Over a month ago Ben and I finally picked the perfect spot for our first cache. I contacted one of the local approvers and got his OK for the spot and he helped me get the necessary forms to get a permit from the county. We have the container ready and a puzzle to go with it.

Then we decided to hold off on hiding it because we noticed that caching in Florida is very different from caching in Maine. Of the 13k caches within a 100 mile radius of our apartment, 10k are micros. We visit great parks with nice trails all the time and see that they have no caches. If they ever did, those caches have been archived for quite some time. We decided to hold off and see if we could figure out why there are so many great cacheless areas, but also so many random gas stations with micros or nanos in the newspaper stands*.

My guess was theft. Maybe big caches get stolen? I ran this by Ben and he said something along the lines of "Maybe caching is just different here. We should hide our cache the way we planned to let people know how our friends in Maine cache. In fact, we should name it 'Geocaching in Maine - The way caching should be.'"

I pointed out that doing that would probably not make us any friends around here, LOL, but I figured the people on here would appreciate his compliment :)

* Funny story about the newspaper stand micros/nanos... apparently the newspaper company re-arranged all the stands once. So now you can go up to a random stand and possibly find an archived cache from a location across town!

I say put the thing out. Name it how you want and keep an eye on the local website to see what people say about it.

When I come down we can discuss the issues with them and one way or another problem solved.

Why not just name it the brdad cache? That would make you even less friends and you'd be exiled back to Maine where you can place your cache without fear. Plus, we'd all like to have you back anyway. :)

I say name it what you want. You could play it safe by just naming it Geocaching Maine and explaining the motto in the description. Long names are tough to see in GSAK anyway. :D

Have you asked any locals why there are no caches in these areas? Do they have any forums? I've heard many times how they'll hire Mainers down there in a heartbeat because all we have a better work ethic - perhaps they're all too lazy, or maybe it's the heat or fear of critters? Or maybe everyone is just in it for the numbers there.

Maybe call it Missing Maine Cache. hehe

Why not just name it the brdad cache? That would make you even less friends and you'd be exiled back to Maine where you can place your cache without fear. Plus, we'd all like to have you back anyway. :)

I say name it what you want. You could play it safe by just naming it Geocaching Maine and explaining the motto in the description. Long names are tough to see in GSAK anyway. :D

Have you asked any locals why there are no caches in these areas? Do they have any forums? I've heard many times how they'll hire Mainers down there in a heartbeat because all we have a better work ethic - perhaps they're all too lazy, or maybe it's the heat or fear of critters? Or maybe everyone is just in it for the numbers there.

Better work ethic? HehHeh . . . perhaps at one time . . . but have you seen how many folks are on the dole in this state now? HehHeh . . . gave me a good laugh for the day.

My wife said she heard the same thing from Mainers down in CT . . . but the truth is she said Mainers that came down to CT were simply willing to work for less pay than many of the CT natives . . . on the flip side . . . they were at least working.

We've only really made friends with one caching couple... and they are numbers people, so they love it. They recommended a few micros that were really nice - one was in a park that is a common viewing area for manatee. We must have seen 10 manatee that day. Seriously one of the best cache locations we've seen in Florida and there was no way a full sized cache could have been hidden there. So it's not like caching here isn't fun, it is, it's just different.

It could also be caching is actually very similar but since there are so many (25k in the state) it's just harder to choose because there is more of everything. There are some unique hides here... there a multi where the coords take you to the entrance of an office complex. You are supposed to find a line of symmetry among all the buildings that is topped with 3 objects, making it look like an arrow. Follow the arrow for 300 feet, turn 90 degrees and go another 90 feet. I'd never done anything like that before and it was a very cool experience.

I'm sure as we go to more events and make more finds we'll get a better feel. I imagine heat does play a significant role. We've been catching much less because Ben gets cranky and easily frustrated in 95+ degree weather. It seems like all new caches are very very urban and meant to be quick... probably because most people aren't in the mood right now for something more involved. I wonder if I'll start to notice more new caches with higher D/T ratings when it gets cooler.

While I'm comparing, I don't recall ever attending an event in Maine where temporary caches were hidden for the event. That seems to be a common practice here. It is interesting. The caches are removed sometimes before the event is even over. For example, we went to one a couple weeks ago and the organizer hid 6 ammo cans in the park. Instead of logs, each cache had a bag of small items (beads, paperclips). For each item you found within the first couple hours of the event you got to roll some dice in a type of Geocaching Yahtzee. Highest scores won prizes, including the ammo cans. It was funny to me that the organizer was able to hide ammo cans but the only permanent cache in the park was a micro in the woods. It was a lot of fun finding those caches, it was just kinda interesting because it was different from what we are used to.

You know, in those situations I'd be tempted to filter out all micros and pretend they don't exist. Unfortuntely, filtering out the micros does not guarantee decent caches either, but having 3000 non-micros within 100 miles is still more dense than any area in Maine, and probably still leaves plenty of roadside grabs.

Better work ethic? HehHeh . . . perhaps at one time . . . but have you seen how many folks are on the dole in this state now? HehHeh . . . gave me a good laugh for the day.

I hear ya there, and would love to comment but we need to keep our political comments to a minimum. I'd hate to have to censor my own post!

Over a month ago Ben and I finally picked the perfect spot for our first cache. I contacted one of the local approvers and got his OK for the spot and he helped me get the necessary forms to get a permit from the county. We have the container ready and a puzzle to go with it.

Then we decided to hold off on hiding it because we noticed that caching in Florida is very different from caching in Maine. Of the 13k caches within a 100 mile radius of our apartment, 10k are micros. We visit great parks with nice trails all the time and see that they have no caches. If they ever did, those caches have been archived for quite some time. We decided to hold off and see if we could figure out why there are so many great cacheless areas, but also so many random gas stations with micros or nanos in the newspaper stands*.





My guess was theft. Maybe big caches get stolen? I ran this by Ben and he said something along the lines of "Maybe caching is just different here. We should hide our cache the way we planned to let people know how our friends in Maine cache. In fact, we should name it 'Geocaching in Maine - The way caching should be.'"

I pointed out that doing that would probably not make us any friends around here, LOL, but I figured the people on here would appreciate his compliment :)

* Funny story about the newspaper stand micros/nanos... apparently the newspaper company re-arranged all the stands once. So now you can go up to a random stand and possibly find an archived cache from a location across town!






A reason for areas with no caches? Water Moccasins and Alligators come to mind.