The Life Of A Lame Cache

[+drat19]

fly46 said “As for the Dalmation caches... If I ever do another one, I think very well that I might scream. As you can see with some of my logs, I got a little tired with chasing spotted dogs.... I started shouting out different dog breeds as we jumped out of the car.. There's a Chiuhauah (sic), a mini pin, etc... All silly little dogs... No collies or dobermans or labradors... Then instead of re-breading the dogs, I started naming them. It's not even that it was another micro... It's just that after about 30 of them, you start hoping for more original names.”

 

I think you have been living in Nashville for a couple of months now and the only caches you have found are the ones at the event and the cache run and were taken to everyone and don’t think you even had a gps with you and yet you complain about the caches in the area, you need to get out more and see what’s out there.

 

drat19 said “We're going to have to agree to disagree on this, Joe.”

 

We always have, and this is why we are still friends and would enjoy eating supper with you again………….. JOE

Joe's comment to Fly46 is a good one...when you're local, you DO get the opp'y to experience ALL of an area's caches if you so choose - which is why I always point out in ALL my articles that I KNOW FOR A FACT that there are "good" caches other than the "lame proliferation" that I'm railing against.

 

Again, as I keep saying, I just wish that the "lame" ones were not such a "proliferation". You know as well as I do that the placers of those caches could easily put a little more thought into their choice of locations, and still overcome any mobility limitations, if only they WOULD. Those cachers placing A MAJORITY OF AN AREA'S CACHES and thus setting the example to new cachers that parking lot/dumpster/random-green-spot micros are "the way the game is played" is NOT GOOD FOR THE GAME, in my opinion.

 

Your side of the debate ("something for everyone") and my side of it ("too much is not a good thing") both have their supporters around here, so I guess from that standpoint it's cool.

 

-Dave R.

[+wimseyguy]

Another nickel to add to the pot ( my opinion's are worth waay more that $.02):

Even thought there have been several posts from opposite sides on this thread I agree with almost all of them. My experience in Nashville for GW2 was a perfect example of what IS right with our RASH.

Friday-met up with my caching crew and went out into the night until 2PM. Found some easy some not so easy ones.

Saturday-Found one easy and one really tricky on the way to a great Event.

Ran around and found some more during the event, mostly easy finds, no lamppoles, saw some great parts of a park I had never been to before.

Saturday night-found LOTS more, stayed out 'til almost 5AM again none too hard except for three or four including one of the hardest puzzles ever, and another that required the fine tooth comb approach by six experienced cachers to find.

Sunday-passsed on the wagon train numbers run since we had found a lot of those on the list back in April. Instead we successfully tackled another of the hardest puzzle caches in the area, and then spent 90 minutes on a 5/3.5* beofer logging our teams' second DNF on that cache.

ow did we accomplish all this? We agreed on our agenda beforehand, we had a GSAK wizard in the navigator's chair, and we read a lot of cache pages before the trips, and along the way.

I'm glad I have the dogs behind me, I'm glad I have the numbers to show for it, and I can't wait to return to Nashville, or visit Biloxi for the first time. Variety is what makes this RASH great and if you have a greater quantity than elsewhere, you will have a greater quantity of all varieties of caches to find or pass up.

 

PS I sure glad that fly46 wasn't part of the cooking crew at the catfish station:

Then instead of re-breading the dogs

If I'm eating hound then there better be some kimchee on the side and some cold brew to wash it down with.

[Mushtang]

...This isn't the first thread and I'm sure it won't be the last where people complain about micro caches being "lame".

 

And what does it matter that many posters in the forums and in this thread agreed with RK?  Does that mean I'm not allowed to point out why I think he's wrong? 

Mushtang. My point was exactly the opposite. "Lame" caches serve a purpose. The ability to enjoy them has as much to do with the person seeking them as anything else. Lame is as lame does, means that if your panties get in a twist over it and someone elses doesn't, the problem probably isn't with the cache. I tried to show that via a series of logs based on what people are really thinking or would or could say.

 

Sometimes an angle works and sometimes an angle doesn't.

Oops. I definitely missed your point on that one. After re-reading it I can see that you were trying to point out that a cache will be judged differently by different people. I guess no cache is really "lame".

 

After reading so many threads that are anti-micro I sort of had that in my head as I read this one.

 

I'd hate for GC.com to pick up on all the micro bashing and send them the way of the Virtual and the Locationless.

 

Anyway RK, point taken and I'm sorry if my reply sounded a bit rough. I was in a bad mood when I wrote it and that probably came through more than I meant for it to.

[+drat19]

Wimseyguy makes some great points, I must admit.

 

I would point out, however, that it took you 2 visits and a total of around 7 days (I think), and a specific agenda to vary from just 1/1.5's, to correctly conclude that variety is indeed the spice of life in Nashville and other "proliferated" areas.

 

My question and point I've been trying to make here, in the context of your note, is: Could you have made that same conclusion in only 1 or 2 days, without that agenda? I'm not so sure you could have. And if that's the case, then that's my argument on "one or two vs. THE RASH" (as you call it).

 

-Dave R.

[+The Leprechauns]

I'll offer a bit of trivia about Nashville caches. Everyone knows by now that Carleenp and I found 240 caches there in 24 consecutive hours. They were mainly micros and about 20 virtuals. Some of the micros were extremely tough and I really enjoyed them. Others were enjoyable only in the sense of trying to do as many of them as possible in a given time period. Still, we had fun. So did the 200+ other people who attended Geo-Woodstock, and who logged something like 8,000 finds on caches in the Nashville area that weekend.

 

But here is the trivia: On Friday, we made a point of staying out in the countryside to find some nice traditional caches on the day before the event. Look at Cash Cache - it is a half-mile walk round-trip on a marked trail with a slight grade. Nobody else visited it the entire weekend of Geo-Woodstock. Nobody at ALL had found it since April 20th.

 

Or look at Hidden Lake, a nice one-mile level walk on a mowed path, that takes you to an old quarry site, and a unique cache container. Although it was also logged by a Nashville native on July 5th, that was it for the entire weekend of Geo-Woodstock. In Pittsburgh this cache would be rated a 2/2.

 

We found three caches in rural cemeteries, like this one, that also saw some recent visits by the so-called "powercachers" of Nashville. But nobody else visiting for Geo-Woodstock bothered to find any of these caches.

 

So why is that? These nice rural caches were easy to scope out. They were all within minutes of an Interstate highway exit. We read the cache pages, studied the maps, and navigated to them with a minimum of preparation, and neither Carleen or I had ever been in the area before. Could nobody else read those same pocket queries? Or could it be that people LIKE to find guard rail micros? If so, then they shouldn't complain about them being "lame." We had just as much fun on Friday finding a dozen caches as we did at the event finding the nice caches in Warner Park or in the marathon run on Sunday. They are all different brands of FUN. You just have to make a minimal investment to find the type of FUN you want to have. For us, even in Nashville, it was easy.

[+wimseyguy]

Actually Dave I (and the rest of Team CHB) have always felt that variety was what makes life and 'caching great. Some days you're a #ho some days you are not.

I made the same seperatiion on my trip to PA/NJ this past weekend. Saturday I went for the numbers and skipped past harder/longer caches Sunday I went after a few.

My use of the term RASH=Recreational Activity Sport Hobby, not what i'm guessing you interpreted.

By design the first visit was "all about the numbers" and if there was a cool view to enjoy (THe Shelby Street Bridge comes to mind) we didn't waste too much time enjoying it. Team CHB=Cache Hungry Bastards!

 

edit was for spelling but I'll also address the lep's post-we focused on areas with a high density on the numbers days, so maybe we did miss an interesting easy one or two. We'll get 'em next trip.

Edited July 14, 2004 by wimseyguy

[+sept1c_tank]

Lame is in the eye of the beholder.

[+drat19]

My use of the term RASH=Recreational Activity Sport Hobby, not what i'm guessing you interpreted.

That's pretty darned funny. You're right, my interpretation was somewhat different.

 

I'll also remind you that my experience there in your neck of the woods in RDU was that y'all had plenty of 1/1.5 micros there as well, but I found comparatively few that I thought were not in well-chosen locations. That tells me that you and your fellow hiders there have taken the time to be thoughtful in your choice of locations. I was still able to "run numbers" there, but I also got the good cross-section tour of the area that a traveling cacher would hope to get. My point.

 

-Dave R.

[+drat19]

You just have to make a minimal investment to find the type of FUN you want to have.  For us, even in Nashville, it was easy.

 

(and lots of other salient points...)

Good post, Lep (seriously).

 

I would point out that I never said Nashville was lacking for a variety of cache types...in fact, I've pointed out here and in my articles that I know for a fact there ARE indeed some good/great caches there (and they don't even have to be 3+ stars).

 

I continue to make this point, though: There's a big difference between one or two (or even a "handful") of lamppost/dumpster/any-ol'-green-spot-on-the-side-of-the-road caches, and a PROLIFERATION of them. I don't believe that BLANKETING an area with this variety of cache is good for our great game. (...and by "this variety", I DON'T mean "all micros"...I mean the "just any ol' place" variety).

 

It is possible to MODERATE this, in Nashville or any other area, with just a bit of thought/effort. I've SEEN IT DONE: Orlando, Tallahassee, Winston-Salem, DFW, Raleigh, MSP, and also my territory, the Miss. Gulf Coast.

 

-Dave R.

Edited July 14, 2004 by drat19

[CoyoteRed]

So why is that? These nice rural caches were easy to scope out. They were all within minutes of an Interstate highway exit. We read the cache pages, studied the maps, and navigated to them with a minimum of preparation, and neither Carleen or I had ever been in the area before. Could nobody else read those same pocket queries? Or could it be that people LIKE to find guard rail micros? If so, then they shouldn't complain about them being "lame."

This could be an argument for tools that set the better caches apart.

 

And it could be an argument that lame caches are good for nothing other than for numbers whores or those that don't care about the hunt. Because that's what I'm getting out of a lot of the above statements--it doesn't matter if a cache is lame or not as long as it there to be hunted. The satisfaction is the fact that you found a cache.

 

Sorry, I need to get something more out of finding a cache than I got to sign a logbook or increment my find count. I think I've adequately described a "lame cache" elsewhere. I need more satisfaction than knowing I get to log cache.

[+Monkeybrad]

I agree with you on many points, we also will continue to agree to disagree on many others. I think that I may have not been clear about the why of my beliefs so I will attempt to do this concisely.

 

You listed your credentials to give your post authority so I will present mine. As of today, I have found 2361 caches of all types in 27 states, Ireland and the UK. I have hidden 69 caches all over middle Tennessee of which 60 are currently active. I am the vice-president of the Middle Tennessee Geocachers Club, and I often attend other club's meetings (SMGC, GAA, etc.), additionally I have worked closely with several city parks and with the state parks system to promote Geocaching. I try to be a responsible cacher and hider. I would like to say that I have seen it all, but I have not. And that is just my point, I have gained a certain amount of experience, but I have not gained the wisdom necessary for me to tell other people how they should play this game. With all of the caching I have done, I am not qualified to declare a cache "lame". Every cache has value to someone, it may be the hider whose family farm was buried under a Wal-Mart parking lot. That cache exists in Nashville, why shouldn't they be able (or even encouraged) to place a cache on the land where they grew up. I am certainly not going to tell them that their lightpole cache is lame, because it is not. For me this issue is less about proliferation and more about personal freedom. These so-called "lame" caches are not hurting you, so why rail against them. I understand that they inconvenience you, but research is part of the game. You mentioned earlier that you print out and read the cache pages when you plan a trip. If that is true, how did you ever stumble across any of our little puppies in the first place? From the cache page it is obvious that they are almost exclusively urban and easy to find. That is what the rating system is for. A 1 difficulty cache will not be hard to find, a 1 terrain cache will not be difficult to access. In Nashville you can count on a 1 terrain cache to be handicapped accessible, if you cannot retrieve the cache from a wheelchair we rate it a 1.5.

 

But I digress, my point is, I am a power cacher, I cache all the time, I have found a bunch of them, but I know that my opinion is not necessarily correct, therefore I do not expect anyone to cache according to the way I think it should be done. I think that this sport would be much better off if everyone would reevaluate their positions and extend this same courtesy to everyone else.

[+fly46]

First of all, Joe, if you look at my logs or talk to the people I was with on the Cache N Dash, you'll know that I was joking around about the Dalmations.. Personally, I don't care if there's "another micro under a lightpost" I just think that the people in Nashville are slightly unimaginative when it comes to NAMING the caches... I didn't say another Micro, I said another Dalmation. As in 101 caches with the SAME NAME get monotonus to hunt for after a while.

 

As for having a GPS with me, would that be the blue Garmin sitting next to me on the desk that I've almost run the batteries down on? There was about zero point to having one on the cache n dash since Southpaw would tell Destitute where to drive to and then tell us where the cache was. In fact, half the time, either Destitute or Momma Dirt Clod would have the cache in their hands before either I or Serenity Now were out of our vehicle. Yeah... I should have grabbed the GPS for that, right? When I got out to do one in the woods, he handed me his before I could even grab mine. It was pretty much overkill to have more than one per car. Especially since I don't have the cords to download the waypoints directly into my receiver.

 

It was also fairly pointless for me to keep my receiver out at the event after I fell in the river and hurt my knee... Not being able to walk is generally when I quit caching for the day (and the reason I didn't complete the poker run)..

 

As for my comment about a 'real' cache... Part of that was a joke, part of it was a desire to break the monotony of 100+ (this was about two hours after we hit the 100 mark at EssPea's house) micros in a row. You have to remember where I came from... half mile walks into the woods for tupperwear... The only micro in Ashtabula County, Ohio, to the best of my knowledge, is the one that *I* hid.

 

As for not going around to cache prior to or since the Woodstock event, it took me until just before I moved here to figure out which direction in Nashville was East. So, you know, going around to areas I'm not familliar with and taking a GPSr that won't get a signal in my car.... also pretty pointless.

 

But thank you for letting me know the attitude you have about me so I'll know not to join the cachers group like I was planning on doing. Obviously I'm not someone you'd want to have around. Oh, yeah, thanks, too, for sucking the fun out of the only thing I've done for myself since I moved to this state. And, no, I've not been here two months.. Cache N Dash was one month to the day I moved here, and I had only unpacked my GPS three days before that.

[+drat19]

But I digress, my point is, I am a power cacher, I cache all the time, I have found a bunch of them, but I know that my opinion is not necessarily correct, therefore I do not expect anyone to cache according to the way I think it should be done.  I think that this sport would be much better off if everyone would reevaluate their positions and extend this same courtesy to everyone else.

On this we AGREE. Like you, I too am a power cacher, I cache all the time, and I have found a bunch of them. I have my opinions, and they may or may not be correct or agreeable to all. As such, I (and others who I know agree with me) have the opinion that the "proliferation" issue is not good for the game. Your (and others') opinion differs. (Not patronizing you when I say this:) I'm OK with that.

 

-Dave R.

Edited July 14, 2004 by drat19

[+JoGPS]

fly46 said “Oh, yeah, thanks, too, for sucking the fun out of the only thing I've done for myself since I moved to this state.

 

How do you think the owners of the Dalmatians caches felt after your posts, you think it sucked some of the fun out for them. They are very sweet folks and kind people and had an Ice Chest full of cold water for everyone on the cache run that night if fact you stop and talked with them at there house it was your 100 cache of the cache run, and this is the way you repay them.

 

Esspea and Jaypee were at GW2 helping out, the event was NOT a club activity just me and my friends putting on an event, I have no official standing with the local club so you would be welcomed I am sure. But when one of my close friends gets bashed on the forums, by someone that talks more than they cache well, you are darn tootem I am going to say something ………. JOE

[+fly46]

Why do I even bother?

You know, it's a wonder anyone posts on the forums. Someone says something, someone else responds, another person comes in and attacks someone for no apparent reason.

[AJK]

I did a bunch of lamp post and parking lot caches over in the West Chester, PA area on Monday. Ordinarily, they'd be lame but it was raining extremely heavily that day and those were perhaps the only caches I could grab and bring back to the car before getting too wet.

I followed you round West Chester on the Tuesday by the looks of it. For me they were useful as I had a limited time before needed to get back to Philly airport - provided a distraction.