Urban Micro Caches

[+kavuday]

Well, I have found the car wash cache that you spoke of...not sure about the brick one, but anyhow.  I go caching with my family and it was kinda nice going to that car wash, because the DVD kept rolling in the car while I searched for the cache 5 feet away.

I think you just proved fuzzybears point Freaky Tiki Five. The other 4 didn't even want to get out of the car to help you search, but rather enjoyed the DVD from the back of the car. Now that's geocaching!

 

Well I agree with you 100% fuzzybear. Maybe because you started caching in 01' and I was only a few month behind you in Feb of 02', a time when the calliber of caches that existed in our area was outstanding! I think the oversaturation of micros can be directly attributed to those who just don't know any different. If when I had started caching all that was available to me was 'micronausea' madness, I don't think I would still be participating in the hobby.

[+drat19]

I think the oversaturation of micros can be directly attributed to those who just don't know any different.

You just made my point, from my long post earlier in this thread. Oversaturation of the "lame" type of micro (as opposed to the "good" micros - the ones which disprove those who have posted "if you don't like 'em don't search for 'em") is a problem that feeds and festers on itself. New cachers find a bunch of the "lame" type of micro in their area, and they believe that's the "standard". They rush out and hide some of their own in order to have the satisfaction of getting some "Found it" Emails (whoopity doo ) and next thing you know, it's Nashville (or Spokane WA, or North-Central PA, or Mobile AL, or any number of other places that have developed the rep of being places to run up your numbers on drive-up trash-strewn parking lot caches, and which do a disservice to the hiders of the GOOD caches (micro and otherwise) in those areas whose caches get far less traffic because of the lame cache "white noise").

 

-Dave R.

[+drat19]

  I love Micros in my area!

 

I live in Sunny Palm Beach County Florida. I guess most of the people here have chosen the placement of their Micro to get us cachers to see something we have never seen before. It is usually a great view of the water, beautiful ships, or to get someone motivated to take that walk through the trail they passed thousands of times before. Often, the area is not  a good place for a full size container because it is in an area where the dunes are protected or leaving the trail or walkway could cause damage to the protected environment. There are small and large parks everywhere but even though I have lived here for 16 years, I have been to 15 parks within 8 miles of my home that I never new were there. I have found a couple in parking lots, but those were more a challenge to find and very creative in their placement.

 

I also enjoy the traditional caches, but read the info about them carefully because some of them can be dangerous when you are out there alone.

 

jeanneisme

Great post and points. Like in your area, we work hard here in the Miss. Gulf Coast area to promote the same types of caches. We have lots of micros, and in many cases the caches themselves are "nothing special", but in great or interesting or off-the-beaten-path locations. We take great pride in receiving "Thanks for taking me to this great location I never would have discovered otherwise" cache logs on our hides.

 

I and the other hiders in my area kind of "police" ourselves to make sure that new cachers are advised CONSTRUCTIVELY to be similarly THOUGHTFUL about their cache placements, as opposed to just putting any ol' cache anywhere. I, for one, am also not shy about pointing to other metro areas like have been discussed on this thread (and many others) as examples of what we DON'T want our area to become.

 

The key to trying to solve this problem is to WORK the problem, and when possible, PRE-EMPT the problem.

 

-Dave R. in Biloxi

Edited April 4, 2004 by drat19

[+yumitori]

We travel to Spokane regularly. When micros in the region come up, I think of ones like this -

 

Bet You'll Want To Flog Me For This One

Spokane-Henge

2:53 P.M. at Rosehill

A run through Joe Albi

John H Shields Park

Micro Haters Revenge

Oh Captain! My Captain!

The Big House

Plante's Ferry

Thanks For Your Support!

Grassy Swale

Badgers? We Don't Need No Stinking Badgers

Eastbound and Down

Walk the Boardwalk

North of Harbor Island

Out Standing In My Field

PC III, The pick of the litter

Pug Cloning

Heads Up Again

Twofishheads Are Better Than One

Turdus migratorius

PC II, The first litter mate

No Wetht Fow You, Athol

 

Some are cool (in my opinion) because of their location, some are on my list despite their location. Some are really well camouflaged, some are just simple capsules. Some required a long search, some I spotted the hiding place from over 50 feet away. None require a long walk, but these are all urban caches so that's a given. But the bottom line is that these are all caches I really enjoyed for one reason or another.

 

Oh, and the list is not inclusive; there are more cool caches in the area than these. Is every urban cache between Spokane and Coeur d'Alene as great as these? Not on your life; but then that's a basic definition of Sturgeon's Law.

 

There's no parking lot lightpole caches on the list, for example. We first saw that type of hiding place on the Yakima Cache Machine, where we ended up logging over half a dozen. They aren't 'cool' for me anymore. But we visited a small town in Oregon on our honeymoon where none of the locals had seen one before and they all seemed to love the one that had recently been hidden there.

 

Bottom line, in my terribly humble opinion, if you don't like certain types of caches, then hide really great ones as examples to the folks in your area.

[+drat19]

Bottom line, in my terribly humble opinion, if you don't like certain types of caches, then hide really great ones as examples to the folks in your area.

EXACTLY!!! Your response is a H*LL of a lot better and more constructive than the posters who have blithely said "If you don't like 'em, don't search for 'em", which is NOT a solution. As you pointed out, it's possible to place good/great urban micros...and THAT's what sets the right example to new cachers for their own hides.

 

-Dave R.