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I once thought about doing a useless dead-end micro as a milestone and Dave insisted that I asbsolutely do not because a milestone should be memorable. I would do the Lame stinkin one as my milestone but that one holds a special sentimental value for me because I have already logged it…. 🙄

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Are you refering to “Pining for cache”?

Oh wait, there are like 400 of those in Northeast Wisconsin alone.. I just saw another one called this published the other day.

Being more serious, my least favorite are WSQ caches (though this is a varied grouping and some I have actually enjoyed) followed by Long multi’s that you get stuck in the middle. My third least favorite are camo easter egg caches.

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Since it’s mobile, I don’t think the reviewers would let you place a cache there. And it would be considered a “commercial cache”. he he

I would certainly never be seen here as I am afraid of heights. I actually braved the ski lift thing at the Milwaukee zoo this past summer but I freaked out the whole time.

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I have 3 children. A 5 yr old girl. An 8 yr old girl. A 9 (almost 10) yr old boy.

My caching experiences with all 3 has taught me the following about geocaching and kids. Perhaps this will help with the topic at hand.

– None of them like finding magnetic key holders.
– None of them like looking for caches at the end of dead-end roads.
– None of them like hiking/walking longer than about a mile. However, if the hike is broken up you may get away with a bit more.
– None of them like to find large volumes or go on all day cache trips. One find is all it takes to make their day 🙂
– All of them love trading items. Even if it is a McDonalds toy, they sometimes trade for those too! (we always pitch them but it’s a day’s worth of fun anyway)
– All of them love caching in parks where there are playgrounds available.

It’s that simple. No keyholders, no dead ends, no 2 mile hikes, room for trade, and bonus if there’s a playground nearby.

Children of different ages and boy vs girl have different interests and what makes the experience “fun” for them is different but that’s the case with us “older kids” as well.

At the spirit of this is not the acronym and it’s not about debating what each person thinks is “Kid Friendly”. It’s more about going back to the roots of Geocaching (at least from what I hear as I was not a geocacher back then!). Placing findable containers in interesting spots with items in them to trade. That seems to be the most kid friendly type of cache of all! And most importantly to Hemi’s idea, letting the cache hunter know that the cache you just placed (out of the hundreds available in the area) is one that you think a family would like to go hunt. If you want to add some educational content to the listing or to the experience as a whole, even better!

The “kid friendly” attribute icon is used and abused as is the “available in winter icon” and many other attributes. If the cache owner goes out of their way to say “Bring your whole family” and “the kids will love this cache” it makes it that much more likely to draw in cachers. Rather than just an attribute icon driving my latest PQ download.

The great thing about Hemi’s idea here is that we as a group of cache placers belonging to the WGA could all present information in a uniform way. A common bit of text letting the cacher know that “your family will enjoy this experience” and that statement is based on all of our input into what the general population of kid cachers and cacher family’s enjoy.

I am divided on the Acronym in the Name but I truely beleive that adding some standard text, a recognizable Icon, and some eductional content to some of my caches is an excellent idea.

And I will finish with a bit of a story…
This past weekend, Sagasu placed a whole bunch of new “Family Friendly/Kid Friendly” traditional caches around the Fox Valley area. I planned an entire morning with my son finding some of those. It was great. No dnf’s, we traded items, he got 2 state quarters for his collection that he did not have. In the Winter, 20 degrees and we were able to get out and have fun. I can tell you that from now on he will ask if the kinds of caches I plan on finding are like these one’s were or not. It will take much more planning to surpass that experience and keep him interested but if I would survey some caches and look here it says KFC or Kid Friendly or something, anything, I would probably plan on a visit.

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we’ll take this one 🙂 pm sent

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awesome logo 🙂

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you know what’s funny about the chicken thing…

it was just the other day I was reading a cache log that Hemi left regarding “being in the area” of a cache because he was getting chicken…

the next night I had to make a run to KFC because of a cache log.

funny stuff…

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There were 241 people at the last campout in Hartman.

Holly lot’s of geocachers Batman!

(And if you are thinking that I am the same jerk that slagged your “goose poop” cache, that was my evil twin, not me.)

I actually thought about renaming the cache after that log.. “Fav Fishing Spots – Goose Poop Park” but then that might offend the Menasha natives… Instead I took the constructive criticism and modified it to minimize the “exposure”. It’s too bad those geese took over those parks along that river… I considered your log like Simon Cowell’s comments. I still haven’t won Cache Idol yet though.

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I wonder if someone is artistic enough out there to create a little logo to plunk in your cache page, like the WGA logo?

I wondered the same thing but I am the exact opposite of an artist…

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As far as “spending the day hiking and finding temp caches” goes… does the group break up into smaller groups of cachers? All go out on their own? Mixed bag?

How large a group are we talking about as far as # of attendees?

What happens at the “WGA Meeting”?

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I have read the tips about a number of smaller tents and that’s what we are currently investigating…

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Trying to convince the wife… (we’ll see about that one)

I am hoping that atleast I and one other family member (my son) will make the trek and be camping.

The fact that it’s early May is what’s keeping the family a bit skeptical. With two younger girl’s, they see camping as swimming… lot’s of swimming and the “girls” do not like geocaching (all 3 of them..)

This is the weekend before my Birthday so I have that to juggle as well.

Is there a process for reserving a spot or anything?

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thanks to everyone for all the great tips…

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Hey – congrats on reaching 600 finds.

I hear it’s going to be 40 all week. Time to start the work??? 🙂

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Oh my! That’s absurd….

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