Geocaching and the #USGeocachingHour

Good morning everyone.  Who hid the most caches in April?  Locally, it's edigerz with eight hides.  Next door in Saskatchewan, biology_geek hid 29 caches.  Going South, in North Dakota, Yorkiekid hid five caches.  RichN0HJZ in Minnesota hid 51 caches.

For those who do not have a Twitter account, or have an account but don't use it, may not have heard of #USGeocachingHour.  It is a tweetchat held every Monday at 8pm Central.  Basically it's one person asking geocaching related questions, occasionally non-geocaching questions, and geocachers tweet their reply to the questions while using the hashtag #USGeocachingHour.  Who asks the questions changes each week and is open to anyone who wants to take a turn.  I even hosted the #USGeocachingHour once last year in a Canadian takeover edition.  To read more on the history of this tweetchat, you can check out Geocaching Jangie's blog from last year when she took a turn hosting > #USGeocachingHour  The questions are submitted in advance to MU_DAC, the overall host of the tweetchat.  MU_DAC schedules the questions to automatically post, allowing that week's guest host to play along as well.

The amount of questions will change depending on who is hosting.  This past week @jess_sea, better known as jtcoffee to the caching community was playing host.  At one point, there was a series of what I call rapid-fire questions, or lightning round as @jess_sea calls it.  I'm going to take some of those questions and discuss them more at length here than Twitter would allow.  Hopefully this will give you, the reader, a better idea of what the #USGeocachingHour is all about and how much fun it can be.  There are no right or wrong answers.  We all have our opinions and those opinions are respected in the tweetchat.  Although, I have ruffled a few feathers in the past when the question of what new geocaching type should HQ come out with and I responded with a Selfie cache icon.  That didn't go over very well.  LOL.

Adventure Labs:  Like them or not?  I've only done three Adventure Labs so far and I have enjoyed all of them.  The very first one was difficult to start because we didn't know what we were doing.  Once that was figured out, it was easy peasy.  I look forward to doing more Adventure Labs.  I was awarded one by GCHQ.  I know what I want to do, but I'm not sure how to set it up.  Plus I'll need the time to walk through all the stages as I set it up.  I can't forget time.  I need to find time to walk to all the stages.  What I have planned is basically a walk in a neighborhood.  

Wherigos:  I only have five of these cache types done.  The very first one I did by myself.  Since then, I can't get the cartridge to load.  I've also changed phones a few times since I did my first Wherigo.  The next three that I did, I was with someone else and we were using their phone.  The last one, I was given the final coordinates, so I really didn't actually do it.  I know from social media that others have the same issue with getting the cartridge to load or just getting the app to work.  Wherigos look like a lot of fun.  Sadly, I can see this cache type going the way of the webcam cache.  The above discussed Adventure Lab cache is in my opinion, the new Wherigo.

Anyone who knows me, or has been following along, know that I do play other games.  I've been playing Pokémon Go since it was released.  I also got back into Munzee again.  I have my general area cached out.  Aside from driving miles to get a geocache that I haven't found yet, what else is there to do?  I have mentioned this in a previous blog that Pokémon and Munzee allows me to play these games without having to leave my neighborhood if I choose not to travel.  There's also Harry Potter, but I haven't looked into that and probably won't.  Three games is plenty to keep me busy.  I do find that if I'm going geocaching, then the other two games sort of take a back seat.  It's hard playing three games when you only have two phones.

Trackables:  When I started geocaching, I loved the idea of having a trackable and sending it out into the world.  As the trackable is logged, I get to see where it traveled to.  Then reality hit.  Trackables, for the most part, go missing.  I'm sure everyone who has owned a few trackables has had at least one go missing.  To be brutally honest, it sucks.  I use to love picking up trackables when I was doing my daily streak.  Those trackables moved every day until I dropped them off.  You also need to find a decent sized geocache that you can drop the trackables in.  Fast forward to today, and I don't geocache that much.  It almost defeats the purpose if I pick up a trackable.  It's not going to go anywhere really fast.  I'd be better off discovering it and leaving it in the cache for the next person.  

Then there's the issue from earlier in the year where a whole bunch of trackable codes was published online and anyone could enter those numbers and claim they discovered them when they never even saw the trackable.  Some people would post a picture of their trackable online along with permission to discover that trackable.  I've done that myself with one of my trackables.  I've even posted codes to a few trackables in my blogs.  Not everyone agrees with online discovering.  If you didn't physically touch it, then you shouldn't discover it.  That's how some geocachers look at it.  There's nothing wrong with that.  It's how they choose to play.  I have done online discovering of trackables.  I would take a screenshot so I can discover it later when I have a chance.  Sometimes I forget about it until I'm going through my pictures.  I have had discoveries get deleted without explanation.  I don't fret about that.  I'd be more concerned if a geocache that I did find had it's found it log deleted.  I'm not big on trackables anymore.  The luster and sparkle has worn off for me.   If anything, I have a small collection of personal trackables that I own that will never be released.  

Powertrails:  I did a blog about powertrails last year.  You either like them or you don't.  For those who don't like them, see them as being uncreative and only ramp up your numbers.  Some prefer the powertrails that you can walk or ride your bike instead of constantly getting out of your car.  Then there's the issue of leap frogging.  Basically a practice where multiple cars go together.  One car stops at one cache while the others proceed to the next.  The occupants in the cars didn't actually stop at all the caches, but are claiming them as found.  Doing a powertrail on your own is exhausting.  I've done my fair share on my own.  There's no shortage of powertrails either.  Some are in the form of geo-art.  A series of geocaches (usually puzzle caches) that make a picture on the geocaching map.  Once solved, you have a powertrail.

Front Yard geocaches:  Nope.  Don't like these.  What if the GPS is acting wonky and you're searching in the wrong yard?  I did one where the coordinates was taking me in between the houses.  It was very uncomfortable and I retreated back to the public sidewalk.  After reading previous logs, it was determined that it was closer to the edge of the property and not half way in.  It didn't help that the neighboring yard had all sorts of lawn ornaments, all good hiding spots for a container.  The cache was eventually found.

With anything Twitter, you can like someone's tweet.  You can also reply to someone's tweet, but using the hashtag so everyone can see the conversation.  It's good to see what other geocachers think or feel about certain topics.  The entire hour is all in fun.  Nothing controversial that could spark a heated debate, unless you're suggesting that webcam caches be replaced with selfie caches like I did.  LOL.  

That's all for this week.  Hopefully I'll see you on #USGeocachingHour one of these weeks.  Until next time, be happy, stay safe, keep your distance, wash your hands, and try to have fun.  Peace out.