Is it time to overturn the wagon?

 I love to geocache. I fell in love with the idea of “treasure hunting” from my dad who loved to read Argosy Magazines in the 1960’s. They were full of adventure and pirate loot stories. He regularly had the Herter’s catalog delivered and I studied the hand-made fishing lures and the possibility of going into the wild just made the pictures that much more exciting.

In November of 2003 I was introduced to the “new” game of Geocaching by Sam Morrow (USMorrows). Sam was the superintendent of the Lab at the Chemical Plant we both worked for and we both recognized each other as computer nerds, something that was fairly odd at the time. In a Plant with 225 people, there were only a few of us that fit this distinction and Sam introduced me to the game. Sam was also one of the 5 original authors of the Texas Geocaching Association that is still active 18 years later. I served on the board for 2.5 years as the SETX Rep. HKK8W1


I want to build a little history here so folks who read my proposal won’t think I’m nuts or are attempting to pervert the game somehow. I will propose some changes Groundspeak could implement and another idea for those of us that actually hide and maintain our caches and I say this with kindness and much deliberation. I’m not particularly happy about the evolution of the game and feel some changes and restrictions would benefit those who play and improve the quality of the game.

Over the last 10 years I’ve either hosted an event, workshop, geocaching 101 class, or hid geocaches to the tune of over 650 caches/events. I’ve released possibly a hundred trackables also. A few months ago I archived the bulk of my caches, leaving only 42 active caches. I went from over 300 active to less than 50 - and NO one noticed. The reason is the huge majority of cachers had already found them. The second reason I believe is few were under a light pole skirt or easy to grab by newbies.

The advent of the Smartphone has caused this directly. Am I bashing technology? Nope, but it is what it is. Little invested, little returned and with a rash of newbies hiding low quality caches and then abandoning them has become almost a geocaching contagion. I cheered our reviewer (Vertighost) when I read a note on a cache they archived and it sated that because of abandonment and no maintenance, the ache was ineligible to be unarchived. Hoorah! Finally some sense.

Back in the day, it was the same message as the Bible in that we needed to populate the earth (with geocaches this time) and anyone could and still can publish a cache without finding one or becoming a premium member. What I am proposing is Groundspeak create a rule that only premium members can hide caches. We no longer need to seed the earth with caches. For the longest time I have advocated hiding a cache only after finding their first 50. I have suggested this many times in geocaching 101 classes and at events. Although most will deny it, but we as a whole have become number greedy to the point that if we don’t find about 30 in a few hours, we feel like we didn’t do so well. This is why many of us do not cache alone. I well remember the excitement of the old days when finding ONE was exciting and yes, being an alpha and not really too concerned, I cached alone. Trust me when I say this cuts way down on your finds and the amount of time at each cache.

I still cache alone for the most part and the old magic is still active.

Proof of number-running is in the multi’s and actual difficult T/D logs. They are dismal when these should be awesome challenges to cachers. Cachers for the most part pass them by (in my own cache experience) in favor of gaining more numbers. Geocaching has either become a social event or a power trail run and this is due to the mass spreading of weak low T/D rated caches.

As I’ve stated in the past, I think the geotours and the Adventure Labs have been ruinous to local geocachers who have many hides. Local cachers have found all my caches and new cachers walk past my caches to go directly to a GT or AL cache, log it, and then walk right past my cache and leave. This is why I archived so many of my caches (I actually check on them and maintain). I also shut down my Adventure Lab series. I am putting my money where my mouth is.

I wanted to see the impact archiving would have and it had - none. The good thing was I began hiding some new ones and sure enough, the veteran cachers responded.
So, my proposal is those of us that see the need to add new life into the game, archive many of our caches. It used to be a big deal to find a cache that was 10 years old. Now? Not so much, so archive them and open the area for new caches/cachers. Wait a few months and if no one takes up the calling, begin adding new improved and better caches. You will be rewarded. http://ourbaytown.com/baytownbert/geocache.htm

Time to archive inflationary geocache hides?

  A geocaching primer by BaytownBert (Bert Marshall)  12-24-18

This is an example of a tiny geocache being hidden in an evergreen bush in a subdivision. Neighbors will wonder what you are doing, as you look suspicious.

Since my first find in 2003, this game has exploded with a plethora of ingenious and yes… many poorly hidden containers. For every unique and well placed hide, there are 40 crappy micro/nano caches hidden in places no one wants to remember. The placement screams, “Why on earth would anyone hide a cache here?”

For instance, I recently found an LPC halfway up the drive-thru at a fast food restaurant. I parked in the lot and walked beside 2 cars waiting to get their order from the window. Did I feel stupid? No; I felt uncomfortable, but I lifted the skirt and signed the log anyway. Did I take care (as the instructions stated) to preserve the integrity of the hide from watchful muggle eyes?

No. I did not. In my opinion, this cache should never have been placed here. Placing a geocache in a high muggle area at one time was supposed to signify that it made it more difficult to get in and out undetected. These days you look like a terrorist drug dealer pedophile sneaking around and I simply will not do it. I don a safety vest and walk up like I own it. Of course I try to position myself to block the view of muggles, but frankly, I almost resent being put in this uncomfortable predicament. Was the lone smiley worth it? I say no. More and more often I drive up and seeing the placement, I shake my head and drive off with the intent of ignoring that cache in the future.

Seriously, how do you think you look scouring the back side of a Redbox DVD kiosk in front of a pharmacy? I’ll go ahead and tell you. You look suspicious and that is not something you should welcome or be subjected to. Many of these newbie hides go unmaintained and if it were not for generous geocachers helping to maintain them, they would be archived by a reviewer.

A veteran cacher placed
a container here.

The introduction of Smartphones and free Apps has caused many interloping newbie geocachers to sprinkle thousands of weak hides similar to the one I found at JIB. When you look at the geocaches in your area, there are so many that are totally forgettable. Many are placed in the corner of a parking lot either under a light skirt or 8 feet into the woods among the ton of litter on the ground. So much for CITO’ing the area because there is simply too much trash. After a day of geocaching, my 30 gallon plastic trash can in my Jeep is over-flowing. This literally happens every time I go out to find caches.

I say it is time veteran cachers dump these types of caches from their personal hide inventory and clean up their respective areas for new, higher quality hides. Newbies will continue to litter the landscape with weak hides and nothing can be done to stop that short of Groundspeak putting a find quota on when you can place a hide.

In the Houston/Beaumont area of Texas, there are thousands of poorly planned hides, sprinkled almost in a random fashion. I still own some of them that I plan to archive. It’s as if there was no forethought went into the hide. Sure its fun to log 10 quick hides, but the truth is nothing was gained other than 10 smilies were added to your total. Easy caches placed for travelers can be excused from my rant. I believe in accommodating travelers as a safety issue. Get them in and out of their cars and back on the road.

Plan your caches. Do the homework.

I currently have 187 active geocaches even though I recently archived 125 to make room for new hides, or just to flush the toilet on uninteresting hides. I am putting my money where my mouth is. No one seemed to notice and the reason for this is there are many thousands of caches available and the bulk of them are weak in placement. It’s true. The descriptions and hints are either absent or vague and it appears the planning stage was absent also. As an example, one forum user wrote they intended to put out a power trail of 50 LPC’s. My eyeballs almost popped out in disbelief over that post.

Another example of what I am saying is I archived 29 caches in a series to make them more suitable to children. I could have simply rehid each cache with a new container, but I wanted to start over. The original series took folks down a seemingly haunted country road and each container was well hid. The new series are all (small or larger) black and have a red lid to help kiddos find them. I want them to find them, so each cache also has a good hint. The series for veterans will be easy peasy and a quick 29 caches, but for newbie’s it will be a training ground for further adventures.

Hopefully their success will excite and educate them enough to tackle the harder geocaches. The outcome could be that they will continue to play the game for more than 2 weeks and hold off hiding one until they learn more about the game. The landscape is constantly littered with inflationary and meaningless caches regardless of how much scrutiny the reviewers use. World’s of information is currently available on cache placement and seeing that veterans can eliminate their own low quality hides, the game could be invigorated again. It surely needs a shot of adrenaline, IMO.

Is it time for a moratorium on LPC's?

The same is happening with events and I’ve written about this before in another primer. Make events more than just a meet and eat. At one time years ago, there were maybe 6 events planned for the Houston area over the next 2 months. Currently in this same area there are 20-40 events scheduled at any given time. There are so many events that attendance is usually under 10 people. Like the low quality hides, events are meaningless other than to eat or to talk to the same 6 people and no one bothers to post photos. It has become so pervasive that I’ve all but stopped hosting events. Now if you live in an area of few caches, then forgive me for this suggestion, but it may still apply. Don’t fret archiving them to place better caches. Build it and they will come.

Hide a variety of caches for all skill levels, but a “power trail” of cricket micros in evergreen bushes might need to be reconsidered. Plan it in such a way that geocachers will give your hides favorite points and you will know you are doing it right.

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Where oh where did my cache go?

Where oh where did my cache go?
Bert Marshall (BaytownBert) Ex-SETX Rep Texas Geocaching Association.

Whenever I am explaining the game of geocaching to newbies, this particular line of questioning always surfaces. "What do you do with it when you find it? Do you keep it?" I explain that finding it is step one and the last step is replacing it exactly as you found it. What happens in the middle is the fun part. I then go on to explain signing the log, exchanging swag, and the possibility that a traveler or personal item is inside.

I own a rather peculiar cache in the Baytown area. GC75F4Q BB's (9AA) BHP TB Letterbox Motel!  It's a letterbox, a TB motel, and a large container. It is also the only premium member geocache I own. It currently has 12 travel bugs and a number of personal identification goodies inside.

I noticed a newbie premium cacher with 5 total finds found it a couple days ago and signed the log, "Nice find" with no mention of the travelers.  I just had to go and see if some were missing, or if the person just didn't understand what they were. Imagine my shock and horror when the container was gone! It's in the edge of the woods behind my house along the walking trail, overlooking a 14 acre pond with alligators in it.

My first thought was "Oh my god!  All of those travel bugs gone! How do I fix this? Do I just post that it was muggled? Do I write each person and tell them that maybe they will surface down the road? I began to look off into the woods, as it is very dense with thorns, as I could "kind of" see in there. I began looking for a place of ingress (commonly cryptically called a geotrail) thinking maybe they grabbed the container and took it out in the open to see what was inside and then forgetting, pushed back in.

This happens fairly often to containers that aren't tethered and quite often the cache gets moved, but this thing is a big protein container that you could stuff a large softball through its mouth.  Nothing, nothing, and then?  There it is, about 50 feet from where I hid it.  I blew out a lungful of thankfulness and retrieved it.  Opening it, I found all 12 travelers and the fellow's signature on the log. I replaced the geocache to match the coordinates and walked off relieved.

Now, this brings up what to do when you are sure you find an established geocache way off coordinates. Do you leave it and write a log explaining it needs owner intervention and post the coordinates of where you found it?  Yup! That is what you should do! But do most veteran cachers do this?  Nope, not in my experience. They write a vague, if anything log and leave it to find by the next unsuspecting cacher.  Why that's harsh BB!  Shame on you!  It is what it is and I am speaking from the vantage point of experience.

Think about. What do you, as a five year geocacher do when you encounter this phenomenon? I have located caches 100 feet off coordinates and read logs by my own peer group that said "expand your search" as advice. I know by the coordinates and hint where the cache is supposed to be. The absentee owner hasn't responded in 2 years. Call me whatever, but I carry it back to coordinates after calibrating my Garmin Oregon 650, and place it where it originated.

Then I log it as such.  "Found container 100 feet from posted coords.  Returned to coords and placed in accordance to hint on cache page."  Then I post a watch on the page and sure enough, other cachers begin finding it again. Quite often, being the anal retentive type, I do cache maintenance on it and add swag if it will fit.

I looked for a cache in Houston's Midtown 3 times before I reached out for help with a couple of PAF's only to hear back, "It's not at coords.  Its in the plants about 80 feet deeper in the alley and on the other side.  Six of us went in there and found it."  What?!  That's not what their logs said. The absentee owner hid it and people kept logging it for about 4 years. Me, actually believing it was where they said it was moved 20 to 30 feet up and down the vine covered fence 3 times with no luck.

Well, you guessed it.  It is now back at coords. I should have flagged it, but to keep the game going, I just returned it to the coords and the hint. Now understand me when I'm saying I do this at my own risk and I'm not telling or admonishing anyone to move a cache. If I get a dirty Rep for moving caches, then so be it, but I don't do it often AND I log it as such. I'm an advocate of truth in logging. If you do something, by all means, tell the truth.

So, in conclusion, the best thing to do is write a great log and post coordinates of what you find amiss.

What is Caching Mojo?

What is Caching Mojo?
By Bert Marshall (BaytownBert)
Southeast Texas Representative Texas Geocaching Association

Caching mojo, to put it simply is how well-rounded you are as a geocacher concerning finding versus hiding geocaches.  For instance, say you have found 2243 caches and have hidden 115.  Simple math concludes that for every 20 caches you’ve found, you’ve hidden 1 for other people to find.   You have a lot of mojo!  A well-rounded geocacher has more than just a large amount of finds.

Note:  This may not be the most pleasant of primers concerning geocaching, but I think if you keep an open mind, you will see the logic here.

Sure, I know everyone who looks for geocaches doesn’t have time to hide them and keep them maintained – or is this simply an excuse? You look at your numbers, crunch them to heck and back in GSAK, endlessly running filters and macros until your digits are numb and then look at your finds and grin like a possum eating persimmons.

You are a rock star!  Right?

Recently, someone posed the question of where they could find the statistics for a world scale ranking of how many caches have been found by a geocacher.  Of course I had to look at “Texas” and I found my name somewhere in the 150’s.  So, I am “ranked” as the 150-something geocacher in the great big state of Texas, USA as to how many geocaches I’ve found.  Cool beans – I guess.  I’m going to throw that number at the guy behind the donut shop counter and see if I can get a free cup of Joe.

Now, how to work that tidbit into a conversation, right?  “Hey, did you know I am the blah, blah, blah?”  The reaction would probably be met with less than enthusiasm, but the truth is, if a person has found 5000+ caches and hasn’t hidden but a handful, then what would happen if everyone took this path?

At some point, shouldn’t you be contributing to the game instead of letting everyone else do the work?  “Gee, BB, that is insensitive!  You’re a creep and a self-appointed idiot, dude!”

Harsh words are never accepted as pleasant, but imagine where geocaching would be right now, if nobody hid caches.  Do you suppose you would have all those finds if this was the case?  A hard truth is some people hide a lot of caches for other cachers pleasure and some hide a few or none at all.  I place this second group in the low caching mojo category (and to me); this clouds how successful they are as a cacher.

Yea, I’m a caching snob.  It’s okay to say that and label me as such.  I can take it, but in the meantime, I’ll keep hiding caches, hosting events, buying trackables and sending them out to be probably become lost.

“So, BB, you faux-humble servant of the geocaching community, what is the solution, Mr. Wise guy, know it all?  Let’s say I don’t want to have bad caching mojo.  What do I do to change my status and get some?”

For starters, divide your total cache find number by 100.  That’s your goal.  Now, go hide that many caches.  This will raise your caching mojo considerably and guess what?  Everyone will notice!  “Wow, did you see that WartHogBillNasty8 hid a cache?  I mean he started hiding them like nobody’s business!”

“Wow, he’s a legend!  I thought he only found them.  Want to team up and go look for them?  I’d be willing to bet his cords are dead-on!”

Want more mojo?  Divide your find number by 50.  You will feel good about yourself and so will everyone you know.  Remember geocaching is a game and not everyone gets to whack a home run every inning.  Sometimes you have to be a spectator.

A good place to start is by going here:  http://baytownbert.blogspot.com/2015/11/so-you-want-to-hide-geocache.html  Now suck it up and go out and get yourself some mojo and remember to have a good time! Or you can write me and tell me what a spoil sport I am.

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BNC- 1st Nurture Nature Class - Geocaching

A small group of future geocachers met today at the Baytown Nature Center, 6213 Bayway Drive for the first class in a monthly education series called the Nurture Nature Series.


The Nurture Nature Series is the first Saturday of each month from 10:00 – 11:00 am. The program is free with the regular admission of $3 (children under 13 are free) to the Nature Center. “Reptiles” will be the next topic in the series on July 2. Interested in participating? Call 281-420-7128 to RSVP and make sure your space is reserved.

Larry Houston was the guest speaker.  In geocaching circles, he is known as HoustonControl and is a mover and shaker in the Houston area with over 4400 "finds" and a 110 "hides", some of which are in the Baytown Nature Center proper.  Larry has also earned a Platinum Earthcache Master badge, awarded by the GSA (www.earthcache.org) and has geocached in 7 countries around the world. He is Baytown's resident expert geocacher.

 

After Larry ran through the history of geocaching and the basics, he turned it over to me (geocaching name: BaytownBert) and I talked about what to carry with you when you go out on a geocaching adventure.  Everything from bug spray to emergency supplies.

Following up was a cacher from La Porte known as JustDucky2, who explained what "trackable items" were and even sported a tattoo with a trackable serial number.  Trackable items are special dog tags or coins with a dedicated set of alpha-numeric characters that travel from geocache to geocache and are recorded on geocaching.com, when found by geocachers.

We then broke off into groups and went and looked for some of HoustonControl's permanent geocaches inside the park and a few he put out just for this workshop - which are not recordable.  All and all, we had a great time and everyone attending left with a ready to hide geocache furnished by BaytownBert, with the promise to hide it after they had recorded their first 50 "finds".

Brawndo Series of Geocaches

Not too many days ago, I watched the totally stupid movie ‘Idiocracy’.  I thought it was stupid and idiotic and the more I thought about it, the funnier it became.  I especially loved the movie population’s infatuation with Brawndo (a futuristic version of Gatorade) and their devotion to its electrolyte properties.

Whenever the word Brawndo came up in a conversation, any and all would repeat the commercials by-phrase of “Brawndo’s got electrolytes!  It’s got what plants crave – it’s got electrolytes”.  Apparently in the future, people are so brainwashed by advertising that they believe any and everything.  If it comes across the TV, then it must be true!

Against all reason, my fellow geocachers are a lot like these future Brawndo worshipers in that when they could be sitting comfortably on their couches, they are instead wandering ankle deep in goopy mud, or having their arms and legged scratched to pieces by thorns so they look for something a stranger hid.  It’s totally crazy.
Each outing is the equivalent of a blood donation to the mini blood-sucking mosquito phlebotomists and then there is the ever-spreading poison ivy rain forest over-taking Baytown and surrounding area they deal with on a daily basis and all of this is beyond normal reason.  Then there are snakes.  Why?

Take today for instance.  For the last two weeks, I’ve been pouring over photographs of a wooded area in Baytown, which adjoins the Goose Creek Trail, using a ruler to figure out how in the world I can place 11 geocaches inside this area without violating the 528 foot rule between caches, required by geocaching.com.  Yes, there are rules to this game.

My Bride is confused (she’s always generous towards me, as she well understands I do things like this as a form of self-abuse).  “Why do you continually put yourself in predicaments like this, Hon?”  “Because I must” I spout and we both know it’s a Bert thing and sacrosanct.  Move on, there’s nothing to see here.

My problem was indeed self-inflicted and early on, I confided in my friend Levi McAllister, known as Skathious in the geocaching circles, as I hashed out the logistics in my head.  In the long run, we agreed I would go solo and figure this entirely out and this would enable him to “find” the caches and ensure the secrecy of the cache locations.  The fewer people who know, the harder the hide and it’s that simple.

Over the last week, I created 11 unique containers to hide in the most difficult locations I could think of and I must admit, most all of them will be difficult for cachers to find.

This wooded area is a wet, snaky bottom land beside a small slough or bayou and today, it was snaky indeed.  City Manager Garry Brumback came driving by and stopped to ask me what in the devil I was doing when he saw me starring at the thick underbrush close to “The Loop”.  When I told him I was hiding geocaches to attract people to the Goose Creek Trail, he told me city employee Patti Jett was also a geocacher, so I gave him a couple of my Baytown Bert Wooden Nickel Geocoins to share.

Here I was, loaded down with containers, busting brush with fogged-up steamy glasses when in the back of my mind, something screamed DANGER!  I came to an abrupt halt, tried to find a dry place on my clothes (no luck) to wipe my eyeglasses, and there in my path was a short fat wiggly thing my brain told me was a cottonmouth rattle-moccasin.  It actually was a cottonmouth water moccasin this time, but it knew this was its territory and I wasn’t supposed to be there. 

Since this adventure is getting long-winded, I’ll continue it in part two.

Brawndo Series of Geocaches - Part 2

I backed up a bit and I kid you not, I was as soaked as a wet Billy goat (and just as gamey I imagine), as I dug around in one of my 2 shoulder bags for my water-proof camera.  I snapped a quick photo and then put the camera away.  Looking around my feet for the snake, I realized it was…what(?) – gone!  I back-tracked a bit kangaroo-style and made my way towards the direction I needed to go for my last cache…number eleven.

Number ten and eleven are both deep into the thick and overgrown terrain of the Texas Gulf Coast mixture of giant thorns and heavy underbrush.  Bear Gryll’s while hiking south of New Orleans commented that this was the worst swamp he has ever seen – even worse than Borneo. We have swamp like that here and heavy underbrush and this is what I was encountering.  Each step may or may not have a surprise and my fogged up glasses were not helping a bit.

In our wooded areas live a very large species of spiders.  Most people call them banana spiders, but they are actually a golden silk-orb-weaver spider.  They are usually about face-high and that is usually where they end up when you are bush whacking and results in face whacking.  Their webs are very hardy too.

Texas has many varieties of thorns also and some are dark brown and the size of your ring finger.  My arms look like I’ve been in a cat fight – and lost and I now have some sort of rash on my arm that’s not poison ivy.  I have bruises on my legs and my eyes itch.

I’m having the time of my life.

Anyway, to make a long journey shorter, I finally sloshed back onto the Goose Creek Trail close to the existing Rusty Hands cache, which requires the finder to creep along the outside of the bridge over the bayou.  Thus, the rusty hands and one that required me to make 5 long trips before I found the geocache.

I made my way back to my geocachemobile, drove home, shucked off my dripping clothes in the garage, showered, ate, and submitted the cache data to geocaching.com for approval and publication.  Maybe my efforts will draw people to Baytown.  I have a feeling this endurance series is going to be a real bonus for our restaurants.