proof of public land

[gotta run]

@CodeJunkie wrote:

It still ceases to amaze me that everyone feels the need to cram everything into an urban environment instead of exploring the great outdoors. There is so much untapped DNR land available it’s not funny. Oh I forgot – nobody wants to walk more the 20′ for a cache.

+1

Did anybody get into this game because they wanted to pull film strip cans from guard rails or search for nano caches in the knot holes of electrical poles in the easements of people’s front yards? If so, you really need to get out more…

We shouldn’t even be talking about whether or not something is private or public and how fine a line we can draw on a map to get something in place. As CJ says, go find a spot in the great outdoors, or go find a park that’s clearly marked. Heck, I drove by a park in Green Bay yesterday that as far as I can tell has NEVER had a cache in it.

Yes, this has always been a game that has “something for everybody” and a lot of this discussion drags up the whole “quantity vs. quality” issue. But the ONLY thing that can possibly motivate someone to want to cram a cache every 527 feet in an urban environment is the desire for numbers. And what do those numbers mean? Nothing.

Go back and look at your own finds in your profile. Which caches do you remember? And which ones do you not even remember being at because you simply had your head stuck in another cedar tree?

Some day, whether you have 100 or 10,000 finds today, you’re not going to care a whit about your “accomplishment.” Since this game is technology based, the technology will change. Handheld GPSrs will evolve. Who knows what we’ll have access to in 10, 20, 30 years.

Heck, if the Frog decides to pull the site, what then? All our stuff lives in the ether.

So do the geo-community a favor. Go find a nice spot to put a cache, and if there’s a question about whether it’s nice, or even public, look elsewhere.

Sometimes less is more.

On the Left Side of the Road...

[cheezehead]

Ummm.. ya….DITTO!

[Natloh2]

gotta run, very well said, thank you

[Hardinfam]

Thanks all of you for your input. We are trying to find good places to hide but most are taken

[CodeJunkie]

@Hardinfam wrote:

Thanks all of you for your input. We are trying to find good places to hide but most are taken

I think there are tons of good spots yet, but it depends on how far you want to be from home. My closest to home owned cache used to be 1/3 mile, but it didn’t work out so I archived it. Now my closest owned is 1/2 mile and gets logged only once every 2 months or so and it’s in a park. I have some out in the marshy DNR land 4-5 miles away and they got very few visitors but the logs written are great.

My point is that you need to think about why you place the hides.
1) Just so I can have a bunch of hides?
2) Because you like to see a bunch of “TFTC” logs?
3) Because you want to give back?
4) To get good logs?
5) To have people experience things they wouldn’t normally experience?

I’d much prefer a single “good” log over 100 “TFTC” logs, but that’s just me as an owner.

[Hardinfam]

My family puts out the caches to give back. I honestly didn’t think some of the caches would get published

[rcflyer2242]

If you did not think they would get published, then why hide it and go through building the cache page and wasting the reviewers time. They have better things to do. There are plenty of good places to hide caches that are not taken in your area. Get off the city streets and explore the outdoors more. Check DNR web sites for property close by. There is still room in the State parks near you. Build a quality puzzle cache then hide the final on a stop sign. On a puzzle its not the find that gives satifaction its the green lite on the solve. Open the box then step outside.

[Hardinfam]

I published them for my daughter.

Have you ever see a child fine a cache on their own? I saw first hand a child(not my own) finding one of mine. She was so excited that she did it without help. That ah HA moment was priceless.

[CodeJunkie]

@Hardinfam wrote:

Have you ever see a child fine a cache on their own?

Yes I have as a matter of fact and it’s precious to see them open a big old ammo box with lots of trade goods (not too many of these around for some reason though). My kids cache with me periodically and aside from a few puzzle finals, they’ve been in wide open areas. Our favorites are the walking trails, biking trails, parks (local / county / state), etc.

We walk in our own neighborhood and cache near other cities. If we’re going to another city we like to get out and experience the non-residential areas. The parks are always fun as well as the unique landmarks, historic areas, etc.

[Hardinfam]

Have you ever cached with a two year old? You are limited to only kiddy park hides

[Mister Greenthumb]

And it goes on and on.

[kungfuhippie]

@Hardinfam wrote:

Have you ever cached with a two year old? You are limited to only kiddy park hides

I haven’t weighed in on this yet, but I can field this one.

Yes – I cache with my two boys. When we started they were 6mos & 2yrs. Now they are almost 2 and 3 1/2. They’ve done 4.5/5 terrain caches with me, they can manage hiking over 3/4 of a mile before they start to get tired and whine. Pine trees and thorns hold no fear for them. There are no power caching 100+ days for us, but 5 or 6 caches in a park or down a nice trail are very doable. The boys absolutely love being out in the “wild” on our “adventures”. I’m pretty sure they have no interest in checking out guardrails or terraces on the street. When the 3rd baby arrives any day, I will be out caching with 3 kiddos under 3. There is a lot more time playing on playgrounds or eating snacks, but we make it work because it’s fun for us.

Just my 2 cents!

[CodeJunkie]

Where’s the “Like” button for KFH? I was hoping you’d weigh in on the last comment.

My girls were 8/10 when we started and it began with 4-6 caches and then “prize” of going to a new park in a new city and/or ice cream. It was a great compromise and we set reasonable limits and expectations.

[MawandPawKettle]

My husband and I have like to hide caches that we would like to find. For us it’s about the quallty not quanity. Most of our hides are in the Kettle Moraine State Forest, and are short walk through the forest. It’s more important to us that we get nice logs instead of TFTH. We also like to bring people to little known and visited spots.
I like to craft, sew and knit so I spend all winter and during hot weather crafting, sewing and knitting. I figure if you took the time to find one of my caches you should be rewarded with good swag. We stopped at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago while caching and scored a large bag of McToys in the original packages for $5. The swag drawer at home is packed full!
Took a kmhiker class last night at learned first hand about the look on two little girls faces when they found the temporary cache after the adults gave up because they could not find it. 😀

[Mister Greenthumb]

I’ll hit the “like” button for August (KFH). I can attest to the prowess of him and his boys when it comes to geocaching. To date they are the only ones to have found a 5/4 of mine published in May GC2VTK8. Here’s their log.

This journey might have been the most fun I’ve had on a challenge. I’m not sure how I missed this being published as I love working on the challenge caches, but last week while caching with Mr G he mentioned it and I knew that it was perfect for us. Living in Madison only about 2 miles from the IAT and doing a lot of caching along the trail in the Milwaukee area, I figured that I had a pretty good start on this one. After doing some digging through our previous caches, it turned out we only needed 5 counties to qualify, so made plans for a couple of roadtrips and shot the CO my list of caches. The boys and I spent an afternoon hiking in the NKM to pick up Sheboygan & Fond du Lac and then ran to Wausau/Waupaca and the final to finish up on Sat. We were 3rd to sign, but FTF . I absolutely love hiking the IAT with the boys and can’t wait to continue adding the rest of the counties. Once they are older, the plan is to spend a summer hiking the trail but we’ll see. The Loew Lake area is still one of my favorite areas to visit and cache in, thanks for another excuse to come back!

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