Maintenance Run
One of the most important practices of a responsible cache owner is maintaining your geocaches! There are infinite things that could happen to a geocache from the common (e.g. someone who doesn’t know what caching is assumes your cache is trash and pitches it) to the less common (e.g. a bear decides to play fetch with your cache and their cubs). So to ensure that your geocaches are more fun than frustrating, maintenance is fundamental. On July 17th, I went out on a maintenance run with great West Virginia geocacher, Bitmapped.
To make this trip a little more fun, we mixed in some caches that had been replaced since prior efforts as well as some out of the way caches. One, despite being published for several days, in a remote country cemetery we managed to claim co-FTF (first-to-find). But the purpose of this post is to talk about maintenance.
Bitmapped had a strategy when he placed the caches that we would check on. While they are mostly a decent drive from Morgantown, he located them in a way that you could take half a day and visit each of them to ensure placement. He also made them hides that would not require substantial time and exertion to find once at the location. While he likely researched his placements more than most cachers do, it pays off on the day or two a year where he can enjoy the insane natural beauty of his hides and ensures they’re ready for cachers seeking a smiley face rather than some frustration.
Overall, I was able to log 12 caches on this day, mainly because I was with Bitmapped when he originally placed these caches and it’s in poor taste to claim an FTF before the cache published (though this is a lesson many of us with lots of friends who cache sort of learn the hard way).
Most of the caches we checked on were in great shape and, in fact, all but one of them were at least near where we expected them to be. Durable, long-lasting geocaches are not an accident. In this case, Bitmapped was careful to choose high quality containers that could stand up to the elements (though not necessarily claws or teeth). Yes, these containers are more expensive. But when hiding a geocache it is important to think about the types of caches you like to find. Quality over quantity!
Of the Bitmapped caches we sought, only three had problems: Barton Knob, Glady Cut, and Tunnel #2.
The cache atop Barton Knob had some animal intervention. We will never know exactly what happened to the container, though it was still present and retrievable. But when you hide a cache in the forest, you can safely bet that it will come in contact with non-human living things. If there is food or scented items in a cache, animals with better senses than humans are more likely to discover and destroy, but that’s not always the case. The cache container was replaced. Hopefully cachers will find it before the bears and bobcats do!
The Glady Cut cache had some human intervention. The container was still present and retrievable, but it had migrated from its original location. While the responsibility of maintaining a cache falls largely on the cache owner, each cacher has a responsibility to return a cache to the intended location. In this case, the hint described a very specific place and the cache was tucked under another rock a few feet away and much further from sight. The hint is supposed to be a major help in finding the cache and in a rock cut, where GPS signal can be spotty, the hint is doubly important. After retrieving and returning the cache to the intended location, we moved on to Tunnel #2.
Tunnel #2 is located near the portal to Tunnel #2. However, since the rail has been pulled up and the trail to the tunnel largely abandoned (though it is part of the Monongahela National Forest) it is a rugged walk. The area nearest the tunnel is not the most stable. When we arrived near the tunnel, we found that a prior log had been correct, a rock slide probably had the original geocache pinned down and out of reach. Because the prior cachers were courteous enough to describe the environment and situation, it became clear that to keep a cache here would mean bringing a new container and moving it a little bit further from the portal for the safety of those seeking the cache.
In the geocaching community there is some friction between older and newer cachers when it comes to placing caches. So much that is involved with cache placement comes with the experience and, again, figuring out the types of caches that you really like to find. Once you have that nailed down, you’re probably ready to think about hiding your first cache. But remember, hiding a cache is just the beginning! The reason why some people have thousands of cache finds but only a handful of hides is that hiding and maintaining a cache can be something you spend a decade or more doing whereas a find can take as little as a few seconds. Though it brings me endless pleasure that in the span of nearly five years, one of my geocaches, That Old House in Guyandotte, has logged over 200 finds!
