Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
I am a hunter and a cacher. I chose not to hunt this year because of my lack of a vehicle during the gun hunt season.
I hunted public land last year in the navarino area where I know there are caches.
Some bits of “wisdom” regarding hunting public land as it relates to caching: (from the hunters perspective here..)
1. Other people are bound to walk by you while you are posted. This is expected! If a hunter doesn’t want this, they should consider owning some private hunting land.
2. Even hunters can miss seeing other hunters. Imagine spending all day posted somewhere to find out there was another hunter less than 500 yards away and down the hill just a smidgen and in the direction you expected deer to come from! You need to make sure other’s know you are there…
3. Blaze orange is REALLY easy to spot. Especially when it’s moving around and you walk on known trails. If you are caching during the gun deer hunt, wear blaze orange and keep an eye out for blaze orange yourself as well.
4. Hunters have been hunting those lands longer than geocachers have been caching on them. This does not mean they “own” the area but if you understand this it might help you understand their reaction when you try to explain why you just walked across the field they were hunting. I think you are best served to make sure they understand your presence and where you are headed and how long you might be in that area and when you may return through. This would be the same type of information two hunters might share when they cross paths in the woods.
5. Hunters on the land might just know a thing or two about the layout of the land, where trails go, etc. It might be to your benefit to make yourself known and just ask them for some friendly advice rather than “trying to ignore them and see if they ignore you”. This might make for a much better conversation and it will give them a chance to direct you in a way that might better their odds of seeing a deer and save you from walking by other hunters or through an area that’s tougher to cross.
6. I can gaurantee you that cachers make much more noise than hunters and deer combined. Humans make a lot of noise in the woods! You rarely hear a deer movin around. A hunter probably heard you approaching. If they have mistaken you for a deer, than it’s not my fault that they are an idiot with a gun in the woods 😀
7. Did I mention blaze orange is pretty easy to see?
8. In the case of this cache posting, the hunter (sniper?) was posted in a tree stand or up high it sounds like. The cacher saw them and I am sure the hunter saw the cacher. If I was in this circumstance, I would stick to the trail and walk by making sure they know you are there. That is the most important part of public land during hunting season is making sure hunters know you are present.
Considering how many people enter the wisconsin woods over those 9 days with a loaded weapon, it’s amazingly safe! We need to remember that most hunting accidents are related to falling out of trees and hunting party members forgetting where the other person is during a “drive”.
Now setting aside my blaze orange…
Just like when a cacher enters any area, they should be aware of their surroundings. There is no excuse for cachers who do not read the attributes and cache page details.
how would you like to be the owner of 956 caches…
that’s pretty freeky crazy if you ask me!
i see lot’s of wisconsin cacher names on that list. congrats to all you high numbers folks out there.
-cheeto-
What’s up with the desk in front of the desk?
I figure the 20 dollar bill was his pizza or jimmy johns money…
So if you have to install windows (i.e. and buy windows, more importantly) on your machine to be able to do the only important thing with your computer, tell me again why anyone would buy a mac? Isn’t the main advantage to using an apple product that you aren’t using windows? That’s what their marketing campaign seems to be saying everyday all day on the tv… I guess you can say apple makes a prettier, “desirable” product.. that I will give them.
I am not anti-mac or anti-apple, I just question the logic of buying a brand new mac and running windows on it..
I spent several long years supporting mac customers while working for an internet provider. The machines seemed to be the easy part. In fact, at the time, dial up internet was easier to get going on a mac than a PC. Think back to dial up scripting times, the ancient old days before the invention of “high speed internet” and our beloved GPS technology… It was the mac owners you had to watch out for!
-cheeto-
Btw, I really like the log harvester feature.
If my mother-in-law would not have game me that gpsr and that geocaching FAQ sheet, I probably would not have totaled my car.
On the other hand, I would never have met some really great folks out there and had so much fun discovering my surroundings!
Since I have not created any caching “converts” I cannot share any stories related to that, “Yet”.
-cheeto-
Based on some comments here, I have added some text to each of my own caches reflecting the “Winter friendliness” of each.
As pointed out on this thread, the attribute currently in place has text regarding Available in Winter but many regard that as an attribute describing if the location itself (park, trail, etc) is accesible in the winter, not necessarily if the cache is findable in the winter without blow torches, axes, & shovels.
Then there are the folks who see the Winter attribute when hunting and assume that the cache cannot possibly be on the ground… and then find it on the ground. With any of those attributes just remember: caches dont always stay where they were hidden and you can always give input to the owner if you think any attribute is incorrect. Nobody’s perfect! As seldom seen would say, “always fine tunin”.
-cheeto-
The most common input/complaint on my caches when I first started placing them was that I was putting 1-star and they were not “wheel chair accessible”. This seems to be an important topic and item to “get right” on your cache listings or expect feedback.
Personally, I have yet to run into a wheel-chair bound geocacher while geocaching. It sounds like most of the time it’s folks who bring someone along like a family member and help them participate.
I would imagine if someone was in a wheelchair and aggresively pursuing geocaching as a sport/hobby for themselves, I envision these folks do not have your run of the mill hospital wheel-chair and probably can navigate some grass and curbs. I would think this category of cacher would have the most difficulty with caches placed up high or that require some climbing — which many cache hiders forget about when they rate their cache a 1-star terrain. But then there’s the wheel-chair bound people who climb mountains!
But since I haven’t met anyone, I am just hypothesizing.
-cheeto-
Thanks for sharing this hilarious page.
I was late for work and the kids would not get going this morning due to the sudden creativity in my 3 children.
We ended up with many combinations…
4 elves with Dachsund heads
Dora THe Explorer elves
4 elves with various ages of one of my daughters
and the best one was the hermit crab elvesWe had some fun with this one!
Give in to the dark side, it’s your only hope…
“Ultimately the cache owner decides. within reason, the parameters of the “find.”
Exactly what I stated in my long comment earlier. The GC site should support this and in the end allow the cache owner to opt whether their cache (regardless of type) can be logged “Found It” more than once or not. Then all players abide by the same rules for that cache. Again, if they choose not to log something then they are silly.
I think the term “Purist” is a funny word. To the dictionary it means: “One who practices or urges strict correctness”. To me, what “Purist” means in many contexts is someone who is not willing to change for any reason even for the better.
Please consider the words of Dr. Spencer Johnston: “Get out of your comfort zone and adapt to change sooner. Take control, rather than let things happen to you.”
Later,
-cheeto-
He marc will you really celebrate when you hit 5414 finds?
Kinda like a golden caching milestone.
I would have said 54140 but with deleting all those event temp caches I dont know if that will ever be possible.. haha
Time to work on that Horton hears a who puzzle you put out there..
I would imagine, if polled, most geocachers would like to control whether their caches could be logged more than once rather than just the system controlling and locking it down. This would closer follow the general acceptance of the fact that the cache owner determines what constitutes a “find” and log on their cache. This would be a much better way to approach the subject of allowing multiple logs per Cache. (Whether the cache is a Regular, Multi, Unknown, Event, etc) If the owner allows multi-logs on that cache, then all cachers who visit/log that cache are playing by the same “rules”. The exact same as if the system were to lock down and only allow one log per cache #. If you choose to play by your own rules/laws/ethics/whatever and dont take the owner up on their offer to log the cache (without climbing a tree for instance) or to log a cache more than once, then you miss out, so sorry. There are 3 more behind you who will honor the cache owner’s rules/laws/ethics/whatever. I saw an example of this where an out of state cacher did not log a Fox Valley cache that allows for it if they helped on finding one of the waypoints that happened to be in California because they did not log the final or cache in Wisconsin. Again, they choose not to do this which I think is silly. Take the log would ya.
There are many different types of caches and I would imagine they have all evolved over time. I would also imagine most cachers agree that there should be variation in the “game” and having caches with “bonus” pieces or puzzles with bonus activities adds more variety and in the end fun to the game. For instance — see “Crazy” Retro Drivers Wanted in the Fox Valley. Again, the cache owner who places the cache should be able to craft the circumstances around logging including whether there is an opportunity to log more than once.
I have not been to an event with temp caches so I dont have much to share in these regards but I think the idea of being able to take “credit” for these finds would be the best of both worlds. I am sure that’s why folks started this “trend” of multiple logs to the event itself. Again, if the event owner could control this and allow or disallow, that would be the best in my opinion. Therefore, everyone plays by the same “rules” when they log the same event or cache.
There are many regional aspects to geocaching in regards to how folks participate. I think this also adds to the variety and fun in discovering the differences as you start to wander outside of your home territory. If your area or regional chooses not to participate in something based on “history” or the way “it’s always been” then you are not allowing for the sport to grow and become better for everyone.
Keep on arguing. I enjoy reading the posts!
-cheeto-
let it snow, let it snow, let it snow….
Welcome to all of you Podcacher listeners out there reading these posts. I hope this message will help others avoid the same mistakes I have made.
If you are not aware, this topic and a link to this story made it onto the Podcacher podcast for this week. http://www.podcacher.com
-cheeto-
-
AuthorPosts
