Hi!  I’m new to WGA but have 10,000 finds and if I remember correctly I was the first cacher in Iowa to make 1000 finds.  These days I haven’t been caching much, primarily because I’ve been focusing on my main hobby project and life legacy.  It’s a creation that a group of us have been spending the past 13 years making on land I purchased specifically for the purpose in western Wisconsin.

I’m not going to disclose what it is that we’re creating here because part of the fun is for visitors to be surprised when they find out what it is and if I described it here it would ruin the surprise for anyone reading this.  If anyone’s curious, feel free to PM me and I’ll send you a link to our website and a virtual brochure.  But then you’ll know exactly what you’ll see if you come visit!

Two of us spend 1-2 long days about six months each year making the location more extensive.  We also have periodic work weekends where a small group continues progress.  Then there’s endless maintenance and support work.  I’ve spent a majority of my free time over the past 13 years creating it and trying to make it as interesting as it can be.  We were recently featured in an international news source and recently had an inquiry from a statewide news source.  I’m being vague just so I don’t ruin the surprise!

The purpose of the location is for visitors to enjoy exploring and discovering what we created.  One of our biggest challenges is finding a responsible, respectful (vetted) audience without inviting troublemakers.  We strictly keep our location secret because all it takes is one troublemaker to vandalize or steal and do enough damage that it would shut us down for years as I save up enough to undo the damage.  Everything we do is public information and legal.  Our county zoning department has been through the location just for fun and enjoyed their visit!  Visitors are welcome to post everything they see and do publicly, but we expect all visitors to sign a waiver, keep our location secret, and turn photo location tagging off so the location doesn’t get accidentally leaked somewhere like Google.

Soooo…why isn’t there a cache inside the location?  I’ve always wanted there to be one so cachers could enjoy the location and figuring out where it’s hiding.  I looked into it years ago but sadly Groundspeak would strictly not make an exception to their policy that a human cannot be needed to be part of the process of getting the final coords.  We briefly get to know everybody who reaches out asking to visit to get a pretty good idea that they’re not troublemakers.  We welcome perhaps somewhere around 90% of the people who reach out.  Every single person who has visited in recent years has been very responsible and respectful.  We also have a liability release all visitors have to sign.  Part of the reason we require a human to be involved in the process is to confirm the release is signed correctly.

After Groundspeak said no way, I posted on the gc.com forum asking other cachers for ideas about how we might be able to figure out a workaround.  But within minutes, a moderator deleted my entire post!!  I reached out to them asking why.  They did not reply even after multiple messages.

That whole debacle pushed me away from Groundspeak to the point where I archived my MN and IA puzzle caches, all 6-8 of them.  They had been active for about a decade.  I released them on a welcoming listing service (am I allowed to mention its name here?) but in the years since they have gotten zero finds because that listing service is dead apparently thanks to Groundspeak having an effective monopoly.  Hereforward, I continue to find caches when I meet up with my cacher friend from Iowa but pretty sure I will never hide a cache again except possibly in our location if we can figure this out.  Groundspeak ruined the fun for everybody.  I’m very averse to ever contributing to geocaching again as long as it’s run by the same company.  But I also recognize most cachers are great people and it’s sad that they don’t get the experience of exploring our location.  It’s so unique that visitors will remember it for the rest of their lives and have a fun story to tell.

The owner of the alternate listing service was VERY welcoming and appreciative of my efforts to release a cache in our location.  He helped me set it up with a virtual cache where visitors have to write a few paragraphs demonstrating their understanding of leave-no-trace principles, which we then review before giving out the final coords.  And there’s a step in there that allows them to get the liability release signed at a distance.  He even mailed me a box of swag to include in the cache!

Sadly, after a couple years of being active on that listing service, we still had no finds.  So I put it on a listing service for a similar hobby (can I name it here?) too.  A few years after that and we sadly have no finds from either listing service.  As far as I can tell, it’s because no one is active on either site in our region.

Randomly stumbled upon WGA this morning and it got me thinking, perhaps someone from WGA has ideas for a workaround.  It wouldn’t take much of a “no” from Groundspeak for me to end this effort and spend that time making our location more extensive instead of trying to get a cache listed.  Our project is exceptionally labor-intensive and full of maintenance and logistical challenges.  I need to stay focused.  But perhaps Groundspeak is less strict with that policy now than they were a few years ago?  Or perhaps someone from WGA knows how to get through to someone at the right level of leadership in Groundspeak to help them understand why it would be a win-win-win for cachers, Groundspeak, and our team if they were to make an exception to that policy?  Or perhaps someone from WGA might be interested in being an advocate/liaison with Groundspeak for us?  PM me and come visit us and you’ll see why many cachers would love the place!  It’s not for everybody, but everyone who does feel comfortable going in and exploring the location says they really enjoyed the experience.  We should be able to provide enough information that prospective visitors would have a pretty good idea of whether they’re comfortable with it without spilling the beans too much and ruining the surprise.