A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

Geocaching

Thinking before logging isn’t a bad thing

I truly don’t understand, sometimes, why people have to “big-time” others.

I’ve been seeing it more and more in geocaching, and I just don’t get it.

Here’s the thing about geocaching — it’s a game. It’s a hobby. It’s not a sport. It’s not a competition. It’s something to get you outside to explore, find a container, sign the log and move on.

It’s simple.

But as the game grows, it brings in many different people. Introverts, extroverts, people in shape, people out of shape, old, young — you name it and they are involved. The way people treat one another, though, sometimes is hard to deal with.

When it comes to geocaching, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt in most aspects. Even if they act higher than others, or something along those lines. I go with the flow. The reality is there are no true “rules” to the hobby, rather guidelines.

That doesn’t stop people from calling others out. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hide they don’t agree with, or the placement, or the coordinates, or the fact they weren’t first, or whatever else — people say things in online forums, or at events, or to other geocachers that basically call others out.

It’s one thing if you are venting to a friend. It’s another if you are in a situation where you are just spouting off.

It seems to be happening more and more, too.

Online logs that are harsh and critical to people. Or going into Facebook groups and calling people out. Or slamming new geocachers because of how they play the game. There are also blatant things against real-life rules (like going after a cache outside of listed hours etc.) and then gloating about it.

Again, the game is played so many different ways by so many people — so why rain on somebody else’s parade?

And, again, I try and give people the benefit of the doubt, but it’s been harder recently. It’s so frustrating to see people get upset or concerned with how somebody treated them, or how some other cachers may have just flat-out bashed a placement or find log.

How does that help the game?

It doesn’t.

I just wonder if people think before they post things, or call people out. I know more than a few people who I’ve talked to and explained the community isn’t all like that and how they should give the game another shot.

Just like anything else, there are positives and negatives in geocaching. I still think there are more positives. And I have my own theories why some (not all) people get really into it and all competitive (such as wondering if they ever played competitive sports etc.), but it is what it is.

The game is still fun. And I still like to go out and cache. But some of the other aspects are just too much sometimes.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Recycling geolitter

Not everything in geocaching is good.

I know that will come to a shock to some people who think everything involved with the game is lollipops and candy, but it’s not.

Let’s think about this for a second.

There are people in the game who get mad and/or offended because others don’t play it how they think it should be played. Or the people who complain because the coordinates are off 10 feet (despite the finder using a phone or something in the middle of the woods). There are people who break rules that go beyond the game (such as caching somewhere in the middle of the night at a place that specifically says not to do it).

Turns out I was FTF on the now-recycled cache!

Turns out I was FTF on the now-recycled cache!

Then there are those who start playing the game, get excited, place a few caches and leave. While it’s true that all those caches won’t become crappy, many do. Or, there are times when a cache gets archived for whatever reason, yet the container remains.

That’s when you have to make lemonade out of lemons.

New York state parks are in regions and the one in which I live is going to have a caching challenge this year. Without going into everything with it, basically they reached out to local cachers to find place the caches and maintain them. That’s fine, but while I was at it, I thought I’d place a few, too.

In New York (as with many states), to place a cache in a state park, a person needs to obtain a permit. That’s a good thing, though, as it makes sure people have an idea what’s out in the park.

But when a container doesn’t have a permit, and the geocacher is no longer active, and then the cache gets archived … what happens?

The cache remains.

So as I was scouting spots, I came across one of these such places. The cache remained. It was in good shape and it had been archived more than four years ago and it has been nearly six since the cachers logged into the site.

Seems like there was only one thing to do – recycle, so that’s just what I did. Sometime this week, if all goes well, the cache will be published and see life again. The spot is solid and the cache is pretty strong, so it will give people the chance to explore the park some. I place three in the park, as well as placing three for the challenge, so the park should get a lot of action.

How about those of you who geocache? Have you come across situations like this? What did you do?

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Geocaching: Move those travelers when you can!

For those of you who have been into geocaching – or even those who are new – the world of trackables in the game is something cool.

Sometimes, though, it’s a pain.

Let me do a quick explanation, though. Trackables are a subculture, of sorts, with geocaching. Basically there’s an item – a coin, a dog tag, something else – with a trackable number. The idea, normally, is to take it out of a cache, note that you picked it up, move it to another cache, and then drop it. Along the way, the item might acquire photos, and miles, and all sorts of fun.

Well, that’s the hope anyway.

Sometimes, you see, things go wrong.

A lot of times these items will go missing – especially geocoins. Somebody drops them into a cache, a person will come along and just snag them and they are gone – just like that.

That’s tough to swallow when you are paying $8 or more for a coin. Even the official travel bugs are in the $4-$5 range. In the past few years, people have been coming up with proxies of their coins and such (either replica coins, or something completely different) to send out instead of the coin. There are different opinions on proxy coins, but that can be left for another time. I’ve actually blogged about proxy travelers before, so feel free to go back and read that.

People can also discover a trackable – basically just saying they saw it etc. Some of you may remember a while ago, I did a social media experiment where I put a geocoin out there just to see how much it would get discovered. I actually may revisit that at some point down the line (spoiler alert!), but the idea was to see how people would react to “finding” a coin virtually.

Anyway, let’s get to the point of today’s post – what to do when you find trackables in a geocache.

Here’s one thing to remember about a trackable – it’s still owned by the person who set it out etc., it’s just out in the woods. That means that another cache owner can’t put limitations on it. That will make more sense in a moment.

What should you do?

If you think you can move the coin and/or help it on its journey to its goal, then grab it. If there are five in a geocache and you think you can move them along, then do so. The reality is owners want things moving – not just being discovered.

Now, if you can’t help move them along, then by all means discover. It’s a nice way for owners to see that the trackable is still out there. But if you can move one (or many), do it. But, if you do so, try and log them as fast as possible so people know the traveler has been picked up.

The reason I say all of this is because I’ve seen some recent talk online about this whole situation. It’s been something people have talked about for many years, but it’s always worth revisiting.

An example: Somebody puts out a new travel bug hotel and places rules on it – basically the “if you take one, leave one.” In theory, it’s a good idea. And when I can, I do try and leave trackables. But this person is the owner of the geocache – not the trackables (unless, of course, they put several trackables of their own in there), therefore that person doesn’t have the right to say whether or not a trackable should be picked up and what one has to do to take one.

So, again, if you can move them all along – do it. Now, I don’t think somebody should wipe out an inventory of like 10 trackables, but if there are a few – don’t feel like you aren’t allowed to grab it if you don’t have something to leave behind.

As a trackable owner, I want to see my trackables moving – not staying in a TB hotel (or jail, as some will call them) because an owner wants to see many trackables in there.

Some things to remember:

  • Try and look at the description of the traveler to see its goals, as you might be taking it in the opposite direction.
  • Move them along as much as you can
  • Add photos to the traveler page as the owners enjoy seeing that
  • Don’t keep the trackable

In the end, trackables should be a lot of fun. Enjoy that part of the game as it’s something that can be shared. The only true rules are to make sure you log said trackable and move it along – don’t fear taking more than one or worrying about leaving one in its place as long as you can move them all. If not, discover away to let the owner know the travelers are safe!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please Like HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

When bad things go good in geocaching

Sometimes, when things go bad — they can go good, especially in geocaching.

That turns out to be the story of this past weekend.

The find!

The find!

On a glorious day to be out geocaching (outside of that whole tick thing), a couple of us tackled a trail that neither of us knew. At one spot on it was a several-part multi cache that hadn’t been found in nearly two years.

In that cache was also a geocoin that was put in the cache by the last finders of this cache. The goal was to find this cache and then rescue that coin and get it moving again.

So this is the tale about that day.

Honestly, it’s probably best just to copy my log and put it here (note: the cache had “kitty” in its name).

A funny thing happened on the way to find a kitty.

You see, this seemed to be a lonely cache. It has been SOOOO long since it was found. We figured we may as well tackle it. Heck, others had found the other new caches up here but no logs on the kitty? We must remedy that!

Stage one was found without issue. We got the coords and set off for the second stage. Looking back, we could have made the trip shorter. But that’s OK, it all worked out in the end. We spent a bunch of time looking for the second part. Finally, we looked at past logs. I called people asking about it. Nobody remembered much.

Remember, this cache hadn’t been found in almost two years.

Anyway, some people had thoughts. We looked. I tried to contact the CO. No luck. We finally gave up, especially knowing nobody had logged a find in a while. We started walking back via another path, looking to see if we maybe saw another stage. But not knowing how many stages there were, we didn’t know.

Then… what? Monahmat happened to look up at one spot and something caught his eye.

It’s pretty easy to see an ammo can sitting out in the open, after all.

Score!

We found the kitty in an non-traditional way. This almost got a victory dance. It did get a “whew” because it’s nice to know that we found it.

The owner should probably come out at some point and check the stages though as we’re pretty sure the second one was gone.

Signed the log, grabbed the geocoin that had been in there for a long time, and replaced it and covered it up. Thanks for the challenging and interesting multi!

I’m extremely happy we found the cache, that’s for sure. I wasn’t going to be happy to go back out to continue it. It also made for a fun story when all said and done.

There was also a funny and interesting log in the cache, which I am going to guess was done by a non-cacher. It still made me laugh and I had to put it below:

#Hella

#Hella

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please Like HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

A way to tick me off

A few years ago, at one of the geocaching mega events, I purchased a tick key. I figured it was a good investment, in case one of those little buggers hooked into me.

Thankfully, I never really needed it. So somewhere along the line, I have lost where I put it. I thought I knew where it was, but I guess not.

Then when it’s needed…

See, on Saturday, I went on a little cache excursion. We hit two spots – a nice walking trail near a lake, and then some trails in a more heavily wooded area.

Somewhere along the line, apparently a tick found me likable.

Expensive tick twister!

Expensive tick twister!

Sunday morning, as I was getting ready to shower, I felt something on my hip. I looked down and … son of a bitch.

You guessed it.

I couldn’t find that tick key. It wasn’t awful big, either. Tweezers were attempted and only part of the little bugger came off. So, I decided it was best I head to the ER. See, part of this is because it’s the first one I know I’ve ever had on me. Well, the first one that actually latched on. Second, being a diabetic, I thought it might be best to go – at least this time.

In the end, they removed as much as they could (turns out the CDC tells them not to dig it out as the body will take care of it – though the ER did an excellent job and you can’t really see anything in there), cleaned it up, told me what I needed to do from this point forward, and then gave me a one-shot antibiotic.

They also gave me a tick removal tool.

Now, I have pretty good insurance where I work. In fact, it’s rare for me to have to pay for too many things. But an ER visit is $50.

That’s one expensive tick removal tool!

Consider this post a bit of a PSA. This summer has the possibility of being worse when it comes to ticks, the ER people told me. The mild winter likely makes it that way. They said they’ve seen plenty more people than usual for this time of year already.

Yikes.

I know it’s not going to keep me away from geocaching or being out in the woods. I like it too much. But I think I will be much more diligent about checking myself over for these little pests whenever I’ve been out in the woods. I’m going to keep a good look on the spot where this one bit me to watch for any bad things (hopefully, it will be fine), but there’s no need in taking a chance when it can be watched.

If you go out in the woods and such, do yourself the favor and check yourself when done. Could make for all the difference in the world!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please Like HooHaa Blog on Facebook!