harbhippo

I can't log in to the website if I'm using a VPN. IT kept refusing my password, and I wasted most of this afternoon trying to figure out why. I also couldn't send the help email, because it requires that you check the "I'm not a robot" capcha, which won't even display if I'm on a VPN. I'm posting this in case somebody else has a similar experience, but it seems to me that the website ought to at least add a line to the effect that you need to turn off the VPN if you can't get in, somewhere on the same page where it reports your password is incorrect (which of course it isn't). Ideally, it shouldn't refuse your password just because you're using a Virtual Private Network.

I've never understood why Geocaching.com doesn't add a field for the county name, given that so many of us collect counties as part of the game. None of the maps show county lines, and it sometimes gets tricky guessing where the county line is in relation to the cache location.

Remember that it's a cop's JOB to investigate suspicious activity, and stealthy geocaching can look pretty suspicious, especially at night or near an international border. When stopped, smile and explain the game. Show him your GPSer, or offer to launch the app on your phone. I usually have a printed chart of my stats in the car, but that's not the first thing I would show them. Once you have their interest, then you can proudly explain your counties and states and D/T chart. When a cop checks you out while caching, it's an opportunity to educate him about the game, which is a Good Thing™. In any case, this isn't the best time to make an issue of your Constitutional rights - save that for when you haven't been seen poking around in electrical boxes and bushes.

One time Mrs Hippo and I were on a drive and had loaded a route query into the GPSer, but somehow we had gotten way way off track, and were on a parallel highway, just out of range of the PQ. We stopped at a historical marker, as we often do when traveling, and we thought there ought to be a cache here. We glanced at the nearby fence and saw a container hanging on it. Signed the log, recorded the coordinates, and logged it online later.

This is good to know. I've been recalibrating my Oregon 450 with every battery change. I always use the same kind of batteries. For some reason, that last calibration step fails about half the time. I'd love to be able to skip it.

I think this is a problem with Kompozer, which I use to maintain my personal website. I like to have my geocaching stats banner on my site, but lately a problem has come up with it: it has my find stats from the time when I generated the code, but it no longer updates. When I plug the generated code into the html, it looks like this: <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=6396c2d3-f98b-4390-bebe-03f24b2feb56" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.geocaching.com/stats/img.aspx?txt=Cache+with+your+hippo+today!&uid=6396c2d3-f98b-4390-bebe-03f24b2feb56&bg=1" alt="Profile for harbhippo" /></a> But as soon as I publish, it changes the code to this: <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=6396c2d3-f98b-4390-bebe-03f24b2feb56" target="_blank"><img src="img.aspx" alt="Profile for harbhippo"></a> I'm sure this is supposed to be some feature, but it started doing this without me updating Kompozer or making any changes in the software. If there's anybody out there who uses Kompozer who understands what I need to turn off within the software, I could use a tip.

Carry a clipboard with a pen. You need the pen anyway.

Also, remember that the accuracy reported by your phone is seldom realistic. I don't know how an iPhone estimates its accuracy, but it may say 400 ft and actually take you within ten.

If you get the email for Groundspeak, there is a list of events coming up soon. Scan down the list, and see if there are any close enough that you'd like to go. Most often it will be at a restaurant where you can meet other cachers while feeding your face, but sometimes it's an event where they try to educate the public that we're not really planting bombs, or sometimes to pick up litter.

I drive a Prius. So gas prices don't slow down my caching. Even without the excellent mileage I enjoy, I would still enjoy caching.

Oooooh. hadn't even thought of that.

There is more than enough built in memory in the 450 to store all the caches it can handle anyway. You can store a huge number of gpx files (200 or so?), but 5,000 caches is the limit before you start experiencing invisible caches. I recommend that you use the memory chips for maps ONLY, so that if that chip comes loose, you aren't completely foiled. Store the gpx files in the gpx folder of the unit itself, keep it under 5,000 caches, and you shouldn't have any problems.

Best stealth tool is a group of kids. Nobody thinks anything of a bunch of kids fooling around with a lamppost skirt, or digging around in a tree stump. A clipboard would be the next best prop. It allows you to carry a pen, and allows you to examine anything you want to and still look like you belong. If you can't afford to rent a group of little kids or a clipboard, you can explain that you're a botanist, and you finally found this rare cacherium geos - see? You can tell by the serrated edges and the striated veins. I actually did that once, and it worked, except that the cache was gone, because it had been placed next to a soccer practice field. Seriously, when I see the words "stealth required," I don't even bother selecting it in my GPSer unless I need it for a new county. I'd rather look for a nano in a pile of rocks. There's enough of a muggle factor already without placing a cache where you know people are going to always be.

Is there a group of organized cachers in your area? Sometimes you can meet other cachers at regular events, probably at a cheap restaurant in your city. Caching with experienced folks can be more fun than caching alone, and you can't help but learn better ways to find your caches by watching what they do.

When I use my actual GPSer, I use the comment field to remind myself of anything I want to mention when I upload the field note. Nobody sees it until I have replaced the little memo with something more complete. When I whip out my iPhone for a quick find, however, I will often use a simple TFTC after a very short remark as a temporary comment, and then when I get to my computer, I edit the note with something more complete. I hope I haven't offended anyone who may have seen such a log in the day or two it takes to get home, but I hate typing long notes on an iPhone. Why is it so easy to offend people with something that matters so little?

Lots of factors to consider before I decide whether to give it a try, but often I have gone a little farther out of my way for a cache with a single DNF. I'm not sure why, really, but I guess it's because I think maybe I can find it when the other guy couldn't. It might also be the feeling of saving its little geolife. I actually tried this again today, on a cache while traveling outside my state. No, I didn't find it. But you never know.

another reason to log a DNF: When I have spare time, I like to scroll back through my logs and see what became of the DNF's. Often, my DNF was followed by a few more, and then by the CO either replacing the container or archiving the cache. I feel so validated. When my DNF was followed instead by a string of smileys, I know I need to try a little harder next time.

I can't pass this up. Username: harbhippo Colors: green and white Items: a hippopotamus, maybe an old fashioned moustache Other: used to be a caver, do a lot of theatre

I understand why the county lines can't be overlaid easily, but could the county name be included in the cache pages, along with container size and so forth? Not a map of the county, you understand, just the county name along with the state.

We have this little brown hippo who goes with us as we travel, named harb hippo. So we named team Hippo after him. He's pretty handy for sending into the tight places to get a cache.

My wife and I LOVE cemetery caches. As we drive through an area on a trip, I will scroll down the caches stored in my Garmin and look for Spirit Quest caches or anything with the word "cemetery." I do agree that we should never be encouraged to tamper with anything near or on a headstone, but I see no problem in hiding a cache in a nearby tree. Many times the CO has asked us to stop by and say Hi to a relative buried near the GZ. I always do so.

Use an appropriate container in an appropriate location, make sure it won't leak, and your cache will be appreciated. My #1 pet peeve is a cache hidden in a high traffic area with no redeeming value for its location. I don't mind LPC's, but can't they be placed in a part of the parking lot that's the most quiet? I think location is the first thing to consider when placing a cache. Don't put them where they're likely to be muggled. Don't put them in unpleasant areas (dumpsters, stagnant ponds, homeless hangouts), and if you're going to place one in the woods, off the trail... don't place a micro.

I wouldn't mind a decoy that plainly states it's not the cache. What chaps my hide is finding a container at exactly the coordinates, opening it to find a log with a number of signatures, no clear hint that it isn't the real cache - and then having the log deleted after I'm home, 400 miles away, and getting an email inviting me to come back and try again. Maybe people who plant decoys could include something in the hint that there might be a decoy involved? Ya think? So we could keep looking while we're in the same state?? You people that like decoys go ahead and enjoy them. But my experience with GC1TEE2 has pretty much soured me on the concept. At the very least, you should visit your cache once in a while and remove any logs that have appeared.

In which case, you can go grab the cache.

Caves are usually protected by state or federal law, and rightly so. They serve as bat hibernacula or as nurseries, and these days White Nose Syndrome is a serious issue with wild caves, especially in the northeastern USA. Placing a geocache inside a cave would not be something to be done lightly. That said, there are caches near caves - sometimes right outside the entrance. Robber Baron comes to mind. I, too, would love to crawl into a cave looking for a cache, but I think it would be best if that didn't happen.