When we find or hide a cache we all have a personal opinion and/or preference regarding the use of plastic bags. I don't like them!!
I have several reasons for this opinion. Firstly, they hold water. Yuck!! After a few rainy days or seasons the bag is usually wet inside and therefore the cache container is wet as well. And who really likes peeling a nasty wet, moldy bag off of a geocache? Not me!! The bag gets torn and dirty.. and just generally gross.
Another thing is camouflage. I have lost count of how many camouflaged geocaches I have found that are covered with a plastic bag. What is the use of hiding a camouflaged container and then covering it with a plastic bag? Kind of defeats the purpose.My favorite was a 50cal ammo can painter the same color as the rock it was hidden under. Now Ammo cans are waterproof! That is why the military uses them for ammunition! To paint it to match it's surrounding and then hide it inside a black plastic bag totally confounds me.
If you are using a waterproof container (well as waterproof as you can get here on the wet coast) then why use a bag? The only waterproof bags are generally too expensive to use for this purpose. We see shopping bags, garbage bags, ziploc bags, and my personal favorite...doggie do bags.
Doggie do Bags are manufactured to break down. They are totally useless to protect the geocache. They are definitely something I DON'T want to pick up. People pick up their doggie do and then leave the bag on the trail, in the trees, behind a stump. Oh Yeah!! That's just what I want to open all right.
So please think about what YOU want to find. What YOU want to handle. And leave the plastic bags at home please. Unless of course you are using them to CITO!!
