roy&roz

If you are near a local Boys & Girls Club why not volunteer there and teach geocaching and what it has to offer society and the environment.

I may look into attending the GSAK class being offered nearby. Trust me, this "system" takes a little more time but saves me in printing cost...LOL. 20 searches on one page versus 4-5 pages for each cache. On your PQ downloading...when you say you can get 500 in a matter of minutes....are they specific cache searches or a group of 500 published together. What I'm asking, are they 500 you chose or are they 500 geocaching.com chose?

I make the spreadsheet then find the cache's I want to hunt and cut & paste the info into the spreadsheet. I can do 20 in under an hour.

I've started using MS Excel or MS Spreadsheet. I can get 20 give or take a few on each spreadsheet. I am limited to description length but I've been using this system now for a week and I like it. A lot less paper than the old print out everything on it. Typical spreadsheet has cache name, lat/long/size, descrip/hint/location/date last found. Does anyone else have a system for recording cache searches?

I never meant this to be a travel bug discussion. We new from the description we were looking for a minature ammo can. Part of our team searched 4 times with that knowledge. Not posting a DNF. The hider would give hints ONLY to those posting DNF's and ASKING for the hint. Once we were able to search as a whole team and still not find it, I posted the DNF and asked for the hint. The hint didn't give us anymore to go on than what we already knew. Then, we see a few people found it and dropped TB's. So I'm thinking I'm not as smart as I thought I was. When I looked at the TB's page there was no way it would fit into the tiny ammo can. So we go out looking again. This time searching for a larger container, armed with the hint and the phone number of the hider. After searching all four corners of a very busy intersection, down on hands and knees under lightpoles, I call him. He confirms we are searching for a minature ammo can. He wants to meet us. I'm not sure this is a good thing because part of the team has spent more than a few nights and a day searching for this elusive hide. But we agree to meet him once we find this one. There it is. Right where we had looked, even cleaned debris out from under the pole, it was placed up in the cavity of the pole right next to lines supply power to the electronics mounted on the pole. We drive to our next cache and he shows up, introduces himself and that's when he tells me, he thought it would be funny to get together with a few friends and post that TB's were dropped to try and fool those knowing it was a minature ammo can. What made me more upset is how he readily wanted to give us hints on other caches he had found that other people owned. We declined any hints what-so-ever and made our way on to another cache in the area. Lord knows I'm all about some humor, if you only knew. We love having fun. This was nothing but deception. Yes, I will no longer go for any more hides from this person. Luckily in the same town we found some wonderful hides with no clues in an urban setting. Rocks, tree bark, fake recepticals...all from descriptions, clever naming, and very few clues.

Is it proper to purposely deceive geocachers with false post? Mainly posting the dropping of TB's in a posted cache and they were never dropped in the cache because the cache is soooo small it wouldn't even hold the TB tag. Was told by the hider this was done on purpose as a joke, kind of a way to screw with people's heads. Is this considered acceptable practice?

I'm sure this has been asked before. I'm new and to lazy to search archives. While out searching you come upon other geocachers looking for the same cache. Is it a pirates world. Do you have an obligation to let them go first? If it's a FTF and they were already on site, what do you do? Is it ethical to "stand down" or is it first to find first to sign?

Lowarance iFinder GO & GOII

I placed my first cache just a few weeks ago. An ammo can, the cache was in honor of my father. I filled it with fishing gear a TB and a coffee cup. One TB was picked up and a few people had traded coins. I hid another micro with the same story line at another location. Today I learned they both had been muggled. I can almost understand someone muggling the ammo can, but the micro? I honestly believe another cacher has taken them for reasons not known yet. but we're workig on it. So early in the game for me to be hit like this. I was planning other caches along this story line but now I'm not so sure. Although it might give us a hint as to why these two were taken.

I figured it was tiny. It has a difficulty of 4 and I think the coords may be off a tad. We'll go back and continue to search.

What is a pico? It's hard to look for something you don't know what it is.

Lowrance iFinder GOII...16 channels, keeps signal in heavy cover, accurate to 15', 48 hour battery life. I've used this unit from the beggining. We geocache regularly with friends that have Garmin and Megellan and just purchased a Bushnell. The Lowrance consistently finds the hide over any of their units. Not bragging, just stating fact.

2002 Chevrolet Avalanche Z71....kids in the back, adults in the front.

I've used a Lowrance iFinder GoII from the beginning. It was $99. I have used this unit while caching with friends that had much more expensive units that could not keep a signal. The Lowrance put us on the cache everytime. I have learned just this week, that geocaching.com ONLY supports GARMIN with downloading waypoints directly to the unit. That was the only reason I was considering a premium membership. Hopefully they will expand that feature to include other makers.

I guess verbalizing my thoughts was a bad bad thing....LOL. Yes, Ligthning was picked up at RBC, then moved to GW5, then picked up and moved to a TB Spa in LA, then picked up from there. I only had concern as a newbiecacher, but have learned lots since posting. Like when to keep your fingers still on the keys...LOL I've only been caching for three weeks now but find it to be lots of fun and has been a great source of exercise which I needed badly. We made a 10 mile hike Saturday after leaving GW5.

Well, to me TB's and GC's are part of the game. I'm not sure of their history but I understand them. If I can help one move along I do. If I can't I leave it. Same with micro's. I've seen some people remark about not ever hunting micro's again. I think they can be a fun part of the game as well. I can assure you I am far from being a "sock" I am real, was only pondering why something was done the way it was. I thank all for the helpful remarks. As for the snide remarks, they roll off me. As for the handling of the bugs at GW5, there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. It seemed to have been working as intended. I was in no way complaining about the handling of tradeables under the tent. I enjoyed our time at the event. Loved the fact of how people were open with one another. One young lady came up and asked me if I could help her with her bingo game piece. It was funny to hear everyone ask, "is that a micro in your pocket."

Hobby?....wait....I thought I read this was a "sport" so I assumed this was banter like ballplayers use. I've since learned that for every bug and coin turned in at GW5 they received a ticket for a drawing, so at least I feel better about that. I hope they won.

Might as well ask and make myself look even dumber.....sock?

I figured it was just a good dose of 'new guy' ignorance and should have been posted in the 'new guy forum' instead of the 'crotchety old guy forum'. Now I feel stupid for not thinking of 'sock'. Hmph. Well, I've been put in my place. Sorry for not knowing how GW5 would work. My thoughts would be the RBC cache would be hit by many, and it was. So my instinct was right in placing it there ahead of the event. I just didn't know it would be mingling with other bugs at the event. I hope it enjoyed it;s fellowship there better than I'm enjoying my welcome here. m

Was able to locate caches Saturday when a Megellan Sport trac and a Garmin Rhino and a Garmin Gecko couldn't keep a signal. Everyone wanted to use my Lowrance iFinder II. $99

I live very near Raleigh NC. I am new to geocaching. When I realized GW5 was being held there, then read about a really big cache hid for that event, I thought, why not place a TB in that big cahce and it can move on much easier with all the cachers coming in for GW5. So a week prior to GW5 we meet up with friends and find RBC. I place my first TB in there and watch it. Wow, it get's picked up before GW5. Then I find out it get's dropped in a massive pile at GW5. What gives? Does this make sense? I can only hope now someone found it at GW5 and will move it on to it's desired mission. Sometimes I wonder.

I'll stop geocaching when I die, then maybe my wife could hide a mico on my casket and give all the coords.

Yep, love the basic Legend. Me, too. If you don't need autorouting, this one is the nicest one I know of for all purpose use. I still think it's the best bang for the buck. Even though we upgraded, we kept our 2 Legends so we'd have easy to use units we could lend to new folks we take caching with us. We bought the Lowrance Go II....$99 @ Overtons, Lowrance also has the Go I, I think, for $69. Works wonderful and looks like a cell phone for those mugglers. I just received a Cobra GPS100 from an ebay source but I do not like this unit. I will relist it and try to find a cheaper Megellan unit.

Thanks, wsgaskins. I knew I could count on you! Great "Best Of" list! I hope some other cachers get some use out of it too. Still looking for some social dinner meetings. Hope someone (or several someones) is (are) free sometime Wednesday, Thursday or maybe even Sunday evening. I expect that I will be a bit busy Friday and Saturday nights. CF30 Just started caching but I live about 45 miles east of Raleigh. Not sure if your driving or flying. I have seen lots of cache locations in the Raleigh area. For eats....someone mentioned Eastern NC BBQ, then Wilson is hwere you want to be. Parkers BBQ on Hwy 301 even has a cache. Plus there are 4 within 1 mole of there. If you can't make Wilson for que try White Swan in Smithfield, where there are plenty more caches to be found. If you desire to wet your feet NC beaches are beuatiful. Raleigh is anywhere from 2.5 hrs from the southern beaches or 3.5 from the central and northern beaches. The northern or OBX beaches are loaded with caches full of swag along some great history. Hope this helps.

Is there any way to look up caches located in or near state parks? Specifically NC state parks.