Adopting out caches

When I moved away from new Mexico, I adopted out a few of my caches, but for the most part left them under my name. A large portion of my caches placed in new Mexico were remote, rugged, and seldom found caches, and I figured that they would be ok left under my name. Also, I was highly into the Lonely Cache Project, and keeping the caches in my names helped me keep the points for those lonely caches. On the few caches I adopted out, I made the cheesy decision to log them as found by me in order to keep them in my LCP stats. Cheesy, but that’s what I did.

Now that we are moving away from Tennessee, I am faced with little different situation. There is no Lonely Cache Project here, but I still feel a strong connection to my caches. I realize that leaving them under my name is still a possibility, but the caches will survive much longer if I can find local cachers to adopt them. So at the CITO I hosted a month ago, I mentioned that I would be adopting out caches, and wow, I did not expect the response I got. Several local geocachers offered to adopt my caches, and many more told me that they enjoyed my cache hides in the area and hope that they will live on after I leave. It was really flattering to hear this. Many of my local caches do not get found often, but when they do I usually get really good logs. And many of my caches I am pretty darn proud of too. I had some good ideas while I was here, and was able to execute some of them pretty well. So I’ve been adopting out most of my caches, maybe even I’ll get them all adopted out. I am still a little hesitant to adopt out the Whereigos, as those can be tricky to do maintenance on since you need all the Cartridge details. And even after I adopt out caches, I add them all to a bookmark list I have called Adopted Out Caches, so that I continue to get notifications when the caches get logged. I love seeing logs on my caches, and I won’t let being a few states away stop me from hearing about what is going on with them.

Here’s a summary of my Tennessee Geocaches

Cache name	# of Finds	# of Favorite Points	Adopter	My thoughts on this cache
A blast from the past	10	8	Lullabye4u	The idea for this cache puzzle came from finding the container, which is fairly unique… but I can’t go into too much detail about that without giving away some spoilers. There is more to the story as well, my college friend Diana Silverman, who is in the puzzle, actually is the daughter of one of the inventors of “the software” that the puzzle is based on. A little personal connection I have for this puzzle.
Clinton Crossword Puzzle	16	10	Yomegranate	Yomegranate wrote in her log that this was one of her all-time favorite puzzle caches to find. That was a while back, and I’m not sure if that is still the case, but I’ll never forget that wonderful log. It only felt proper that she adopt this one.
Geocaching and Invasive Plants: A Study	8	7	Quarter-Master	The write-up for this puzzle is probably my favorite of all my hides. I had a blast coming up with it, and even got really good feedback from the Reviewer about this write-up, which hasn’t happened to me before. The log from Magkirk is pretty awesome as well.
Inception Challenge	3	3	Black*dot	A really bizarre challenge cache idea I had that was meant to be a meta, kind of a statement about how ridiculous challenge caches were getting. It just so happened that it got published shortly before the moratorium on Challenge Caches occurred in late 2014. Now that has lifted, I am curious to see if Black*dot will pursue making an online checker for this challenge. Might be pretty tricky to do. The cache itself is placed at one of my favorite local hiking spots.
Irresistible	21	13	Black*dot	Oddly one of my more frequently found caches. Unlike most of my caches, there wasn’t much thought that went into this cache placement. It was merely an irresistible location to me. It does have a slightly unusual D/T rating, which may account for its “popularity”. I think the rating is spot-on, and the cache is definitely not for everyone.
Lost quadcopter	9	5	Black*dot	After receiving a quadcopter for my birthday (and losing it for several months), I really wanted to find a way to use the quadcopter for geocaching. Building the container was half the fun. I hope it weathers well, I’d love to see it get found more.
Riding the Dragon	13	5	Lullabye4u	This cache is all about the theme. The location, container, story and stamp are all about dragons. It had a rather unfortunate start since it was discovered by bears at least twice. Hopefully it survives a good long time. I put a lot of work into carving the stamp.
TVG Game Night	12	9	Ol’Fogies	Another themed cache that I had a great time putting together. In a bit more of a muggle prone area than I usually like to hide stuff, but hopefully it lasts. Ol’Fogies and some others have mentioned making spin-offs of this cache puzzle, other TVG Game-night style puzzle caches. I can definitely see something like that happening.
Thermodynamics: bull Run Fossil Plant	10	4	Pokerluck?	Another themed cache, and one that gets way more technical in engineering problems than a cache really out to. But I still had fun reviewing my thermodynamics material for creating the puzzle. It was also fulfilling when I got permission from TVA for this hide. Took me out of my comfort zone to have to approach a big corporation for permission for a geocache.
Hiking through History: The Indian Rock Loop Trail	4	3	Kaput360	Lot’s of stages on this multi, on trails that goecachers don’t seem that interested in. On the plus side, the State Park was really friendly about signing the geocaching permits.
Sharp’s Station	7	2	Kaput360	Just a simply hide that is a decent hike out on a trail in Big Ridge State park. I was hoping that placing some more caches would bring some more geocaching traffic to this park. That doesn’t appear to have been the case.
Obed River Swimming Holes	2	2	Kaput360	Great long hike in one of my favorite lcoal areas
CT: Obed River Section	2	2	Kaput360
CT: Eagle Bluff Section	0	2	Not adopting yet	This was my second Whereigo hiking cache, and another long one, a twelve mile thru-hike. Not that difficult a hike if you ask me, but then not many geocachers have asked me. It is also in a region that doesn’t appear to have a lot of geocaching activity. I expect it to remain pretty lonely.
CT: Cross Mountain Day hike	2	2	??	A little different spin on the standard Multi cache. I designed it to be done from either trailhead, but still require the same amount of hiking either way. Only two finders so far… it’s another off-the-beaten track trail.
Lilly and Princesses Kid Cache	35	2	??	I might actually archive this one. It is placed near our house in Tennessee, and with the intention of being something that the kids and I could go check frequently to see what kind of toys kids are trading in and out. The two horses it was placed near have both passed away though, so it makes me a little sad now. It may also be my most found cache, which isn’t much of a distinction, as it is my only real drive-up park and grab.
Holston River Cave	2	2	GISpuma?	In a cave, and a long way to paddle. Yet it was found recently by my friends MTippetts and GISpuma. Might have to see if they would like to adopt it.
Ridge hiking Frozen Head State Park	4	4	Not adopting yet	One of my first caches placed in Tennessee, and a doozie, since it involves 17+ miles of hiking. Kind of my introductory hike to the area. I’d love to see it get found a few more times.
Boulder Bars and the Power of Water	7	3	Not adopting	My only Earthcache placed in TN. I really wanted to do some research for an earthcache in this location (Obed River WSR) and found a cool article about alluvial beds that was published by the Park Service. The area has some wonderful hikes.
Songbird Trail	5	3	??	Birdsong theme, and a techno-gadget field puzzle too. This is another one of my favorite hides that I’ve put together out here. I like birds, and this area. Hopefully it brings some more cachers out too.
TOTALS	172	91		172 finds on 20 caches. Ton’s of really good logs and a good amount of favorite points. Not too shabby for two years.

Considering I also hosted 4 CITOs and one Event, I consider myself a pretty busy cache owner. And despite my reputation for putting out caches that rarely get found, and are in difficult places, my caches here in Tennessee are way more accessible than my hides in New Mexico. At least it feels that way.