Placing A Cache

[+Boot Group]

We are ready to place our first cache. We have one quick question. Should we include parking coords in our description of the cache? The place that we have picked is a public hiking trail, but it is a little known trail on a back road in my town. I was thinking that we should include parking coords so that cachers will at least know where to start. There's a lot of other woods in the area, mostly private, so we don't want to lead people to anything but public land. Any advise would be appreciated.

[+Harrald]

If you feel that parking coords would help, then go ahead and add them.

[+JegMag]

We have always appreciated 'hints' about where to park. Especially when heading out to an area unfamiliar to us. Sometimes it has taken us longer to find the starting point than to find the cache. Which is not a bad thing if you are driving on quiet country roads. However, if you are trying to find a turn off from a busy street.......

 

It's a geocaching thing, they don't understand.

 

JegMag

[+SixDogTeam]

If the trailhead is not obvious, sometimes people will park somewhere else and bushwack in and not follow the trail you wanted them to enjoy--so in this case I think yu should post the parking coordinates--unless you want to make it hard...

[+Prairie Dog]

If the trail is not well known and accessed from a back road, then as a geocacher I would apprecite parking coordinates. I hardly use maps getting to a destination, I just follow my coords. You could encrypt the parking coords and offer them as a clue. Just my 2 cents. stay cool!

[Ferreter5]

I very much appreciate parking coordinates for trailheads that are not easy to spot.

 

I'd much rather spend my caching time out of my car walking the trails and enjoying the outdoors than playing the "find the mystery parking spot" game.

 

Parking coordinates are also useful when there's a lot of private property around the area. It's just plain ol' being respectful in helping geocachers keep off private property.

[+Renegade Knight]

If you feel that parking coords would help, then go ahead and add them.

Exactly.

[+briansnat]

I usually place parking coordinates if I want to bring people to the cache along a certain route. Either because the route is a more interesting one, or because I want to guide the hunters to the public access points.

 

Some people don't care for the parking coordinates. They feel finding the parking is all part of the hunt. In deference to these people, I'll often include the coordinates in the encrypted clue, and label them as parking. See example:

 

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

 

[Parking] 41.bugjb gjbfvksbhe, 74.gjb-bu, frira bar sbhe

[Cache]Nzbat ebpxf npebff sebz snyyf. Haqre fyno.

 

If they aren't labelled as parking, then they are useless, as most people don't decrypt the hint until they are at the cache site.

Edited June 4, 2004 by briansnat

[+Boot Group]

I like the idea of putting them in the encrypted hint section. Thanks to all who commented. One other question, does including the parking coords affect the .1 rule for cache placement (I imagine it does not)?

[+Stunod]

I like the idea of putting them in the encrypted hint section. Thanks to all who commented. One other question, does including the parking coords affect the .1 rule for cache placement (I imagine it does not)?

Nope...just the cache location.

[+norbu]

naw, the heck with parking coords. what fun would marriage be if we couldn't get into it over where to park?

[+briansnat]

I like the idea of putting them in the encrypted hint section. Thanks to all who commented. One other question, does including the parking coords affect the .1 rule for cache placement (I imagine it does not)?

 

Just be sure to label them. And no, they have nothing to do with the .1 rule.

[+Milbank]

If the trailhead is not obvious, sometimes people will park somewhere else and bushwack in

 

That's what makes it so fun.

There is nothing like hiking 1/2 mile in 90 deg. heat with a 8 year old. Then running into a river you can not cross all because you parked in the wrong place when you started.....

[dampeoples]

I like having parking coords on out of the way places, it really helps if you're not familiar with the area. Presumably there will be people coming to visit from all over.

[+Fitzdawg]

My wife and I recently logged a cache in public park that had two parking areas (one that we were not aware of before). The parking area that we chose was only 1.3 miles from the cache according to the GPSr, but that turned out to be a 5 mile round trip hike that we barely finished before dark. The other parking area (on a lonely back road) was less than 1/2 mile round trip walk from the cache. It would have been nice in this situation to have had the option of the second, unpublished parking area.

[+Boot Group]

Ok, so I think I will include parking coords as an encrypted hint. That way those who like to bushwack or figure it out for themselves can if they don't read the hint. I'm glad that it won't affect the .1 rule because we found a wildlife management area across the road that we haven't checked out yet, but may also be suitable for a cache.

 

It looks like rain tomorrow, so my placement might have to wait a day or two. We're ready, though. We've got a large ammo can that I painted to cover the old ammo information. I also stuck an official sticker over it in case the paint wears off. We've got a log book and pencil. We've got a Where's George dollar. Plus we put in about 10 items for both adults and kids to start it off. We just got tags for our first TB, so if it rains tomorrow maybe we will activate the TB and start it off in our new cache.

 

Thanks again for all your comments. I'll keep watching for any further advice.

[Major Catastrophe]

Should we include parking coords in our description of the cache?

I guess it depends on whether the parking situation is ambiguous, or maybe if you want to torture the seekers. I've got three caches out there: in one the parking is obvious, in the second I gave parking coords, and the third (awaiting approval) I have deliberately tried to make it "interesting" which means no parking help (among other things.)

[+Evil Chicken]

If the trailhead is not obvious, sometimes people will park somewhere else and bushwack in

 

That's what makes it so fun.

There is nothing like hiking 1/2 mile in 90 deg. heat with a 8 year old. Then running into a river you can not cross all because you parked in the wrong place when you started.....

Someone's been reading MY logs!!

[+Lazyboy & Mitey Mite]

I love parking coordinates

[bodolad]

I usually like parking coords.

It gives you TWO locations to find, and it's

appreciated if you don't have a lot of time to invest.

[+Boot Group]

We're leaving in about 15 minutes to go hide it. In this case, we are going to include parking coords because there is a lot of woods in the area, most of it private. I want to make sure the cachers head down the public trail. Hopefully seekers will be out in the next week or so once I go through the approval process for the first time.

[+Boot Group]

Well, it's out there just waiting for approval. We had so much fun picking a spot. We ended up including the coords in the regular description, and skipped the hint for now. We decided to reserve the hint in case the first few seekers have a hard time finding it. We put it in a classic hiding spot, so we don't think there will be any problems.

[+blindleader]

I like the idea of putting them in the encrypted hint section.

I've seen this a few times before. This is only my own personal opinion and preference, but I think it's nearly the dumbest thing I've ever seen on a cache page.

 

It's one of the reasons I always decrypt hints before I go. I figure, if it's on the cache page, then I'm meant to use it, just like descriptive cache titles and cleverly worded statements in the description. I was well on my way to being able to read ROT13 text naturally before I adopted this policy anyway.

 

BL

 

Post/Find < 0.5, still

[+briansnat]

I've seen this a few times before. This is only my own personal opinion and preference, but I think it's nearly the dumbest thing I've ever seen on a cache page.

 

It's one of the reasons I always decrypt hints before I go. I figure, if it's on the cache page, then I'm meant to use it, just like descriptive cache titles and cleverly worded statements in the description. I was well on my way to being able to read ROT13 text naturally before I adopted this policy anyway.

 

Curious. Why is it dumb? I do it all the time and I never thought of myself as dumb and actually other geocachers have found it to be a great idea and have copied me. Are we all dumb? Am I just not getting something? I guess if I'm dumb, then I probably am missing something, so you will have to explain it to me .

Edited June 6, 2004 by briansnat

[+blindleader]

I don't get it, Brian. First you agree with me: "It goes without saying that putting the coordinates in the encrypted hint is stupid." Then a couple of minutes later, edit your post to reverse your position with a sarcasitc load of flame bait, to which I won't reply.

[+TEAM 360]

I will take it one step further...if the finder has to make about 100 turns to get through one of those friggin' winding subdivisions, give directions to the general area...nothing gets me more wizzed than having to drive around for 45 minutes just to find the closest spot, especially with gas at $2.11 a gallon....

[+Harrald]

I don't get it, Brian. First you agree with me: "It goes without saying that putting the coordinates in the encrypted hint is stupid." Then a couple of minutes later, edit your post to reverse your position with a sarcasitc load of flame bait, to which I won't reply.

I think you really need to re-read this entire thread again. Brian is the person who brought up the "adding parking in the hints" part. If anyone posted a a flame, it was you.

[+briansnat]

I don't get it, Brian. First you agree with me: "It goes without saying that putting the coordinates in the encrypted hint is stupid." Then a couple of minutes later, edit your post to reverse your position with a sarcasitc load of flame bait, to which I won't reply.

 

Apparently you haven't read the entire thread. To recap my post:

 

"Some people don't care for the parking coordinates. They feel finding the parking is all part of the hunt. In deference to these people, I'll often include the coordinates in the encrypted clue, and label them as parking. See example:

 

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

 

[Parking] 41.bugjb gjbfvksbhe, 74.gjb-bu, frira bar sbhe

[Cache]Nzbat ebpxf npebff sebz snyyf. Haqre fyno.

 

If they aren't labelled as parking, then they are useless, as most people don't decrypt the hint until they are at the cache site."

Edited June 6, 2004 by briansnat

[+Tahoe Skier5000]

If the trailhead is not obvious, sometimes people will park somewhere else and bushwack in

 

That's what makes it so fun.

There is nothing like hiking 1/2 mile in 90 deg. heat with a 8 year old. Then running into a river you can not cross all because you parked in the wrong place when you started.....

lol

 

I know that routing ALL too well, minus the kid.

Edited June 6, 2004 by vw_ev

[+Boot Group]

Thanks again for all of your advice. We placed the cache around 10 AM yesterday, and reported it around 11 AM. We are patiently awaiting our approval now. We are going to go ahead and close this thread now since you answered our questions. Happy Hunting!