Difficuly Cache

[+Greyfoxvt]

I am a family father with two younger kids, and a very excited Geocaching wife. We are very interested in the whole concept of Geocaching, and enjoy the outdoors, and hiking to these neet little stashes. But I have to ask, why make it so difficult to find with these multiple micro stashes, and more clues? It seems to me that you had to be in the head of the creator in order to find the darn thing in alot of instances. So are just too far out to actually find.

 

I hope that when people read this, that they consider what they are doing when they place these caches, in order to make it fun for all! At this rate we will have to make a new rating system for difficulty, and crazyness...

 

For the rest of us, Great Job, and keep up the good work! This is alot of fun for my family and myself!

 

Greyfoxvt

Geocacher

[+KoosKoos]

I also cache with 2 little ones and my wife. When we're going out as a group, we definitely stick to the 3 * or less caches.

 

However, I've personally taken great joy in solving a couple of 4 and 5 star puzzle caches. My wife and I were sick enough to haul everyone out at midnight one night to go be FTF on a really hard puzzle in our area.

 

There are MANY discussions of these hard hides and puzzles and you'll see people on both sides of the fence.

 

I don't want to search for a micro in the woods - but some do - and it's good to have a mix of caches out there for all the different people enjoying our sport.

 

I'm sure we'll all tire of finding 1 star park and grabs at some point, but good to know there are some caches for us newbies to find and harder ones to work our way up to.

 

So to the hiders -- keeping hiding those hard caches!!! As long as some simple ones are getting added too (and they always will), every type is welcome. Only search for what interests you!

[+IV_Warrior]

I hope that when people read this, that they consider what they are doing when they place these caches, in order to make it fun for all!

That's exactly why they hide them. "Easy" caches get boring after a while. So hiders started getting more "creative" with containers and hides, to keep it fun.

[+Anonymous']

I am a family father with two younger kids, and a very excited Geocaching wife. We are very interested in the whole concept of Geocaching, and enjoy the outdoors, and hiking to these neet little stashes. But I have to ask, why make it so difficult to find with these multiple micro stashes, and more clues? It seems to me that you had to be in the head of the creator in order to find the darn thing in alot of instances. So are just too far out to actually find.

 

I hope that when people read this, that they consider what they are doing when they place these caches, in order to make it fun for all! At this rate we will have to make a new rating system for difficulty, and crazyness...

 

For the rest of us, Great Job, and keep up the good work! This is alot of fun for my family and myself!

 

Greyfoxvt

Geocacher

Some Geocachers like a challenge. When the micro is a very urban area you have to hide the cache well. I have trouble on a lot of these because some cachers don't give very good clues.

[+BlueDeuce]

Some people like them, some people don't. There are plently of caches types to pick from. Sounds like you have a personal caching preference, nothing wrong with that.

[+Gambrinus & Crew]

Tastes vary. Some like a quick and easy cache-and-dash, and some like something more challening. I have two small children, too, and when I go out with them, we do easier caches -- just check the difficult and terrain ratings before deciding to hunt a particular cache.

 

I love having the option of going out to do some really hard ones by myself, though. I think on the whole, there are far more easy, kid-friendly caches out there than there are hard ones. Just stick with the easier, traditional caches if you don't dig hard ones, or multis.

[+tirediron]

It's like everything else.. different people like different things. I don't like onions, so I order my burgers without them. You like the less difficult terrain 'caches... stick with them. Nothing wrong with that at all.. you may find in time that you change these thoughts a little though... just a guess!

[+Beta Test]

Once you get to be a more advanced of a cacher (Can I say I'm advanced with 74?) the 3+*'s wont seem so hard. You will eventually find them easyer, and your kids will probably become even or better cachers than you in a short time, because they can learn from your mistakes. The longer you use your GPS the more tricks you learn. I did my first cache without a GPS, and didn't have a clue on how to use it then. But in one short year, by caching alone and with many others I learned a lot of tricks and now excell at caching. I guess that my point is to lead you kids slightly astray if you ever want to find another cache!

[+Vader]

The more difficult the terrain the better.

 

A 5/5 cache is a challenge, and there is quite a feeling of acomplishment.

 

I like to post difficult caches to see who can get to them.

 

Cavesr4all.com

Edited August 29, 2004 by Vader

[+Renegade Knight]

Why?

 

All kinds of people place caches and so all kinds of caches get placed. Interests and skills vary and that in turn varies the caches even more.

[+Imajika]

I live in Colorado and there are a ton of caches here. The good news is they vary from easy 1/1 to extremely difficult ones that range from 4/5 to 5/5 and all ranges in between. I just finished a 5/1 with some friends and it was an amazing feeling to know we figured it out after two weeks and we were the FTF.

 

If you think the difficult ones are too hard to manage with the kids in tow, just look for easier ones that the whole family can do together.

 

This is one of the aspects I like about caching, there are all kinds of caches for all kinds of people.

 

I enjoy the difficult caches. But there are times when I appreciate the easier ones too. Sometimes I am revved up to try some insane micro. Other times I just feel like doing some easy caching on a Sunday morning.

 

Who knows? Maybe as you cache more, you will decide to try the more difficult caches and find that they can be a lot of fun too!

Edited August 29, 2004 by Imajika

[+Team Perks]

Post a difficult cache, and people will complain. Respond by placing a micro in a lamp post, and more people will complain.

 

If you like easy ones, then just look for the easy ones. What more needs to be said?

[+nfa]

Hi,

 

I like to go caching by myself, and when I do, I go after all sorts of caches, including ones with high difficulty and/or terrain ratings.

 

I also like to go caching with my 2 year old son (look <---- for our picture); on those outings I pick caches with dramatically lower ratings in both categories.

 

This seems like a no-brainer (troll?), complaining about hard caches when there are easy ones to be found is like...

I was reading a Stephen Hawking book to my 4 year old, and he had some trouble with some of the concepts relating to unified theory.  All books should be Ant and Bee...why would anybody write anything harder?

 

People should be able to judge which caches they can do (see the 5/5 thread elsewhere in the forums for more of the same), and not blame other geocachers for hiding the wonderful variety of caches we all have the opportunity to enjoy.

 

nfa

[kayaker22589]

Why

 

Because getting home at 3 in the morning after a 4 mile hike/190 ft. rappell/5 hr cave exploration/190 ft climb back out and then passing out on your couch is the closest to complete nirvana unless we somehow could fit a kayaking trip in there somehow.

 

Edit:left out certain key words

Edited August 29, 2004 by kayaker22589

[12UP]

What more needs to be said?

 

First of all, the terrain stars are for how hard it is to get to the cache location, right?

With the few number of caches I've located, I can tell you that it's highly subjective. I've seen a 2 star terrain be much easier than a 1 1/2 in the actual terrain around and leading up to the cache.

 

Once you're on the scene, or you believe you are by what your GPSr indicates... the "difficulty" rating becomes even more subjective. Assuming the criteria for cache placement is to not damage the local ecology and keeping the cache safe from accidental finds, a lot of the subjectivity can be removed from that rating.

 

But it's easier for the person placing the cache to not bother looking at the accuracy of the GPSr when recording the coordinates, and not take many samples and average them. It's also possible that the intention of the difficult placement is to increase the challenge of the find. Assuming the latter, and the person placing the cache isn't a sadist...

 

then my advice is that people make every effort to place coordinates for caches accurately (within 20 feet), and once people find the way there by coordinates alone (assuming it's not an offset challenge), that if the average person would need more clues to find something in 1250 square feet (remember pi*r^2 ?) of space (not couting the vertical element of the hunt) then it should be provided as a clue and left to the person doing the seeking to decide what level of clues would be needed and obtain them ahead of time.

 

But aparently all too often the difficulty is because of the lack of quality of the cache placement and subsequent write up of the entry.

[4x4van]

I've been caching for a few years now, and I cache with my son (now 11), and sometimes my youngest daughter (now 9). We've done all types of caches, from easy "cache n dash" ones to extremely difficult ones that require 5 mile hikes. My daughter doesn't go with on the tougher ones, although even she is getting more and more able to handle some of the longer hikes.

 

We've worked our way up, and progressed, and in fact in 2 weeks my son and I will be making a 12 mile hike to the top of Mt San Jacinto peak, nearly 11,000ft elevation. We'll be hitting 5 caches on the way, including the peak, which is a virtual, and have stopped caching at our current count (95 found) so that the peak will be our 100th find! We're both really looking forward to it, and it will be quite an accomplishment for an 11 year old, as well as myself!

 

My point is that there are a wide variety of caches, and what you prefer not to seek out today may very well be the ones that you clamor for in a year or two. I personally don't care for urban micros, but they are a nice change of pace every so often, so I'm glad they're there. Others may want no part of a long hike in the woods, but in a year or two, maybe they will try a few and find out that the sense of accomplishment on those types really is nice afterall. Variety is the spice of life/geocaching!

[+nfa]

in the tooting my own horn department ...this article from the July issue of Today's Cacher seems germane to our discussion.

[+TravelingViking]

Yes, it's a good thing there is variety!

 

Here in our area (Hannover, Germany) you'll find many hard ones - but the good thing is they typically tell you in advance (I go caching with my daughter and had to "train" a few fellow cachers to include things like "not suitable for children" in their cache descriptions).

 

So it's not like you have to carry your power tools along all the time - you will know when you need an electric cordless drill or a car jack - you will have a chance to prepare yourself - or a chance to skip that one... (See Extended Standard Cacher's Equipment at the Watertree http://www.newvikings.com/geocaching/watertree.htm). BTW: So far all of those who found this cache loved it!

 

Olaf

[12UP]

The reference to "too far out" as being a difficult cache is what I took to mean more like this article.

 

A five mile hike isn't "extremely difficult" unless the terrain is. An easy to moderate terrain hike is great for children, and one of five miles round trip might mean 1 1/2 hours of quality time with them. I'd prefer that to searching for a poorly placed micro cache in the 6000 square feet "error zone" that the article mentions.

 

A 12 mile summit hike! Now that's a worthy 100th cache, even if only virtual! The treasure will be the view, itself.

 

The "Difficult cache" for me is one that is inadvertently difficult - those are worthy of much mention as examples of what NOT to do.

 

Caches like this one: http://www.newvikings.com/geocaching/watertree.htm (Mentioned in the last post, but with an errant character in the link.) are totally worthy of a high difficulty rating, and nobody has a right to complain about them if the cache entry is upfront right from the start.

[+ChileHead]

Variety is the spice of life. I like having both. Easy ones are good when I bring the kids, but I enjoy the harder ones when going solo or with a group of other wacked out cachers.

 

A "box in the woods" gets boring after a while. Many of my own caches are "box in the woods" variety, and I'm going to start archiving them soon and replacing with more difficult & interesting ones.

[+AtoZ]

Caching has to ge fun an interesting for all. Not every cache is for everyone. I just did one that took a 75 foot rappel that was a 4/5 cache. I have a cache that is a 5/1 that took the FTF folks 48 manhours to complete. Then I have one cache that is a 5 gallon bucket that is full of stuffed animals for kids to find that is a 1/1.5. There is something out there for everyone. What I do with my family is make a Pocket Query that is just regular containers and like less then 2.5 in difficulty. I can do this with the kids or what ever. But Geocaching is a myriad of thing.

Cheers

[+Mosaica]

Chiming in with another vote for more gnarly puzzle caches! I don't have kids, but I've taken other people's kids out caching with me, and I particularly like the brain-stretching nature of really hard puzzle caches when working with kids. I mean, wow, you can develop a kid's ability to deal with math & science problems --what's not to like about that? And when it comes to a difficult cache with some sort of crypto element, that's a great opportunity for a kid (or an overgrown kid like me) to gain confidence & problem-solving skills. Another reason I love a really tough puzzle cache is that I can feel a real sense of accomplishment, the sort that two-legged folks can feel after completing a 19 mile hike and rock-climbing and stuff like that.

 

Just a note: VT cachers make GREAT puzzle caches.

 

../Mosaica

[+Charles Street Gang]

I puposely do some 1/1 caches indicated "kid-friendly" stocked with toys to help little geocachers get excited about the game. My 6 yo has graduated to some 2/2 and has spotted a few herself! So please set aside some for the kids Edited August 30, 2004 by Charles Street Gang

[+wimseyguy]

Note to CSG-shhhhh! We can read just fine, thanks for the bold though.

I heard this comment from a caching buddy who has been at it even longer than me:

When we first started this it was all about hiding the container from the non-players. Now, sometimes it is about hiding the container from each other.

I thought that summed it up very nicely. We do need the variety in geocaching for it to continue to grow and develop. Let's not forget that we are only in our fourth year. More isn't always better, but more variety is.

[+BlueDeuce]

Who you all talking to? I don't think Greyfoxvt has been here since his last posting.

 

I bet he plays a mean game of ding-dong and ditch it.

[+Markwell]

I guess my question is "why not?"