How long before...

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3259

...the proliferation of shoulder-side and road-sign hides catch the attention of the DOT/other and an end is put to this trend?

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 3:07 pm

Sooner than you think. WI DOT does not allow geocaching on it property.
It is me belief that these type of caches should ever get approved.
Nothing will happen till some one gets severely hurt or killed along a road way. People who put these kind of caches out should ask themselves,"WOuld I want my child attempting to find this cache?"

Joined: 2009-06-05 Posts: 2123 Location: Menominee, MI

The reviewers know that the WI DOT does not allow caching on their property. Yet, they still publish road sign caches. Even though most road signs are on public right of ways, the road sign itself is DOT property.

Something to think about.

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 3:13 pm

cheezehead wrote:

Sooner than you think. WI DOT does not allow geocaching on it property.
It is me belief that these type of caches should ever get approved.
Nothing will happen till some one gets severely hurt or killed along a road way. People who put these kind of caches out should ask themselves,"WOuld I want my child attempting to find this cache?"

which is exactly why the last round of StopSpots doesnt' really appeal to me. My kids enjoy the thrill of being the ones to locate and grab the cache and I really don't like to have traffic whizzing past.

Joined: 2009-06-05 Posts: 2123 Location: Menominee, MI

Those new Stop Spot caches were also a good excuse for a certain multi-colored font user to rack up his FTF count. Rolling Eyes

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 3:47 pm

Hey, stay away from our Valley politics. Shouldn't you be embroiled in some king of Yooper shenanigans?

Rolling Eyes

I've always been a "gotta find 'em all in my circle" kinda cacher but there's too many that are just wrong IMHO (high D ratings at stop lights, etc.).

In my advanced caching age I am more choosey but still will grab PnGs if the mood suits me right. I'm done trying to influence the uninfluencable.

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3259

PLEASE DO NOT DERAIL THIS INTO ANOTHER P&G THREAD.

PLEASE DO NOT DERAIL THIS INTO A THREAD THAT CRITICIZES PARTICULAR CACHERS.

I mentioned neither in my original question.

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 4:59 pm

gotta run wrote:

...the proliferation of shoulder-side and road-sign hides catch the attention of the DOT/other and an end is put to this trend?

563 days.

Just a guess...

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3259

Not all P&G caches are shoulder-side or road-sign hides. Neither are those types of hides unique to any particular player.

But here are the facts. When we started playing back in the Dark Ages, those hides were rare. It was just a year or two ago that I recall a new hide that was a film can lying on the ground at the base of a stop sign at a busy intersection and I was surprised that was even allowed.

This is not whether you like those types of hides or not. This is about whether those types of hides are allowable, or a good idea, or what the consequences of those types of hides might be. In full disclosure, we have placed a few sign hides ourselves.

But as these hides proliferate--and I think it's fair to characterize them as proliferating--and become the rule, rather than the exception, of what a geocache "is," what will the consequences be, if any?

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 5:13 pm

I understand the property point-of-view on this but I don't understand how a stop sign cache is more dangerous than say, climbing a tree, cliffs, deep swamps, woods with bears or serial killers, etc.

Joined: 2009-06-05 Posts: 2123 Location: Menominee, MI

You are signing the log at a stop sign cache. Some drunk is all over the road and hits that same stop sign. Your family is making funeral arrangements for you.

Yes, it can happen.

Stop signs are DOT property, even if the land that they are on are public property. Which is the point Gotta Run is making.

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3259

I'm not sure what signs are DOT property and what ones are not (city, village, etc.).

If I recall correctly, one of the reasons the DOT does not allow caches at rest areas in WI is because of the hazard factor. I'm not sure what they would consider the hazard factor of a guard rail off a busy state highway or a sign along a road sign or at an intersection, particularly when there is little to no shoulder.

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 5:54 pm

Todd300 wrote:

You are signing the log at a stop sign cache. Some drunk is all over the road and hits that same stop sign. Your family is making funeral arrangements for you.

Yes, it can happen.

Stop signs are DOT property, even if the land that they are on are public property. Which is the point Gotta Run is making.

I'm headed to the Northwoods for that last Delorme page I need and somewhere along the 26.2 mile PnG a cougar eats me. Family never knows what happened and ten years later some other cacher finds my vehicle. Laughing

I would rather cachers put their pngs in a stop sign as opposed to just thrown on the ground, at least that way I can quickly get out of there. Cool

I'm not opposed to the PnGs in guardrails or signs, but I prefer them out on country roads.

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:31 pm

***DERAIL ALERT**** *** DERAIL ALERT*****
Hippie, you don't have to worry about getting eat'in my no cat cuz your too damn skinny!

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 8:38 pm

As we search signs, we can't help but notice the warning stickers on the sign "tampering or defacing this sign is a $250 or $500 fine"-- Thats an expensive Smile