What is the worst cache you've seached for?

[+TheGrey]

What's the worst cache you've searched for? It doesn't matter if you actually found it or not. I'm talking about the cache that made you say to yourself "If all caches were like this, I would never geocache again."

 

I'm still a noob, but I'll start...

 

I searched for one that was in a small park / playground in a suburban area. When I initially got there, there were some teens hanging out but they looked like they were ready to leave. I drove around for a few blocks and came back to find it empty. Kind of...

 

The park was kind of at the bottom of a hill, and it was surrounded with densely packed houses on all sides that looked down on it. As soon as I got out of my car, dogs from a couple of the houses started barking at me non-stop. I wondered where the cache could be hidden in such a small park, but I still headed towards GZ. It didn't take long to realize that GZ was a trash can that reaked of garbage.

 

So... It was a micro in a stinky trash can right next to playground with tons of houses looking down on to it and barking dogs from multiple yards.

 

I quickly gave up my search and went home. I'm really glad that wasn't the first one I tried, otherwise I might have just quit!

[+BulldogBlitz]

one.... there's been a couple of multicaches that give no indication of how many stages, in a heavily traveled part of town (lots of chances for any stage to be removed accidentally or intentionally). not many finders on it to this point. has me scratching my head what the point is supposed to be... puzzles or mind-reading?

 

two.... any cache that is on the ground in waist deep poison ivy. i drove away from one last week. they could jack the difficulty on that one up to 5 for me.

 

[+Trav'lin Two]

We recently did a cache in an area that was full of used condoms, and I mean a lot. There was also a lot of empty booze bottles and articles of clothing. This is not something you would take your family to. The CO wrote our friends that were with us that the reason she put the cache there was for us to cache in trash out! Heck man, I'm not picking up one of those things. We even checked the bottoms of our shoes before we got in the Jeep.

[+BulldogBlitz]

We recently did a cache in an area that was full of used condoms, and I mean a lot. There was also a lot of empty booze bottles and articles of clothing. This is not something you would take your family to. The CO wrote our friends that were with us that the reason she put the cache there was for us to cache in trash out! Heck man, I'm not picking up one of those things. We even checked the bottoms of our shoes before we got in the Jeep.

 

"i picked that area for YOU to cito"

 

it is a lot like a woman calling into the radio station the other day.... "every time i drive by this one spot in my neighborhood there is all this litter strewn everywhere, when is someone from the city going to come down and pick it up?"

[+Casting Crowns]

I once found a cache that was hidden in my area that was placed in a large rock pile to prevent erosion. Big ol' limestone rocks. This cache hide was a SMALL hole drilled in the bottome of a rock with a BIC pen tube cut into 1/4 of it's original size with a tiny log inside.

 

I don't know how long I searched or what I was even searching for but I stayed at it for quite a while. I finally flipped the right rock over and made the spot. Of course, not only was this a hard find, but, people had moved the rock around a time or two so the coords were a bit off and this made it even more challenging. I was so proud of myself at the time but I'm VERY thankful those aren't frequently hidden caches around here.

[+Triskeles]

There's a beautiful "pocket park" that had what seemed to be a very tricky cache. The CO described it as being for those who enjoy a creative hide, and many teams had a hard time finding it. We'd been there twice ourselves. Finally, I sat down and read the logs from the beginning, and found out that the cache had been somewhat controversial when it was first published. Armed with clues from that, we found the cache. Turns out that one had to unscrew one of the covered nuts (enclosed nuts? not sure what to call it) from one of the bolts on one of the benches. A nano log was stuffed into the nut. Man...I felt soo gypped! My son saw it and yelled "That's it??!!" There was no container, per se, just a log stuffed into something that was already there.

 

We just thought it wasn't keeping with the spirit of caching. But oh well.

[+roziecakes]

I will never forget this cache. It was under a bridge, which was a homeless encampment. There was trash, sleeping bags, creepy people, graffitti, etc EVERYWHERE. There was also a dead goose, and the worst part was that right next to the cache was the bum's toilet. EEEEWWW. Almost every log for this cache was people saying how gross it was or scary. I didn't read the logs before I went out to look, but I wish I had... eesh!

[+briansnat]

I recall one that was on a heavily littered strip under a billboard between a highway off ramp and some auto body shop. You could drive to within 3 feet of the cache and it was hidden under a rotting piece of plywood.

 

What got me was that the write up of on the cache page made it sound like a really cool cache with a tie-in to a popular series of books that many of us read as teens. Once I found the cache I could see no connection whatsoever.

 

I don't know if it was the worst I searched for, but it was one of the more disappointing because the page writeup had me expecting something special.

Edited April 29, 2010 by briansnat

[+BulldogBlitz]

oh... this reminds me of another...

 

a cache in another city, far from home listed their cache...

 

described it as "not just another piece of trash" or something to that effect.

 

as far as i could tell, it was supposed to be a fake coke can outside of a dumpster. went to the cache... didn't find it, didn't log it as not found. but did look for about 20 minutes at the stray garbage in the area wondering why this place of business has a dumpster on the frontside - and so messy.

 

[+NeecesandNephews]

Woohoo a chance to vent some "angst"!!

 

My favorite hated cache is a very recently hunted one for us, and fairly new placement. (4 months ago)

 

It is a micro hidden in a row of cedars that could conceal a city bus!! There have been twelve logs on it, including our DNF, one CO maintenance , and the reviewers publish. What irritated me the about it was it was the CO's first hide. The coordinates take you to the middle of the parking lot next to it. On top of this there seems to be a group of locals in this town (which is not our home, but nearby) that use the "phone a friend" option on every local cache. The logs of finds are all local cachers, and most of them say they had to have "help". The CO seems to think this is "clever". To add insult to injury, as we do not know these locals personally, we get no response to our email asking for a "hint". We have decided to not return to this little town even though there are several more caches that we haven't found there. Every find we have in this town was difficult to locate, and very disappointing when we did. Micros and nanos seem to be the norm, in locations that would easily support the hide of an ammo can! Coupled with the wonderful "clanishness" of this group of locals, it just leaves us bewildered.

 

Hey we don't have to find them all!! Just irks me that after making four different trips to this town caching, we have never recieved one response to any of our requests for hints (and we have sent several on more than one of these local caches) and this group is going to host an event soon!

 

Thanks for the thread!!! Now we can feel like we have "closure"

 

edit to add- The "second most hated" cache is by another cacher of this same group! ( another micro in the woods) After five straight DNF's following publishing, the CO posts a note saying " Went and checked on this cache and saw where everyone walked right past it. Keep looking... its there!! " Well Duhhh! If everyone "walked right past it" its because we were obviously following our GPS's to your crappy coordinates!!! Stop listing coordinates determined with a freakin' cell phone!! (yes it might seem like I am blaming my DNF on the CO's bad coords, but there were five different logs!!)

 

Ok... now I'm done!!

Edited April 29, 2010 by NeecesandNephews

[+AuntieWeasel]

One in a park so trashy that when I spotted a big wad of cash by my boot, I sincerely had to stop and think if I wanted to pick it up.

 

I believe the cache was a DNF. And the money was nine soaking wet one-dollar bills.

[+Max and 99]

One that comes to mind for me was a four-stage multi. We found the first stage, but got stumped on stage 2 after searching in the woods for 45 minutes! Someone else couldn't find stage 1, so we gave them a big hint, then they went back and got FTF on the cache. That didn't bother us at all, but I still couldn't find stage 2! I went back a 2nd time by myself, and spent another 45 minutes in the same area trying to find the micro. Not only did I get HUGE thorn scratches all over my arms, but I also managed to get poison ivy on my arms also, so for weeks my arms looked like they were in the middle of a bad cat fight. I did eventually find stage 2, and went on to give a great review of the cache because of the challenge in finding it and the great placements. But at the time, I THOUGHT it was a horrible cache!

[Mr.Yuck]

 

So... It was a micro in a stinky trash can right next to playground with tons of houses looking down on to it and barking dogs from multiple yards.

 

I quickly gave up my search and went home. I'm really glad that wasn't the first one I tried, otherwise I might have just quit!

 

I study caches before heading out, and avoid many stinkers. Yours will be tough to top. Especially when I'm going to be talking in generic terms. I have found I'd say 6 or 7 caches that used discarded trash in the woods as cover. Caches under rusty hubcaps (more that once) caches under pieces of rotted plywood, etc.

 

Funny thing is, whenever someone mentions finding caches in trashy areas, it takes about 50 milliseconds for the retort "well, did you CITO?" So what am I supposed to do, take the cover and leave the cache sitting there? And also funny how trash location cache placers never tell anyone on the cache page their intention is to CITO the area, but they sure are quick on the "did you CITO?" retort.

[+DragonsWest]

Though I can't think of a specific one (aside that cacher which was off by 175 feet, but that's a different thread) I would nominate any cache which is placed in an area with a considerable amount of litter and is generally hideous. There have been a few of these and I wonder why someone wants to draw geocachers to filthy places.

[+Proud Soccer Mom]

We found a syringe, rubber tie, bent up spoon, and a baggie of ... stuff. That's not the fault of the cache owner, though. So it wouldn't qualify as a "worst cache" but it was the worst thing to find at a cache site. We called the LEOs and DNF'd that one.

 

The worst was the soggy moldy log in a pill bottle stuffed in the tree that became prime fire ant real estate. No harm done there... just ewwie.

 

So I guess I got it pretty good.

[+Chrysalides]

I had it erased from my memory, sorry.

[+Ike 13]

The first was a magnetic Hide-a-key under a LPC directly behind a dumpster. The only reason I found it. I was doing the 100 days in a row streak.

 

I also dislike any cache that takes me to an area that the CO picked just becuase it needs CITO. The area behind that big box store where vacuums go to die is not fun to search.

 

And now there are a couple locals that like hiding the cache in a piece of trash and a trashy area. ( Ziplock bag in an eye glass case. Oh and BTW the police constantly stop by becuase a lot of drug deals and prostitution go on.)

 

This is why we have the ignore list.

[+Knight2000]

I once found a cache that was hidden in my area that was placed in a large rock pile to prevent erosion. Big ol' limestone rocks. This cache hide was a SMALL hole drilled in the bottome of a rock with a BIC pen tube cut into 1/4 of it's original size with a tiny log inside.

That sounds like a cache I would enjoy or put out. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

 

There's a beautiful "pocket park" that had what seemed to be a very tricky cache. The CO described it as being for those who enjoy a creative hide, and many teams had a hard time finding it. We'd been there twice ourselves. Finally, I sat down and read the logs from the beginning, and found out that the cache had been somewhat controversial when it was first published. Armed with clues from that, we found the cache. Turns out that one had to unscrew one of the covered nuts (enclosed nuts? not sure what to call it) from one of the bolts on one of the benches. A nano log was stuffed into the nut. Man...I felt soo gypped! My son saw it and yelled "That's it??!!" There was no container, per se, just a log stuffed into something that was already there.

 

We just thought it wasn't keeping with the spirit of caching. But oh well.

This sounds like another creative hide! The nut is the cache container.

----

The one I despised the most was an empty, rusty skoal can at a McDonald's which was hidden by a teenager who was infamous for stinky hides.

[+jinglish]

I've also been to a few 'trashy' caches as well in Germany, but not as bad as some described here.

 

My worst cache was in a campground in Belgium. Because we were camping with Canadian scouts for the weekend, I researched a few caches in the area that we could do as a group. This one had a few problems noted in quite a few of the previous logs, so I had written to the owner ahead of time to clarify a few points before making the long drive. What he sent back to me was the coordinates of all the stages of the multi as well as the final. I figured "what the heck" the kids will still enjoy doing it because they don't have the answer. Well, even his 'answer key' was way off. Some of the stages were missing/destroyed and it was just all round impossible. I kept steering them in the right direction though and we ended up in basically the right location which we then had to use a photo spoiler to find the cache because his coordinates were way off. If this had been my first experience with caching, I would have not continued because this cache seemed to make the task absolutely impossible. WORST EVER

After returning home, we logged the cache as 'needing maintenance' and the difficulty we had. I also sent the owner an email describing which stages were missing, etc.... He basically made one minor alteration to the cache page which did not address any of the discrepancies and reopened it. I pity the next cacher.

 

On another note. That afternoon we did another 6km multi cache (by another cacher) which was the best cache I have ever done - even though the result was DNF. (We made a minor incorrect assumption - the kids found an answer that mostly fit, and we didn't confirm it.) The kids had fun answering all of the stages, 'fishing' for micros, and figuring out which of 60WP's we had to use. BEST EVER.

[+chasclifton]

I once found a cache that was hidden in my area that was placed in a large rock pile to prevent erosion. Big ol' limestone rocks. This cache hide was a SMALL hole drilled in the bottome of a rock with a BIC pen tube cut into 1/4 of it's original size with a tiny log inside.

 

I don't know how long I searched or what I was even searching for but I stayed at it for quite a while. I finally flipped the right rock over and made the spot. Of course, not only was this a hard find, but, people had moved the rock around a time or two so the coords were a bit off and this made it even more challenging. I was so proud of myself at the time but I'm VERY thankful those aren't frequently hidden caches around here.

 

There is a cache owner who lives in the next county over from me who likes to drill rocks. The first time that I looked for one of his, I gave up on the first try but got it on the second. The second cache of his that I found was partly dumb luck--kind of like what you described. But now if I see that name as the CO, my first thought will be, "Check for drilled rocks."

[+Corp Of Discovery]

The worst was a re-visit so someone else could find it:

 

On a wooden fence surrounding a garbage container.

 

With several trays of chicken parts in a row on the ground along the outside.

 

In the summer.

 

The one that was worst that I was actually looking for is a tie between:

 

One- on a defunct phone booth next to a garbage can with probably more than a few pounds of fish in it. It was hidden by the same person who hid the one I mention above.

 

Two- a decent little walk in the woods to a downed tree. Everything was good until I found the cache and discovered that someone had used it for a toilet. #2 if you must know. At least I was still able to sign the logbook...

[Andronicus]

A cache who's cache container was a zipplock bag (not even the heavy freezer one, but a sandwich bag).

[+Wadcutter]

A few years ago south of New Orleans. It was along side a rural road and was where someone several years ago had dumped about a pickup load of old cans and broken bottles. The CO had placed a micro in the pile of junk. It definitely wasn't safe to walk around with sandals or for kids. We first thought that maybe our coords were off but doubled checked and we were on. Let the GPS settle down and it was zeroing in on the dump. Several people, including those who had found it, posted comments about the CO's thought process and why placing a micro in a dump of broken glass.

[+brittany19]

One cache I found that gave my no feelings of joy for finding was a rock wall cache. We drove it and it was made so noticable by the fact that there was a HUGE completely different colored rock covering on of the crevices. The part that really grossed me out was the cache itself. It was one of those pencil container thingies (cant think of the word for it), and it had a chicken breast bag around it . It seriously grossed me out.

[+roziecakes]

The first was a magnetic Hide-a-key under a LPC directly behind a dumpster. The only reason I found it. I was doing the 100 days in a row streak.

 

I'm in the middle of one of those streak challenges myself. Ours is for 101 days... I'm on Day 61. I'm actually running out of convenient caches near all my usual haunts.

[+Jess80&Mike99]

One of my worst caches (a multi) took about five hours to complete. Each stage was located in a rural area so we didn't have to worry about muggles, which I enjoy the most. We headed out and the first stage lead us to a maintained dirt road. On the map there was a County Road we could take to the first cache stage, but when we got there the land owner had taken down the CR sign and told us there wasn't a road that lead through. We turned around and proceed to drive for about 3 more hours looking for this CR. We finally found the CR by accident, and low and behold we ended up on the back side of the land owner's property. Apparently land owners are notorious for removing CR signs so no one drives them. The land owner had told us that he always finds maps thrown on the ground because there is not a CR. Of course, there wouldn't be one marked if he removed the sign. HMMMMMM

 

Jess80

[+Harry Dolphin]

Okay. I've been to some very strange cache locations...

Beautiful spot: Abandoned, crumbling pier on the Hudson River. (Just off a jogging trail.) The pier crumbled a bit more, and the cache was lost. Homeless camp nearby. But what bothered us was the very large rats. Nope. Not sticking my hands in any of those holes! DNF.

Abandoned rest stop/viewpoint on a highway. The cache was in the abandoned mens room. Only way in was to climb into a second story window. Some disreputable sorts had dscovered the site. There was a rope hanging from the window. The floor was covered with needles, used condoms, and porn. Before that, it was the home to homeless people. Nice view nearby, but not a great place for a cache. That one, we did find (with some friends).

[+dfx]

a micro cache hidden in a tree branch. literally inside. the CO carved a large hole into the branch and put the cache inside. unfortunately the tree was still alive and well. you know what trees do to cover up their "wounds", right? the cache was totally embedded in a sticky mess of tree sap what made it worse was that neither container nor ziplock bag held up against the sap and it got to the actual log sheet. yikes.

[+bittsen]

Rock in a rock pile... Hands down.

 

In fact, i said the exact words "If this is what all geocaches were like, I would never look for a cache.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

Back in 2004 we had a new guy get into the game. He made a few finds and attended some events, we got to know and like him. I went caching with him and his kids a couple of times, as did others in our group.

 

Nice guy, we enjoyed caching with him

 

Then when he got ready to hide caches he became enamored with a 1" paddle bit, which he discovered was just right for film cans, so he took to drilling holes for them in live trees, stumps, park fence posts, hand rails, sign posts... anything he could find that his portable drill would bore a hole in. He put out a 20-something cache series on a 4wd trail... every one of them film cans in holes bored 5' high in live trees. We (our local caching community) would complain and get them archived about as fast as he put them out.

 

He joined our local forum and pretty much alienated us all by saying that he didn't care what we thought, he was having fun, leave him alone.

 

Finally he put out a real cache with trade items listed. Woohoo! He's learned his lesson and started putting out decent caches, think I.

 

This one came out about 9 p.m. less than a mile from my house so I leapt into the cachemobile and was FTF.

 

I get to the abandoned mall parking lot and the coords tell me that it's 40' down a steep hill, and it is obvious that folks have been using this place for a dump.

 

The hill is too steep and slick to walk on so I'm sliding along on my butt amidst the refuse that's been dumped down this hill, broken glass, pieces of metal, busted shopping carts and plastic bags full of foul-smelling no-telling-what sort of garbage.

 

I found the plastic mayonnaise jug under a piece of sheet metal, signed the log, pondered the situation a bit and took it home with me.

 

Yep, I stole it. Still have it in my barn.

 

Sent a Should Be Archived note to the Reviewer and that was the last anyone heard of that cacher.

 

Good riddance.

 

That was the worst cache I have ever found and the only cache I've ever muggled, and I don't feel one bit bad about it!

Edited April 30, 2010 by TheAlabamaRambler

[+popokiiti]

The worst was one in a local park frequented by families. The GPSr took us to a stand of trees used as a human toilet...complete with dirty TP. The GPSr got a whiff of things, smartened up and led us to the cache a short ways away. No gloves, no bag, no CITO. We did let a park official know, apparently that is a spot to avoid - sad.

[+brslk]

Back in 2004 we had a new guy get into the game. He made a few finds and attended some events, we got to know and like him. I went caching with him and his kids a couple of times, as did others in our group.

 

Nice guy, we enjoyed caching with him

 

Then when he got ready to hide caches he became enamored with a 1" paddle bit, which he discovered was just right for film cans, so he took to drilling holes for them in live trees, stumps, park fence posts, hand rails, sign posts... anything he could find that his portable drill would bore a hole in. He put out a 20-something cache series on a 4wd trail... every one of them film cans in holes bored 5' high in live trees. We (our local caching community) would complain and get them archived about as fast as he put them out.

 

He joined our local forum and pretty much said he didn't care what we thought, he was having fun, leave him alone.

 

Finally he put out a real cache with trade items listed. Woohoo! He's learned his lesson and started putting out decent caches, think I.

 

This one came out about 9 p.m. less than a mile from my house so I leapt into the cachemobile and was FTF.

 

I get to the abandoned mall parking lot and the coords tell me that it's 40' down a steep hill, and it is obvious that folks have been using this place for a dump.

 

The hill is too steep and slick to walk on so I'm sliding along on my butt amidst the refuse that's been dumped down this hill, broken glass, pieces of metal, busted shopping carts and plastic bags full of foul-smelling no-telling-what sort of garbage.

 

I found the plastic mayonnaise jug under a piece of sheet metal, signed the log, pondered the situation a bit and took it home with me.

 

Yep, I stole it. Still have it in my barn.

 

Sent a Should Be Archived note to the Reviewer and that was the last anyone heard of that cacher.

 

Good riddance.

 

That was the worst cache I have ever found and the only cache I've ever muggled, and I don't feel one bit bad about it!

 

While I don't condone muggling (is that even a word?) I would have to agree with what you did. I would like to think we are a self policing group.

 

I have been tempted to do the same thing a few times.

 

I may do so once I have a bit more experience to be able to make that call.

[+J the Goat]

Back in 2004 we had a guy who became enamored with a 1" paddle bit once he learned that it was just right for film cans, so he took to drilling holes for them in live trees, stumps, park fence posts, hand rails, sign posts... anything he could find that his portable drill would bore a hole in. He put out a 20-something cache series on a 4wd trail... every one of them film cans in holes bored 5' high in live trees. We (our local caching community) would complain and get them archived about as fast as he put them out.

 

He joined our local forum and pretty much said he didn't care what we thought, he was having fun, leave him alone.

 

Finally he put out a real cache with trade items listed. Woohoo! He's learned his lesson and started putting out decent caches, think I.

 

This one came out about 9 p.m. less than a mile from my house so I leapt into the cachemobile and was FTF.

 

I get to the abandoned mall parking lot and the coords tell me that it's 40' down a steep hill, and it is obvious that folks have been using this place for a dump.

 

The hill is too steep and slick to walk on so I'm sliding along on my butt amidst the refuse that's been dumped down this hill, broken glass, pieces of metal, busted shopping carts and plastic bags full of foul-smelling no-telling-what sort of garbage.

 

I found the plastic mayonnaise jug under a piece of sheet metal, signed the log, pondered the situation a bit and took it home with me.

 

Yep, I stole it. Still have it in my barn.

 

Sent a Should Be Archived note to the Reviewer and that was the last anyone heard of that cacher.

 

Good riddance.

 

That was the worst cache I have ever found and the only cache I've ever muggled, and I don't feel one bit bad about it!

 

For Shame!

 

Just kidding, strong work.

 

I searched for a cache that was supposed to have been a micro that was hung somewhere in a pine tree. The kicker was that this particular tree was growing behind a dumpster in a parking lot, and between the dumpster and tree was a soiled mattress, several empty booze bottles (plastic, not the good stuff), and a rusty old pot (the cooking kind) with some unpleasent looking stuff stuck to the sides. DNF'd that one, which eventually got archived thanks to like 7 DNFs in a row. Not a cool cache.

[Mr.Yuck]

Back in 2004 we had a new guy get into the game. He made a few finds and attended some events, we got to know and like him. I went caching with him and his kids a couple of times, as did others in our group.

 

Nice guy, we enjoyed caching with him

 

Then when he got ready to hide caches he became enamored with a 1" paddle bit, which he discovered was just right for film cans, so he took to drilling holes for them in live trees, stumps, park fence posts, hand rails, sign posts... anything he could find that his portable drill would bore a hole in. He put out a 20-something cache series on a 4wd trail... every one of them film cans in holes bored 5' high in live trees. We (our local caching community) would complain and get them archived about as fast as he put them out.

 

He joined our local forum and pretty much alienated us all by saying that he didn't care what we thought, he was having fun, leave him alone.

 

Finally he put out a real cache with trade items listed. Woohoo! He's learned his lesson and started putting out decent caches, think I.

 

This one came out about 9 p.m. less than a mile from my house so I leapt into the cachemobile and was FTF.

 

I get to the abandoned mall parking lot and the coords tell me that it's 40' down a steep hill, and it is obvious that folks have been using this place for a dump.

 

The hill is too steep and slick to walk on so I'm sliding along on my butt amidst the refuse that's been dumped down this hill, broken glass, pieces of metal, busted shopping carts and plastic bags full of foul-smelling no-telling-what sort of garbage.

 

I found the plastic mayonnaise jug under a piece of sheet metal, signed the log, pondered the situation a bit and took it home with me.

 

Yep, I stole it. Still have it in my barn.

 

Sent a Should Be Archived note to the Reviewer and that was the last anyone heard of that cacher.

 

Good riddance.

 

That was the worst cache I have ever found and the only cache I've ever muggled, and I don't feel one bit bad about it!

 

That is an amazing story. We had 1" paddle bit in live tree film canister guy in my area too. Only 2 or 3 times though, and as part of multi-caches. Fortunately, he kind of left on his own, and we didn't have to muggle his caches or anything. So, if the cache was in a trashy area on a hillside, why didn't you CITO? (just kidding).

[4wheelin_fool]

Back in 2004 we had a new guy get into the game. He made a few finds and attended some events, we got to know and like him. I went caching with him and his kids a couple of times, as did others in our group.

 

Nice guy, we enjoyed caching with him

 

Then when he got ready to hide caches he became enamored with a 1" paddle bit, which he discovered was just right for film cans, so he took to drilling holes for them in live trees, stumps, park fence posts, hand rails, sign posts... anything he could find that his portable drill would bore a hole in. He put out a 20-something cache series on a 4wd trail... every one of them film cans in holes bored 5' high in live trees. We (our local caching community) would complain and get them archived about as fast as he put them out.

 

He joined our local forum and pretty much alienated us all by saying that he didn't care what we thought, he was having fun, leave him alone.

 

Finally he put out a real cache with trade items listed. Woohoo! He's learned his lesson and started putting out decent caches, think I.

 

This one came out about 9 p.m. less than a mile from my house so I leapt into the cachemobile and was FTF.

 

I get to the abandoned mall parking lot and the coords tell me that it's 40' down a steep hill, and it is obvious that folks have been using this place for a dump.

 

The hill is too steep and slick to walk on so I'm sliding along on my butt amidst the refuse that's been dumped down this hill, broken glass, pieces of metal, busted shopping carts and plastic bags full of foul-smelling no-telling-what sort of garbage.

 

I found the plastic mayonnaise jug under a piece of sheet metal, signed the log, pondered the situation a bit and took it home with me.

 

Yep, I stole it. Still have it in my barn.

 

Sent a Should Be Archived note to the Reviewer and that was the last anyone heard of that cacher.

 

Good riddance.

 

That was the worst cache I have ever found and the only cache I've ever muggled, and I don't feel one bit bad about it!

 

I believe that you wrote the same thing around the time that it happened..

 

You definitely did the wrong thing, as there could have been a better way to handle it.

 

Can't say what it is though, or that I blame you for doing it.

 

The problem is that the situation is unique, and someone could try to apply a similar solution to another situation that doesn't warrant it.

[+bittsen]

I believe that you wrote the same thing around the time that it happened..

 

You definitely did the wrong thing, as there could have been a better way to handle it.

 

Can't say what it is though, or that I blame you for doing it.

 

The problem is that the situation is unique, and someone could try to apply a similar solution to another situation that doesn't warrant it.

 

SOme people believe that their moral compass is superior to anyone elses. Whenever someone like that is congratulated it's not good.

[+Vater_Araignee]

First let me explain, when I say Detroit I mean Detroit. We have a lot of idiots up here who when you ask where they are from they reply Detroit. When you ask "What part?" the say something to the effect of Warren, Sterling Heights, Novi, Brighton, Lansing even! I think some of these re res have actually entered Detroit to hide.

Every cache I have refused to log have been in Detroit, hidden under piles of trash, near homeless hovels that have been there for years and near outdoor urinals that reek so bad they burn out nose hairs.

If I'm complaining about smell I would hate to hear what someone who has not had their nose cauterized to stop profuse nose bleeds let alone had their sense of smell reduced by the job that started the nose bleeds in the first place. Can we get a barfing attribute that can be set by finders?

 

That was the worst cache I have ever found and the only cache I've ever muggled, and I don't feel one bit bad about it!

TSK TSK, he obviously intended CITO!

Now you have me considering those caches I refused to log.

[4wheelin_fool]

I believe that you wrote the same thing around the time that it happened..

 

You definitely did the wrong thing, as there could have been a better way to handle it.

 

Can't say what it is though, or that I blame you for doing it.

 

The problem is that the situation is unique, and someone could try to apply a similar solution to another situation that doesn't warrant it.

 

SOme people believe that their moral compass is superior to anyone elses. Whenever someone like that is congratulated it's not good.

 

I did not congratulate him.

 

However, I can't condemn him either.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

...

Edited April 30, 2010 by TheAlabamaRambler

[+daywalk]

I'm finding this an interesting discussion to read through. I'd like to pick up on the rubbish around a cache theme. I find almost all caches have something to enjoy (and if you ask me for a list of 'best caches' it's too long to log) but the one thing which really downgrades a cache for me is rubbish. Not so much the odd bit of new rubbish which has blown in since the last cacher logged a find, which isn't a hassle to pick up, but the ancient slimy grunge from years before the cache was placed.

 

I gather that most of you also share my dislike of CITI (Cache In Trash In) caches!

 

There's the unpleasantness of seeing/smelling/stepping on/rummaging around too close to trash as you try to find the cache. Or perhaps the disappointment of anticipating the search for a cache, only to have to stop looking because you really don't want to rummage around in such a scungy or dangerous area. And then, there's my social conscience which urges me to leave the place a bit better than I find it, so I feel a responsibility to clean up the rubbish if I possibly can. I don't mind doing my bit, but...

 

Why should cache finders be expected to do CITO for a cache owner who does CITI?

 

Yes, I read through the geocaching placement guidelines and was astonished to find that there is no mention of removing rubbish. There's loads of guff about suitable cache containers etc etc, but nothing at all about CITO! So why don't we ask that the guidelines are changed to include an expectation that cache owners do CITO? (I've tried posting this suggestion before, but it's important enough that it's worth trying again.)

 

I'm thinking there are three aspects to cover-

 

(a) assessment of the suitability of a site for a cache should also include the amount of rubbish which is likely to collect there. If it's always going to have a lot of trash there (especially dangerous trash) then it is likely to be unpleasant/dangerous to cachers searching for your cache.

 

( an expectation that cache owners clean up the area around their planned cache hide before they place the cache.

 

© an expectation that cache owners remove trash from the area around the cache as part of their regular maintenance visits.

 

I don't feel that this is too much to ask. It wouldn't take up more than a couple of sentences in the guidelines. It's not heavy-handed; the guidelines are just recommendations, not rules, and the reviewers have considerable flexibility to make exceptions.

 

Should CITO be part of the guidelines for good cache placement? What do you think?

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

Should CITO be part of the guidelines for good cache placement? What do you think?

No. CITO is an ethic and good-neighbor practice that every cacher adopts or ignores based on their own interests and values.

 

As in law; you can create a no-littering law, you can't create an everyone-must-clean-up law.

[+RobDJr]

I guess I've been lucky.

 

I haven't had any experiences as bad as all the ones mentioned here.

 

There have been caches that gave me headaches, micro's in the woods, nano's in rock piles, bad coords, things like that. If all caches were like those, I suppose I wouldn't bother looking for caches anymore.

 

But the experience that left me shaking my head and thinking to myself if that happened every time, I'd burn my gps wasn't actually the cache itself (which was a good one) but near to it.

 

The trail to that cache started in the back parking area of a tiny plaza with a few little stores, a laundromat, and a restaurant/bar that is popular with the local biker crowd (who are mostly just very nice motorcycle enthusiasts). Anyway, the trail led into a patch of woods not too far from the back of that restaurant, and I was checking the distance on the gps as I walked around a curve through a thick stand of hemlocks, and I looked up just in time to walk up behind this huge dude, all done up in black leather and spikes and everything, yanking his leather chaps down and squatting to...

 

Took me a long, long time to scrub that image from my mind.

[+power69]

There's a beautiful "pocket park" that had what seemed to be a very tricky cache. The CO described it as being for those who enjoy a creative hide, and many teams had a hard time finding it. We'd been there twice ourselves. Finally, I sat down and read the logs from the beginning, and found out that the cache had been somewhat controversial when it was first published. Armed with clues from that, we found the cache. Turns out that one had to unscrew one of the covered nuts (enclosed nuts? not sure what to call it) from one of the bolts on one of the benches. A nano log was stuffed into the nut. Man...I felt soo gypped! My son saw it and yelled "That's it??!!" There was no container, per se, just a log stuffed into something that was already there.

 

We just thought it wasn't keeping with the spirit of caching. But oh well.

I found one like that on a bus stop bench. it was a 4/1

log was about the size of a half a nano log.

found it right away.

[+BulldogBlitz]

Finally he put out a real cache with trade items listed. Woohoo! He's learned his lesson and started putting out decent caches, think I.

 

This one came out about 9 p.m. less than a mile from my house so I leapt into the cachemobile and was FTF.

 

I get to the abandoned mall parking lot and the coords tell me that it's 40' down a steep hill, and it is obvious that folks have been using this place for a dump.

 

The hill is too steep and slick to walk on so I'm sliding along on my butt amidst the refuse that's been dumped down this hill, broken glass, pieces of metal, busted shopping carts and plastic bags full of foul-smelling no-telling-what sort of garbage.

 

I found the plastic mayonnaise jug under a piece of sheet metal, signed the log, pondered the situation a bit and took it home with me.

 

seems there is a fine line between his fun and yours, especially if you slid all the way through trash intent on getting a pixel and bragging rights. shoulda' encouraged the boy, you might be king of alabama now if you had.

[+power69]

I recall one that was on a heavily littered strip under a billboard between a highway off ramp and some auto body shop. You could drive to within 3 feet of the cache and it was hidden under a rotting piece of plywood.

 

What got me was that the write up of on the cache page made it sound like a really cool cache with a tie-in to a popular series of books that many of us read as teens. Once I found the cache I could see no connection whatsoever.

 

I don't know if it was the worst I searched for, but it was one of the more disappointing because the page writeup had me expecting something special.

maybe at one time the ad on the sign did fit. most of those ads rotate monthly.

[+power69]

We found a syringe, rubber tie, bent up spoon, and a baggie of ... stuff. That's not the fault of the cache owner, though. So it wouldn't qualify as a "worst cache" but it was the worst thing to find at a cache site. We called the LEOs and DNF'd that one.

 

The worst was the soggy moldy log in a pill bottle stuffed in the tree that became prime fire ant real estate. No harm done there... just ewwie.

 

So I guess I got it pretty good.

so you found someones stash while looking for a different stash?

[+power69]

99999999999999 rocks hide with clue "under a rock"

multi's that don't list # of stages.

playgrounds with caches on the equipment

[+va griz]

"If all caches were like this, I would never geocache again."

 

The ones that fit that criterion for me are caches in trashy locations and ones hidden on porta pottys.

 

The most disappointing cache I found was one that had a clever write up and a couple finders commented on "good camo". It was in the woods so I thought it sounded good. Turned out to be a pill bottle hidden in an old cut off beer can. Not a terrible cache, I just felt let down.

[+Proud Soccer Mom]

 

As in law; you can create a no-littering law, you can't create an everyone-must-clean-up law.

 

There's an everyone-must-clean-up law in my house.

[hoosier guy]

 

As in law; you can create a no-littering law, you can't create an everyone-must-clean-up law.

 

There's an everyone-must-clean-up law in my house.

 

 

No real commet on the subject But I really like your handle!

Edited April 30, 2010 by hoosier guy