Coordinates


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Hey Spoonhead, good to see you posting! I've never had a problem with where to park on any of your caches. Although there are some places that can be kind of confusing. On one of my caches, I gave the coordinates to the parking area. On the other I did not, but I did state the park it is located in, which should be common sense of where to park. But not everyone even parks at the areas suggested. I know there have been a cache or two that the state parking coordinates are a lot further away than I could get.

 

I have noticed some people have stated that by not posting where to park is making it more of a challenge and getting there is part of that.

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I include the coordinates in the cheater, labeled as parking. That way people who want them have them and those who think finding a place to park is part of the fun, don't have to look at them.

 

This method is only useful if they are labeled as parking in the cheater. Othwerwise they are pretty uselss, since most people don't decrypt the hint when they can't find the cache right away.

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I would say even if you post coordinates for parking in the open on the cache page that it's not something that will ruin it for those who don't want to use the coordinates. I don't know anyone who could look at some random coordinates and tell you where it's located. If you want to use them, then use them. If you don't, then don't.

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There are at least 360 ways to approach the cache. Figuring out the best approach is part of the challenge.

 

Thousands have been playing without parking coordinates up to now. Requiring parking coordinates now would cheapen all of those previous find logs that the geocacher proudly put his smiley face next to.

 

I would have no problem with a new icon with a smiley face next to a parking meter. We could use those instead if the website ever makes parking coordinates mandatory.

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I think it would depend on the cacher cachew. Some may want them, others will not. A set of coordinates for parking does not lessen the challenge, unless you have to use them and you don't want to. Thousands have cached without them and thousands have cache with them Mandatory? I don't think they would be mandatory and don't even see any mention of that they should be. If a person choses to list them, then it's all the better for those who would like them. If a person doesn't want to use them, then seeing some numbers is not going to spoil it for them. Now of course if they draw a map for you on there of where to park, then it shouldn't be an issue. I've used them before. And then there's been times I haven't used them. Sommtimes I've not felt comfortable with the coordinates they posted as a good place to park and have done otherwise.

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I've used parking coordinates when they have been included in the description. I assume that the hider wants me to start there because there is something he wants me to see along the way to the cache. Perhaps making it a multi with the first stage being the parking lot is a better idea.

 

This is different from having the hider enter parking coordinates just because there is a field there to fill out. Parking coordinates would be filled out just because the field exists.

 

The caches that I had the most fun finding were the ones where I discovered my own way in.

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From my quick read of this thread, I don't think anyone is advocating making the parking coordinates mandatory. I do think that they are a good idea in those situations where the cache is surrounded by private property.

 

Some time ago, a cacher in my area (I believe it was A182pilot) placed a cache on private property with permission. As I recall, a requirement of the permission was that cachers must park in a specific location and take a specific route to the cache. The owner explained this requirement on the cache page.

 

Before I knew it (and before I had an opportunity to search for it) the owner archived it because too many people had failed to follow the requirement. This is a shame for any cache, especially so for this one as A182pilot consistently places terrific ones.

 

That being said, I certainly don't believe the parking coordinates should be required for most caches. For most caches, the parking location is either obvious or is part of the fun in finding the box.

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Before I knew it (and before I had an opportunity to search for it) the owner archived it because too many people had failed to follow the requirement.

This is a perfect example where parking coordinates should not have been posted and a multi cache would have been more appropriate.

That was part of the requirement though cachew for placing the cache. The requirement was that they parked at a certain place and followed a certain route. Since it was requested by the owner of the land, I think it's an excellent example of when they should be posted.

 

Also as I stated before, there are times that we've not used the parking coordinates listed because we found a better place to park and often a shorter route when hitting as many caches as possible in a short period of time.

 

There are other options(boxes) available to fill out as well, but they aren't used. That would be up to the cache placer. But I can see the writing on the wall. One day it could be a requirement when placing a cache, just as with the stages of a multi.

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Granted the hider said the entrance to the park was difficult to find and accounted for his 2 1/2 stars for difficulty, but it took me an hour of driving all over in congested, holiday rush hour roads. I finally found it in a major shopping center, through the outdoor parking area, into and through the Bloomingdale's underground parking lot, and out the other side to an open section in the shopping center fence and there it was - the trailhead, with a little park entrance sign!

 

Good thing I didn't bring my wife this time. She just got a new credit card. :mad:

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Doesn't the cache hunt start when you walk out the door? Having parking coords to every cache just cheapens the hunt for me. Unless there is a specific situation that requires only one parking spot, I'd rather find my way on my own. I do list parking on a few of my caches, where I feel it is necessary. Sometimes all that may be necessary is to state "park/approach from the north" or something like that.

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finding parking is part of the fun, imo. i don't understand caching with roadmaps or directions either. i've stumbled across cool stuff following the arrow on a gps. also found some shortcuts....

The map is part of the fun for me, before I ever leave, I plot the location on my map, then that tells me where the best parking and approaches should be.

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Doesn't the cache hunt start when you walk out the door? Having parking coords to every cache just cheapens the hunt for me. Unless there is a specific situation that requires only one parking spot, I'd rather find my way on my own...

I think this is the basic difference between cachers who would like parking coordinates to be optional and those who are against the idea.

 

Personally, my cache hunt generally starts when I step out of my Jeep. If I don't find a place to park, I usually post a note, not a DNF.

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There are at least 360 ways to approach the cache. Figuring out the best approach is part of the challenge.

 

:D

 

I have a cache that there is only 2 ways to get to it, unless you trepass on private property.

If a person looks at USAphotomap they would see the proper way in.

There have been some very funny logs on this cache, because people have not taken the time to look it up.and the actual cache is a 1 1/2.

I normally look iup the caches I'm going to do and plot them out on streets and trips, if they're in the boonies I check for trail heads using USAphotomap. There are devious people out there that would have you hiking quite a ways to get to the cache :mad:

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Parking location is just part of the hunt. There's a cache near me that is easy to get to once you find the parking. It's finding the parking location that's the challenge. What's the difference between giving the parking location and giving the exact hiding and description of the cache?

No parking location is frustrating? Do you get frustrated looking for a cammoed film canister in a wooded area? :mad:

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Parking location is just part of the hunt.

I do a lot of caches by just looking at the dot on the map and going for it. I enter 500 waypoint from a pocket query and look at the GPS as I'm going around. If I get stumped I will look for the coords or a hint in the description. My tracks have me driving all around the cache every now and then! That make it all the more fun to me.

 

On some of my hidden caches I will put parking coords depending on how hard I want the cache to be. Sometimes it is pretty obvious so you know where to park anyway, and sometimes I don't want you to know so you can figure it out yourself!

:mad:

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I'll bet some of you people will drive around the supermarket parking lot 20 times before parking, just so you could park near the door.

 

Perhaps you do the same on a cache hunt. I find it hard to believe that it is that hard to find parking less than .75 miles from 99 percent of most caches.

 

Merry Christmas and happy Harmonica! :mad:

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???

In more detail then.

 

It is possible to debate the pros and cons of providing parking coordinates on a cache page without getting into value judgements about what 'some of you people' might or might not do.

 

We all cache in our own preferred ways. Anyone is certainly welcome to discuss those differences here. But we need not take it further.

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Are you just trolling for an argument? The phrase "some of you people" is not personal at all. I thought my comparison between searching for parking at the supermarket or at the cache was on topic. I haven't pointed a finger at anyone. The reader is perfectly capable of figuring out if they fall into that catagory or not.

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Are you just trolling for an argument? The phrase "some of you people" is not personal at all. I thought my comparison between searching for parking at the supermarket or at the cache was on topic. I haven't pointed a finger at anyone. The reader is perfectly capable of figuring out if they fall into that catagory or not.

Cachew Nut, asking people to stay on-topic is not trolling.

 

If you are unable to see how saying 'I'll bet some of you people' to other participants in a discussion might be taken personally by some of them, then you and I can discuss it further in e-mail.

 

Meanwhile, the topic is whether or not parking coordinates in cache write-ups are a good idea or not. Feel free to continue expressing your opinions on that subject if you wish.

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If you are unable to see how saying 'I'll bet some of you people' to other participants in a discussion might be taken personally by some of them, then you and I can discuss it further in e-mail.

 

Meanwhile, the topic is whether or not parking coordinates in cache write-ups are a good idea or not. Feel free to continue expressing your opinions on that subject if you wish.

Ok, I guess I misunderstood when you said "It's possible to discuss this issue without becoming personal with your responses."

 

I took that to mean that somehow I was getting personal, when you really meant that some others might take it personally. I don't think it is necessary to discuss this in email, I understand what I posted.

 

As far as posting parking coordinates on a cache page goes, that ability is there already. My feeling is that by providing a field to fill out, people will begin to fill it out whether it is required or not. This will essentially create a cheapened version of the game we now play.

 

Edit: typo

Edited by cachew nut
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I put parking co-ordinates on one of my caches, because I labelled the cache as wheelchair accessable and wanted to specifiy where the ramp and blue-stripe parking were.

 

We had a very silly time trying to find a cache on the wrong side of a river, and all that fun would've been lost if I'd had parking co-ordinates. (my son and his friend got to learn creative new ways to not-swear that day) We only use a paper Gazeteer and our eTrex Yellow, so we can end up with pretty funny searches. (though I was VERY grateful once for parking co-ords for a cache that was on one side of a river but parking was on the other side, and it was a over a tiny bridge in a tiny city park I'd never heard of, waaaaaay down a dead end road)

 

Guess parking co-ord necessity depends on the situation.

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(You said some stuff here)

 

My feeling is that by providing a field to fill out, people will begin to fill it out whether it is required or not. This will essentially create a cheapened version of the game we now play.

I can't agree with you on this one.

 

The field for hints is there, yet everyone doesn't use it. Also, having a hint available doesn't cheapen individual cache hunts, because no one is required to use the hints.

 

Parking coordinates would be as easy to ignore if one does not wish to have the extra help.

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If I needed someone to park in a specific spot I'd use those as the cache coordinates. Then give the cache coords in the description.

 

That way that's the point that gets uploaded to the GPS.

 

Otherwise I'll suggest a parking spot if it's a good idea and has the potential to save a lot of bushwack. But suggetions are only that. People can do a cache the hard way if they want.

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Ok so we can agree that some people use parking coordinates and like them and some don't. But I don't think an argument of "that's part of the challenge", is a good one in my opinion. My thinking would be if you are going for a challenge and you think telling you were to park is taking away from it, then don't use a GPSr either. Now that would make it even more challenging. Or if you do decide to use your GPSr, don't even look at a map at all. Just punch in the coordintates and drive til lyou get to it. I know some places that the roads are laid out like a grid and it makes it much easier to drive to it like that. But when you are in some areas where the roads turn and twist and elevation changes quickly, then you might prefer a set of coordinates or directions of where to park. It's not always the case and it's easy not to look at the coordinates or the directions, but they are available to those who want them. Just like there are micros, multis, virts, etc for those who want those.

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Seems to me the entire topic boils down to being the perogative of the cache placer. If they want to post coords for parking they can, if not, they don't. If the finder sees the coords and wants to use them, they do, if not, they don't.

I am just quoting Sparky but I could of quoted other people as well. My feeling is that sometimes parking coordinates are required. I agree with RK and others that the best way to do this is to make a multi-cache with the first waypoint being the parking area and the next waypoint the real cache. However sometimes this method does not work. As an example -- and if anyone has an idea of how to get around this problem then please post -- is a linear park in my county.

 

Said park runs for 14 miles along creeks and rivers. The park itself is not very wide -- as little as 100 yards at times -- and is surrounded by private property. The county park department very strongly discourages people from entering the private property and thus any cache placement should encourage the use existing parking places and thus official park entrances. One might this this is perfect for multi-cache. Unfortunately if a person is not simply doing a park'n'grab but is instead hiking the trail then doing a multi-cache could be irritating.

 

As an illustration, there is a section of the trail which has two parking spots separated by 3 miles. If I want to put a cache at mile post 1 and mile post 2, then how do I do this? If 'A' and 'B' are the parking spots then the cache placements would look like:

 

A.......1.......2.......B

 

You have to imagine the above trail surrounded by private property and roads so that the caches '1' and '2' are closer to a road then they are to parking spots 'A' and 'B'.

 

A multi that starts at 'A' and then points to cache '1' and a different multi that starts at 'B' and then points to cache '2' would would force a person who is hiking the trail (not park'n'grabbers) to hike from A to 1 then to B and then to 2 in order to find both caches. Not too much fun especially if the person is continuing further down the trail.

 

A multi that starts at 'A' and points to cache '1' and then cache '2' and a different multi that starts at 'B' and points to '2' and then '1' would allow a person to record the same caches twice. Not good form!

 

I am really at a loss on how to force people to park at either 'A' or 'B' without explictly telling them in the cache notes "park HERE and stay on the trail". Any suggestions?

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Two of my hides have specific parking coordinates because the lots are not obvious and are the only safe place to park to enter the undeveloped public land. However, I have often disregarded suggested parking as I like to blaze my own trail. One comes to mind. From normal parking, the logs said 45 minutes to the cache. I parked in a ditch and was back to the car in 25 minutes, but climbing that hill was a bear!

 

Part of my enjoyment of caching is the preparation. I look at the area using USAPhotomaps and plan my parking and entrances with that.

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I am really at a loss on how to force people to park at either 'A' or 'B' without explictly telling them in the cache notes "park HERE and stay on the trail". Any suggestions?

Explicitly tell them in the cache description where they are supposed to park. That way, you have done all you can on your end. If they decide not to park there, it's not your fault. :o

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It would be really useful, especially here in the UK (where we have *far* less room than everyone else in the world... :o) to have an additional field for parking co-ords in the cache submit page. This could also be useful for folks that use PDAs and have applications like Cachemate or similar as this would enable those clever software-writing people to add another field in the software for parking. If you have an iQue, 'frexample, you get to route to your parking co-ords then just follow the rest of the details to the actual cache.

 

As has already been mentioned, it would certainly not hurt to ignore the parking co-ords if you wanted the extra "challenge" same as you can ignore the decrypt. Also worth noting that none of this is worth getting upset about... :P

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I like parking coords. I am in the UK, and as OMally says, it's a bit cramped here. Often a cache is down a narrow lane, and the only spaces where the lane widens are passing places. Even those are sometimes a tad tight for 2 cars, let alone 2 Land Rovers or something like that. And then you see a place in the road where it widens, only to find the wider bit is a field gate. Can't really park in front of those, unless you don't mind your car being tractored...

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As far as posting parking coordinates on a cache page goes, that ability is there already. My feeling is that by providing a field to fill out, people will begin to fill it out whether it is required or not. This will essentially create a cheapened version of the game we now play.

I don't see where anybody but Cachew Nut, has mentioned putting a field on the cache hide form for parking coordinates, (unless responding to a Cachew Nut post). So I'm not sure why you keep mentioning it as if the original poster wanted that. (or anybody else).

 

But lets say there was a field for parking coordinates. And stretch a little further and assume everybody would fill it out because they thought they had to (even though there would, most likely, be a "not required" statement next to the field title).

 

How would that force people, like Cachew Nut, to park at that location?

Would you have involuntarily remembered the coordinates while you are driving there? Would you somehow lack the ability to park wherever you wanted?

 

I don't understand how geocaching would be cheapened by giving parking coordinates, that you may or may not use if you want.

 

That said, I like parking coordinates, but just assume leave it to the cache hider to decide whether or not to give them.

 

I don't enjoy wasting time or gas looking for a parking spot, so that I can take a walk in the woods, but have only had problems finding parking once, so I'll do caches that don't have parking coords.

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I don't see where anybody but Cachew Nut, has mentioned putting a field on the cache hide form for parking coordinates, (unless responding to a Cachew Nut post). So I'm not sure why you keep mentioning it as if the original poster wanted that. (or anybody else).

 

It is mentioned in the link Markwell gave above, and in this thread as well.

 

But lets say there was a field for parking coordinates. And stretch a little further and assume everybody would fill it out because they thought they had to (even though there would, most likely, be a "not required" statement next to the field title).

 

How would that force people, like Cachew Nut, to park at that location?

Would you have involuntarily remembered the coordinates while you are driving there? Would you somehow lack the ability to park wherever you wanted?

 

I never said that I would lack the ability to park wherever I wanted. Those are your words, and they show me that you aren't understanding the impact this field would have.

 

When I see parking coordinates on a cache page, I use them. My thinking is that the hider wants me to park there. If he wants me to park there, he wants me to see something along the way.

 

When there are no parking coordinates, I find my own parking. Some of the most fun caches I have done were without parking coordinates. With the new field is the hider trying to show me something or is he just telling me the best place to park?

 

I don't understand how geocaching would be cheapened by giving parking coordinates, that you may or may not use if you want.

 

Of course not, otherwise you would be agreeing with me. I'm not sure what your caching experience is, but haven't you ever gone after a cache where your approach was unique? Maybe you found something interesting along the way because of your way in? Maybe you were really satisfied with the hike and felt really good about that smiley next to your name in your log.

 

Well imagine that same cache now has parking coordinates a couple hundred feet away, and everyone else just drives up, hops out to log the cache and then drives away. Yep, they don't even have to make the same return trip to the car that you did. I would call that cheapened.

 

That said, I like parking coordinates, but just assume leave it to the cache hider to decide whether or not to give them.

 

That's how it's done now. We don't need a field just so somebody can calculate the distance from the cache to the car. They can calculate that distance by waypointing their car wherever they end up parking it. :D

 

I don't enjoy wasting time or gas looking for a parking spot, so that I can take a walk in the woods, but have only had problems finding parking once, so I'll do caches that don't have parking coords.

 

Hopefully you were able to find it. Obviously it hasn't discouraged you. :unsure:

Edited by cachew nut
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I sure wish there were some parking coordinates or directions to a cache I went after yesterday. Would of saved me about 45 minutes worth of driving around in circles.

 

Even if there was a box to fill out on the form, they could easily put a statement on there as to it was voluntary. And even then, I don't think a bunch of coordinates would ruin it for you. You can always go to the parking coordinates and then decide if you don't want to park there or not. Or you could always ignore them as well in the first place.

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I also include the name of the bus stop or railway station next to the cache and a link to an online timetable information service in my cache descriptions to help those (like me) who like to go caching by means of public transport.

Amen.

 

I, too, tend to go caching using public transport. And the caches I have set are all urban ones, mostly aimed at tourists and out of towners. Since I don't drive, I have Clue Zero about where one should park to do the caches in question. I'd love to see more urban caches provided with public transport information, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

A more fundamental point, which ties into some of the varying responses here: how much is the cache setter trying to provide a "caching experience" (such as a multi that leads you on a particular route) and how much are they simply creating something for people to find? I suspect that the different answers to the parking co-ords question match how much people expect the setter to arrange the overall effect. (Neither approach is better or worse than the other, IMHO, but they are different mindsets.)

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