This topic contains 11 replies, has 11 voices, and was last updated by 
-
Posts
-
this is a rant!
i just archived a cache because it needed to be replaced. looking thru the items still in the container makes me wonder what the heck is wrong with people. look at the value of what you are taking, and what you are leaving. you don’t have to spend a fortune on trade items, the dollar store or rummage sales have plenty of stuff that most people would like to find in a cache box. think about what you like to find and put that type of thing in the box. if all you are leaving is your card or some tiny eraser, pretty soon all that is left in the cache are some stickers and some golf tees and ratty golf balls.
i now have a signature item that i have been leaving in caches. it takes some time and some money to make them, so i feel the value equals a caribiner or party beads (two things i love to find)
think of the things you have found that have made your day. and then put stuff like that out there for others to find.Well done rant!
With one exception (in my case), last year I was in a golf marathon fundraiser (you go nuts hitting like 3 balls on a hole, so you can golf 100 holes in a day, it’s strange but fun) …. so I needed lots of cheap golf balls, so I took them from caches when ever possible.
I hear ya. As a poor college kid who still tries to have good swag on hand, some of the trade items I find make me cringe a little. 🙁 To trade up or trade even was one of the first things I learned about geocaching. Maybe some people just need a little reminder. 😉
-Katy-
I agree. Lately I’ve been finding junk and food items in the caches. Over the last two weeks I’ve removed bubble gum, lolli pops, lifesavers, rusted fishing hooks, rusted fishing lures that were just thrown in that I almost stabbed myself with, matches, a lighter and a knife. Also, when I was in St. Cloud (glad it wasn’t WI) I found a cache that was completely full of garbage. It had smashed cups from McDonald’s, burger wrappers, cigarette packages, etc. On each of these, I removed the offending items and replaced them with good stuff that I picked up when a store was going out of business. It’s bad when I open a cache and find garbage, but it’s even worse when I imagine my nephews opening the cache and finding junk. If we can’t stock it with good stuff for us adults, at least think of the little kids.
I might be the eternal optimist, but personally I highly doubt a geocacher would put used coffee cups, McDonalds wrappers, empty cigarette packages and garbage into a cache container. That sounds like something a muggle might do.
Geocachers might put in something that I feel is cheap or perhaps even inappropriate or take something and leave nothing, but trash and garbage? I don’t think so. Why would they bother……
Just my 2 cents.
I agree, I don’t think that cachers were the ones responsible for the trash… but I do think they were responsible for the food items, matches, etc.
I have found numerous, well hide caches with what I would consider as garbage in them. Bottle caps, a smelly clam shell from the beach, chewed up golf balls, an ordinary rock??
What I have been doing for some time now, is leaving numerous small items and take nothing, if a cache is looking shabby. The reason?? It’s for the KIDS.. the little ones, not the BIG ones. To have a little cacher open a container and find “Nothing”, then imagine their sad little faces. How disappointing. I love those little erasers, so I leave a number of them, or items from my previous events….ANYTHING but bottle caps and smelly clam shells. I carry a small pack and fill it with lots of little things, so I have something for event the smllest of caches.
My favorite place to shop for these things are Oriental Trading catalog online, the Dollar Store or any store with a clearence section (Our Walgreens has that once in a while). If all else fails….quarters work great!!
I agree whole heartdely with Da Fu. I once opened up a Cache container to find a Band Aid, and a Green Barrel from a Pencil eraser. Not even an eraser. And it wasn’t from the Pencil that was in the cache. I normaly don’t take anything just sign the log, however, if I do take something, I always leave something of greater value.
Justin
Along the same lines, how about placing new caches with nothing in them? My kids and I had the opportunity to go after a couple of FTF’s this week, both placed by the same person. In both cases the caches contained nothing but the log sheet. After expressing our disappointment in the log, I received an email stating the cache owner was no longer into trade items and only cached for the thrill of finding new locations and spending time with his dog. I am all for the fun of the hunt but my kids are looking for fun items to trade as well. 🙁
I could not agree more. I stock my new caches with good stuff, go back even just a few weeks later and most of it is gone with NOTHING to replace it. I am getting an idea by who visits them first who the people are that are taking stuff and not putting ANYTHING in at all. I just don’t understand that mindset, if they have fun finding stuff, they should do the same for the next player. I always put in more than I take or even restock mostly empty caches with my own stuff. Anybody who has followed me on a caching route has probably noticed several items I have put in some caches. I discovered last night that my whole cache went missing – I suspect they wanted the nice ammo box I bought at the WGA picnic…. I am getting a bit bummed and I am probably going to stop placing caches altogether and/or archive some. 🙁
I find the same problem as well. Not always. But sometimes. For me, the swag is usually not important unless Little Fishcacher is along. 😉 I carry a backpack when I cache and I keep an assortment of items in there and will dump a big handful of things in a cache if it is in need. I sorta enjoy it. Maybe it’s the feeling of playing santa year round, lol.
With this thread fresh in my mind, I went out to do maintenence on my cache (GCNHB1) today. I was expecting to find the assortment of items you would find in an older cache (this one is 15 months old now) such as broken mctoys and the like. I was VERY pleasantly surprised to find the final with LOTS of cool trade items inside! It’s a 5 gallon bucket and it’s 1/3 full! 😮 It had a nice lanyard, a cute stuffed animal, 3 or 4 books, and all sorts of fun little items and toys! The only thing I restocked it with was some mosquito wipes since the little buggers were thick today.
I left a note on my cache page, and I’ll leave it here too: Thanks to all the previous finders for putting the waypoints and final back where you found them, and for keeping the final clean, dry, and full!!! 😀
~Mama Fishcacher
If everyone trades up, does that mean we’ll eventually see deeds to homes in caches? 🙂
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.