NorthWest Arkansas Cachers

There was a small story on Geocaching in todays paper what I like to refer as the rag, Democrat/ Gazette.
They showed a map of our Great state of Arkansas and listed the approximate hides of each general area. Yeah right.

The writer had evidently done a little research on our sport detailing the acronyms. FTF TFTH Muggles TNLNSl and so on.

Evidently she had interviewed Woodwalker, he had stated the game has evoled into micro's and nanos's and that was the way the game was now being played.Every on was entitled to play the way they want.
I agree 100 percent. Noway is the right or wrong way to play the game.

She also had a sentence or two about Dave Ulmer and his plan in 2000 to get this sport rolling.

I have not had a find since July, in my opinion most are not worth the time and trouble, let alone trying to be creative and say something nice to the CO.While testing a new cache for Cardinal which is and oustanding hide at Lake Wilson.
I had the pleasue of talking a 1/2 mile stroll thru the woods. Here is just a small listing during that short stroll that i had the please of seeing.

About 10-12 deer, 2 fisherpeople,3 hikers with thier pets and the remains of Tilly Willy Bridge, the last lock and dam of Fayettevilles early flood controll system.

I managed to pick up a cache while there by MobiusTrip my first since July. It felt good because I was in the woods and not in some parking lot lifting lamp skirts

I would dearly love to see it evolve back to what Ulmer had envisioned, or it could be it has done it already.

Also on this topic, traingulation with waypoints over 900 miles! Good lord at least give us an azimuth to work with.

I finally found a good excuse for the ignore button.

Red Ink

I mostly agree with you Ron. Although micros and nanos are fun for me in some contexts, most of the hides being placed by new cachers are generally of poor quality. I don't, however, believe that a hike in the woods is a requirement for a cache to be called a "good" cache. Just take me somewhere interesting, or "WOW" me in some way, or just plain have a purpose behind each hide that you make. It then becomes my responsibility as a cache seeker to decide if I want to look for it. Over time, I will learn if your caches are worth looking for or if they should be simply ignored.

I don't think geocaching ever was what Dave U. envisioned. groundspeak got hold of it too early in its infancy for that. The closest we have today to Dave's vision can be found at terracaching.com and there aren't many of those listed around here.

As for a triangulation cache with 900 mile waypoints -- I agree on the ignore button. Most triangulation caches are pretty lame to start with. They should never have been listed as mystery caches, but as multi-caches. You should be able to do them in the field within seconds, once the coordinates of the waypoints are known.

The main thing that has to be taken away from the article in the demgaz is that there are an infinite number of ways to play this game. If you can't find the way that makes you happy, you probably aren't trying hard enough. Don't worry about the way others play. Just do your own thing. Its not a competition, its supposed to be fun.

Micheal,
Could not agree more. Caches should lead us to a unique place of some sort.
Thinking of trying out this Munzee game. You could take people almost anywhere and
hide one of those little units without drawing too much attention.
.

I agree with "TNT" it is just a game with plenty of options for all those that wish to play. There are those that gripe about micros and other nanos, they can opt not to look for these and just go after the larger ones that are out there. Some can choose just to search for the caches hidden in the woods or on hiking trails. The point is there are options for all of us to look for something that makes us happy. The biggest thing is just get out and do something and have fun doing it.

Ron, so far we've been enjoying Munzee. We just wish there was more activity. We've placed 10 or so up here, so if you want to try it out, these are the closest ones. I will admit that they're mostly placed in uninteresting places, but we simply wanted to get some out there and get some activity going to begin with. Now that they include the coordinates in the description so that a real GPS can be used to find them (instead of a smart phone -- not accurate), they can be hidden practically anyplace a geocache could be hidden as long as there is cell service.

I finally decided to make one today.

probably post it out somewhere next week.

Glad to see some activity on here. Hadn't been on in awhile myself. I really can't debate caching very much. I like it a lot and hunt just about all of them.
I haven't done the munzees and probably won't. I try to write good logs on the caches I find. To me it is being out and hunting. I like the hikes because you do see animals and stuff. But I really think everyone can find some part of this big game that they enjoy doing. I have met so many nice people and have made some really good friends. And to all those friends I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I have to disagree with *TnT* on his Dec 13th comment about it not being a competition. My son started about four months before telling me about this game so I spent about seven months trying to catch up to his number of caches. Boy, that WAS FUN. Everytime I hear of a new challenge, I have to go for it. I now have found caches hidden in each year. I have found all of the caches around Lake Wilson. I have still not found "I Forgot #6" and still do not have a clue about "I Forgot #5", but you just wait, I will get them both. I also have three caches in the planning stage that I hope will give you HOURS of cacheing. I think this is then most fun I have had playing out doors since I quit playing Football back in the mid 70's.

I have a new puzzle cache out GC3AB71 (The SCARY Halloween Cache) That I hid on Friday the 13th that only Mobius_trip has commented on. I tried to make it as hard as We Forgot!!! #5 and the puzzle is very much like that hide but with an extra twist. I am supprised it has been out there five days with no one looking for it. I know it has been a little cold for the OLDER guys but if any one needs hints, just e-mail me. I put more work into this cache than my other caches trying to make it scary and funny at the same time.

Sorry, I hadn't been looking at puzzle caches up north. Been working on one down here that's pretty sneaky.