A bad day of Geocaching for MajBach

It's a good thing it was a long drive home and a chance for me to cool down before posting this; else we’d be seeing a lot of !@#$@ and &%$#. I’m going to try and speak positively and constructively, but what it boils down to is disappointment with the placement of the caches I ran today. Mind you, I’m pretty new to this myself, so I’m hardly an authority – but everyone is entitled to an opinion, right?

I ran three caches today. The first one, GC13C6, probably would have gone better had I remembered to take my clues with me. Suffice is to say, I didn’t find it. But that’s not what bothered me. This cache is a memorial - a nice one too – for those local men who gave their lives in the WW I. I actually paused for a moment and gave my respects. What bothered me was how many of the locals currently living obviously don’t have any respect. My GPS kept taking me into the bush several meters from the actual memorial leading me to believe that there actually was a cache here and it was not just a virtual cache like I had now assumed. Remember that I didn’t bring anything more with me than the coordinates. Located near this spot were several intact and broken beer bottles, tons of garbage and used toilet paper – yes used, and lots of it! As much as I may appreciate the significance of this memorial, I probably would not select to leave a cache here simply because of the filth.

The next cache, GC13E8 was less than a kilometer away in a somewhat nicer section of the city. The clue for this cache said ‘under the bridge’ which is exactly where I was. In my opinion, any cache that is too small to hold even a pencil should have a hint a little more specific. My GPS was practically begging to display a distance readout in inches, it was that accurate and consistent. However, there were only two places to hide a cache here and it wasn’t present in either. What was there however were the remnant of a ‘exotic picnic’ that last visitors shared under this bridge. Again, my own fault for not reading the logs for this cache in which I would have realized that no one has seen it since last year. Of course, the people who placed this cache have hidden 3 but only found 4 caches and the link to their home page no longer works. Certainly not a responsible geocaching veteran. BTW, if anyone knows how to let Jeremy know this cache is MIA, please do. As I said, I’m pretty new here myself.

But it was the last cache of the day that really got my goat: GC42E6
Now, the comments that follow are partially based upon the accuracy of my GPS, i.e. not being off by more than 300 feet. With the exception of two caches, all caches I have hunted, my GPS has been accurate to with less than 10 feet! A few hours earlier, my GPS (GM100) was giving me some funny reading for about 45 minutes. It was saying I was 15,000 feet high and 20 kms away then it said –ve 1500 meters and 60 kms from position and moving at 30kmh when I was stationary. (Did anyone else notice strange readings today?) I do not think this was a factor however when I went hunting for this cache as everything seemed normal. You should read the description and hint for this cache yourself and look at the map at high zoom.

I started by driving as close to the cache as possible. This took me to the very end of a cul-de-sac with a distance reading of 77 meters. It looked like it was in someone’s back yard! With no entrance to the park, I parked my car at the west end of Norfield Cres. There is a bridge that spans a park and small river here than joins up with the larger river on the map. There really isn’t any parking that I could find that was any more accessible to the cache on Albion road. Nevertheless, there were no recommendations by the placer of this cache on where to where to park at all, as there often is for other caches, so anyone not familiar with the area (like myself) would have to ‘take a guess’. Although the area seemed open enough near where I parked, I quickly disappeared into a bush with steep hills and the river in the middle. Basically, you end up paralleling Norfield Cres., following the river and the fences bordering the back of the subdivision, albeit about 30’+ lower.

As I began walking through the bush, I remembered the part in the cache description about ‘crossing some rough area’. In addition to the uneven terrain however, I discovered 7 discarded bicycles, 1 mattress frame, 1 mattress, enough beer bottles to buy a GPS, 3 shopping carts and a plethora of other refuse. As I rounded the bend and headed south, after crossing the stream several times just to get this far, the surrounding area was a little less dense. I then found the ‘sewer’ with the 42 on it and began homing in. Well, homing in isn’t a very good word for it. Although there is a distinct path here now, (it follows the main river, perpendicular to Albion Rd – if only I had of known!) there are also several barely recognizable paths that go in every direction. Certainly none of them could be classified as a ‘side trail’ to the cache. What’s more is that the sewer is no less than 80 meters from the cache! I’m thinking to myself, ‘they could have said it was east of the airport and it would have been just as helpful’. So I continue following my arrow, which is next to impossible considering the density of the vines in this area. Yes, you come to an area with those really tough dried vines covering everything! I’ve got about 15 minutes of daylight left, I haven’t been any closer than 25 meters to the cache and I know I am not going to get any more help from the clues (I did have the cache description with me on this one). I know than WHEN I find this thing; it is going to be that much more rewarding for me, considering the effort so far.

I am now to the point that the only where left to go is up a steep, very steep embankment to narrow the distance to the cache. I could ascertain that the cache was indeed in this direction and at the top of the hill because of various bearing and distance readings from out in the open, about 30 meters from the cache. But make no mistake, it is a long 30 meters and the GPS is all but useless in the very heavy cover. I’m now at the top of the hill, hanging onto a fence in someone’s backyard. Moving back and forth, I get a reading as small as 4 meters but no better. I’m looking for a plastic bag, all the time hoping no one in any of the three or four houses that can see/hear me near their backyard is phoning the cops; there is absolutely no reason for someone to be hanging out here and anyone from the area knows full well it isn’t easy to get to where I am standing. The place is littered with debris and garbage, it’s almost dark, and just about any of it could be a white plastic bag. Just when I’m ready to pack it in, I see something underneath a bunch of fallen branches. Whoopee! Well, it’s about time anyway. I walk down the hill to approach it, moving 6 feet in anyone direction seems like I’m taking a risk. I reach my hand out to grab the container while holding onto a small tree for balance. Mother #@$@#, it’s just an empty gallon jar.

I was done for the day.

Now that I have rambled on like this, I am trying to remember what my point was when I started. I suppose I walked away thinking ‘that wasn’t any fun at all’. It wasn’t just because I hadn’t found the cache that I had a bad taste in my mouth either. Again, geocaching is supposed to be fun. That doesn’t mean you have to find the pot of gold either. I’ve been on several cache hunts that I haven’t found the cache but was very glad I went looking. Usually it’s because it’s in an beautiful area, often close to where I’ve lived for the past 34 years and not even known about it. But there was nothing appealing about this area to look at. The clues were not clues at all either. I mean, I know it is not a rule written in stone but doesn’t common sense suggest that a clue, (or cheating), be a description of where to locate the cache that is one step closer than the accuracy of the average GPS? If the average GPS is accurate to a 30 foot radius, that leaves a very large area to hide a small bag or Tupperware container in. Further, this cache was placed in a spot that made a cache hunter look VERY suspicious. I mean, you’re right in someone’s back yard! I have very little doubt that in one of those houses lives a geocacher and the placement of this cache was selected to make it easy to constantly keep an eye on it. That may sound innocent and fun for the person hiding the cache, but it makes for a very uncomfortable experience for those looking for it.

Geocaching is like fishing, catching a fish may be the point of the entire trip but just because you get skunked, doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth going. This is probably about the eighth or ninth cache I’ve searched for in vain in the Toronto area. Right now I feel it will probably be my last Although I have carted out some garbage with me on a few of my geocaching excursions, I cannot help but feel that overall, the joy of the ‘sport’ is lost in the surroundings. I also plan on being a little more vigilant on whose caches I go looking for. I would appear to me that a little experience in finding various caches is required before placing one yourself.
Never thought I’d say this, but ‘That’s just my two cents’.

MajBach
You can't have everything.
where would you put it?