A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

caches

Finding fun in caching again

Found it!

It turns out geocaching ain’t so bad after all.

The past few months, geocaching — outside of a few small outings — has been a bit of a drag. I don’t know why, either. It just hasn’t been all that fun.

Maybe it was the cold weather. Maybe it’s the lack of some newer caches in the area. Maybe it’s because of the new ones in the area, many of the people I cache with at times have said caches, so that means going solo.

And, to be honest, going solo isn’t all that fun.

So a week or so ago, I met up with one of the people I used to cache with when I first started caching. We chatted a bit about geocaching, how we hadn’t been in a while and how we missed some of the times we had when we first started.

Tom and Beth sign in at a cache.

For those who cache, I’m sure you’ll be able to agree — though the game remains interesting and such, the feelings you had when you started just can’t be matched as you play the game longer and longer.

At that point, I texted another of the “old guard” and we decided to go on a caching outing this weekend.

I even did what I haven’t done in a long time — planned a route we could do. To be fair, it wasn’t nearly as in depth as I have done in the past, but I did at least put us on a path to be able to get a bunch of caches and have some “old-school” fun.

Now, this isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy caching with the people I’ve met since starting the game. That’s far from the truth.

But I had been in a bit of a  downward spiral with this game recently and it’s nobody’s fault but my own. I wasn’t having fun. I just needed that old-school kick to go back to how we once cached.

It didn’t hurt that it was a sunny day, too.

I found 25 caches (the other two got a few more as we nabbed a couple I already had) and we probably walked in excess of 5 miles or so (one of the trails we did was 4 miles round trip, so that was nice). We had the chance to catch up with one another and not worry about anything else that day. It was smiles and finds. Of those finds, we found several different sizes, found some clever ways to hide caches and overall had a “re-education” of the game.

Oh and we had spiedies for lunch, which always makes life grand.

I hope this is a positive to my geocaching world as I enjoy the community of cachers in this area and it’s fun to be around them. I have just been away from it for a while because the game hasn’t been as fun to me. I needed a kick in the pants and I think I got it this weekend.

And with the weather changing, it’s time to get things back in action. Maybe I’ll even start planning an event. That could be some fun and a way to get outside, socialize with area cachers again and have some fun.

I also found another key — photos. I had such a blast taking photos. I’m actually going to do a post about geocaching photography on Foto Friday this week.

The best part, too?

I think I have a few thoughts and ideas for some hides. Though ones hidden in my area don’t get found too often, I think I can have some fun with a few of them. If you hide it, they will come.

Right?

We’ll shall see!

Fundraiser: I am, again, trying to raise money for the Relay For Life. If you donate to me — even a small amount — you will be entered to win a super-sweet quilted scarf. Click here for all the information!

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

 

Geocaching 101: Logging in

Darren signs the log at a cache we found in 2010.

There’s a lot that can be learned from the logs in geocaching — whether online or the physical logs in the cache. More so, in recent years, with the online logs.

You can learn about the finders, the hiders and everything in between.

There might be subtle hints or interesting photos. All sorts of goodies can be found in the logs. But beware of reading too many before you go finding a cache — you might get an unwanted spoiler. Most people are good about warning you if a spoiler is in a log, however.

Though I don't always post long logs in the book, I always try to put more than my name and date.

There’s the flip side, too. The negative logs. They seem to be appearing more and more.

So, this 101 series blog post is about the log. And, maybe what you may or may not see. I’ll also offer what kind of things I personally do and things I’ve seen that I might not really agree with.

Remember, this game is very open to interpretation, so to each their own.

Importance of the online log

The online log is where most people will get to see your story about the geocache.

The log is so much more important than just getting the find credited to your account. It can work as a tool to the cache owner or future finders. And, it can also be a place where you show your appreciation to the owner and placer of the cache.

First — as a tool. If something is wrong with the cache, the main place where the owner will find out is from fellow cachers. Usually, that will come in the form of something in the log. It could be anything from something small (a full log) to something bigger (a broken or missing cache). But if the owner sees these logs, he or she can then make the decision on how to fix things. Maybe it’s a quick fix. Or, maybe they’ll have to do something even bigger with it. But by letting the cache owner know, you’re giving them a tool on knowing everything isn’t perfect.

This also helps future finders. If the owner hasn’t been out there, there’s a possibility a fellow geocacher will see the log and help fix things when they go find the cache.

It also can help people by maybe pointing out things that have changed since the geocache was placed. Maybe the trails have changed. Maybe a few other things are different. People can help people in these situations.

The logs also serve as history of the cache. It keeps a record of what people thought of the cache. The odds are if the online log is filled with short responses, it might not be the most scenic or challenging. If it’s filled with stories and descriptions, one can usually realize they’ll be finding a decent cache. You can’t bet the same on all log entries, but you can usually get an idea of what you might be walking into.

And, it’s a way for people to express their feelings to the owner. Maybe there’s a great story with the cache or something else. By posting it online, you’ve given the owner some satisfaction to the hide. Even a DNF (did not find) can make for a great online log.

Telling your adventure

Where do you want to tell your story?

Online or in the book?

In the early days of geocaching — and you can tell the difference when you look at older caches and original logs — a lot of the stories were told in the books left in the caches. When we went to The Spot — the fifth oldest active geocache in the world — for my 1,000th find, I sat and read the original log book. It was amazingly cool. People told stories. Or made catchy poems. It was creative.

Sometimes you can tell a story in a small space -- like this one where two of us got a first to find four months to the day where we DNFd it!

Now, as the game gains in popularity and things are based on speed, a lot of people don’t do that anymore. I am guilty of that often, too. BUT, when I come across really good caches, I try and take more time with things. I’m trying to do that more now as I think that’s a cool thing. I always hate going to do maintenance on my caches, only to find pages of “TFTC” or something quick or just the person’s name and date. Worse yet is a lot of people don’t even sign the log anymore — they use a stamp made at Office Max or something like that. Not even a hand-carved stamp, like in letterboxing.

So where’s the best place to tell your adventure. That’s up to you. If the cache is good enough, I do it in the log and online. Much of my stuff comes online because most people don’t take time to read the log. I still try and go through the log to see who has been there and if I know people.

This is personal preference, however, so do it as you see fit.

The in-person log

Though I touched upon this above, I just wanted to tackle it a little more.

In the early days of geocaching, there were often stories, poems or something creative written in the logbooks.

The in-person log can be a wonderful thing. But remember some things about it. What you write in there might be seen by many eyes. People might take photos of the page. They might post things. They might do other things. Once you write things in there, it’s basically in the public domain. So don’t give away personal things that you may not want out there. I know most people will give me the “no duh” comment here, but it’s better to say it than have people not realize it!

The reality is, once the log is being used two or three pages past where you wrote, it might not be seen at all. And if the cache eventually goes bad, it might go into the world as something never seen.

But don’t let that stop you.

There are still many cache owners who check the logs quite often.

One thing is for sure with the in-person log — have fun with it!

Try and read some of the past logs, too. They can be very fun to read. It’s even better when you read a log from a non-geocacher who stumbled upon the cache and wrote a log based on what he or she found!

Negativity

One thing I’ve noticed more and more lately is negativity. I don’t get it, either. Don’t get me wrong — I realize that some bad things need to be pointed out. But it can be subtle. Enough for the cache owner to realize that something might be wrong or unwanted, but not enough to basically call them out.

That latter part is happening more and more lately.

It can be a wide range of things, too. Anything from coordinates to attributes to cache container to location are open game for complainers to lay into the cache owner as to why the seeker doesn’t particularly care for a cache (or, just to question things). This is something I’m seeing more and more of and it’s kind of disheartening. I’ve seen it in my area and I’ve seen it in my travels.

And it stinks.

If you go back and read the bulk of my logs, I try and keep things upbeat and positive. There are times when I believe things need to be called out, maybe more as a reason to warn future finders. Maybe the cache is in awful shape (which I will usually post with a maintenance log). Or there have been so many “did not find” logs and the cache owner doesn’t seem to care or go look, maybe it needs a “needs archived” log.

But outside of that, I try and remain upbeat and find something good. I’m not the guy who just writes “TFTC” (thanks for the cache), but I also won’t write a novel unless it was a cache that really blew me away with its amazement or gave me a great story to tell.

When I do post something a little on the negative side, I try and remain subtle.

For example, when finding a newer local cache, it put me in a situation where I felt a little nervous. So, in the log, I said: “I have to be honest that this one made me feel uneasy.”

I figured, if the cache owner was interested, they would e-mail me. They did and I explained in further detail my issues. Simple. No issues. No wonders. No worries.

But, when people are negative, it’s usually not that subtle. It’s blatant and can be perceived as being quite nasty. And a lot of times, it can feel a bit confrontational. Worse is that many logs seem to be going that way at times. Almost like some people have to find something negative about a cache and point it out. It can be anything, too. As I mentioned above, the topics to be negative about are quite a range.

I’ve been lucky to find geocaches in many places and it seems there are always a few people who do this. It’s not just one or two people in one area. It’s all over.

And it’s a shame.

This game is supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to take you to interesting places, or, at worst, give you something to do. To go and make such a blatant rip on someone is uncalled for an unnecessary. E-mail the cache owner.

My favorite?

Complaining over coordinates. I love that. People get all up in wads if coordinates are off by 30 feet or so. But see, here’s the thing. Thirty feet could be the difference in the day, weather, time that it was placed, GPS unit used or anything like that. And who says the coordinates the finder took are the right ones?

The problem is that when this happens, a lot cachers will up and change their coordinates, instead of heading back out and checking it for themselves. Again, if someone found something after dark, the odds are the coordinates are going to be different than those of someone who placed a cache at noon on a clear day.

Now, if you have a difference of 100 feet or something, by all means post what you got. But if we are talking 20-40 feet, it could be anything from the weather to the GPS, so keep that in mind before hammering somebody in your log about coordinates.

After all, who says you are right.

I don’t want to beat the negativity subject, but one more. Look at the attributes and respect them. I’ve seen far too many people who either A) put in their log how they blatantly ignored one of the attributes or B) question them. If you have issues, e-mail the cache owner. There’s probably a reason these things are there. I don’t always agree with them, either. Believe me, I’ve scratched my head many times when I’ve seen the handicap-accessible attribute and then have to hike a quarter of a mile down an uneven trail and reach into a tree to grab the cache. But I usually will just drop a note to the cache owner stating that they might want to re-consider that attribute. OR, if I mention it in the log, I won’t try and bash — I’ll do it as a quick note and leave my reason why.

The attributes are there for a reason and the owner’s use them for different things. Just because you don’t agree with them doesn’t mean you are right. So bashing someone for these things maybe isn’t the way to go, ya know?

Final thoughts 

In the end, how you log is fully up to you.

Sometimes reading past logs can show you things you'll never see in the online logs.

Whether you are more happy with logging deeper in the books or online is something only you can decide. You are also the one that has to decide how you post online — easy, calm, harsh, too truthful, long-winded, short or whatever else.

The reality is this, though. Many people will only know you through your online logs. It still irks me when I go to an event and people call me by my geocaching name, despite them knowing my real name.

But that’s how you are perceived.

So do what you feel is the best for you and how you feel to do it. But in the end, try and have as much fun with the logs as you can as it’s a part of the game that can be extremely enjoyable for you and for others when reading.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Geotrash makes it worse for all geocachers

I’m not a firm believer that anyone should ever be told how to play the game of geocaching. It’s a hobby and people do it how they feel they want to and I’m fine with that.

The best part of this game is that there are some guidelines and the rest is up to the imagination of the people who play.

But there is one thing that really gets to me.

Geotrash.

There are several types of geotrash — whether it be people leaving junk in caches or people not cleaning their caches up after archiving it. Or, those who just let their caches go to junk and never play the game again.

But it’s bad for all of us.

I’ve seen that recently. There was an event in the area recently where the idea was to select an area and go do some repair on caches. You could earn points, win prizes etc.

In theory, the idea for the event is a good one. Especially if it’s cleaning up and repairing some caches for active cachers.

But, on another side, it can hurt. Only because people who place caches and then leave the game leave their caches out there. Without things being kept up all the time, these geocaches, in theory, could become geotrash.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against an event like this. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. I’m a fan. But, it’s one of those things where we help people who are basically leaving things behind. If the event is an annual thing, then it can be OK because people will check in on these caches. But that shouldn’t always fall on the shoulders of people who are still active cachers.

In the weeks leading up to this event, I hit the majority of my caches. I had been planning to, but being I couldn’t give the time I needed for the event, it became a reminder to me to do what I’m supposed to do. And for that, I’m happy.

But, I digress. This post isn’t about events. Even good ones. It’s about trash.

If this event hadn’t had happened, I have to wonder what would have happened to some of the caches that were nicely repaired by the cachers who went out and did the repairs. I saw the bag of one twosome and it was awful. Trash all over.

Really?

I realize this happens with every activity. There’s always a negative to a highly positive game.

There are several geocaches in our area that, unfortunately, didn’t get checked during the day of the event.

The caches are placed by geocachers who are no longer active in the game. And they are in spots where, in all honesty, they are probably either gone or in bad shape from being in flood areas.

If you aren’t going to participate any more, how about going out and getting the cache and archiving it?

Some people don’t think that way and it seems like there’s not much we can do about it, outside of help them out a little (such as with the event idea).

That doesn’t excuse the laziness or neglect of just leaving the cache out there in the elements.

Remember — geocaches are containers that are made from many different things — metal, plastic, wood etc. So, depending on where said cache is placed, some caches could take a bigger beating than others. That’s a shame, too, as there’s nothing worse than getting to a cache and seeing it beat to hell.

I’m off the soap box now.

To those of you who help clean and repair caches, watch your own and help others, bravo. It’s what makes the game fun. Hopefully there’s more people like that coming along as the game continues to grow.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Geocaching: Do you re-visit caches?

Not including your own geocaches, do you re-visit caches?

And I don’t mean just because you are with someone who hasn’t found the cache and you are out and about and hit a few you’ve already been to. Rather, do you go check out a cache you’ve found for whatever reason?

Maybe it’s a good spot for a travel bug hotel?

How about to pick up a trackable?

Or, the location might be really wild.

How about for swag?

I ask this as I still ponder my thoughts on archiving some of my caches. I like when caches are found, as I’m sure most geocache owners would agree. Alas, it seems like when the bulk of the local cachers clear them out, they just sit there and get hit once or twice or maybe three times a year.

Now, don’t get me wrong — I’m not in favor of a cache being archived after a few months, but if they are sitting around for a year or two and only get a few hits… well, it might be time to move on with ’em.

So back to the question at hand — going back to a cache.

I’ve done it before. Usually it’s to drop off some travel bugs or pick some up or something along those lines. When I do that, I’ll leave a note, too, to say that I’ve been there.

But a lot of caches, why go back?

So I come to you — the geocaching community — and ask: Do you re-visit caches? Why? When? How often?

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

When to archive a geocache?

The area in which I live is a pretty decent spot for geocaches. We have a lot of different types — from puzzles to traditional to hard-to-find micros.

We have the ho-hum geocaches — you know, the ones that make you wonder if the person has just thrown down a container and barely taken coordinates, to the well-thought-out multis or long hikes that give you a wonderful view, story or great workout to get to an ammo can.

But when is it time to say enough?

Should this snow ever stop (yes, on April 5, 2011, it’s snowing as I type this), I’m planning a full day where I go out and perform some maintenance on my caches. I’m going to load up on swag, new log books, pencils (I do, after all, have new signature item pencils!) and a couple of containers and set off on an afternoon of maintaining and checking my caches. Maybe I’ll place a few new ones. Maybe I’ll archive some and put a new one near it if there’s a better spot. Or maybe I’ll just archive it and open the area up to others.

Who knows?

But the one reality is that there’s only a handful of really active geocachers. We have some who do it here and there. Some who are very much into it. And we have some people who do venture into the area enough where our caches get some hits.

Alas, a long time can go by between finds on the caches.

Let’s take a peek at my current hides.I have 34 total hides, which includes eight events, all of which are archived. I also have one cache that has already been archived. Two of my caches are Earthcaches and have been found recently, so those should be safe as there’s no container to actually try and find.

So that means I have 24 geocaches that I need to check in on and maintain.

Five of those are in a state park. I am planning on e-mailing the park head today to see what I should do with those. They have a lifespan on them and sometimes the park heads can allow extensions and such, so I want to see what he would like me to do. If the time on those caches has run its course, then it will likely be a case where I’ll head up there and just pick up my caches and archive them, opening it up to new cachers or people to place new geocaches. Two of them I would hate to see go as I really enjoy them, so we’ll see how it goes.

One of my caches is in Ireland. That is being maintained by someone over there. Further, I’ll be setting one up for him (the container is almost done) that he’ll submit and I’ll maintain for him. And no, I won’t be going for the first to find on it! It’s a cool idea, though, this cache exchange. It’s been neat to get logs from people in Ireland who are finding the geocache.

Anyway, so I keep counting down.

Three of my caches are on a really nice walking area in Oneonta. That one will be nice as it’s a good stroll of about two miles, so it’s good exercise. That can be done quickly enough. However, one of those caches is a puzzle, so I’ll just have to check in on it and such. Being it’s a golden ammo can (given to a geocacher when they reach 1,000 finds), I want to make sure it stays there and such, but I’ve been told that the path has moved, so it might take some re-working. I’m debating archiving this one, moving it and making it a one-step golden ammo can. I don’t want to archive it and remove it as a golden ammo can is a wonderful thing and it’s something I’d like to keep out there.

Some of my other caches aren’t ones that require a lot of work. One, which is in a small city park, might have to be archived as it’s in an area that appears to have been mowed quite heavily and it might not be safe from people anymore. Being it’s a puzzle cache and I would have to re-work the whole thing, I think the odds are I’ll probably archive it if I don’t feel its safe anymore.

But outside of that, a lot of my other caches are either decent little walks or quick grabs.

That brings me back to the original reason for this post — how do you decide if it’s time to archive a cache? Do you give things a time limit? Do you leave them out there even if caches don’t get hit too often or only once or twice a year?

Essentially, do caches run their course?

There are some great older caches — and I love to find them. You know, the ones from like 2002 and 2003 etc. But those are classics. Ones where people placed the geocache in the early days of geocaching. Alas, I didn’t start in this game until 2008, so mine aren’t “classics’ by any means.

I’m curious to see what others think and how they are with their own caches. Comments with thoughts and such would be appreciated!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.