The Thrill Of Exchanging Cache Items

[Pipanella]

I don't care if food IS allowed, I don't think I'd eat anything that was left in a cache.

 

From Geocaching.com:

 

Food items are ALWAYS a BAD IDEA.  Animals have better noses than humans, and in some cases caches have been chewed through and destroyed because food items (or items that smell like food) are in the cache.  Even the presence of mint flavored dental floss has led to destruction of one cache.

 

[+ostrom808]

Thank you so much for the info!!

[habercacher]

except maybe a SLIMJIM- nothin` beats mechanically separated chicken & beef!

[ossineke]

I ENJOY THE CONTENS......I LEAVE A MILLION DOLLARS....IN EVERY CACH I FIND

[Buzzygirl]

I'm pretty new to geocaching (started < 1 month ago) but I have planted two caches and have decided to make old coins my geocaching signature. I used to collect coins (before it got too expensive) but I still have quite a few old silver American dimes left, as well as foreign coins. Your average circulated American dime is still worth more than any coin in recent circulation, and I still run across old silver coins in my change now and then.

 

I like turning other people on to coin collecting, so I have stocked my caches with old coins and foreign coins, and I usually leave old/foreign coins in other caches I have visited (yeah, all DOZEN of them as of 4/30/04 ).

 

Looking forward to seeking (and hopefully FINDING) at least a half-dozen more caches this weekend.

 

Buzzygirl

[Pipanella]

I wanted to echo what others have said earlier......

 

I really enjoy reading the logs online. I love to hear about the adventure (if there was one) of finding the cache, and what the finder thought of the hide.

[+Doggiewoggie]

C'mon! Who doesn't love going to Walmart and spending a good 20 minutes picking and choosing dollar items? I've decided to shop exclusively with kids and dogs in mind I get such a kick thinking that a kid might discover a little robowhatnot I put in... they're so easy to please.

[+Red Clover]

Yep I still love trading. I actually keep the stuff. The photos and the swag are cool things to have. Heck Sat I was caching w/ a friend and was walking to a bench where I could sit down and go Thur the loot. (We were in a park) Well, I didn't notice the hole in the ground till I stepped in it and heard my ankle snap! Ok so 5 mins of writhing in agony and cursing like a sailor.. ahh the pain abated a bit.... What did I do? Had him hand me the cache so I could sign the log and trade for a lapel pin while sitting in the mud. God I'm an addict!!!! He replaced the cache and it took us 20 mins to walk the .10 mile to the car.

[Major Catastrophe]

Are there guidelines regarding leaving food in a cache?  I think a snack bag of Doritos has enough preservatives to last several months and won't melt.  Are wild animals a concern?  Do cachers want to see food in the cache?  Granola bars?  Fruit rollups?  Hard candy?

I guess it depends on the location of the cache to an extent. In an area where bears can be expected, any kind of food, or anything that smells like food should be off limits. As for myself, I wouldn't touch food that I find in a cache anyway; no telling where it's been. Imagine a package of Twinkies that's been traded through a couple of dozen caches and you just happen to be hungry when you find it...

[+Ed Rad]

I usually only trade signature items. In fact, I leave a sig card at every cache I visit if it will fit, even if I don't take anything.

 

My favorite item I have found is this little plastic figure of Jesus with wheels on the bottom. I'm not big into the whole Christianity thing but it amused me for some reason. I take him with me caching and take pictures of it in different caches and places.

 

Another was a rubber frog I pulled from a cache in Rockford (Illinois). He sits on the dash of my van. Why? Don't know but I'm amused by it.

[+crzycrzy]

TNLNSL-GTHOOT

 

Took Nothing Left Nothing Signed Log Got The Hell Out Of There

 

[+WalruZ]

Jaded indeed. I'm willing to bet that most TNLN'rs would still be disappointed if they opened a full size cache and found only a logbook.

 

I sometimes cache with people who have in excess of 2,000 finds. Each of them enjoys opening the cache, examining the contents and trading for stuff. They may trade it back out into another cache, but they stir the pot and they have fun doing it.

[+Delta-S]

So - you find the twenty dollar bill in a cache. Do you actually trade up?

 

I might have to dump my whole bag in.

[+golem3]

Maybe its because I'm new still, but I like trading. If there is nothing but junk, I'll try to leave something better if I have anything good. Sometimes I leave a couple of things as I'm not sure what is as valuable to other people as it is to me. One weird thing I found recently though was liquid paper. I keep it in my backpack as a quick pick-me-up ... Just Kidding, but I wonder if I could use it to remove a tick (at least it would hide it). Also found a cache with a granola bar (Oats & Honey mmm my favorite) in it, but took it as it had been in there a while. Also found mints and a bunch of jaw breakers rolling loose in the cache. I don't know who'd eat em.. ... Well, okay, I had one of the mints, but I had "trail breath". Sorry for ramblin'.

[+Andy and Robin]

Yeah when I took the twenty I put in a twenty five dollar bill!

[+Milbank]

My son (age 8) enjoyed trading from the first cache we did.

 

I'm sure trading is something he will be looking forward to doing on all the caches we do.

 

I don't really care if I trade something or not.

The search and find is what I enjoy.