Crappy Swag, Stolen Geocoins, and the Micro Spew

Working in the forums I have seen two threads repeated over and over.  In every local geocaching group they pop up, and in discussions at times.

The older (I mean pre-2004) cachers sit down and start yearning for the old days.  Back in the days when all the containers were clean ammo cans or five gallon buckets.  The geocoins and trackables were lovingly cared for, followed, tracked, and hunted for.  And they were all filled with golden magical items, $20 bills, at the end of rainbows.

The Golden Age of Geocaching 2000-2004 (the first five years)

I was not around, but have talked to enough people, and followed enough threads to put a few things together.  Remember that GPS units in the first few years of geocaching were expensive.  The crappy ones that we take for granted now were expensive.  Few people had them, and maps were another expensive addition to the models sold.  Also, why did you have them?  Avid hunters, backwoods explorers, would get them to help them out.

So caching was in the hands of the well off, well to do (for the most part).  Few caches were out.  When they were placed they were planned out, well stocked and people traveled to them on purpose. When you arrived you brought something to trade, you knew how many caches you wanted to go to.  Each cache had to be put in by hand, usually off of a printout that you carried with you.  Downloading a Pocket Query into a GPS was unheard of. 

Trackables were carefully monitored.  There were not many caches at that point so it was rather simple.

Caches themselves were placed with care.  I want to take someone to a cool out of the way location. In fact I have heard from caches that tried to place micros, or caches in cities that were mocked and ridiculed by other cachers saying "that is not geocaching"

The Silver Age of Geocaching 2005-2009

you started to see a huge shift.  Low priced gps units started to appear.  And the flow of caches started to migrate to the cities.  Cachers could start to load multiple caches into their GPS units.  Paperless caching became the buzzword.  GPS units that could carry all of a cache page were being pushed by retailers, and others carried old Palm Pilots, or other handheld devices where they could load the Pocket Queries into.

It is during this period that caching really exploded.  The lower cost units started to bring in many cachers that before could not afford a GPS.  Better/cheap/free maps began to appear to allow people to track and follow their movements.  Groundspeak significantly improved its site and offerings. 

What happened?  Well micros boomed.  they were scattered hither and yon as times went on.  You could now find a cache during your lunch break, family visits, at a church or shopping mall near you.  More people were interested, and things literally exploded.

Trackables were starting to be carried to every horrible cache by people.   People would find a cache under a park bush and drop a trackable.  A cache that kids would easily find and steal.  So many travel bugs ended up in some kids dresser on in the trash.   Some coins were stolen, there are a number of cachers out there that started to hoard coins.  Stolen coins that were traveling that found their way into a collection.

The swag quality dropped.  Rather than trading nice things, you began to see the average cacher carry less, or cheap toys. People would take, and never replace.  So older caches began to be filled with poorer and poorer quality stuff. Basically if they were unmaintained, they were trash heaps.

Modern Age 2010-

Where are we now? Cell phones and free programs mean that just about everyone can cache.  Everyone that wants to try out this new thing can find a few.  That also means that people that have no idea what is going on, or what is considered polite, are out there finding caches. 

I have seen parents take kids to a cache and drain it of everything.  Take the trackables off chains and drop the chains back in the cache. Carry off coins not knowing what to do.  Things have changed.

Power trails have appeared in the last few years.  ET highway is the most notable.  People have started to travel great distances to accomplish challenges, trails, etc.  Geotourism is popular in some ares.  I see (in Utah) a large number that travel to accomplish their caching goals.  I have met a number of people coming to visit to grab all the caches they can.

Final Thoughts

Is it better? worse? In many ways both.  There are problems.  Some detest caching for what it has become, yet there is always something around.  I have found and walked away from others that were in trash heaps, and found some of the most creative caches.

There is no way to fix what is there.  Too many cachers that will go a few times and never again. It has always been that way.  Find a few caches and then move on.  Families, boy/girl scouts, people on vacation, people on business trips, that just raid something then move on.  Inconsiderate people will always be out there.

I would ask people to please take the time to think.  I still love it, and enjoy it.  There are problems, but I enjoy what is out there.  Some are challenges, others are not. Some can be grabbed as I drive by, and others with a ton of work.   I have been thinking about it more as I approach #3000.  I am looking for something special.  I don't know where/when but I will find something that I want to do.  I am guessing this month, so I do not have much time to hunt.

Update on 2012-04-11 17:01 by firennice

I forgot to Add

I think many of the things that I mentioned in the title are myths.  All couched in half truths.

Swag:  some never placed good stuff, or traded materials. 

Coin theft: Most vanish by new cachers that are not paying attention.

Micros:  They are out there.  Some love them.  At times I do, other times I dont.  I go in cycles.

In the end if you are playing the game for one of these reasons your foolish.  Geocaching has changed.  The dynamics and the groups playing have changed.  Pick what interests you. If you love the powertrail, then do the powertrail.  If you love the mountaintop, and have the physcial ability, then hike to the mountaintop. 

Update on 2013-03-05 19:34 by firennice

A few notes from 2013

As I have recived a few emails and a few notes, I thought I would post a few notes.

There were differences years ago.  We all know that.  There are a different crowd that hunt now.  Those that think that I am attacking families, I am not.  They have changed the game, of course.  Instead of the outdoorsman, we see families.  There are caches all around. 

Years ago most planned things out, now we have more casual people. That makes a difference.

I had someone mock me for eras.  How did I come up with them? 

The early time period were the years that there were few cache placments.  They were not all better.  In fact many of the rules were developed because of problems in that time period.   I called it the golden age because people like to talk about the "old days"

The next time period was in that explosion of caching, up to the point where phones came on the scene. 

The last was where phones took over.  Most of the cachers I know that used to cache regularly with their GPS, and never let it leave their side.  Now they use their phones, except if they go into the back country, or trips.

April Fools

Hopefully everyone had fun this April Fools day.  Many of us reviewers did.

There was a group of us that formed a group that bounced around publishing caches in other areas.  I only published a few in Utah.  Last night right before midnight I posted "I Give UP" on facebook.  Then avoided listing until today.

I got an email from england saying my account was hacked and I published a cache there (I did but I was not hacked).  Another lady asked me about a bunch of hacked accounts.  Some reviewers said they had been fired, others that they gave up.  And others told people that due to a dispute with groundspeak that others were publishing in their area.

Not all reviewers were involved.  Some did not have time time to plan and prepare for it.  It was worked on for a number of months.  How we would do it, how to keep errors from creeping in, and what we might say.  I know two reviewers were asked if they were replacing me.

In all it was fun.  I got two thank you notes for listing their cachers from Europe.  I lived in France at a number of places in the 80's and It was exiting to be able to publish a cache a few miles from where I lived.

I know of other jokes as well.   Some poor fellow had one of their caches published, retracted, and reviewers from around the world posted notes for and against the cache before it was finally left alone.  Still other reviewers published obviosly fake caches, or outlandish caches to get a chuckle from others.

Hope you had fun. Hope you noticed the fun. In all I think there were 18 reviewers that published in Utah from around the world.  Ogden, Weber, Salt Lake, Utah, and Central Utah all had a number of caches listed by different reviewers.   Too bad things were slow int he St. George area.  I wish the joke had carried on a bit better for them.

St George, the Heart, and Breakfast.

PeanutsParents in an underground cache.

Well the month is almost over and I thought I better write about my trip earlier this month. I am falling behind in my blogging so I better get at it.

Earlier this month I decided to head to southern utah for a breakfast event with PeanutsParents.   It was all a maybe trip, and we were never really sure of who was going, or when until about two days before. 

Well we headed down friday afternoon and really did not not do much on the way down.  We were trying to get to southern utah before it was too late.

We drove for three to four hours with only a few stops.  That surprised both of us.  Normally a three to four hour trip would have taken us most of the day.  However I got out of work pretty late, so our trip was rushed to get there with good time.

CITO pile of crap

The drive to St. George was great, faster than either of us shot.  When we arrived in town we got in touch with DrJay and family, and went to say hi.  Then got asked if we wanted to go work on some puzzles.  So PeanutsParents, Momthecook, cachinhubby, Jac0b, and I headed out in the evening to grab some caches that were around.

The next morning we got up early, really early.  Apparently there was a CITO over the border in Arizona.  Woo hoo one more state. So off we went.

It was really early and we were cleaning up an area that is a truck stop.  An unofficial truck stop. Apparently many of them just threw trash out of their cabs and made a mess.  So there we were to save the day. Much of it was in a pile, but without bags, so we spent a lot of time just bagging stuff.

After that we headed north. We grabbed a few caches on route. It was a good morning and normally I would not be out of bed at this time.  However this was for caches, breakfast, and bacon.  The event was the Spring Breakfast event.  Every year it gets bigger.  I counted 130 cachers (about).  It is hard to count with everyone mulling about.

It was a great event.  I do not know how many years it has been going on, but it seems to grow every year.

There were a number of people that traveled hours south to the event.  Chasing the sun, and others that headed up from St. George. 

I brought one of my limited edition coins to give away.  And who won it?  The guy that I drove all the way down with.  I thought that was really funny.  Out of 130 people, he was the one to win it.

It is funny how some events are just the right place at the right time.  Sunshine, while the rest of the state is usually still int he cold of late winer.

Last year my wife and I came down and we spent our time doing every virtual and earthcache that we could find.  That was a great trip.  I had nopes of going with my wife (no offence to peanutsparents) but with kids activites and stuff like that,  of course Peanutsparents had planned on going with his wife as well.  So it all worked out.

Well later that morning we decided to head out into the desert. It was time to start looking for caches. We grabbed a few caches. In fact I pulled my old trick.  There is a road on the map,so we followed that.  Unfortunatly the map on the road was a rough road, we did eventually make it to the location, but man it was a nasty ride.

We headed to billionj's mom heart int he desert. There were a lot of caches that made up the heart.  So we were actaully planning something rather long. There were about sixty caches in the outside of the heart that we were planning on doing. 

Actually we thought about doing the O in mom as well.  But more on that later.

We headed out into the desert and we had a number of us. About a dozen running from small 7 year olds to mid 40's all going for a nice stroll.  A stroll in the cactus and sand for 7-8 miles.

The group tended to stretch out as time went on.  What started out as all of us together slowly started to string out into a longer and longer line. By the time we got to the bottom of the heart (about 20 caches into it), we all knew that some were not going to make it.  Unfortunatly for those that gave up it was a two mile hike back to the cars.

As we crossed the road on the SE edge of the heart all of the kids gave up.  Jac0b started back at that point. He started with the rag tag band to head back ot the cars.

A bit later A few others felt like they had enough as well. So they headed back as well.  So with 35 caches and 4.5 miles of sand dunes and sagebrush ahead of us DrJay, Peanuts Parents, and myself continued to the quest.  It was a long long hike.

I had forgotten how much I hated hiking in the sand.  I grew up in southern Utah and we avoided sand.  You have to work twice as hard. It gets in your shoes.  In fact when I was done I had a lot inside my socks. It made for rough hikeing.  However even had we decided to give up we were going to be hiking past many of the caches that we were looking for heading back to the car.

I never did actually measure the length.  Five barbed wire fences were crossed, and many miles.  It was fun to go with the people that I went with.  They are a blast and I would not have enjoyed myself had I been caching on my own like I normally do.

The scenery was awesome.  Given it was mostly sand, and hills.  However it was really a nice break from what I see up north.  Like I said I grew up seeing sights like these.  Now as I get older I start to appreciate what I grew up with, and what people travel thousands of miles from around the world to see.

Needless to say the rest of the day was spent trying to pretend that we were alive.  Nearly sunburned, and wanting sleep we headed back to the hotel to sleep and get cleaned up.  I went to dinner later, but was pretty burned and just exhausted. So I did not eat a lot.

The next day was the drive back.  I actually found another fifty caches on the way home.  I really need to log them.  I have tried to make each log part of the experience this year.  So I put off logging (like blogging).  However I will get back to it.

In all it was a great trip.  Thanks for everyone that made it so enjoyable.  We saw many great sights.  Thanks for everyone in making it fun.

Oldest Earthcaches in Germany

I added to my map.  Jumping to Germany this time.  I now added the oldest earthcaches in the parts of Germany that geocaching.com breaks the country into.

I will add other european countries as I have the chance.

View Notable Caches in a larger map