RPW

Joypa set up two new caches. We had talked about both of them so they weren't much a surprise to me. One is a long needed TB hotel in the Lafayette area while the other was a cache at a at a recently revitalized cemetery. It has a nice back story to it. Naturally Kelly (S Keillan) grabbed FtF rights on the cemetery cache and I wouldn't be surprised if he is out this morning grabbing FtF on the TB hotel as well.

If all you want are physically hard caches then it is easy enough to run a pocket query. Of course this assumes that people are rating thier caches properly. Assuming that then you would want caches either 4 or 4.5 stars for terrain but not neccessarily 5 stars because 5-star is reserved for "special needs" (e.g., a canoe) which you may not have. I also notice that GerbilMafia likes non-micros to hunt. So ...running a pocket query based on this information shows 37 physically-terrain-hard, non-micro, non-small caches in Indiana. Centering the search around GerbilMafia's home town of Peru shows that "Black Puma Gorge" is the nearest to him. Interestingly GM found this and wrote: ".... This one is truely awesome. Watch your step or you may take a long fall. I'm hooked. ..." Now it is time time to find the other 36. Go get 'em tiger! BTW: GM asks for a consensus on the hardest cache(s). I doubt if anyone has done all 37 (altough I wouldn't put it past Deermark and Daggy) and thus it will be difficult to get an consensus. Perhaps GM can do all of them and give us a report? :-)

In the other thread CYBret said I am hardly in the top 10 list of ISQ finders. Actually, since I don't pay much attention to stats I am not sure where I rank. However it seems to me that maintainence on ISQs is no better nor no worse than for other caches. This is especially true since the ISQs are placed by many people some of whom are on the ball and some who are not. Sometimes you'll run into a dud ISQ but most of of them are in good condition. At least the hiders are still active cachers -- something I can't say for the owners of other caches around Indiana. What I really like about the ISQs is the back story attached to them. Even when I am not out for a day of caching -- like when I am on a trip with my wife somewhere -- we will read from our PDA the stories of the ISQs that we are passing but not hunting. Another thing I like about the ISQs is that they are generally (not always) in historic cemeteries. Who wants to be walking around places with the newly buried still getting adjusted to their surroundings? The thing I don't like about the ISQs is this emphasis on scoring. E.g., who has found the most or worse who has found the most in one day. With such a wonderful set of history surrounding each ISQ why not emphaize slowing down and enjoying the area? But then, as I have mentiond, I am not much interested in stats. So, in general, thumbs up on the ISQs. For 1/1 micros (in general) they are overall good ones.

Drop by a CINCO event some time and I'll treat. That's in the Kokomo, Logansport, Lebanon, Lafayette, Monticello area. Right on the edge of the fanatical ISQ region. It isn't too far away from your haunts.

Expect to spend 12 hours on it. It is not an quick cache. But it is very satisfying. It is both urban and non-urban and will take you everywhere in Tippecanoe county. Well, almost everywhere. :-)

Red Dragon. Since you started the posting you can close the thread. It won't be deleted but at least we won't be talking about it. As for answering your questions from your very first post ... hum ... it would have helped if you had bulleted them or somehow offset them so that they would be explicitly clear. If you want people to be clear in responding to you then be clear when writing to them. In reading that first post it seems like you asked two and only two questions. My answer is: As you pointed out cache owners control the logs on their cache pages. This is their right. You also have the right to hunt caches. The cache owner can not stop you. Just don't expect that your logs will be honored or kept. People conducting themselves differently than you occur in all aspects of life -- school, work, church, politics. Geocaching is no different. My answer is: Yes. Also if you don't spend hours on the forums then you also have the ability to mold the sport. You may not be successful at the molding process but certainly you can try. As for your implied non-question: My answer is: No, it is not appropriate. However I see a lot of misinformation (or worse yet, no information) on cache pages and so, personally, I would not sweat the small stuff. A nice note to the cache owner is in order but if the cache owner shrugs you off, then, so what? Having such a statement is much less irritating than misclassifying the difficulilty or terrain stars on a cache or having drastically incorrect co-ordinates. Any time any one goes caching they should be personally comfortable with the safety and appropriateness of the cache no matter what the cache owner says. Indeed there was a lot of interesting conversations sprouted. Obviously not all to your liking but, in my opinion, certainly interesting.

Thanks. I do like leaving trinkets in the caches so that other people can enjoy them. I know that I like taking other people's sig items and then putting them on my "geocaching shelf" -- I remember the caches and cachers better that way. If I was really on the ball I'd make my sig lions trackable. Hope that you'll be back down here sometime (or I up there.) ROAR!

I'm sure that anyone who is anybody already has this down on their calendar ... but a quick reminder that the next CINCO event (this time hosted by The Discovery Duo & Saving Shiloh) is this Saturday, March 4th, in Frankfort. ¡CINCO de Marzo Fiesta! -- GCR0VQ The following Saturday is a IndiGo breakfast and the weekend after that sees the "Replinishing Muncie" event. Lots of things to do!

Yeah, well, what may be a 1-star to you may not be so for the rest of us. However the problem I usually run into is a missing 1-star cache. I'll be looking around for many minutes getting more frustrated and finally break down to decrypt the hint. A useless hint is worse than no hint at all -- is the cache missing? is the hider clueless as to what difficulty levels are? am I completely blind? It would be nice to know without having to ROT-13 in the field. One person I cache with prints out his caches pre-decrypted. Personally I think this takes some of the fun out of the search. But after having to stand around in the rain decrypting a useless hint in the field I can see his point.

Thanks. I owe it all to Paul and Kelly (and their wives Joy and Diane as well as my wife Linda) who manage to actually *find* the caches while I stand around and look at the scenery. 'Tis a fine life when other people do the work for you. :-)

I doubt if there is anyone at the "central DNR" looking over the individual park managers at any given state park. Thus the local people -- those "on the spot" -- have considerable latitude in interpreting the rules -- not only geocaching rules but other ones as well. They don't have to approve caches even though, in theory, we can have geocaches. Likewise they could slip in a couple of extra caches if they feel like it. You will find that the official attitude towards geocaching at the Indiana State Parks varies a lot. Some of the park managers like it a lot (Salamonie Lake where the spring picnic will be held is a good example), some park people detest it and some just put up it as "yet more paperwork to file." The more we show the park managers how nice geocaching can be then the more officials will become friendly towards geocaching. At least that is my hope. They do get together at their meetings and, I suspect, at least unofficially talk about us. Let's hope it is with praise instead of with complaints.

Perhaps I have been asleep on this subject but I just noticed that the DNR allows geocaches at historic sites. Quoting from their September meeting notes: So ... good news there. And maybe, just maybe, if the historical sites can be opened up then perhaps other sites will eventually be opened up as well.

The idea behind your normal CITO container is that you take it and the bag inside with you. You use the bag to pick up trash and then refill the CITO container at home and take the container/bag with you to your next cache to drop off there. So in that aspect it is a 'travel bug' type of item and thus will move from cache to cache. Now the idea of a small not-to-be-moved container within the cache is a good one. I've thought of using a magnetic sticker. Good for those ammo-can type of containers.

Yes. The number of non-active cachers is huge; there are names I no longer see. Likewise the number of abandoned caches is large. People give up for all sorts of reasons. However there are also quite a few people who do continue on for many years. It would be interesting to actually determine how many of the old time cachers are still active. Doing some data culling through pocket queries could accomplish this. Or does someone know of a web site that already has this information?

I'm sitting here with a tear in my eye. Congrats to both of you.

I don't think that WAAS will make much difference here in Indiana, at least for geocaching. A year or so ago I took my two Garmin Legends side by side, one with WAAS on and the other with WAAS off and did not see much of a difference. Of course they keep improving the system. So I should try that experiment again. Garmin's web site says: For some users in the U.S., the position of the satellites over the equator makes it difficult to receive the signals when trees or mountains obstruct the view of the horizon. WAAS signal reception is ideal for open land and marine applications. That last line doesn't make WAAS sound very good for geocaching, does it? On another note, I think I have found a interesting way to make the "stash note" (the bit of paper in every cache that starts off "GEOCACHE SITE - PLEASE READ") waterproof. Up to this time I have been printing it off and then laminating it. That works. But today I had the idea of printing it on transparency paper. Waterproof and a little bit less hassle (if you have a laser printer and the transparency paper, of course.) Finders of my new cache(s) will have to tell me what they think of this idea. Lastly, don't forget the CINCO poker run and the IndiGo Euchure meeting this Saturday. My wife is dragging me off on to a non-geocaching event and so I will probably miss both of them but they should be lots of fun.

Maybe this will be the end of Walmart lamp-post caches? We can only hope! An aside to make this related to Indiana Geocaching -- at the Fall picnic I, in a desperate attempt at numbers, found a Walmart lamp-post cache in Madison. I felt so dirty. Especially since there were other nice caches around.

Wow! Another Indiana event in Jan. What are we going to do for an encore in Feb? There is the NEI-GEO meet'n'greet, of course and CINCO is having an event the first weekend in March but in general it looks like Feb will be its usual long and dreary month. Maybe someone in Indigo-Indy could put on a Feb event? This in an entirely selfish request as it would give me an excuse to go somewhere in the dead of winter and would also allow me to finally attend an IndiGo event.

I am certainly not physically checking my Prophetstown SP caches every month. Every 1/2 year, yes. But since the caches are only good for 1 year this in effect means upon placement, upon removal, and one time in between. Checking up on caches every 6 months is a good idea in any case. I always try to do a spring check up and an fall check up on my caches.

And on Jan 28th, there is the CINCO Poker run & Dinner N 40° 25.777 W 086° 52.357 Waypoint: GCRC46 Lots of activity happening in Indiana during early 2006. Unfortunately I am going to miss the planet Ape run as well as the IndiGo event the following weekend. As for the spring picnic it is being sponsored by Team Shydog this year with a pre-event Friday sponsored by Car54. These will be on the weekend of May 5-7th. Historically the spring picnic is hosted by a northern group while the fall picnic is hosted by a southern group of cachers. Both are "not to be missed" events.

I think we all understand the how of the joining rules. They aren't that complex. Repeating them is not making anything more clear. What is missing is why the rules are the way they are. Perhaps there is no why. I can accept that and perhaps I should without further comment. But if there is a why then I -- and likely others -- would like to know it. Call my curiosity an occupational disease. EdP:, I agree, it is snowing here as well.

Not to flame the fires too much but... Actually it does get easier than the above. You can send an email and join. But only if you live in Indianapolis and south. Like LeadDog I too find the distinction puzzling. If there has to be a distinction then I would expect the reverse to be the better method; i.e. join via email if you are too far away to easily attend IndiGo events while join via attending if you are in the IndiGo area.

I was out hunting a 1/1 in 6" snow and having a devilish time finding it. I finally broke down to read the hint: Of course there is the problem with what is meant by "behind" but, heck, I am willing to look at all sides of a tree just to get "behind" it. The problem with the hint was the use of the words "thin tree" in a an area full of -- you guessed it -- trees. I eventually DNFed. However the worst part is that when the snow melted I went out and found the cache within 30 seconds ... behind a thin tree.

Gee, I guess people really do get use to a method and want to stick with it. Kissing Jeremy's feet seems, well, a bit close to having dinner. I am going to speak out towards wanting alphabetical. Certainly I can live with it either way but having an alphabetical choice again would be nice. Personally I can tell when my caches have been run by looking at the date. It is less easy to for me to mentally do an alphabetical sort.

Indeed! Although if you are not on the correct time you will most likely be an hour early which is not too bad. The most it does is cut into your caching time. At the CINCO event this past weekend we had some people from Illinois. Naturally they were operating on CST instead our EST and forgot that when they "fell back" from CDT to CST we just stayed where we are. Thus they were an hour and 15 minutes late to the event. (An hour for the time change, 15 minutes because they were out caching.) We still had a good time but I wish I had that extra time to chat with them. BTW: Sorry I didn't make it down to IndiGo-Indy. I was hoping to grab a ride with other people after the CINCO event but it turned out that everybody else had other plans. The CINCO event itself was nice. A lot of old and new faces. We followed up the lunch with caching at a local county park.