HikeArizona.COM

Does anyone do geocaching?

Ive been reading the Geocaching website and find myself getting interested more everyday.

Has anyone ever found a cache? There are hundreds in the area, a few I may go looking for w/o a GPS, because Im familiar enough with some of the areas to go by the clue only.

Any suggestions on a decent GPS unit? ( less than a million dollars please )

Lets hear your Geocaching stories.

When it was brought up a year ago my thoughts were this...

How can they legally encourage folks to cache in the national forest. It's going to turn into a big garbage dump. Even in their guidelines it specifically states that caching in a national forest is illegal.

And the general comments were...
Ah, joe you old prude. Shut up. There's nothing wrong with it

Okay, fine by me, if everybody thinks they can keep to a moderate level. Actually I really don't care if you cache or not. I'm really just more intrigued that it's allowed.

So, I go check out the site again. Now they have a "Cache in, Trash out" campaign going. Kudos of course. Yet, it's directly advertised as "Clean our FOREST" so you can't really read that any other way then they are still encouraging you to cache IN the forest.

I think their forum states it best. The last post I just checked was this...
A guy was complaining that others were rudely caching too close to his cache. Within a half mile I believe.

So what is too close? Maybe it's in their guidelines. It would just seem odd, however way over imagining, to say... I hiked Peralta today. Found 49 caches and picked up a soda can on the way out to do my part in cleaning up the forest

Don't get me wrong. I'm about as open minded as they come. I simply can't believe this has progressed as it has without controversy. Heck, I think it's fascinating myself. I'd even put up a local site if the project were open source.

I remember looking at some of the cache spots around Canyon Lake and La Barge Canyon. They all seemed whimpy and effortless to find. I thought it would be neat to be the first to cache a true challenge in the area when I went off trail up to Geronimo Head. Then I forgot all about it.

I debated on if to attend the REI presentation on Geocaching...I opted not to go...my thoughts would be something along this line...I read about it and get excited to try something new...so I pick a cache and head into the forest shovel in hand...and one of two things happens...it is either miserably easy to locate and thus not a challenge, or it is not where it is reported to be...

Personally...I don't get why the NFS allows the practice...

(It does remind me of what John Long...famous climber...calls the best cache in history...he was in Yosemite at the climbers campground back in the late 60s/70s when word got around that a small plane had crashed way out in the wilderness, apparently the plane was flying below radar and was not picked up by the authorities...so a bunch of climbers head out to find the plane...when they finally reach it, they discover that the plane was flying below radar because it was smuggling pot...apparently there were tons of pot onboard...so these guys haul it out and go buy cars and stuff with the proceeds...of course I'm sure they consumed a bit also..Long called it the greatest cache in history)

My motivation for going out in the wilderness has always been the experience, the scenery, the physical challenges & benefits, and because I just plain love the outdoors. The idea of going to find an old ammo case full of trinkets, just to prove I can use a GPS unit, doesn't really appeal to me. I'd much rather find some little known ruin, or old mine, or cave, or make an entry in a summit log...

That's a great point

Which, for Kansas, GeoCaching might be the only solution, but Arizona has so much to offer!

Now before the Kansas folk start sending me e-mails... I've lived in Kansas, it's nothing exciting. Kansas State Jayhawks main ambition in life is to sit on a tree limb saying "ahh shucks" cause OU beats their butts year after year on the field Go Sooners!

well......

I honostly didnt expect this kind of response.

Hmm.... Maybe Ill go back to my High power model rockets.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, Cakewalk. Just wouldn't be my kind of gig. It seems a lot of people enjoy it, and there's nothing wrong with that, as long as it's done responsibly. I've seen one cache on the north side of S. Mountain. It was out of the way, hidden from sight pretty well. A friend of mine had found it a week or two earlier and pointed it out to me.

I better emphasize again...
"I'm really just more intrigued that it's allowed"
I'm not saying it's bad.

To push the topic back on cycle, I too would like to hear others caching stories.

CW maybe you could put a beacon on the rockets and start GeoBeaconFind.com or FindMeRocketMate.com :P

If Rodney were still around, he'd probably have a bunch of stories to tell. He may have hidden a few of his own cache's by now.

I do like the rocket beacon idea tho... I lost my favorite rocket in a large field in ND. It went about a mile or so high, and probably landed near chicago...

I dunno...

My attention span is about 10 minutes long, so I doubt the geocaching thing will hold me much longer...

Wow, what a story! I was nearly crying until the last two sentences

I think an Elton John midi attachment to the page of Rocket Man is in order :P

There was an article on the front page of yesterday's Arizona Republic about Geocaching. The main point was that a dozen or more caches had been set on or near archeological sites. The sites had been vandalized, in some cases completely stripped of artifacts. It almost made me want to buy a GPS just so I could find and remove illegal caches. If I happen across one I'll remove it like any other trash I find left in the forest or wilderness. I'm not worked up enough to spend my time hunting them down. I don't see the challenge anyway if the coordinates are accurate. They might just as well place a cache at Warner and Priest or 75th Ave and Bell. At least that would keep trash out of the wilderness.

I looked for and found one geocache and I didn't see the big thrill in it. I put the coordinates in my GPS and followed it there. If you know how to use your GPS it's not real challenging.

After reading that article (also on azcentral.com) I have less love for the hobby. Not to sterotype, I'm sure like most hobbies the majority of geocachers are responsible law abiding citizens and it's the minority that drive ATC's through ruins and steal relics.

I agree with most of the posts here, there are much better reasons to get off your couch then to use high tech eqipment to find a paint can full of junk.

As for which GPS is best, do a little home work and figure out what you want it to be able to do. Some have street maps in them some have trails, some have a USB port so you can download any map you want into it. A pilot friend of mine has one that has an alarm that goes off when he gets close to restricted airspace. They all work basically the same, it's just a matter of what you want it to do. I have the Garmen GPS III+. It has all the road maps programmed in, and even tells you what is at every off rampon the major highways (even the names of and types of food offered at resturants). My wife has the eTrex, which is nice because it's very basic and easy to use.

I wrote a looong reply to this, re-read it then decided not to post it. It belonged more appropriately on the "rant" thread. More concisely, I agree with Mike and azhiker96. I don't need manmade additions to enjoy the outdoor experience. If I find "trash" (ie caches), I will remove it. Obvious caches of food/water/gear should be left alone.

Clarify my previous post. Old mines and ruins etc. are cool, so I guess I shouldn't say "manmade additions" Maybe contrived is more appropriate.[/quote]

I haven't done it yet but Geocaching was the primary reason I waited... and waited... and waited and finally purchased a Magellan Meridian GPS. Although there seem to be some caches in Tempe here I just haven't gone yet.

I followed the boards on the Geocaching site for about a year and it seems they (the cachers) really try to be non-destructive. I have yet to read of one cache that was burried and you had to dig for it. Most of them are usually hidden in the brush or some other "out of sight" place. Further reading seemed to indicate the NFS _does not_ condone it. I think there is some lobbying by the mainatainers og Geocaching to allow caching. A message from the NFS was posted to one forum stating that they would remove any caches found.

Everyone seems to agree NOT to mess with NPS land though (I concur).

Personally, I like the idea. It's a growing community (just like HAZ) and, since peopel have to go out of their way to cache something, it doesn't seem to attract "trash". OTOH, I've heard of several caches being vandalized. As long as people use common sense respect the land, I have no problem with it. I'm sure we've all hiked with people who were careless about their impact on the land. I certainly have.

Jim "Coaster"

Well that settles it! Then jeremy's brother should be able to build a cabin out in the middle of nowhere as long as he uses common sense and respects the land.

I guess we'd need to define common sense.

Okay, so the above sounds sarcastic but believe me Jim I'm not putting you down. I'm simply trying figure out what I believe is propper in my mind cause I've been flip floppin. It's terrible, it's okay, it's bad

I take back what I said on the second post of this thread. I don't care to participate in any activity and especially not programming an interface for this site. It just doesn't hit home in my mind as being right on the forest lands. I cringe when I see a bubblegum wrapper so why would I want to go looking for one. (or anything else they call a cache like combs, etc...)

At the same time I don't think down on those that do it responsibly. I mean if you're caching a couch we need to talk However I'd probaby do as azhiker96 and hike it out, at least what I could carry.

Teva,

No offense taken. Has anyone seen these caches? It's my understanding they are usually old ammo boxes or sealed containers. I doubt they are huge boxes or small items strewn about. Then again, I haven't geocached so I can't say for sure.

I'm a strong proponent of LNT. You won't find me pouring out the water I just used to clean my cook pot (I'll drink it). You won't find me "taking care of business" less than 50 yards or so from a water source and if I can I'll pack out any trash I find on the trail. And I'll have no qualms with arguing with my hiking partner(s) if I see them not doing the same... or at least blatently disrespecting the land.

I have no strong opinion for or against geocaching and I haven't kept up on the conflict between the NFS and the cachers. When I said "common sense" I meant that, if they are to continue, then they should at least show some (for lack of a better word) common sense when stashing the caches (keeping them away from trails, not bushwhacking a 'new' trail, not putting food in the cache, not digging, etc).

Coaster