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Geocaching Etiquette


khalua

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Can someone please tell me the proper edicate on how to deal with encountering another geocacher at a cache site... I have always waited back if i noticed someone else at a cache for two reasons... 1) so i don't learn where the cache is and lose the fun of the hunt and 2) so's not to make the other cacher feel uncomfortable... is that okay? and what is someelse doesn't wait but is searching right next to you?

 

khalua

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While this theory has yet to be tested, I think you're best off introducing yourself to the other cacher, and asking what they'd like to do, (wether they'd like to join up, or if not, you can decide who will go after the cache first and who waits twenty minutes)

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I think you should graduate a third grade spelling class before hitting the trails, and a Pre-K forum etiquette class before posting.

 

Ooh! My first flame! I'm all exicted! :rolleyes:

 

Just kidding.

 

Edited for clarity.

Edited by Staos
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I enjoy meeting other cachers. It used to be a very rare event, but it is becoming more common. Personally, I always introduce myself, and join in the hunt -- or more often, just sign the log since it's likely they will have already found it. It's no big deal I think, most caches are the 1/1 or 2/2 type anyway.

 

However, there are exceptions. If you're hunting a very tricky cache (we have a few 5/x caches around here), then I would probably just leave and come back later. But there's much less chance of running into another cacher at one of those caches anyway, so it's not really a problem.

Edited by BeachBuddies
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I think you should graduate a third grade spelling class before hitting the trails, and a Pre-K forum etiquette class before posting.

 

Ooh! My first flame! I'm all exicted! :rolleyes:

I think you should cut the new guy some slack. He had an honest question and doesn't need to be slammed by the likes of you.

 

Back to the subject: If you approach a cache site and see someone there, you might ask if they're geocaching. It might be a muggle and you don't want to compromise the cache location. If they are geocaching, you could ask to join them (if they're still hunting) or let them know you'll wait until they are done so you can search by yourself. If they've already opened the cache, they might not be sitting at the hiding location (many cachers walk 50 feet or so from the hiding spot just in case someone else comes by). Ask them to rehide it so you can search when they leave.

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I think you should graduate a third grade spelling class before hitting the trails, and a Pre-K forum etiquette class before posting.

 

Ooh! My first flame! I'm all exicted! :rolleyes:

I think you should cut the new guy some slack. He had an honest question and doesn't need to be slammed by the likes of you.

 

I agree. Those remarks were uncalled for. And your pride in making them indicates that you should go back to elementary school and learn some manners. You are out of junior high, aren't you?

 

 

khalua,

Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is that as you find more caches, and go to event caches, you'll start to know the folks that you meet at the cache. Then it won't be a question of how to handle it, it will be like running into friend in the grocery store.

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Geesh! What is the deal with this website and people making such a big deal about spelling errors and grammar!? It's 'what' a person says that's important, not 'how' they say it.

 

I haven't come across a fellow cacher yet, khalua. But when I do, I plan on introducing myself and letting them make the decision on letting me join them or if they want to go it alone and let me know when they are done. I would be excited to meet another geocacher at this point. There aren't many in my area and I would love to "talk shop" with another geocacher for a bit.

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Personally I like to meet a fellow geo-cacher. It's happened so rarely (once) that I know of nothing other than delight to greet the moment.

 

As for teaming up, Why not? Unless you're one of those insufferable, ultra-competitive chronics that has to be first and only I can't see why you wouldn't enjoy the chance to share stories, tips, dirty jokes, etc.

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We have run into other cachers on a few occasions. Even though we were in the general area first, we have told the others to go ahead and look/log while we walk around in the area. We're never in a big rush, if we only get one or two logged in a day, that's fine. We enjoy checking out the area and seeing the sights. Seems to be working so far.

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I've yet to meet another cacher out there, but if I did, I'd certainly introduce myself. ESPECIALLY in the area I'm in..

There aren't alot of cachers in this immediate area, so I'd enjoy the opportunity to get to know some of the people who are interested in the same things I am.

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Its poor etiquette to slam someone for bad spelling in Internet forums. As far as encountering other geocachers, I'll usually ask "mind if I join you?", or if I'm already there and someone else comes, I'll ask if they would like to join me.

Edited by briansnat
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I think you should graduate a third grade spelling class before hitting the trails, and a Pre-K forum etiquette class before posting.

 

Ooh! My first flame! I'm all exicted! :D

:rolleyes::D:D Need I say more? :D:o

I thought of flaming this cacher . . . thanks for sparing me . . . hmmm . . . or no thanks for denying me the thrill. . . . hehe!

 

Anyhooter . . . the only time I've encountered someone while in the midst of opening a cache was when he actually came upon me. He came right up to me as I was writing down the coordinates for stage two. I introduced myself and handed him the container. As I was entering the coordinates into my GPS he handed me back the container and took off running (literally) to get to stage two before me. BAD FORM! I proceeded on to finish the cache after replacing the first stage. As I was walking up the trail, nearing the final coords, I saw the man hauling a** through the woods to beat me to the cache. Whatever . . . I didn't know we were racing. Anyhoo . . . glean what you will from this encounter.

 

Happy caching and stuff! :D

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Last weekend, I was a FTF for a cache that had recentley been a former cache that had been archived, moved into a new place, and made into a completely different cache. When I found it I noticed a family walking down the trail, I took out my camera and pretended to be a photographer, they asked me if I was a geocacher and I said yes. They were looking for the old cache (because they printed out their cache pages a week before it was archived) and asked me if I had seen it. Them having 3 small children prompted me to kick the branches off the cache and showed them the new spot. It was their first cache! I felt good about that! :rolleyes:

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Yes, I know it's WAY off the thread theme - but I don't mind living on the edge!

What Radman said prompted this thought. I got logs from a visitor (two caches) on caches which had been destroyed a long time before. He had printed them out, months before, as part of a batch which he was going to get to eventually. Full marks for posting the DNF's but the lesson is there to be learned. If you print them out in a batch, you STILL NEED TO RECONFIRM THEY ARE THERE BEFORE YOU GO OUT!

Particularly if you have kids along.

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Last weekend, I was a FTF for a cache that had recentley been a former cache that had been archived, moved into a new place, and made into a completely different cache. When I found it I noticed a family walking down the trail, I took out my camera and pretended to be a photographer, they asked me if I was a geocacher and I said yes. They were looking for the old cache (because they printed out their cache pages a week before it was archived) and asked me if I had seen it. Them having 3 small children prompted me to kick the branches off the cache and showed them the new spot. It was their first cache! I felt good about that! :o

That's cool, but I would have given them the updated coordinates to give them the opportunity to find it on their own.

 

But . . . that's me.

 

Happy caching and stuff! :rolleyes:

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Last weekend, I was a FTF for a cache that had recentley been a former cache that had been archived, moved into a new place, and made into a completely different cache. When I found it I noticed a family walking down the trail, I took out my camera and pretended to be a photographer, they asked me if I was a geocacher and I said yes. They were looking for the old cache (because they printed out their cache pages a week before it was archived) and asked me if I had seen it. Them having 3 small children prompted me to kick the branches off the cache and showed them the new spot. It was their first cache! I felt good about that! :D

That's cool, but I would have given them the updated coordinates to give them the opportunity to find it on their own.

 

But . . . that's me.

 

Happy caching and stuff! :rolleyes:

They had been searching for an hour, and I didn't want the kids to become disillusioned of the game and go home empty handed, so I just showed them since they were standing right next to the cache and it was their first. It was more of the trading the toys than anything else. They asked me where it was anyways. Besides, that was my first find of the day and I didn't write in the logbook yet, I didn't want to wait for them to finally find the cache! :o

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Its poor etiquette to slam someone for bad spelling in Internet forums. As far as encountering other geocachers, I'll usually ask "mind if I join you?", or if I'm already there and someone else comes, I'll ask if they would like to join me.

I am going to try a new virtual, it's called "Find Staos at his pre school" :rolleyes:

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Yes, I know it's WAY off the thread theme - but I don't mind living on the edge!

What Radman said prompted this thought. I got logs from a visitor (two caches) on caches which had been destroyed a long time before. He had printed them out, months before, as part of a batch which he was going to get to eventually. Full marks for posting the DNF's but the lesson is there to be learned. If you print them out in a batch, you STILL NEED TO RECONFIRM THEY ARE THERE BEFORE YOU GO OUT!

Particularly if you have kids along.

I print several in a batch but I also include those caches in my watchlist. That way if anything changes before I get to go do them, I'll be notified beforehand.

I have to print some off in batches and keep them in my backpack. I never know when the opportunity to go geocaching will strike and I like to be ready at a moments notice. :rolleyes:

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he handed me back the container and took off running As I was walking up the trail, nearing the final coords, I saw the man hauling a** through the woods.

 

Ha ha, maybe you scared him.

I didn't scare him. . . I am SOOOOO not scary. I'm just a sweet and innocent young woman. The joke was on him though. He was trying to be FTF, but little did he know that someone had just been there before us. Hehe!

 

Like I am so fond of saying . . .

 

Happy caching and stuff! :rolleyes:

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This weekend we had an event cache in a new part of our state. That meant a lot of new caches for some of the regulars. This happens as we move our event caches around the state. When I got to one of the cache areas there were already four cache teams there. Two had found it and two had not. We generally allow the other people to find it and try to keep a good "poker face" up so you do not let the other cachers know where the cache is (so they can have the fun of finding the cache). Two other cachers walked up after I did! We were having a mini-meeting before the meeting! Eventually we all found the cache and we pulled it and started signing the log (it was a micro).

 

One of the first people there was a new cacher team to the GGA so it was the first time I met them. I think it is fun to meet people at caches and have done it several times. I also met a cacher at a cache right before the one above. He had not found it yet so we did the same drill -- searching and not telling if you found it so the other person could have the thrill of the find. I knew this cacher well and found it first, so it was fun to watch him search for the cache. It only took him about 30 seconds after me to find it. He is a good cacher.

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Can someone please tell me the proper edicate on how to deal with encountering another geocacher at a cache site... I have always waited back if i noticed someone else at a cache for two reasons... 1) so i don't learn where the cache is and lose the fun of the hunt and 2) so's not to make the other cacher feel uncomfortable... is that okay? and what is someelse doesn't wait but is searching right next to you?

 

khalua

I've got 45 finds and have run into geocachers twice - the first time, I was on the wrong side of the river, but I had pretty much figured out where the cache was anyways. I crossed the river, said hi and chatted a bit about geocaching. It was cool. The cache was 1.5/1.5, so I didn't have a problem logging it as a find for myself as well - I would have found it anyways.

 

The second time, some friends and I were on a very steep emabankment along a stream and had been searching for about a half hour. I think it was a 3 difficulty - we saw someone approaching with GPS in hand and we shouted at them to stay back until we re-hid the cache and gotten away from the site. Turns out it was the cache owner who saw us from the road and came to watch us hunt.

 

One of my favorite things about this game is that you can be as individualistic, community or team-oriented as you want to be. You can be ultra competitive, or be a bit more liesurely. (Just as long as you're not getting in the face of people who aren't as compltely insane about caching as you are...) I think deep-down most people have a good sense of what's cheating and what's not.

 

that's my .02

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If someone is SEARCHING when you arrive, introduce yourself and ask if they'd mind if you helped out. I doubt you'll get many people who don't want the company, but there's always a chance. If they've already FOUND it, that's a different situation... I'd probably just introduce myself and let them know I stumbled upon them after the find and wait for them to finish going through it and signing it. It's not like they can re-hide it and you'd need to search.

 

When I find a cache I tend to leave the actual site to sign the book and look through it. That way if someone does come up, the hide isn't spoiled. You can still re-hide it and in most cases, they may not know where it was. This gives them the chance to find it as well, though depending on the circumstances they may have a pretty good idea.

 

Hope that helps, and sorry about the rude introduction you received at the beginning of the thread.

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I remember the 1st time I met a cacher on the hunt , I was hunting for a mult and I zeroed in on where the 1 stage was but I couldn't look for it as there was a muggle family close by, I deiced to wait them out , I walked around the park and settled myself with my back against a tree about 200 yards away, where I could watch the muggles and where the 1 stage was at . Next thing I know yet another family shows up

but as I watched them across the field I had a feeling that they were not muggles after a short hunt and what looked like putting a waypoint into a GPS they headed straight for me , yep I was leaning against the tree that the 2 stage was hidden in , after that we teamed up and found the cache toghter

 

my log from that cache

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...e5-ec513bd22b35

there log

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...69-172b4e74f214

 

it is always great to meet cachers on the hunt

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As far as encountering other geocachers, I'll usually ask "mind if I join you?", or if I'm already there and someone else comes, I'll ask if they would like to join me.

Um, Brian that's not the answer you gave last year to the same question:

I believe the standard we agreed on was when meeting another geocacher, one was to yell "Ho, are ye a geocacher?" and the correct response is "Yay I am".

 

Upon the confirmation, the two then approach each other, put their left hand on the other person's right shoulder, standing arm's length and dance around in a circle while skipping and singing (very loudly) "Geocachers are we! Runy muny mee! Yaba daba baba. He, he, he!". At least that's the way we do it in New Jersey.

<_<<_<
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The only time I've met up with another cacher, I was walking in circles around the same area for half an hour. Another set of eyes and another GPS was a welcome addition. We both searched for another half hour together before giving up. Eventually met up with him at another cache that again we couldnt find, and both got stung repeadedly. :laughing:

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We have had a couple of amusing encounters with other cachers. One was while we were looking for a micro at a train station, and we were up on the platform looking around. A cacher couple appeared on the parking lot level below, and were obviously trying hard to be inconspicuous, but failing miserably. :laughing:

I leaned over the railing and stared at them until they finally looked up at me, and both of them exhaled in recognition. Cachers are so bloody obvious to each other. It was funny. We gabbed for a while and found the cache together.

 

Right around the same time, we went out on a quest to be FTF on EdScott's Stinson Run Owl Walk in Pennsylvania. We drove like two hours to get there, and thought we had it, but played a game of flashlight cat-and-mouse with other cachers who beat us to the spoils by mere minutes. What a rush! It's all good. :ph34r:

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Hoot, Holler, Yell & Scream! At Bill & Kelsey down under.

 

September 14 by Barnacle Bear (280 found)

This was like a gathering of the herds in Kansas City at the end of the Spring drive. It’s a good thing that there was a little rain today or the trail dust would have been thicker than coal smoke. I jump the tracks just in time to find The Moops closing in with MaudMan in hot pursuit. When I think things couldn’t get worse, Cachemeister$ and crew, of Wet 'N Wild fame, charge in. I’ve never seen anything like it in my long and varied caching career. Nine people were butting heads in a small circle when one of the Cachemeister$ crew grabs his FFTF. (Shouldn’t he have been home studying, or something?) The only thing that might have made this better is if the SBT dropped in.

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I think you should cut the new guy some slack. He had an honest question and doesn't need to be slammed by the likes of you.

 

I find it curious that a forum mod would use language like this: "the likes of you."

That phrase is degrading. The mod is guilty of what he's trying to stop... :)

 

I've thoroughly enjoyed all the encounters I've had with other cachers out in the woods ( we always team up to find the cache together), with one possible exception. One day we met a cacher on the trail who was hunting the same series of caches as we were, only he was approaching them from the opposite direction. He came upon us when we had the ammo box open and were signing the log, and he just walked up and signed it also. So, OK, no harm, no foul. Then, since it was his last cache he headed down the trail in our direction, with us, to get back to his car. So that was OK. But when we got to our next cache, (Which he had just found) he lingered uninvited and watched us search and find it. I thought it was a bit creepy, but I guess you had to be there --I felt like I was being observed and judged... so I guess the thing is, as has been said, ASK the other cachers what they want to do... :lol:

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I think you should cut the new guy some slack. He had an honest question and doesn't need to be slammed by the likes of you.

 

I find it curious that a forum mod would use language like this: "the likes of you."

That phrase is degrading. The mod is guilty of what he's trying to stop... :)

 

That was a post from nearly a year and a half ago (berr326 bumped a topic that hadn't been posted to since April 13 of last year), I'm sure he's learned his lesson since then. Besides, he's only a forum mod in the Off-Topic section, which doesn't really exist anyway.

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We run into other cachers all the time. If you're going fast enough you can knock them down on the way to the coords!!! Actually, we made our first geocaching friends by meeting them while caching. The more the merrier when going for a cache we think. We all give the others a chance to make the find by moving away from the cache, waiting a random period of time while pretending to keep looking, and announcing the find. Sometimes it's nice to know that the cache is there and findable.

 

- T of TandS

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I always introduce myself to another 'cacher when geocaching. It has happened to me a total of six times so far. i particularly like misdirecting their search efforts so I can beat them to the geocache.

 

"Didn't you read the last finders post? He relocated the geocache under that bridge about fifty feet away from the posted coordinates. Really. No, the other way. Keep looking over there. I am sure you will find it before me..."

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It has only happened to me twice. Once I was there first, and he approached and asked if he could join in, I said sure. I still found it first. He was a geocacher from Holland in the U.S. visiting friends, and this was his first U.S. find.

 

The other time the reverse. I walked up to a couple searching and asked if they would like some help. They too said join in and they found it before I did.

 

Not a problem either time. We chatted for a few minutes, each signed the log, and said goodbye to each other. I don't see the point of hanging back trying to be inconspicuous and pretending not to watch them.

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