Why?

[rpaske]

This topic took a right turn somewhere. Let’s get it back on track, start a new topic, or just abandon this one. ok?

[edit]Off Topic Posts have been split to new topic.[/edit]
editted by GeoPink

[Ray]

@rpaske wrote:

Armor on! Just got back after searching for geocaches in piles of bark, searching for the correct pile of dog doo-doo, and micros hanging from pine trees! Sorry if I have offended. What ever happened to the traditional geocaches? Have they gone the way of $2.00 Gas? Evaporated?

I need to take shelter behind that shield as well. Trudy & I have hidden our share of micro’s, too. I think there is room for them in the game, but let’s try to be creative. The unique facet of a cache is lost the second time it is done. Example: First fake rock – “creative”; second fake rock -“been there, done that.” Today, when we come to the end of a dead end road, we know to look for a magnetic ‘hide-a-key’ on the guard rail. Trudy and I love the creativity of Genius Loci’s caches, but feel that it is near moronic to try to search out more than a dozen of the ‘BoB’ caches in a day. Much of this was learned in our first cache series -Havenwoods 1 through 5. We love creative micros but that creativity seems to be lost in the scores of caches we see today. We have had days when we went out with the intent of relocating a Travel Bug only to find that of a dozen or more finds in that day, none was large enough to accommodate these little travelers.

We would like to see more of the larger caches to help stimulate the interest of younger cachers as well. After all, this is to a large degree, family activity. Adolescents are even more quickly bored with micros containing no stash.

Bring back the Military Surplus Utility Boxes (ammo cans) folks.

JMHO ~tb

[marc_54140]

I actually like micros. I hid them by perference, since I am not into the swag thing. However, I know some cachers – especially the younger ones – like the swag part of the hunt. Oh, well………..

I do have a few large caches out, and have a few more planned.

[PCFrog]

I do like and support traditional caches over micros but on our last geocaching outing and previous ones the ticks this year are horrible. This has me seriously considering for rest of the summer to try to stick to the urban micro caches where you don’t have to wonder in the woods. I really like hiking but can stand all the bug spray and self checking, kid checking, dog checking, rechecking just to make sure we don’t have ticks all over us.

So while a majority of my caches are traditional in the woods part me would not mind this summer having some of those in the cement world micro caches. Not those micros in the woods you are referring to.

If all goes well I will be making a trip to Boston this summer and personally I am looking forward to seeing the CITY, not woods, via geocaching.

[Cache_boppin_BunnyFuFu]

I just placed 8 caches yesterday (for a total of 3+ miles walking wheeewh) and they are of various sizes. Some places are jsut not suitable for a regular, but just had to bring you to them. Hope they all get approved soon!! I’r rather have smalls to regulars…so… did my best!

[laxbobber]

I’m not sure what the fuss is about. I think we should be worried about the quality of location and cleverness of the cache. If I’m drawn down some short boring trail to a pile of sticks atop an ammo can two feet from the trail again I am going to scream! Let’s try to get caches out there designed to take people to interesting and/or historical places. If that’s not possible, let’s try for clever hides. What we should be complaining about is boring caches! Just my two cents…

[Cheesehead Dave]

And some people prefer the walks down boring paths to a box under a pile of sticks to a deviously hidden urban cache.

“Geocaching is like a box of chocolates…”

My concern would fall more along an area becoming saturated with the same type of cache. If every park in town had a cammoed film container hidden in a pine tree, that would get old real quick.

If suddenly every new cache was a puzzle, even the final destination was interesting, that would get tiresome.

If every cache was a peanut butter jar behind a log, it would soon get tedious.

Maybe geocaching is more like an omelette.

Some people like ham. Some like peppers. Others like tomato. Some people may detest spinach. Personally, I like mushrooms, though I wouldn’t want one packed with solid ‘shrooms. I prefer a good mix of several ingredients. For variety, maybe I’ll try bacon once in awhile.

All cooked in butter. With extra cheese on top. And salsa… *DROOL* Excuse me for a sec…

Okay…

In the geocaching “omelette,” some people like micros, some like multis, some like puzzles. While I’m sure there are some that might like a heavier helping of one type to another, I think most people would prefer to see a good variety of different types in their area.

[LightningBugs Mum]

I’m going to echo Cheesehead Dave here. Variety is the key to keeping it interesting for me as well, although the kids do prefer a cache with swag in it. I like all kinds of caches, but after finding the 10th one of the day that is the same as the previous nine (regardless of whether they’re urban micros or ammo cans in the woods) I’ll get bored and look for something else to do. Not every cache placement can be completely original, but placers could at least try to make a new cache somehow different from the others in the area.

[Geoffnsara]

It has always been my opinion that a cache should bring you somewhere special, not a park with one tree, not to a pile of garbage, not to a pole base, and not to a guard rail.

[Team Deejay]

We just got back from vacation in Tennessee. I can tell you that the caches here are much better with regard to “significance of location”. Most of the caches we have visited in Wisconsin seem to be placed to draw attention to a particular location, with the possible exception of puzzle caches, which are a kind of “virtual” location. In Tennessee, the best caches we found there were cemetery caches and virtuals in the NP. Mostly, we found many caches in lame locations, including caches on fire hydrants (at a tourist trap), stuck to a waste grease bin at a Cracker Barrel restaurant (with the cache title of “The Smelly Crack”, you think they got permission for this one?), in an outhouse behind an old church, many, many lightpole hides at convenience stores, gas stations, coffee shops, etc. I am very glad that we started here in Wisconsin. Had we started in Tennessee, we probably would have given it up after a week or two.

Maybe the best way I can express it is a ratio. In SE Wisconsin, for every 20 caches, maybe 1 of them is bland with nothing to recommend it. In Tennessee, it was more like 15 out of 20 were weak. Also, the cache descriptions here do a much better job of indicating what you will find at the location, so if you don’t like historical caches, or cemeteries, or long hikes, you can usually avoid them. Not so elsewhere.

To close, I am grateful that there are so many talented cache hiders in this area. Thanks for all your efforts in making geocaching what it is in Wisconsin.

[LightningBugs Mum]

Memorable caches for us fall into one of three categories (with examples off the top of my head):

1. Unique hiding technique (ex: Mr. Larrabee’s Ghost, Metamorphosis).

2. Unique location – this can be either a spectacular spot (ex: Peewee’s Small Falls, Officers Scenic Cache) or perhaps something interesting about the local history that can be learned there (ex: The Yellowstone Trail series, Mounds Abound, Inner City Surprise).

3. Fun theme or puzzle (ex: Lateral Thinking, Candy Cane Lane).

Of course not every cache can be truly memorable. But it is my hope that future hiders will at least consider the uniqueness of thier hides before throwing another film canister in a tree. It seems whenever I talk to a cacher from out of state, they always rave about the quality of Wisconsin geocaches. Let’s keep it that way!

[LightningBugs Mum]

@Team Deejay wrote:

….stuck to a waste grease bin at a Cracker Barrel restaurant (with the cache title of “The Smelly Crack”, you think they got permission for this one?), in an outhouse behind an old church, many, ….

Ewwwwwwwwww.

[Green Bay Paddlers]

Amy and I had a simple plan for our drive to Seattle and back. Pick one single geocache from each state. That’s it… It really forces you to research and find the best the state has to offer (on your route). That was fun…

[Author]

Posts