Parking area co-ords

[TeamCabana]

Maybe its just me, but I think people should put co-ords for the trail heads there caches are on. Any thoughts?

[sandlanders]

Parking coordinates are always welcome. Sometimes they show you the closest place to park, and sometimes the safest place to park. If a trailhead isn’t well-marked, it’s a way for the cachers to know that they’re in the right spot. But sometimes giving parking coordinates may give something away about the cache that the cache owners want you to find out for yourselves. Some cache pages are detailed, some are not.

We like parking coordinates, if possible.

[Mister Greenthumb]

It’s geocaching, part of finding the cache sometimes is finding where to start on your own. I only give parking coordinates if that is definitely where I want you to start.

[Lostby7]

Very often I just skip the caches I cant find parking for (sometimes the skipped visit is based strictly on a map view; sometimes upon a physical visit when the parking / trail is not apparent)….coords would better my odds of visiting a cache with questionable access.

[HeliDood]

I posted parking coords for more than one cache (with good reason) and a lot of people seem to ignore them.

At GC21E2C a few people wanted to travel the shortest distance to the cache, which meant parking along a county highway and getting confronted by a cop. Parking coords were in the cache description from day 1, but were ignored.

At GC24NMC I posted parking coords because I didn’t want people driving all over the cranberry marsh and searching for the cache at the wrong side of the creek. This would be bad news during planting or harvest season.
Even with parking coords posted as both a waypoint and in the description, they were ignored by some, and, as evident in the logs, a significant number of cachers started out at the wrong side of the creek..

If someone makes the extra effort to post parking coords at one of their caches, there is likely a good reason for them.

[huffinpuffin2]

Like HeliDood has done, we really like it when the Parking Coordinates are INCLUDED AS WAYPOINTS. We know it is a bit more work, but likely much more effective.

It’s so much easier when they are automatically loaded into the GPSr with the cache location, we’re much for likely to use them! If they are just mixed in with the cache description text, we may miss them, or give them less weight.

Thanks!

[cheezehead]

@huffinpuffin2 wrote:

Like HeliDood has done, we really like it when the Parking Coordinates are INCLUDED AS WAYPOINTS. We know it is a bit more work, but likely much more effective.

It’s so much easier when they are automatically loaded into the GPSr with the cache location, we’re much for likely to use them! If they are just mixed in with the cache description text, we may miss them, or give them less weight.

Thanks!

So….you want parking coords to all those lonely caches in Sawyer county? I think there is gonna be a bunch next month.

[huffinpuffin2]

@cheezehead wrote:

So….you want parking coords to all those lonely caches in Sawyer county? I think there is gonna be a bunch next month.

Sounds like fun! Up in the forests, a passable road that’s on a map will do to get us close! Mountain bikes are at the ready as well!

Now let’s see, need to check that tick-map we grabbed from another thread…that’s part of the challenge, right? Like dressing up to cache through 3 feet of snow, only different….must be some sort of Spanx anti-tick wear or the like we can use…….. 😈

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Momentary hijack for huffinpuffin’s benefit….there actually IS a line of clothing, called BugOff. It’s really expensive, but used by the folks who need it and recommended highly. More than once, I’ve considered dropping the bucks to get at least the pants and a t-shirt for Trekkin’.

Now, back to parking coordinates. We do appreciate when the owner includes them as a waypoint, but have learned to read ahead and put them in manually if need be. Sometimes the challenge IS to find the access point or some other surprise. They are most helpful when they get you started in the right area and avoid trespassing or such, but as someone said, people often ignore them anyway.

Old fashioned maps can work wonders sometimes, too. 😈

[Crow-T-Robot]

I’ve found myself in unfamiliar cities and when I select the next cache to find, the Nuvi will route me into a residential cul-de-sac. The cache will be in a park that is on the other side of the houses but because it was closer to this street, the GPS takes me there.

Finding the park entrance or just where to park can be part of the challenge but I really don’t enjoy wasting the gas or the time looking for it. I’d rather be geocaching than driving around side streets. Having the parking coordinates as child waypoints is ideal but even listing them in the description is good enough for me. I’ll always use parking coordinates.

[Crow-T-Robot]

@Trekkin’ and Birdin’ wrote:

Old fashioned maps can work wonders sometimes, too. 😈

What are these “maps” you speak of? Are they those picture books at gas stations that have all the red, blue, green and black squiggly lines on them? Learn something new every day 😯

[-cheeto-]

I agree that part of geocaching is finding parking and finding how to approach. However, if approaching incorrectly means unknowingly trespassing or causing damage to the surroundings, as responsible cache owners we should be posting parking coords and/or trail-head coords.

People will always knowingly or unknowingly disregard a cache owners wishes. If they continue to do so and it’s damaging the surroundings or causing known trespass issues, perhaps it’s time to adjust the hide or archive.

[-cheeto-]

@Bassanio wrote:

I’ve found myself in unfamiliar cities and when I select the next cache to find, the Nuvi will route me into a residential cul-de-sac. The cache will be in a park that is on the other side of the houses but because it was closer to this street, the GPS takes me there.

I hear you there…

One of the battleship caches is hidden in a rather large park with what appears to be no main entrance or parking. Navigator takes you to the typical nice house culdesac maze bordering the park. Drive all the way around the park and never did find a main park entrance or parking area. Moved on to the next cache.

While it is part of the challenge, some cache owners don’t always realize that not everyone is from “their area” and not everyone has been to that park before. This thread is a good reminder and if as a cache owner you want your cache to be found lots of times than adding parking coords or trail-head coords is a great idea! If you want it to be a challenge and not be found as much, let people continue to drive to dead ends and circle those parks. 😉

[Team Deejay]

I will second the request to put these in as an additional waypoint. With traditional caches, we rarely bother to look at the cache page at all, but the waypoints are automatically in my GPS, so I will sometimes look for them if I’m in an unfamiliar area.

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