By Seamoor
In the last two days I’ve done over 70 caches. So many in a row allows you to see patterns much clearer. The rail trail we were on is very flat and if not snow covered would be fairly easy to walk on. You could give it a Grandma Terrain Rating. The trail is not wheelchair accessible so by our estimation no cache should have a terrain rating of one, but some did. This got us thinking, and talking about terrain ratings.
In discussing this with my caching partners we noted that for a number of caches you had to leave the rail trail and either cross a ditch or go up a steep slope. In our estimation the terrain should be rated based on the hardest part of the trip not the easiest. Sure grandma could walk the rail trail but could she go those last 10m to get the cache? In many cases she could not. In those cases the terrain rating does a dis-service to the would be cacher that has mobility issues.
When in doubt rate your cache higher, not lower. Doing that could help avoid the disappointment of being close to a cache but not being able to find it or worse, attempting a cache you should because you are so close.
teamvoyagr
I have been writing the cachemania blog since 2008. I'm interested in the development of geocaching and the many ways that people play the game.
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1 Comment until now
Have a look at the description for a Terrain 1. It says nothing about wheelchair accessible, but instead says handicap. Not everyone that is handicapped is automatically confined to a wheelchair. I know many handicapped people, but none of them use a wheelchair. If you want to designate a cache as wheelchair accessible, there is an attribute for that.
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