I beg to differ on the travel bug issue. Your argument is the same argument that people use when joining health clubs. Just because they pay the fee every month for the health club doesn't mean they are more responsible about going and using that membership. I consider myself to be an addicted cacher, but I sometimes am unable to put travel bugs into different caches for a few weeks at a time. This is because I cannot revolve my life around getting that travel bug into a cache, and I do not feel comfortable leaving it in an urban cache...even if it is Members Only. As cachers using public areas, we have to accept the fact that people will destroy caches. Many times people probably come across them by accident or see people put them back and decide to destroy them. A members only cache would not solve this problem. I understand that some people feel that they like having their caches be members only, but I would prefer to let all cachers enjoy the sport equally. People who place members only caches are not helping the game. When I started 6 months ago, it pissed me off that there were caches out there that I couldn't view because I didn't pay for a membership. I have supported Geocaching just as much or more than many members have through my purchases from Geocaching.com and it's affiliations. I agree that there should be limitations to the features on Geocaching.com for people that are not members, but Geocaching is about the caches and they should not be restricted to be accessed by a small number of people.

I was at Mat274 geocache on the ASU campus today, and I found it along with Casey and Sarah of AZCelts. However, I was appalled when I opened the log sheet and saw that the previous finder had written an obscenity in the place for his name. He wrote, "F*** this cache" instead of his name. This is particularly disconcerting because the first person who recovered the cache was Casey's 12-year old daughter, Sarah.

What could we do about geocachers who do something like this? My idea (admittedly controversial, and something discussed before) is that all caches in public places like this should be "Members Only". I expect that the kind of person who would write an obscenity in the log sheet would be less likely to pay the nominal annual fee (less than a tank of gas) to become a Premium Member.

Protecting caches by making them "Members Only" will also reduce the risk of lost travel bugs. Apparently the travel bug that RandMan put in the cache was taken, but has not been logged yet. Many travel bugs become lost because they are taken by a geocacher who fails to log them properly and does not put the travel bug in another cache. If a travel bug is placed in a "Members Only" cache, then it is more likely that the travel bug will be recovered by someone who will log the travel bug properly, and will put the travel bug promptly in another cache.

Ken Akerman (a.k.a. Highpointer)