This Month:

• Who Are You Hiding Your Cache For? By Dave Sprecher, aka Nurse Dave
• It's Time To Pay If You Want To Play By Jerry Carter, aka El Diablo
• Adequate Permission By Richard Niles, aka sept1c_tank

Simple question, but have you ever asked yourself who you hide caches for? I wouldn't be surprised if 99.9% of people quickly answer "C: Other cachers". And, well sure, if people didn't hide caches, there wouldn't be any finds, and without the finds, caching wouldn't exist. Notice I didn't say without the hides caching wouldn't exist. As soon as the first cache was in place and someone found it, geocaching was here. There could still only be that one cache and as long as people were still finding it, there would still be geocaching.

So, my question is past the fact that people will find it; who are you hiding your cache for? Or another question is, are you proud of that last hide? I think if your true answer is "I'm hiding a cache for other people to enjoy", the answer to the other question needs to be "yes". Now, you're asking, what is this guy getting at?

1. You place a cache in an alley behind a store near the dumpsters. Can you seriously think people will enjoy that area? Are you thinking that you are showing people a nice view? Taking them to a new part of town they didn't know existed?
2. There is a park with a cache and just enough space to place another one .1 mile away. Why did you put that cache there? People are already going to that park. Are you really showing them something interesting that they didn't know was there from .1 mile away or are you just crowding another cache?
3. Your cache description reads something like "Traffic was really bad so we decided to pull off and place a cache". Is that the kind of thought you want other people to put into their caches? Is hiding a cache something that should happen out of boredom?

Don't get me wrong. I've done tons of very cool caches. I've even done very enjoyable and inventive caches in cities. Not great views, but an interesting twist, or an actual hidden corner of some neighborhood most people don't know exist. But, I've also done plenty of caches that people seem to hide for themselves. I define that as a cache placed for the sake of hiding a cache and not thinking about the experience the finder will have. There seems to be a mentality that any cache hide is a good one because it gives people another cache to look for. Is that all that is important? Shouldn't you be proud of your hide? I think if you wouldn't be excited to take a first time cacher to your own cache to show them what this sport is all about, then you did a dis-service to all other cachers by hiding it there.

I think since geocaching doesn't happen in a vacuum, each and every hide should be placed for the people looking for it and you should be proud to have fellow cachers spending their time finding your cache.

Editor's Note: Today's Cacher welcomes Nurse Dave as our guest editorialist this month.

Next Article: It's Time To Pay If You Want To Play By Jerry Carter, aka El Diablo