The kicker for me is that cachers want US to look for caches in the area BEFORE we plant our boxes . . . when they go right ahead and plant their caches right on top of our boxes without a second thought.

I've got to many stories of that happening.

hx6

The kicker for me is that cachers want US to look for caches in the area BEFORE we plant our boxes . . . when they go right ahead and plant their caches right on top of our boxes without a second thought.

With a geocache the coordinates are known. Even final coordinates of puzzle and multi-caches have coordinates known to the reviewer. Each stage of a multi-cache is likewise known. The reviewers are supposed to enforce the distance restrictions. You as l letterboxes can know where at least regular caches are without even leaving your house.

Since letterboxes aren't usually planted with a GPSr you don't have coordinates to tell anyone about. Even if a geocacher looked at the clue, most of time someone would have to go and follow them to know where the box is located. Even if every geocacher were (somehow) required to know about our letterboxes in their area (which many people here would vociferously object to) then they'd have to go find it to make sure that they weren't planting near a letterbox.

Another option would be to do as someone suggested, have some central database for every box/cache hidden. How many people here would buy a GPSr to get their box in this database?

I would like a solution. Until then we have to live with what we have.

I've had at least four boxes (off the top of my head) that have had caches planted RIGHT on top of, under the same rock, in the same tree, in the trunk of the same car (American Pickers) . . . plus the one I started this conversation with makes 5 boxes.

I would like to think that cachers would see something else there and then move to a new location. As it is, they just toss the cache on top of or next to an already existing box and call it good. Then surprise surprise when the box is the one that gets raped and pillaged while the cache continues to sit high and mighty over its fallen foe.

hx6

Well, the cachers in your area aren't very observant and/or just don't care. That is very unfortunate.

I don't know of any in my area that it has happened to.

Oh dear, I guess that is because there are more of them than us.

cachers want US to look for caches in the area BEFORE we plant our boxes . . . when they go right ahead and plant their caches right on top of our boxes without a second thought.

Yeah, but that's for pragmatic reasons. It's really easy to make a quick check to see if there are any geocaches in the vicinity before planting a letterbox. It's not a simple matter to figure out if there are any letterboxes in an area before planting a geocache. You'd basically have to solve all the cyphers and track down all the clues for all the boxes in town as well as all the mysteries in the state and the country.

How many people here would buy a GPSr to get their box in this database?

Anyone who has a smartphone already has a GPSr. Considering friends and boxing buddies, most of us could come up with one without spending any $$$.

But I wouldn't be willing to post coords of my boxes. That'd allow finders to just hunt them down like geocaches rather than following the clues. What I would like to see is the "location" field in the box listing replaced with a set of coordinates which can either be picked off a map or marked using a GPSr while in the field -- but the coordinates to be provided are for the starting location for finding the box, usually the parking lot or trailhead or whatnot. Sometimes it'd just be a general vicinity indicator. It'd never be the precise location of the box itself. And, of course, this location would be of zero help in preventing geocache/letterbox conflicts.

The one thing it might accomplish is to get more geocachers interested in letterboxing. They could view each letterbox as an offset geocache: use the GPSr to get to the parking area and then follow the clues to find the box. That's right up their alley for some of them -- although admittedly most of them are just in it for the numbers; if the box isn't where the coords say it is, they get peeved.

Then surprise surprise when the box is the one that gets raped and pillaged while the cache continues to sit high and mighty over its fallen foe.

When a geocache and a letterbox conflict, the letterbox always loses. That's an inherent result of the difference in the games. You can't really hurt a geocache, and even if you could there's nothing a letterboxer would do to hurt one if he accidentally found it. But the swag-trading that is fundamental to geocaching spells disaster for any letterbox found by accident. Sooner or later somebody's gonna trade some useless garbage for your hand-carved stamp.

This is so true... a geo cant be damaged...

So sad that a letterbox can.

This is so true... a geo cant be damaged...

Yes they can. I've had many geocaches muggled, including ones that were very well hidden. I've had one practically buried that went missing. It was in a natural hole under a tree root. It was a large hole. I put a rock in front of it.

Muggles seem to find things. It's not always a geocacher, but sometimes it obviously is. If geocaches couldn't be damaged them there would be so many archived (retired).

So sad that a letterbox can.

So, so true. You need to do what you can to keep it from happening. "Do or do not. There is no rant." ;-)

Yeah, but all a cacher has to do is drop a canister with a scroll of paper at a location and get the GPS location. That's it. No effort.

We can hide boxes in a cache desert and in a few months/years time have caches everywhere around the box that was once safe.

hx6

We can hide boxes in a cache desert and in a few months/years time have caches everywhere around the box that was once safe.

A reason to make friends with a geocacher so that they can place a protective geocache. Or you could stoop to place your own protective cache. You don't have to actually find any caches to do that.