Zepp914

I tried for a FTF on Saturday, but 6 people found it before me as a group and are all co-FTFs. On their stat pages, they all count the find in their FTF list. Maybe they should count it as 1/6th FTF each. If not, I need to get on their contact list. Maybe we can get all 100+ cachers in the area to show up to each new cache at an agreed time and all get a co-FTF. Our stats would be awesome. The problem there is the rock-paper-scissor contest for the free travel bug would take a hour or so.

That is a really good idea. I never even thought about it.

I won't even try for a FTF on a cache where the cache owner and I go caching together. This will become more of an issue as I make friends when attending more events. A recent cache in my area was FTF by someone who helped place the cache. The cacher didn't take the FTF prize, but was first to log. I am more interested in the prize than being first to sign a piece a paper, but I am sure it irritated some of the other folks in the area.

What about a micro with a full log? If you can't cram any paper in there, why not replace the log and then mail the old log to the CO if he/she wants it? Worst case scenario, I am out 49 cents.

You are totally correct though. In the big scheme of things it really doesn't matter. I see a lot of posts from people saying they are avenging a DNF as if tupperware laying in the woods has murdered their entire family.

Whenever I replace a log, I email the CO and hold onto it until he/she says I can throw it away. So far not a single one of them has wanted the log or even a picture of the log. When I started geocaching, I incorrectly assumed that CO's compared their paper logs and their online logs.

In my count it shows EVERY DNF I made... multiples and even caches I found later! For me is my DNF count, not the number of caches I DNFed nor the caches I visited and still didn´t find. I got into this discussion with another cacher a few days ago. He agrees with you that the DNF count is the number of DNF logs a cacher has. This is also the easiest thing to count. I was only counting 1 DNF per cache that I still haven't found. I don't feel like a missing cache that I found later after the CO replaced it should count against me, but I just want to go with whatever everyone else is doing. So is everyone ok going with the DNF pride count = the total of DNF logs created by the user?

The free app lets the user find traditional caches only. Those are the users who dabble in the hobby and may not really care about the work you put into your cache. If someone is willing to spend $30 the thinking is they too have something invested and will hopefully treat your cache with at least some respect. Since they can't see puzzles, multi, or letterbox caches, you really don't need to make those premium. If you put a lot of effort into a traditional, it may be worthwhile to make it a PMO. It really depends on your goal. If you want to maximize finds, then making your cache premium is going to work against you. I have 1 PMO traditional and my wife has 3 non-PMO traditional caches within 2 miles of each other. She easily gets 3X the finds on each of her caches. I have had to preform no maintenance on mine. She is constantly replacing swag in her caches and numerous times has found them left open. On one occasion we found fireworks in one of her containers...

I would start with the easy puzzles first. Crossword puzzles, sudoku, and trivia puzzles are pretty straight forward. If the CO is nice, he/she will use a geochecker so that you can check your coordinates before you go hunting. A lot of the other puzzles are ciphers and after awhile you will get good at recognizing which decryption method to use where. In my area playfair is King. Even when I can solve them, I don't really enjoy cipher puzzles though.

"Ok, I can understand he's upset. But, really, to imply that it is mandatory for me to move a trackable just because it's there? I'm not responsible for that. That aspect is voluntary. He's lucky I logged it and didn't let it languish totally not found into the trackable abyss as so many end up." If moving trackables was obligatory, I'd stop geocaching immediately. That really sucks. That hasn't happened to me, but I have been threatened once by a TB owner. I retrieved an army man TB from a cache and said so in my log. A week later the owner of a different army man TB contacted me because his TB was still listed in the cache saying that I don't know how to properly log TBs and if I didn't release his TB soon he'd report me to Groundspeak. After back and forth I figured out that a previous logger who posted "Swapped TBs" had swapped one army man TB for another. So I contacted the "swapped TBs" guy, he was nice and he properly retrieved the TB and a day or so later he quickly dropped it somewhere else. Never got an apology from the angry TB owner...

You got it. I should have mentioned in my previous post that I do not recommend copy/paste posting. I never log that way. For those that do it, I was simply pointing out that some copy/paste posts can do more harm than intended.

The good way to do copy and paste logs: One of the top 10 geocachers lives in a neighboring state. He is systematically getting all of the caches in Maryland. He copies and pastes 2 or 3 sentence logs and who can blame him with 60,000+ finds. The good news is that if he deviates from the copy/paste it is because he must have really liked your cache or found a problem with it. The not so good way: When I was in South Carolina, this guy came through and put out copy/paste logs where he said, "Most of the caches we found were in good condition and we only had to replace a few logs". His post did more harm then good because now the CO's must be wondering if it was their caches that needed logs or were the ones that weren't in good condition. That guy should just put "TFTC" and be done with it.

Thanks Dprovan! That makes some sense. From now on, whenever I encounter a TB in a cache that is NOT listed as being in that cache, I will Discover it and list the cache's GC# in my log for the TB. I will log that I found a TB in my log for the cache itself and leave the TB there. It seems like that is the only way to keep everyone happy.

Hi, my name is Mike. I created my own geocaching account in July, but I had tried it a couple of times with my significant other before that. There have been times where I have been SOOO ANGRY because I couldn't find a plastic container in the woods. *Drops mic and runs away crying*

No worries I would have sent an email too if the TB was still "in the hands of the owner". This TB was listed in a cache in Boston. Basically someone moved the TB from Boston to WV and didn't log a retrieve or a drop. I grabbed it and visited it where I found it. Irisisleuk and you think I should have given the person who did this more time and you may be right. One thing I am not sure of is how this negatively affects the person who moved the TB. If they have the TB's code, they can see that it has already been grabbed AND they can Discover it. The TB got the mileage, they get the TB's icon on their profile, and their discovery log can claim credit for the move, so I don't see the problem.

I think you read the log of a different cache. I found the TB in Harper's Ferry "A House on a hill Top"(GC1H9T3) and I grabbed and visited the TB there so it got the mileage. The previous finders (hugsters) logged a find of GC1H9T3 the same day we were there. I never check for anyone other than the last finder and that is mainly so I can be sure I am signing the right place. I'll have to make a better effort reading the paper logs. I'll start waiting 7 days to log trackables, but to me that is an eternity in this day and age. Meanwhile there may be people going to the cache in Boston looking for this TB and the latest log mentioning it was dropped there.

How many days should I wait? The cache the TB was last seen in was last logged on 11/11/2014. I figured if they haven't retrieved it in 5 days, they aren't going to drop it anytime soon. Bug = TB4XKWP

I only retrieve a TB if one of the following is true: 1) I can help it on its mission. This could be moving it closer to an airport or moving it a few miles closer to its destination. 2) The TB isn't listed in the cache. Yesterday I found a TB in West Virginia that was last logged in Massachusetts. I retrieved it, then I visited it to the cache I found it in. Unfortunately, I am not going where it wants to go. I will put it in another cache soon which will constitute backtracking, but at least the owner knows where it is.

I prefer Mystery caches as I enjoy solving puzzles. I have a 5 year old and swag is everything to him, so he prefers regular and large sized Traditional caches. We do multis if they have virtual stages only. I have never successfully found a multi that had physical stages as there seems to be one stage that is always missing. After I am done with my current streak, I will only bother with micro/nano caches if it has a lot of favorite points or if it is a mystery cache with a really neat puzzle. I have no interest in Wherigo. I'll probably find one just to get the icon.

The difference between True North and Magnetic North for projections. I still don't know how to do projections with the regular app. I have to use something else. Converting coordinates to and from different formats. I also wish I paid more attention to events. At first I didn't want to meet a bunch of strange people in a restaurant, but I am glad I did. This! Almost every time I leave a trail, I end up paying for it.

I wonder if the CO or the muggle have to pay a fine/fee for all the commotion this has caused.

That is cool and all, but the vast majority of the miles came from the same flight attendant who has held onto your TB for 2 years! I'd be kinda irritated if someone held onto my TB for that long. Then again, you are never going to get that kind of distance if 100+ cachers retrieved and dropped it.

The dumbest cache I ever found was a LPC that had no skirt. The log was in a bag under a rock that was sitting where the skirt should be. It was soaked and apparently it gets soaked every single time it rains. The most disappointing cache was a regular sized Letterbox. The oldest logs talk about how great the stamp was. The most recent logs were from those 10,000 find copy/paste people who tell you nothing about the cache in question, but go into great detail about how great their trip has been caching with cousin Randy. I wish those people would just copy and paste "TFTC". Anyway, I get my significant other psyched up because we don't have any letterboxes where we live and how this will be a new cool thing. The cache was just a film canister with a log in it. On one of the maintenance logs, the CO who inherited the cache mentioned that he had to replace the container, but said nothing about the missing stamp... I have never seen a really negative post about a cache, so my "found it" logs for both were very polite.

I have a 5 year old boy I take with me hiking. He is not interested in signing his name on paper. He wants to find plastic treasure in the woods. I use pocket queries and only look for caches that are regular or large sized. Most of the gap fillers are smalls, micros, or "size not chosen" so I don't even see them. I will never understand why someone would want to find a tiny pill bottle in a forest or drive through a desert finding 1 thousand of them. But what do I know? They never show up for me. The $30 premium fee was worth it for pocket queries alone. I'm sure we will miss out on some great areas highlited by smalls and micros, but we will also miss out on a lot of nothing. That being said, I am guilty of checking for caches of any size if I go somewhere new. I'll spend 2 minutes signing a LPC if I happened to be there anyway.