The Merit of Virtual Caches
Living in NB, one of the few things we have here is a presence of virtual caches. For those unfamiliar with virtuals, these are a non-container type of cache that were retired some time ago. The idea with them is that you are brought to an interesting place where a physical cache could not be placed for whatever reason. In many cases, virtuals would bring you to very interesting or odd places that you would never have known existed.
As part of my travels, I usually try and pick up a cache or two while I am on the road. I typically seek out virtuals and webcam caches as these are types that are very rare in our area. Given that these can no longer be listed, it’s interesting to be able to go to places that do have them and see what people have listed as virtual caches.
In a recent trip to London, I found an interesting trend. Instead of just having a typical virtual where you go somewhere and take a photo or send trivia answers, the virtuals actually had you going to multiple locations. With limited amount of time, I didn’t get a chance to do many of those but I did do a few. Of them, the one shown in the photo to the left here was probably one of my faves. This particular cache is located at the Royal Observatory and is where the prime meridian is located. The line you see in the photo divides the east from the west.
Geocaching takes us to many different places but it’s interesting to see how even caches that don’t have a physical container can still be quite something. Pretty much all of the virtuals I have been to have had either some historic or other significant purpose behind them and were definitely worth the trip.
Unfortunately, due to the abuse of virtuals, they can no longer be listed which is why I suspect they are so popular amongst cachers.
In NB alone, let alone all of Atlantic Canada, there are few virtuals to be found. I’ve done the Albert Mines cache and a few of the first post caches but outside of that, virtuals are few and far between. If you have the chance to snag these, it’s best to do them before they end up archived. Although they require no maintenance, virtuals have been known to get archived from time to time.
Have you been to any virtual caches? If so, which ones did you enjoy the most?
I only have 4 virtual caches. Three of them here in New Brunswick. The Amazing Caverns of Kitt’s Cave, GC8CAE, was my first on a trip to St. Martins. This was cool because it was my first and I could also tease my son, Snake9, that I had a little ghost icon and he didn’t.
I got my next two just 4 days later with Snake9. Underground Lake, GC11F6 and Albert County Caves, GC8C24 . This was the most fun caching day Snake9 and I had.
The final, The Heritage Tree – CJ7, GCGFET I got on a trip home to Newfoundland. This was a spot I knew of and had seen from a distance but had never stopped at.
All 4 were great spots and I really don’t like to pick a favorite. But if I did I would have to say Albert County Caves.
I always look for them too when traveling. I have 6 found, 1 in NB, NS, QB and ON and 2 in PEI. Too bad we still can’t put out a few more but it just makes them more special to find.
I have 50 of them. 7 have been archived.
They are not my favorite but I do find them , as
you do go to a specific location.
These type of caches were abused as some cachers used to get the info
on the web and log them without going to them.
I like a cache with a container best and
puzzle caches are my favorite type of cache.
I had 27 locationless caches at one time but got rid
of them as they didn’t feel like caches. Didn’t care about the icon.
I feel the same way about Earth caches but I still do a few.
I have had a geocaching account since 2002 but really only got back into caching at the end of 2010. So I only have 5 virtuals so far.
I did see a bunch while I was in London last month, but as Zor says many of them ask you to tour the city and if you are there working, then there isn’t as much time to get them. I wish that I would have had time to get to the Royal Observatory – oh well maybe next time !!
The best virtual that I found was way back in April 2003 when I found the Blair Witch – Parr House virtual (http://coord.info/GC6B2B). For those that saw that movie it was kinda weird to be down in that basement !! The house is no longer standing but was an interesting place for sure.
I love virtuals, mainly because of their relative rarity, but most of them are just absolutely fascinating historically and often times even a little obscure. There were some very neat ones in Toronto that we did last summer but my favorites were probably the Andy Griffith statue in Raleigh, NC and the Pirate Ships in Kiptopeke state park in Virginia.
I really don’t see why virtuals couldn’t be reintroduced. I really like them. If they’re reviewed strictly like Earthcaches, then they can still add a lot to geocaching. I’ve found 7 virtuals, in England, Bermuda, Québec and Alberta. Each one has brought me to a place of natural or historic interest where a physical container is impractical but are still interesting. I found a cannonball in a tree in Old Québec, stood astride the Prime Meridian in London, visited the World Heritage Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in Alberta. I’d love to see them return in some form – Historic Caches being one alternative that might work. We just need the cooperation of diligent reviewers who ensure the questions asked require a visit to the actual site – just like Earthcaches.
I think we can all agree – virtuals are eminently more interesting than the Challenges, which also don’t have containers.
Bringing back virtuals might very well be top of my wish list to Groundspeak.
We are certainly very far from being expert when it comes to virtuals. We only have 3, only one of which (our first one) was in NB.
What I can say is that we enjoyed very much each one of them as they brought us to very nice places of interest (discovering new places was and still is what draw us the most into geocaching).
Earth caches are also very neat. The only little thing about it is that sometimes you actually need to read an insanely long description before being able to log, and that is a bit of a bummer. I like to discover, but I like to discover what I want to discover at that particular place. I don’t know if it makes any sense to you but it does to me LOL.
I think it’s sad that instead of finding a way to regulate the Virtuals any better, they just chose the easy way out by just getting rid of them. Perhaps I don’t understand the process, but how can it be any different than making sure that an earth cache is what it’s supposed to be.
Here are the 3 we found:
GCBA8A – The First King of England
GCA68D – Stonehenge
GCA352 – Father of Confederation (Tilley)
The day we went for GCA352 will forever stay in my mind with my best memories. There was a nice little snow falling down, and my wife and I together with the 2 dogs had a very nice geocaching day.
When I saw this item I thought we had very few virtuals but was surprised to see that we had 38 of them. Only 10 were in the Maritimes but all of those were in 2004 and 2005.
I reviewed the list and it brought back memories of some of our trips.
We found a virtual last week in San Francisco and there are many more in that city, so we may do more on a future trip.
Our Uk virtuals also included one of the multi virtuals in London. One of the UK virtuals was archived in 2009, after we claimed it, but interestingly, the reviewer who archived it, indicated that he would accept emails from people claiming it. It was still being claimed in 2012.
http://coord.info/GCKM3R
Here is our list
5 New Brunswick
3 PEI
2 Nova Scotia
1 Ontario
1 Quebec
3 California
3 UK
6 New York City
1 New Hampshire (Hut in White Mountains)
1 New Mexico
6 Florida (all in Disny World)
2 North Carolina (On the Outer Banks)
3 Virginia
1 Saint Marten (Caribean)
I have only found 2 so far on my trip to Ireland, Blarney Cache GCGTG2 and Stiffy By the Liffy GCE388 and as others have said most bring you to significant places that you cannot physically place a container cache. Europe has lots and for my trip to Germany I am searching them out as my GF doesn’t want to Cache all the time but these will be quick and easy grabs as we will most likely be in these places anyhow touring. The other aspect about them that I do like is ones such as the Stiffy By the Liffy is that it is muggle central and your not out of place taking a picture getting the info as you would be grabbing and hiding something raising the risk of suspicion trying to destroy something or someone. I think Virtual caches have their place in this sport but if they were to ever return there should be a definite guidelines around them such as the historical significance, public safety and respect to sensitive property for example.