Retired Cache Types

For anyone who is just getting into the sport of geocaches, you are likely learning that there are many “types” of geocaches. Traditionals, multi’s, etc. But one of the more common topics of conversation that come up from time to time has to do with cache types that are no longer permitted to be listed on the official geocaching.com website.

There are a couple of cache types that fit specifically into this category. This page attempts to explain what they are, the purpose they served, and why they are no longer permitted.

When geocaching first came out, one of the biggest reasons why people hid geocaches was to try and get people to certain locations that they thought were notable somehow. Whether they be great views of a valley, a mountain top, or maybe a really nice river, geocaches were used to bring folks to really awesome places. As the sport grew more popular, many cachers wanted to bring other cachers to notable locations where there was no place to hide a physical container. Groundspeak (the owners of geocaching.com) created the Virtual geocache to fill this void. In many cases, virtuals were created for many historical monuments, or for parks where physical caches were not permitted.

As time went on, virtuals began to pop up virtually everywhere (pardon the pun). Restaurants, coffee shops, and plenty of other non-notable locations became virtuals and it seemed that the spirit of why they had been created in the first place was lost. Virtuals also caused issues because there was no physical log to sign so it became necessary to find creative ways to prove you had been to the cache, most notable the use of a photo of yourself at a location. Many cachers were accused of “armchair caching” and not actually visiting the cache location to log a find. This caused a lot of tension back and forth between cache owners and people logging finds on their caches.

Groundspeak decided to retire the cache type and move them into waymarks (see below). All existing virtuals remained on geocaching.com but no new virtuals were permitted.

The topic of “bring back virtuals” is perhaps one of the most heated debates on the official geocaching.com forums. Many users have requested that this type be brought back but there has also been an equal amount of people who feel that the type should be left as is. As it stands today, virtuals can only be created as waymarks on waymarking.com.

Webcam caches are another type of non-physical container geocache. Like a virtual, there is no physical log to sign. Instead, the cacher is brought to a location where they can be seen on an internet web camera.

The cacher is then instructed to get someone to visit the webcam page while they are standing in front of the camera and capture the image of the cacher on camera. This image is then used for the cacher to log a “find” on the cache. If you have a web enabled mobile phone you can also capture the image yourself while at the cache location.

Unlike virtuals, these types of caches could only be created in very specific locations. However, many webcam caches were placed and then taken down shortly after being put up, solely for the purpose of having listed a webcam cache on a cachers profile. There also came an issue of maintenance of a webcam cache when the camera would die, or become unavailable for long periods of time. These types of caches eventually were discontinued and replaced by waymarks (see below). Many webcam caches still exist and can be logged.

Locationless caches, sometimes referred to as reverse caches, were another type of cache that did not utilize a physical container. They were in fact the complete and total opposite of finding a regular cache.

Instead of finding a container, you were given a task to find a specific object and then log it’s coordinates. For example, a reverse cache might say that you need to find a round building. When you would find a round building, you would then obtain coordinates to the round building and then log a “find” on the site by including the coordinates to this round building.

Each time a new location would be logged, that location could never be used as a log again. So if person “A” found round building #1 in Borington, NB then no other person would ever be able to log building #1 in Borington, NB.

Although a neat idea, these were not really caches. Locationless caches were retired and moved to waymarks (see below). All existing locationless caches were archived on the official site, and subsequently locked so that no new finds could be logged on any of them, thus depriving new cachers that icon 🙁

Taken from the official geocaching.com website:

In 2001, twelve geocaches were placed in conjunction with 20th Century Fox to support the movie Planet of the Apes. Each cache represented a fictional story in which scientists revealed an Alternative Primate Evolution. These caches were made using specially marked ammo containers. Each cache had an original prop from the movie. Only a few Project A.P.E. caches exist today.

There is currently only one Project Ape Cache active in the world. It is located in Brazil.

Traveling geocaches are geocache containers that do not stay in one location. Much like a travel bug, they travel from location to location receiving finds from various people who “find” the traveling cache.

The cache was hidden by the owner who then instructed finders to take the cache with them and re-hide it. Sometimes the cache would have a mission and other times it would be simply to travel.

Sound familiar?

Traveling geocaches were retired when travel bugs and trackable items became a staple in geocaching. Instead of having the caches themselves move, why not have something else that could be tracked from cache to cache. Thus came the birth of travel bugs and trackable coins.

There are still a few moving caches left out there so if you have the chance to log a find on one, do it!

—

From the official Waymarking FAQ:

Waymarking is a way to mark unique locations on the planet and give them a voice. While GPS technology allows us to pinpoint any location on the planet, mark the location, and share it with others, Waymarking is the toolset for categorizing and adding unique information for that location. Groundspeak’s slogan is “The Language of Location” and our goal is to give people the tools to help others share and discover unique and interesting locations on the planet. We invite you to share your part of the world with us through Waymarking.com.

The basic idea is that if you want to let people know about a unique place somewhere in the world, create a waymark for it.

Virtual, webcam, and locationless caches all became waymarks. The idea behind it was that people wanted to share places with other people and that seemed to be outside the scope of geocaching. So Groundspeak turned around and created Waymarking.com to manage all of these unique locations.

Although there are plenty of waymarks listed, it has suffered the same problem that many virtuals did. A lot of waymarks are really just of regular old places that are not of any big interest. Burger King, Tim Horton’s, and many other restaurants and places of such have been listed as waymarks. Another limiting factor for waymarking is that unlike geocaches, there is no pocket query feature available to download mass amounts of waymarks to your GPS. Instead you need to download them one at a time.

There are however a great deal of good locations listed depending on the area you are looking up. A quick look at Fredericton for example yielded many covered bridges, some interesting military locations, and a pile of Canadian benchmarks.

Much like a geocache though, you can log a find on a waymark but you must provide proof you were there. This is much like the rules of a virtual cache.