Taking Ownership

A few days ago, about 350 to 400 new Mysteries dropped near my area. Most of them were part of a couple of new Geoarts placed conveniently near the upcoming Texas Challenge. The rest were part of a new challenge trail. The trail had to be placed a little ways from the others, partially to offer non-Traditional cache types for people working on the Texas Two-Step in surrounding counties, but mostly because we just couldn’t find the room closer. Why? Because a certain well-liked, curmudgeonly, and incredibly prolific hider has several other Geoarts in the area. It would not be incorrect to say that he effectively owns Williamson County from a geocaching perspective.  I started thinking about this because yesterday a dozen new caches that had nothing to do with Challenge dropped in Austin so I went to go get an FTF. The cacher who placed them is a longtime cacher, but he’s been especially active in hiding in the last year or so. A lot of his caches have been along Town Lake, Downtown, and the northern parts of South Austin. His new quantity of hides have gotten to the point where he pretty much owns the Colorado River going through the city and is making significant in roads into ownership of Downtown entirely.

I think that anybody who lives somewhere with significant caching density has places like those: an area where the caches are completely dominated by one CO. And that area can be fairly wide. A different cacher I know has taken over a large park in Round Rock, having placed over fifty caches there. Another cacher I can think of has effectively covered the nearby town of Cedar Park. I’ll never forget when I made it to Ellis County, Kansas, and realize that pretty much every significant cache in the area was owned by preeminent cache maker Ottieolsen.  I own a good handful of cashes, but it takes a certain amount of dedication that I don’t think I have to blanket an area and then maintain all of it. I wish I did, but I’m not 100% sure where I would be able to take over anyway, considering there’s so many prolific hiders around my area. Some days, I don’t think I’m returning a significant contribution to the local community for the enjoyment that they have given me.  On the other hand, one does what one can do. I like to think that I’ve hidden a few quality (or at least interesting) hides.  I like to think that I have hidden some of the kinds of caches that I would like to find, though I know for a fact that I have nowhere near enough gadget building skill to make that a thing. I have considered joining a maker space in hopes of learning some things but right now that’s a little pie in the sky (and probably an entry for another time). For now, all I can do is thank the efforts of others. I already do that every time I get on the road and go to a new county, but I should remember to spread some of that gratitude around to some of the people in arms length. Or some kind of crap like that.