LPC and Micro's I do not like them I say

I was listening to latest installment of the Podcacher, when Sonny mentioned his dislike of LPC’s or lamppost caches. A dislike I also strongly share. This is geocaching’s version of a mico box that is just placed somewhere by someone who just wants to place a cache or box someplace. Letterboxing micro’s and boxes for that matter still are being placed as far I can tell, at places of interest, but geocaches seem to have a higher percentage of caches that are hidden for the soul reason to hide them. The place has no historical or scenic attributes. This seems to be what the LPC really is.

I not a numbers guy, in fact I really don’t have that much time to myself where I can cache and box, so when I do I really want to be taken to an interesting location or learn some history or something! All my found letterboxes so far (27) have been that. I would say 5 of the 40 caches that I have found have been just a box in the woods somewhere, with no redeeming features. However, I have been noticing some letterboxes being listed that look like the quality of the place is decreasing, but I don’t know for sure until I look for them. I will say this though. If a cache or a letterbox says up front it is a micro I will not look for them, as I feel that most of these are in locations that are not to my personal liking.

I like to visit a nice nature preserve and look for a box or a cache off the beaten trail, so you can open them box up and read the logbook and take your time without having to look out for muggles constantly. That is where I attempt to place all of my boxes. That is fun and relaxing to me. The James Bond thing is not for me and a location looks too mugglely, I will pass the Lb or cache up.

I think that each person who is thinking of placing a box or hiding a cache should think very hard about the interest that the location will generate, where the container can be placed in proximity to the muggle world, then the quality of the box itself and how well you can maintain it. I think that one of the reasons I don’t have, as much time as I would like to find boxes and caches, is I spend some of the precious time I do have, maintaining my boxes. I check of them twice a year and I up grade the containers and such, so that when the box is looked for the seeker has a better chance of finding my box and really enjoying there experience.

I think though, later I will discuss my maintenance practices of my boxes and how I think I can reduce the number of times I need to check on them…but later.

...A little later in the day...I have just read a couple of responses to the letterboxing news group and I think that one of the things that I am saying in those posts and this blog is I just want to see that the new boxers and cachers stay true to the tradition of connecting the box to the locaction.