Opinions on geocache hiding by Drat 19

[mmacgown]

Quite sometime ago while looking at someone's profile, I noticed a reference to another geocacher named Drat 19. So, I looked at this cacher's profile and read an essay he wrote about his opinion about what he felt about the hiding/placements of geocaches. I found the essay very informative, helpful and thoughtful and thought to share it with all of you. So here is the link:
After reading it, I think you'll agree with much he has to say.

[addisonbr]

Pretty good overview; hard to disagree with a lot of what he brings up.

[Tatanka49]

I do agree with him on a lot of it and on his second one abut Gulf Coast hides. I could write one of those myself. I wish, though, that he used some other color than white on black--real hard on the eyes.

So to make my own list---

The types of hides I dislike the most...

1. Tank caches (or railroad cars, canons, trucks, etc)
2. The Rock caches that he speaks of
3. Te second cousin to this --a rock in a stone wall
4. Micros and nanos when bigger would work
5. The bush in a big group of bushes.
6. Light post hides to ad-naseum in a given area (Raleigh and Las Vegas are good for this)

I know there are others, but the mind went blank.

J

[dolemite9]

I thought it was a good read and it definitely gave me some food for thought. Just thought I'd add one comment that may be useful for some (and well known by most I'd think). In the article, drat19 writes:

"Let's be frank here: Unless you have perfectly clear skies and a completely unobstructed view of the sky and at least 6 satellites from your hide location, an average location from just "2 or 3 readings" just doesn't cut it. Unless tree or other canopy is just insurmountable, or unless you want to intentionally include a "margin of error" as part of the cache challenge, nothing infuriates Geocachers more than poorly captured cache coordinates by the hider. Remember, our game started as a result of SA ("selective availability") being turned off on the GPS array in space by the Government, thus making handheld GPS receivers geometrically/exponentially (take your pick) more accurate. Make the effort to live up to this fundamental aspect of our game."

For me, one method I've learned that is particularly useful, especially in urban environments, is the joy of Google maps. While on site, I try to use the iPhone in addition to the GPS to get two independent sets of coordinates. However, I treat these #s as estimates. While on site, I also take notice of various landmarks/geographical features and jot those down. Once I get home and in front of a computer proper, I use Google maps (or Bing), with their excellent satellite images and GPS capability to fine tune my original estimates. From my experience, using these satellite images as the 'gold standard' has led to pretty accurate numbers. Obviously in the wilderness or where there is significant tree cover, this doesn't work as well (though I do have two 'wilderness hides and this is the method I used!). But it is one method nonetheless.

Bee Bait
(aka dolemite9)

PS While I think it is pretty interesting (and informative) to see people's 'list of hides they dislike', I'm not sure I'd hack together such a list myself. Personally, I see the greatest joy from geocaching in the path/journey one takes for the hunt. A good hide is like icing on the cake. A poor hide, while potentially disappointing, is nothing to get one's panties in a tizzy over. Puzzle caches I think are held to a bit of a different standard here, as the 'journey' part is a bit more abstract....