why keep trying

You keep trying because without people like you there would be no game of geocaching, just people wandering around in the woods with GPSs looking for…nothing. You keep trying even though you know there are many people who will give back nothing to the game over time by contributing the time and effort to place and maintain even one cache. You keep trying despite the fact that some lazy and careless people will wreck what you have worked hard to create and you will have to fix it. You keep trying because you hope that this group of people is a minority of cachers.

But mainly you keep trying because you enjoy it and because you know that there’s a large number of people who do appreciate what you do and who will take the time to experience and care for your cache as you have intended.

Look at it this way. Geocaching is like life. You work hard to produce something nice, and others that do not take part of it away. Sort of like the productivity (income) tax we have, except with geocaching at least you have some control…

We, too, have this paternal sentiment about our fifty caches. We feel like hosts to those who visit them and try to make the find a good overall experience. There have been lots of comments in the forums about what makes for a good cache and I won’t go into them here, as there are a lot of perspectives. Cachers are driven by different interests and need to go for them all or look for the ones that appeal to their tastes.

As cache owners, we thrive on appreciative logs from finders, like gotta run and T&B, and many others, who make it worth while when they find our caches. We try to blend great location or interesting hide (puzzle or not), and something in the way of good swag or trackables to interest all finders. We have tweaked a lot of caches and haven’t yet archived one as we are pretty stubborn when we commit to an idea or location.

As others mention, there are ways to cope with the obstacles of maintaining a good find, including periodic maintenance and a little TLC if you care enough to bother. We sometimes gnash our teeth at what some people think is suitable to trade or put into a cache. I’d have a trash can full of stuff I’ve taken out of our caches and those of others when I’ve traded or added something to enhance them, if I kept all that junk. Some people have a strange idea of what makes for treasure in a cache. Lots of that stuff should have hit the circular file before they left home.

Fact is, and we continue to come to terms with this, you can’t control what others do to your “offspring” hides. Most likely, those who fail to maintain or enhance a good cache don’t even read these forum thoughts. Many just don’t give much consideration to it or don’t care anyway.

We aren’t giving up, thanks to those good people who write great logs and treat caches fairly. For now at least, we will continue to feed off the visits of people like the gotta runs and T&Bs who come to our hides.

@cheezehead wrote:

Hey guys! Just wanted to point out the new serise of caches up around the Eau Claire Lakes/Barnes/ Drummond area. FTB or ” For The Birds”
15 in all I thnik. Put out by a rookie cacher GramaCindy. But they are all micros. 😯 🙁 There are also about 5 other new caches in that same area also.

Just thought I’d let you know.

WOOPS!!!! I thought this was a pm! It was supose to be sent as a PM.

SORRY! NOt trying to hijack this thread!

@Trekkin’ and Birdin’ wrote:

There are a couple area cachers who are, well, careless. We have come to caches after them, finding them unhidden, not closed up completey. In a hurry or something. Unless a person hides some of their own, they just don’t realize the long term impact of their actions, or maybe lack thereof.

Yup. Got some like that here too. Apparently think it’s “Fun4” them to be the last to find on a cache. Always have to go check on your caches after they find them. No suprise, never placed a cache either.