[Az-Geocaching] Bass Ackwards Cache

[Jim Scotti]

I have some personal experience with a multi-cache endpoint on NPS land.  I
put a microcache at the endpoint of the multi on NPS land before the recent
crackdown in Saguaro NP here in Tucson.  Actually, when I placed it, I didn't
know there was a rule against it.  But I heard about the rule and started
thinking about what to do with my new multi.  So when caches started being
removed, I decided to go ahead and make it a virtual endpoint.  There is one
Ranger cacher down here and presumably she got the job of removing the
caches, so I knew she would eventually finish my multi.  I made the
conversion but decided to leave the micro in place for a few weeks for any
stragglers who might have been working on it, planning to remove it this past
Sunday morning, May 12.  Our local Ranger found it about 2 days after I had
modified the website to convert it to a virtual, but found it as the
microcache.  I sent her an e-mail to find out if she planned to remove it so
that I could do the removal myself in that case, but didn't hear back from
her.  A few days later, my first visitor the the virtual version of my multi
logged his visit.  So on Sunday morning, I went out looking for the micro and
it was missing!  So, I don't know if the Ranger removed it or that it came to
some other sinister ending - it was reasonably well hidden and would have to
have been removed by a geocacher or by someone who watched a geocacher visit
the site, but the Ranger was the last known visitor to the micro and no logs
on the micro since then.  Most disturbing to me was that I had planted it in
a natural little rock niche and unless my memory is really bad, that little
rock niche was badly disturbed.  I moved about 2 or 3 rocks to help hide the
cache when I placed it and would otherwise leave an area as pristine as
possible.  My last visit about 3 weeks earlier had the cache location in its
nearly pristine state.

So, I'll never put any more physical caches, multi or otherwise on NPS land,
though I might consider putting a virtual on NPS land, since I already have
two virtuals there anyway.  I feel a little uncomfortable with a virtual
multicache considering the payoff is not the same without an actual cache
container, but in light of the NPS rules and my oversight of them when I set
up the multi, and considering the purpose of the cache, I guess it's not so
bad....

Jim.

On Wed, 15 May 2002 trisha@brasher.com wrote:

> I've thought of another "loophole" for placing caches at neat spots on
> NPS land....make it a multi-cache, with the initial coord's NOT on NPS
> land, so when the NPS checks the websites for caches on their land,
> (which we all know they do!) it won't come up as on NPS land. Then,
> have the next or one of the next points of the multi-cache be on NPS
> land, with the clues/coord's in the first site. Only problem, if a
> Ranger/Geocacher goes to the first cache of the multi, then they would
> know, or if they saw/caught anybody red-handed.....but ya didn't hear
> it from me!!! (All you Rangers out there who monitor this list-serve!)
> 
> Or, alternatively, and more legally, make one of the legs of the
> multi-cache a "virtual" within the NPS land. No container, no problem,
> but still get to enjoy the scenery, and have the final cache not be on
> NPS land....
> 
> (In disguise)
> Lightning

Jim Scotti                              
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory         jscotti@pirl.lpl.arizona.edu 
University of Arizona                
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/