We recently moved to Florida and were interested to see what geocaching we had available in our area. We were amazed to find over 100 caches within 10 miles of our new home. We quickly found out why. We would have to say that a good 85% of all caches in our local area are Micro Caches. We had never tried a micro cache before so we tried a few. After about the 4th or 5th one, we decided they were just useless caches and we came up with the phrase "SAY NO TO MICRO!"

The Micro Caches in our area seem haphazardly placed--in a busy intersection, some children's ride outside Wal-Mart, or stuck next to the entrance way to a place of business. They seem to be placed without regards to human life, or what it looks like to on-lookers. If you read some of the cache descriptions, the people were bored "while the wife was shopping" so they "decided to drop a cache" in the area. Seems to me they just want to pump up their numbers. The game is NOT about the numbers! It's all about the HUNT!

Why should I do a Micro cache? What's in it for me? The majority of the ones I see around here are nothing more than an out of the way trip to the store. And all I do is sign a log. I have no sense of accomplishment. Most of the time, I don't take anything from a traditional cache. But the feeling that I found something was there. These micro caches leave me with a sense of "That was all?" There is no trek to get to the cache. The hunt is looking for this tiny case that someone put out. Not worth it in my opinion.

Where is the challenge? What? That you will come out with your person in tact? That no police officer stopped and interrogated you about what you were doing? That you picked up a can of Formula for your new baby while you went searching for the geocache? Come on people! Be more creative! If you are going to do a micro, put some thought process behind it! Don't just drop off a canister as you pass by, mark it by using the "Man Overboard" option on your GPS and then post it on the website!

If you are going to do a Micro, make sure you think about the end result! Could people be harmed? Is there a challenge...and I'm not talking about the ones listed above! Could the gamers actions be considered "suspicious" and warrant a call to the local police? (think of location, children's area's especially). Could I have made this more challenging (i.e. create a multi-cache with micros in the beginning, each giving coordinates to the next, until the last one being a traditional cache with goodies and a sense of accomplishment).

My words here are not "Say no to ALL Micros!"; but, rather, "Say no to Haphazard Micros with no challenge!"

Cache in
Trash out!