HikeArizona.COM

I remember when there was only a few geocaches in Phoenix. I lost interest in it a while back unfortunately. I checked the site out today and found over 1100!!

Do any of HAZ people geocache?

I'm sure some do. I don't.

I do take issue with caches where they do not belong. If you check you'll find caches in the Wilderness areas and even on archeological sites. The website that lists the caches apparently doesn't check to see if caches are following the "rules".

There are caches in town and in city parks. I have no problem with that. If the Forest Service wants to let them in the national forests then I guess that's fine too.

Nope never participated.

I did one once and it wasn't all that exciting. I followed my GPS and found a box full of junk next to a tree. It's kind of like a treasure hunt but with something telling you exactly where to go and no treasure at the end. It is good practice on how to use your GPS though.

I agree with azhiker96, I've read that a lot of them are in areas they shouldn't be. I think I heard they are banned on National Forest land.

Yes I Geocache! It's a good way to get my son off the couch. He's not interested in just going for a hike but when you have something to look for like a cache he can't wait to go!You are not allowed to place caches in a wilderness area! you can have whats called a virtual cache which is not an actual physical cache but rather a special place where the searcher must do something in order to verify his find(ie.picture,or description e-mailed to the cache owner) Me and my son have a lot of fun Geocaching! The people I have met geocaching have the upmost regard for maintaining our wilderness area's, So please don't start bashing them! Check out the site http://www.geocaching.com

ajcanable, I'm not bashing the geocachers who respect the wilderness and play by the rules.

Last weekend I removed a physical cache from the center of an archeological site in the Superstition Wilderness. According to the rules caches don't belong in wilderness areas or on archeological sites. If you go to http://www.geocaching.com and check out the map function can find dozens of caches which are clearly in wilderness areas.

I just think the folks who run the site could check their own maps and then not list caches which don't follow the rules. If they're going to run the game they need to put some effort into policing it. I emailed the website the names of two caches which are in the Four Peaks Wilderness area. So far I've only had an automated response. If they do respond I'll be sure to post it here.[/url]

In response to azhiker96's reply: Yeah, I guess there are ignorant people even here in Arizona. Did you take the cache you found to the forest service office? They have also been removing misplaced caches for about a year now and have gotten most of them i'm told. The one's in four peaks are very remote I read about one that was dropped from a plane.

In response to ajcanable's reply: I pick up trash on every hike I take. I make it a game at times, how much can I find or what strange item will I carry out. One time I filled up a discarded daypack with trash. (I'd been seeing the daypack on a remote trail for 2 months before I decided the owner wasn't coming back for it. It was one of those cheapie book bag packs from Walmart). But I digress. I treated this small letter cache like any other trail find, I relocated it to a dumpster. There was nothing in it to identify the owners and I didn't find it listed on the geocaching website. Perhaps it's listed on an alternate site.

I just found the listing for the cache on the archeological site. It's listed at http://www.letterboxing.org
This looks like a more loosely organized group than the geocaching one. They don't mention keeping their caches out of wilderness areas or away from archeological sites. They do mention that the rangers like to remove such items.

What's kinda funny (or sad) is the people who planted this apparently didn't even realize they were on top of a ruin. They described it as a small hill. :roll:

Oh no! I would think we should notify the organizers of Geocaching.com when we find a cache that's not within the rules. I'm sure they, or the cache owner, would be happy to remove them at request. The nature of geocaching has always been a very friendly one so I can't see a problem there.

In response to DoFear's reply:

I think the people at the geocaching websites need to put their GPS down, look at a map, and remove all the illegal caches from their websites. It's very irresponsible to post the illegal ones.

I agree with Daryl. If someone is going to run a game, they need to put a little effort into policing it. Check out the maps on these pages.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... c6c93fd0f1
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... 38c032e6f3

They've got a nice website and the mapping function is pretty cool. Also, there are some very imaginative and interesting caches placed in town, at the lakes, and in city parks.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... edf8869259

This one has some history in it. The folks who made it are pretty imaginative.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... 495f3e5dd5

So what say we, as responsible wilderness users, go find the illegal caches and remove them to the proper authorities (who I'm sure will respond just like all authorities do, with little or no interest in the rule breakers, but at least the caches will be gone).

So who's up for a little cache removal?

matt gilbert wrote:So who's up for a little cache removal?

I'm in.

Cache Cops?

Digging in a ruin to remove a geocache,may get caught by law enforcement digging in a ruin. Better off reporting it and let the land manager take care of it.

So far the one's in the supes are not in ruins, but its still a good point. Somehow though I doubt the rangers would really take time out of their busy schedules sitting at the TH to go out and remove anything. (that could just be my cinical nature showing through though). I guess its worth a try anyway. I'm going to email the rangers and see what they have to say about it. I'll keep everyone posted.

I have tried to log a couple of caches in the supes but they were already gone. This was last summer and after talking with some other cachers I was under the impression the forest service did have a concentrated effort to remove them. they even contacted owners (one of the rules of geocaching is to have the owners name or e-mail on the cache) so they could come pick up there personal property down at the office. they apparently have'nt discovered other web sites like letterboxing.com yet.

I really think we should let the owners of these caches know that some of them are not in an appropriate area. If we can negative feedback then we may want to take further action. I say we give the owners the chance to relocate them. They may not be aware of the situation.

Now for the ones we decide to remove, I say we can make nice outtings of these. Do some clean up while we are there too. We may need to get permission from the land manager, but usually this is not that hard from what I understand.

I need to get myself in shape for this year anyways. I want to take some trips this year.

In response to DoFear's reply:

It might be beneficial when cleaning the spots up to include a card on the spot that explains that the cache has been removed because it was in an inappropriate spot.

I know that is additional stuff that adds to garbage, but it might be a great instructional tool to those who didnt realize the issue. That includes the cacher's and cachee's.