MnGCA

drat19

Hello there my Twin Cities caching friends...
Your old pal and (self-appointed! Wink

) favorite guest cacher "drat19" here again, to share with you a document I published on my web site that many of YOU were a part of...in a GOOD way. Maybe y'all might also find it helpful, I dunno...

http://www.ratisher.com/geocache_note.htm

-Dave R.

15Tango · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 4:18 am Post subject:

I think it's a great article--I prefer caches for the sake of getting to go discover an area I might not know about if it wasn't for geocaching, instead of your typical "park and find". Case in point--there was a "lamp-post" cache at Apache Plaza, a place of local interest in that it was the first enclosed mall in the area, and I felt it was worthwhile to go visit--I found a similar "lamp-post" cache in a KaMe apART parking lot that didn't thrill me at all, especially since on the other side of the store, there was a great arboretum just begging for a cache to be hidden in it. Anyhow, I'm glad one of the leading travelling cache hunters likes our caches--we enjoy placing them, and I'm sure we're jaded with getting good quality caches to seek out (compared to other cache dense areas in the world).
_________________
There comes a time in every young boy's life when he gets an irresistible urge to seek buried treasure.--Mark Twain

drat19 · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 2:04 pm Post subject:

Well, EVERY area has good caches to offer, even those I've cited as being overpopulated with less-than-good ones. And that's the point: It's one thing to have ONE OR TWO so-called "lame" lamppost or tree hollow roadside hides (while most others are "good ones"), but it's another to BLANKET an area with 50 or 100 or more "lame" ones like they've allowed to happen in those areas. I think caching "leaders" in every area should work with new and veteran hiders to pay attention to "keeping the quality high"...like y'all do there in the Twin Cities. IT MATTERS.

-Dave R.

Marsha and Silent Bob · Past MnGCA President Joined: 02 Sep 2003 Posts: 6261

Kitch · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 2:27 pm Post subject:

The "its not about the numbers" is big fat LIE!!!!

Marsha and Silent Bob · Past MnGCA President Joined: 02 Sep 2003 Posts: 6261

KC0GRN · Past MnGCA Board Joined: 22 Feb 2004 Posts: 1424

Although speaking for some, it's hard to come up with a good/original idea. And a lot of the truely scenic areas already have been taken. That's not saying there are places that haven't been touched, but as more people get out there, there's less undiscovered places.

I've only done 2 hides, so forgive me if they're too easy or boring or lame or whatever, I'm still just a newbie. I guess as the old saying goes "You can only please some of the people, some of the time", same holds true in geocaching.

I like variety, and nothing seems better than a tupperware in the woods find after 3 or 4 micro DNFs in a row. At least I get a small sense of accomplishment, verses going home to log "I must be dumb, I can't find this one" a few times over.

Marsha and Silent Bob · Past MnGCA President Joined: 02 Sep 2003 Posts: 6261

Kitch · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 2:54 pm Post subject:

BUT on the flip side...caches like 13F are above the heads of some people on finding them.
I admit it ...i'm a little to stupid to put the pieces of puzzles togethor.

KC0GRN · Past MnGCA Board Joined: 22 Feb 2004 Posts: 1424

I enjoy a challenge as well, and having caches that challenge people is great.

And yes, some good spots do get wasted on someone else's hide, I see great spots all the time only to find out there's a cache 50 or so feet away, not just talking about trees or anything either. Hopefully every cache has some meaning to it, I'd like to think they all do. I've run across a few simple finds in a small park that would possibly fit the "boring" category, but it brought me to a park I would have otherwise never visited, and to me that counts for something.

Eh, getting bogged down in symantics again, I'll just go about my caching and hope I don't step on any toes Smile

drat19 · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:10 pm Post subject:

Well, my opinion is that at least in the parts of the Twin Cities that I cached while there (west 'burbs), even the so-called simple ones were good. Y'all know I like to "crank numbers", and yet so many of the 1-to-2-star rated caches that I targeted were in wonderful parks and other locations, even if the caches themselves were "nothing special". Y'all took me to so many parts of the area that I NEVER would have visited if I'd just been a typical business traveler sticking to the shopping strip malls and stuff. I LOVE talking about that with people...and I know that my local friends and colleagues find it interesting that I know so much more about their town than the average visitor (and often more than the locals too!).

And that's my point. The other metro areas I talked about had hiders whose 1/1 caches were roadside "so what?" caches in Walmart parking lots and non-descript green spots on the side of the road. That's the difference between hiders just driving around and looking for any ol' place to hide a cache, vs. hiders actually putting a little thought into it and WALKING AWAY from a location, even if it could support a cache hide, if the location didn't have anything particularly redeeming to offer except for another "stat".

It's about keeping the quality high. One of the other posters on this thread cited the fact that many of the "good spots" are already taken. Some folks would argue that that means it's time to hide cache "just anywhere" in order to get more caches out there. That's what creates the "problem" I talked about in my article/note, that I believe metro areas like mine and like the Twin Cities need to PREVENT form happening. I would argue that that means it's time to hold off, hide fewer caches, and keep up the standards. (Maybe 2-fer's and 3-fer's in those "good spots" are the answer instead?)

-Dave R.