FTF Fariytale

[brdad]

The saddest part I get out of all this is when cache finders can not get enough enjoyment out of a cache to find it worthy of visiting in they are not FTF. It's no doubt some cache placements promote that kind of feeling, but to expect everyone to log caches instantly is foolish. Caching was not designed to be a race.

Lee and I have actually FTF'd more caches this year than we ever have. We've gotten 8 so far, 4 of them in one day. We went after them because we wanted to do them, not because we wanted FTF. Most of them were not logged for at least 5 hours after finding them. While we had fun doing those, we actually got a lot more satisfaction when we found a cache last year that had not been hunted for in 5 years. Maine has over 300 caches which have not been found in over a year, as well as about 20 caches that were placed over a month ago available for FTF, 12 or so of which were placed over four months ago. If a person is going to get so stressed over someone not logging an FTF from the field, perhaps they should concentrate on caches others are less likely to be running for.

Another idea if you feel the need to make it a competition is to get together with those you want to compete with, set your ground rules including logging from the site and have at it. Race against those playing your game, and disregard other cache finders. So it's not necessarily who is FTF, but who is first out of your defined group.