[Az-Geocaching] Support of Geocaching, cache karma, etc.

[Scott Nicol]

Howdy,

Yes.. I have 501 finds and 1 cache hidden.

Why?

First off... let me say this... there are those who obviously prefer to hide 
caches and there are those that obviously prefer to find caches. Yes I do 
agree all need to do their part (hiding caches) to keep the sport alive. 
Look at Puz-zel. He doesnt have very many finds.. but look at all he has 
hidden. His joy in geocaching seems to be in hiding caches for others to 
find. He has 8 found and 45 hidden! I am the opposite. However, when we hid 
our first cache, we had something like 346 finds. We were ready for 
something different in geocaching. We were very much ready to hide one now. 
The time spent (and no money..the ammo box was given to me and the items 
inside didn't cost me a dime! If you choose to put money into preparing your 
caches.. go right ahead.. it's your wallet, not mine!) making the long hike 
to the cache site was very much enjoyed by me and my two teammates. We very 
much enjoyed the experience of hiding our first cache. It was a good 
feeling. We couldnt wait to get home and post our new cache on 
Geocaching.com. Then, we waited.. and waited... and waited (patiently I 
might add!) for the very first log. We were very excited when Trail Gypsy 
posted the 1st find on RTW-1. It was a treasured moment for us to see and 
read this first log. We are still feeling the excitement from our first 
cache hide. Once that first cache hide gets old and the excitement is lost.. 
we will hide another one to renew that feeling. We have only had 2 find logs 
posted on our cache and so we are still enjoying it's 'freshness'. That is 
how I gauge my caches hidden. I think this is a perfectly reasonable way to 
go about it. The quality of my caches would be lost if we just simply 
started hiding them at any quicker of a pace. I feel we put MUCH more time 
and effort into the placement of our ONE cache than some teams do in placing 
20 urban/altoid caches under park benches.

Secondly... we personally don't want to have a whole bunch of cache hides. I 
feel VERY strongly about cache owners and cache maintainance. I have seen 
MANY caches out there that are in very crappy condition. Some that should 
even be archived. There are other caches that have been moved from the 
original exact locations and others yet that aren't even there anymore and 
the cache owner doesn't even know it! (probably because they are not active 
anymore in the sport or because they have so many hidden they cant watch 
them all). Our caches that we will hide will require long hikes and maybe 
steep climbs. Perhaps a good half day or better to do one of our caches. So, 
I cant go placing a bunch of these types of caches and expect to be able to 
properly maintain them all. So, we will hide only quality caches and the 
ones we have out there we are willing to go check on if need be.

Also, Team RTW will only hide a certain type of cache... an ammo box way out 
in the wilderness somewhere or on top of a mountain peak or something like 
that. Oh, yea and the coordinates take you right to the cache. None of this 
armchair caching stuff. We enjoy the more 'extreme' cache placements and 
those are also our favorite types of caches to seek out. We hide caches with 
meaning and much thought put into them. We thought about it long and hard 
and scoped out many places before we finally decided on the mountain we 
placed our first cache on. There are WAY to many caches placed that have no 
rhyme or reason as to why they are there. One that particularly comes to 
mind is the 'Ice Cold Cache'. It is placed not but a mear few hundred feet 
from another existing cache (Angel Cache) in a desert lot up near Red 
Mountain Ranch (Mesa). Just a barren and dead peice of scrubby desert near 
the city (a pretty walk, dont get me wrong). But, why was it placed SO close 
to another cache? There isnt anything particularly interesting about this 
caches placement. (The Angel Cache, that was placed there first, does have 
an interesting location to it with an interesting theme). I can think of 
dozens and dozens of urban caches that are placed in this manner. There are 
some urban caches that will certainly stand the test of time. These are the 
caches that are well thought out and sometimes made to look like another 
object of some kind. But, there are many of the altoid container type that 
are simply magnetized to a bench or something and will likely be found by 
non cachers soon enough. No thought put into a cache like that. Just walk 
around the block from our house and plop one under a bench in the nearby 
park. I DONT THINK SO! You will not find an RTW cache placed in such a 
manner (I have no problem with these kinds of caches, I just will not place 
one like that). The logs on our cache are always going to be interesting. 
Tough hike to some really awsome views. I dont have any interest in hiding a 
cache in the city or otherwise and reading the same old log after log that 
says "Parked 50' away and found quickly and was on my way". BORING!

One thought I have had recently is this: if EVERY cacher in Arizona (no 
matter how active or not they are in the sport) did their part and hid ONE 
cache each... Arizona would still have just as many caches hidden as we do 
now AND they would all be well maintained, well stocked and well thought out 
caches. Can everyone agree with this? I think so. If each of us had one 
cache hidden... there would be no reason why we couldnt maintain that cache 
to keep it a very interesting and entertaining cache. Now, of course.. there 
are those that (so it seems) would rather hide caches than find them. Fine. 
Let those individuals hide all the caches they want. Whatever it is about 
geocaching that you enjoy most. But, at least all others will have done 
their part and hidden at least one. We will then have much more higher 
quality caches in Arizona.

I am not saying that all caches have to be difficult terrain caches either. 
There needs to be many caches in many different varieties. Not everyone can 
hike to the top of a steep mountain. Some have limitations that restrict 
them from doing so. There needs to be easy caches and difficult ones to 
please every individual that gets into geocaching. It is very possible to 
place a handicap accessible cache that is very difficult to find. Just 
because it is handicap accessible doesnt mean it has to be easy.

I would agree also that geocaching should get back to the way it was. Caches 
placed in rural areas. I don't particularly like urban caches. But, I do 
them because they are there. If there never was an urban cache, we wouldn't 
miss them, would we. Sure, we would have MUCH less 'finds' for the top 
teams. But, the same teams that are on the 'front page' of the rankings now 
would still be the same.

Anyways, this is my 0.02 cents on the issue and my explaination of how Team 
Ropingthewind hides caches. I will not comment any more on this subject as I 
beleive I have said all I need to say! :)

Scott
Team Ropingthewind










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