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Jeff’s original question: What’s being done?
Actually, we have made an occasional attempt to get volunteer’s to go out and recover a cache here and there. The effort is a bit obscure since it has been done largely on the BOD pages and by e-mail. The Lion’s share of our problem caches heave been traditional (Single caches) that have gone missing, ergo: no geotrash. We still have a problem with micro multi’s with forgotten waypoints. I don’t know that there is an easy solution to this. When we know where these micro waypoints are, we do make the effort. We all need to do our part when we see caches going derelict. It is part of the CITO effort as well. ~tb
Thanks Beast. Since the process seems to be somewhat informal, please count me in as someone who would rescue geotrash in NE Wisconsin. I’d be happy to lend a hand to the cause…
Jeff
The Michigan Geocaching Organization (MiGO) has a link and guidelines on their homepage in regard to archived caches. They also solicit and recognize cachers who’ve been involved in this effort.
This might be a model for WGA to consider (now that the new website is all designed!)
http://www.mi-geocaching.org/modules.php?name=Rescue_MissioncYa, Grandpa
Wow – that’s a GREAT idea…
Hi TATB,
Thanks a lot for your efforts in archiving caches that have gone bad. I have done this too, but usually start off by emailing the owner.
I had an interesting experience in requesting a Minnesota cache be archived. It was in a great location, but the cache was gone. I looked for 45 minutes and found where an (illegal) I bolt was bolted into a tree where the cache once was. There had been 4 previous DNFs and supposedly there was a jeep in the cache.
Anyway, I posted a please archive, and it was archived the next day. Well, I received the angriest email that you can imagine from a MN cacher who just chewed me out royally for my presumption of coming into their territory and requesting a cache be archived, when it was clearly gone. She claimed the owner was ill, and it would be replaced soon.
Anyway, the owner was more than just ill, since I had happened to learn that the owner had died several months previously.
Anyway, the point of my story is to keep up the good work, but dont be surprized if you get a little flak along the way.
zuma
Keep On Cachin In The Free World.We have also run into this situation here in Green Bay and this is the self imposed procedure we followed.
1) When we noticed that several caches were temporarily disabled for a long time(a year) we first emailed the owners.
2) After there were no responses from the owners, we went out to make sure that the caches were either there or not. We had done them all so we knew where they were.
3) When we found that the caches were indeed no longer there, we posted a “request for archive”.
At this point the decision to archive is in the hands of the approvers. In our case, the approvers did archive the caches in question.
I am sure it holds more weight with the approvers if a team that has been around a while and has already found a cache in question verifys whether or not it is there.
I think that if we all pay a little more attention to caches with issues in our respective areas, we can keep our caching pages and caching environment clean.
Checked into a cache in central WI that was placed by someone from Iowa that had a note that it was not there anymore. Owner posted note almost a year ago that they were going to replace it. I asked them nicely to archive it if they couldn’t come and fix it soon and they did archive it shortly after and thanked me for reminding them. It is a nice park and I mentioned to them that someone else may want to place one in the area. I did double check the area and it was definately gone. People that have a long way to drive to maintain a cache need to think twice before placing it. I have one cache in Northern WI and it is near my cabin. I go up there a few times over the spring and summer (more often in the fall chasing grouse!) and can check on it when I am up there.
quote:
Originally posted by Gram&Gramps:
The Michigan Geocaching Organization (MiGO) has a link and guidelines on their homepage in regard to archived caches. They also solicit and recognize cachers who’ve been involved in this effort.This might be a model for WGA to consider (now that the new website is all designed!)
http://www.mi-geocaching.org/modules.php?name=Rescue_MissioncYa, Grandpa
I looked at this a couple months ago & thought it was a neat idea as well.
Bec
There are no shortcuts to any place worth goingquote:
Originally posted by greyhounder:
I looked at this a couple months ago & thought it was a neat idea as well.Bec
I agree, this would be a good way to deal with what’s left out in the woods AFTER a cache has been archived. What I am referring to is what it is going to take to archive a cache in the first place.
I could envision a seperate thread in the forums for communicating with the people who are going out and picking up the pieces.
I finally got some positive results from a cache that has been diabled for almost a year. I rewrote to the person(s), stating I had wrote to them a month or so and again was wondering if they could archive the cache in question. Since they continuously had problems with it, I did not want to adopt the cache. They wrote back and said, no porblem. I did offer to adopt one of their other caches they were having problems with, but they decided to just archive it. Seems they are no longer into the sport and decided to just close everything up. I was happy to see that I could now place cachesin the area, but was also a sad moment to see that the previous cache owners are no longer active.
{edit: spelling…yeah yeah.. I KNOW .. Spellcheck!!}
[This message has been edited by Cache_boppin_BunnyFuFu (edited 04-04-2006).]
On the flip side of this, I have two caches that were archived. A lot of work went into placing them, maintaining them monthly or so, and a lot of work went into maintaining them after they were archived. I used the link on Geocaching.com to request they be reactivated, and sent several letters over a period of months to the Brian who archived them, with no response.
One concern is they’re still archived, despite the effort to remove them from that status. The other concern is the lack of response.
I don’t know where the problem lies, and am not trying to point fingers. I don’t know if others have had this particular problem, but it is an issue I’d like resolved.
Please take this in a constructive manor,
Opossum
Update..
It’s been a couple of weeks since I suggested the archiving of 18 caches. I thought I would do a follow-up check. Today only three of those 18 remain on my watch list. The others have either been repaired or archived. There are now 172 disabled caches in the state. This is still too many, but some progress is being made. keep up the good work my fellow cachers. ~ tbGot the 2 archived that I was working on. Now I will have 7 NEW caches out in May!!
We just adopted a cache near us, GCGJT9 Blue Hills Devil’s Kettle, that had been reported wet and damaged for quite a while. We are trying to adopt another cache where the owner has not been active in 4 years and the cache has been broken and wet for over a year now. Both caches are in our area and are unusually scenic places that geocachers really appreciate seeing. We feel we can improve, maintain and continue these caches, that have, for one reason or another, deteriorated to the point where they no longer provide a quality find that is commensurate with their location. If others would follow our example, many archived or abandoned caches could be saved.
[This message has been edited by Crazy4 (edited 04-21-2006).]
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