Saturday, April 12, 2008

Losing Its Appeal

I went out geocaching the other day after dinner. It seems like it has gotten a lot more complicated to geocache here than I really want it to be. Some caches here are hidden near or in the water and can only be gotten when the tide is out which means coordinating the tide schedules (terrible for me to deal with). Others are camouflaged micros in very busy areas that really don't take me to a new place, but seem to be a test of the hider's ability to stump everyone and cause us to seek caches only in the rain or at night in order to not be seen. Then others are hidden amongst trash in dark scary caves that homeless people live in making finding them almost impossible.

It has been ages that I have gone to find a cache in a nice hidden away place that doesn't require me to beat off habu snakes, or tourists and still shows me something new. It makes the sport very frustrating for me. A lot of the fun has been taken out of it for me. I do it because I want exercise and to see something new. I don't do it so I can drive up to a little spot on the side of the road and find a cache 5 feet from my car, unless the spot is cool and I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

One other issue is that if a cache is not hidden properly, it is found, quite frequently, by either tourists, landscapers or others not playing the game. Many times because NO ONE here thinks to put a Japanese translation page in their caches, they are tossed in the trash. So many coins, and travel bugs have been lost in just the last few weeks because of this....this makes me not want to put any of my travel bugs out there.

Now all of this is not on the hiders alone...the nature of this place adds to it. The parks here are very manicured...so finding a hiding spot that won't be weedwacked every 6 months is very hard to do. This place is also very crowded so it is hard to find a spot where there isn't someone else already sitting enjoying the space. Creatively camouflaged micros are sometimes the only option.

Okay, that is my bitch session for the day. I want to go out geocaching today but my frustration from the other night, might just lead to me to find other things to do instead...grrrrr.

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Two Years Ago at In My Words...Typical

4 comments:

Haha said...

Remember your walking trail that had a cache in it, but the cache was hidden behind those big spider webs with the spiders keeping watch - I think William got some footage of that. We didn't go for that cache either, uh uh, no way.

... said...

It is still here..and I haven't tried to get it because the whole area needs a good grooming and I am not going for it until it gets done...

Chicken said...

Yeah I'm feeling that way too. I haven't been out in while and I need to go again. I was just put off by the one hidden in the stupid mall parking lot. Your TB was stolen amount others....it really shouldn't be that difficult.

Haha said...

Oooh Mishka - please don't go in there - that is bad juju in there. No geocache is worth getting a spider bite, believe me I know from experience that they are no fun!