If these people would use their blog to educate (one of their stated goals) about eco-sensitive areas and the specific types of plants, fungi and lychans to pay special attention not to disturb, I would be more inclined to value their opinion about geocache placement. I am always happy to learn new ways and change my behaviors to be a more responsible patron of the outdoors. But…

I think that these people might better serve the environment by sharing their points of view in an educational way rather than the destructive route they are engaged in. Geocachers share things. It’s the basis of what we do. We share knowledge of beautiful locations with each other by placing geocaches. We share knowledge of trail conditions, outdoorsmanship, safety considerations and much more at geocaching events. If these persons truly want to stop environmental damage done by geocachers seeking caches, then teach. The few who are taught will always forward the information to other cachers.  Sharing knowledge with 64 Geocachers instead of stealing 64 geocaches, would go much further in the effort to change the current conditions in our Washington State Parks and the world.

Instead, they geocache freely. Signing some logs and using the services of geocaching.com to find many more beautiful and interesting places. Then appoint themselves as “defenders” of public property. Property held in trust for the benefit of all citizens and animals alike protected by trained professionals who have dedicated their lives to the service of the land, it’s people, its wildlife and remove other geocaches as they deem fit.

Letterboxing has been around for centuries. Geocaching 10 years. Both activities are known to all governmental agencies and park personnel. If the authorities and real “defenders” allow them and in many states actively encourage and engage in these pursuits, what right do you have to remove them?

Geocaching has many side benefits. The biggest one for me has been a dramatically increased awareness of the environment, its ecosystems and my effect upon them. It has changed the way I live everyday. In effect it has taught me to be a more earth-friendly consumer and has started me upon a path of green living. These changes take time, but the changes I’ve made have had a ripple effect into the lives everyone I know. And the ripples just keep spreading. Teaching changes the teacher and the student. I am now also learning more about living green form those very friends who, once influenced, took it a step further. The circle returns. This is educating.

But. These part time geocachrs/eco-anti-cachers do not teach, enlighten or foster support for their views with their actions. They destroy.

Doesn’t say much for them in my humble opinion.

“With All Sincerity”
Kryptic

Related Article

- Geocachers Victimes of geo-smashers

It’s late. Or early if you like. 12:20 am. It’s raining. And the sound of the rain hitting the roof has made your mind tired and groggy. You are getting ready for bed, but feel compelled to check your email one more time and… There it is. A Puzzle Cache. Should you go for it? Aptly named I’Dunno (GC240W2), it’s listed less than a mile from your house by a cacher you know. A fellow cacher with a great big-brother-teasing type sense of humor and you know, you just know, that if you don’t go get this one you may never hear the end of it!

You open the page and… shit. It looks like a multi. But wait! You read on: “There is no container to find at the Reference Points. They are for Reference. You don’t need to bother anyone. Reference Points are for Reference.” Ok… Google Earth. You see the locations and it clicks. You know exactly where to go online to get the desired information and in less than the time it took you to open your email, you have the coordinates in hand! Success!!

That’s exactly how it happened to me! But…

Oh, wait… The water pump on my truck is acting up. No driving that far, at night, alone. Hmmm, not good. PJ seems really busy, so I calmly mention a possible FTF on a Douglas_Clan puzzle and the next thing I know, PJ, Karma and I pile into the jeep and away we go! Co-FTF on a very early Tuesday morning is a fantastic way to start the day!

Late That Afternoon

If you read last weeks post, you know I was working on a Multi-Cache named, Lakewood Historic Markers(GC1P8KZ) by Subman123. With only a couple of hours to cache we decided to finish up the remaining waypoints and take the dog with us to the final cache site. We had enough information without the last waypoint to know that the final was going to be near the Ft. Steilacoom Park Dog Park. It seemed like a good plan. Dog. Dog park. You’d think that would be a perfect fit! Well, Karma had other ideas today.

When you adopt a dog from the Humane Society, you don’t always know how they will react to new situations, places or people. Rose and Karma had just recently finished the beginner class of dog training at the local Pets-Mart. From it, we learned that Karma had never been socialized with other dogs and that her barking and acting up seems to be fear based. It was one of the things that we have been working on with her consistently over the last eight weeks. She had been doing really well. She has learned to be comfortable and responsive to tours of Pets-Mart and is getting better with the parking lots. We had even been to this dog park area before and she had calmed down after her initial barking, whining and lunging episodes to really rather enjoy her walk. Today, she was having none of it. Every dog, human, bird or gust of wind, was setting her off. She was shaking and not from the cold. We did our best to calm her and work her through it. We had parked near the last waypoint, which is located in the cemetery. I have to wonder if maybe that was an issue for her. We got back in the Jeep and moved to park closer to the actual final and to help Karma calm down. It made some difference, but she was still pretty worked up. I still have no idea why today was so different than the other days here, but it was.

We made it to the final as the sun set. PJ made a quick grab and we signed the log and dropped some Travel Bugs. It wasn’t until we got home that we discovered that the cache has a TB listed in it that is not there. Sad. The cache did not appear to be compromised, so I’m hoping that someone just picked that one up and forgot to log it. Geocacher Responsibility! Oh wait.. that’s another blog post.

So! If any of you local geocachers have not done this Multi yet, I would encourage you to do so! If while you are there, you would pick up and log the TB’s we dropped off today, it would be greatly appreciated! It seems we’ll be spending quite a bit of time there with the dog, so I’ll keep a lookout for ya!

Happy Caching!

Tupperware Tuesday

So, tell me .. How was your “Tupperware Tuesday”? To find out more and how to participate, follow this link: “Tupperware Tuesday”. If you love geocaching, we’d love to hear from you! Chime in with your comments or your weeks caching highlights. Can’t wait to read what you found today!

N 47° 10.567 W 122° 29.590

The Hidden View

My next stop was The Life Cycle of Leach Creek Salmon (GC1G3BV) by Subman123. I had checked the logs before I left and knew that people were having a hard time opening this one. So I made sure to bring a couple of small Pocket MultiTools with me in case I actually found it. I have driven past this art installation a few thousand times by now and never really looked at it. It really is massive when you get up next to it. So I burned up a lot of time just looking and trying to find angles to get a good shot of it to no avail. It’s too big and the street is just too close. The next thing I noticed that I had never seen, because the art covers the view, is the creek behind it. As you can see it’s a beautiful little spot. After taking more than a few pictures of the creek for future drawing material, I started looking for the cache. I wasn’t able to really search for it, because the city work trucks and the local police kept coming by and you can only pretend to be be taking pictures for so long. And apparently, from the looks I was getting, I had been there long enough. So even though I didn’t find the cache, what I did find in inspiration and materials for future use, made the visit memorable. I’ll go back tomorrow and actually look for the cache, now that I won’t be as distracted by all the scenery!

Prep Work

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing prep work for a multi-cache. I visited half of the required waypoints and gathered the required information. I’ll finish the rest up this week sometime. I won’t be able to share much on this one without compromising the cache, but maybe I can write up the final location. I’ll figure that out when I find it. I like this type of multi. I get to learn and see new things and earn a smiley at the same time. Win-Win in my world.

Well, it’s nearly midnight and all the daily mundane tasks of life have been finished. The dog has been out for the last time and the cats are sleeping peacefully. I think I have seen enough of the world for one day.

Happy Caching

Tupperware Tuesday

So, tell me .. How was your “Tupperware Tuesday”? To find out more and how to participate, follow this link: “Tupperware Tuesday”. If you love geocaching, we’d love to hear from you! Chime in with your comments or your weeks caching highlights. Can’t wait to read what you found today!

Yes, Costco day is a dreaded day here not only because of the time it takes… But the willpower…. Oh, the willpower… I pray all the way there to have enough willpower to get through the entire mammoth structure and stay on budget!

Clean Caching

Extras this trip include:

• A new carpet cleaner ( Geocaching with a dog is even messier that caching with me!)
• New door mats (To help cut down on the wear and tear on the new carpet cleaner.)
• And of course.. various plastic containers suitable for geocaches. (On sale of course. Sigh…)

Well maybe next time.

Needless to say, I only got to find 2 geocaches today. Not what I had planned for this week, but it will have to do!

• Flett Substation (GC1PYRT) by geometro253.
• Do you feel the pain? #1 (GC1PA4X) by Li’l Cookie/a>.

The last cache Do you feel the pain? #1 (GC1PA4X) was a trip down memory lane for my caching partner. She spent a great deal of time playing here as a child. She shared some fond memories of the place, made even sweeter knowing the cache belongs to a little girl about the age she was then. Thanks Li’l Cookie!

Tupperware Tuesday

So, tell me .. How was your “Tupperware Tuesday”? To find out more and how to participate, follow this link: “Tupperware Tuesday”. If you love geocaching, we’d love to hear from you! Please feel welcome to chime in with your comments or this weeks caching highlight. Can’t wait to read what you found today!

Photo by RoGobliss

Dog training while geocaching can really put the hurt on the number of caches you can get to in a day. Geocaching is a great way to combine training, exercise and bonding time with a new dog. However, the added responsibilities and distractions did indeed cause me to walk past a few geocaches, more than once, before something caught my eye. The first cache of the day was a perfect example. The dog was sniffing it before I even saw it! Vietnam Induced Nostalgia (GC1NP8N) by Subman123 was the last puzzle I had to find in Ft. Steilacom Park. The park is 340 acres of scenic trails, baseball, soccer & softball fields, a state-of-the-art playground, off-leash dog park & new picnic shelter. The scenic part is disappearing fast as the city makes more money from soccer and softball fields than it does from old growth tree stands. I’m trying to enjoy it as much as possible while it lasts. It does however, feel pretty good to have the park cleared off of my caching to-do list.

Next we ventured into the town of Steilacoom and visited a few caches in Farrell Marsh Park. Farrell Marsh Park is a 64-acre wildlife refuge that borders the Fort Lewis Military base. I found it ironic that the first two caches found here are titled Quiet Time # 1: Mossy Trees(GC11W12) and Quiet Time # 3: The Waters Edge(GC11X3Z) by Pitonman. Artillery would randomly fire thought the course of our visit and it is anything but quiet during those moments. This is a beautiful little place that is trying so hard to stay wild.

Photo by Bev and Steve

The other geocache find of the day was a bit disturbing. Mad Max Beyond Steilacoom (GCRFA5) by sir2u, seems to be being muggled regularly. This one has been solved and sitting in my “Someday I’ll get over there file.” for over a year. Sometimes those “somedays” turn into never really quickly as caches get archived regularly or often are simply muggled into submission, never to be found again. I’m hoping this puzzle survives. It is a great example of a visual puzzle. I learned a lot about how I limit my own thinking from this puzzle and it has made me a better cacher I think.

To end this great day I have completed the last two requirements for my first geocaching challenge! It is An Alphabet Soup Challenge for Washington (GCYP7T) by ohjoy!. I only needed a “Q” and a “V” and found caches begining with those letters today. Next! A three mile Multi-Cache to sign the log! I’ll keep you posted!

Ok, now on to the fridge… I think there is still a couope of Papa Murphy’s pizza slices left… what the heck. I’ve earned a few extra calories today! Happy Caching!

Tupperware Tuesday

So, tell me .. How was your “Tupperware Tuesday”? To find out more and how to participate, follow this link: “Tupperware Tuesday”. If you love geocaching, we’d love to hear from you! Please feel welcome to chime in with your comments or this weeks caching highlight. Can’t wait to read what you found today!