(Adapted from Xira's GC profile)
What do I look for in a geocache?
I hope that every cache will have all of the following:
- Pleasant setting
- Good coordinates
- The cache and its contents are in good condition, clean and dry
- Prompt owner maintenance, when required
- Appropriate attributes
- Appropriate terrain rating. After breaking my leg (while geocaching) then needing to do low terrain caches for a few months, I realized how important it is to mark the terrain rating properly.
- A good hint.
I appreciate the following but do not expect all caches to have all of them.
- A pen or pencil in the cache
- A decent logbook and not a logsheet (unless it's a micro or nano)
How to earn my favourite points:
The more of the second group under the previous heading that a cache has, the more likely it is that I will award it a favourite point. I also consider the following:
- A scenic or historic location, a nice walk, a maintained cache with an active owner who quickly responds to issues, a swag size cache (logbook-only caches need to impress me with their clever hide or container to get a favourite vote), a logbook and not a logsheet, a pencil or pen, a rugged watertight container (not a dollar store container, not disposable containers).
- Clever cache container
- Clever hide
- A cache that makes me laugh out loud.
- An artistic/crafty cache in a pleasant location.
- A multi that has a pleasant setting, where the owner lets you know how many stages and how much walking or driving is involved, with relatively easy to find stages that, ideally, don't break the multi if they go missing.
- A letterbox with a hand carved stamp in a pleasant location.
- A decent hint that helps find the cache. Not a "You don't need a hint" or "Email me for a hint" hint.
- Occasionally, I will award a favourite point to an otherwise unexceptional cache for the following reasons:
- As the representative of a series of caches, each of which is unexceptional in itself, but when taken a group make for an excellent caching experience.
What I will avoid in geocaches:
- Micros and nanos unless the have favourite votes
- I won’t do a cache that I believe is on property from which the general public is excluded unless the cache description clearly states that the owner has given permission
- I will not do parking lot caches, with the exception of a letterbox hybrid with a hand carved stamp
- I will not do caches that are in unpleasant settings. If it's not clear from the cache page and logs that the place is unpleasant and I get to the location to find it's dangerous or unsanitary or very unpleasant I may log a find in order to post my concerns and warn others.
- I expect cache owners to maintain their caches in good condition. If I find a cache which is in terrible condition, I will say so in the log and post a “needs maintenance” log. If the owner has not responded to older “needs maintenance” logs, I will post a ‘needs archived’ log. It is a cache owner’s responsibility to maintain their cache, not to rely on the geocaching community to do it for them. If a finder wants to perform maintenance, it is certainly their prerogative to do so, but, with the exception of adding pages to full logs, I don’t believe that doing so serves the geocaching community. My exception has been for caches where I know the CO is a conscientious owner - I have placed duct tape on a crack or have added a small bit of paper to tide the cache over for a little while until the CO can get to it.
