Tonka_Boy
-
Posts
68 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Tonka_Boy
-
-
I'm not blasting anyone, but to understand my OP... there's another cache in that same park that consists of a toilet seat attached to the top of a low, hollow tree stump. Open up the toilet seat and the cache container is revealed. Could anyone in their right mind think that this is a real toilet (real coffin) out here in the woods?
Maybe I'm just a little more adventuresome than most, but even if I stumbled across a real coffin (like the one in previous posts) in a county park, I'd look inside before I called the cops. If my inspection revealed a plastic skeleton, I'd call no one.
-
It seems that a couple of muggles accidentally stumbled across a coffin in the woods, and instead of going along with the fun, reported it to the Dakota County Sheriffs Department. Officials immediately went into CYA mode, and hauled the cache out.
Stumbling across a fairly realistic coffin in the woods is dubious "fun" at best. I think "call the cops" would be my first thought as well.
But it's great that the police have a sense of hmour about it. So, any finds logged at the new coords yet?
Calling the cops would be your first thought? Did "look inside" not occur to these people? In no way could anyone mistake the "corpse" as real, and what's inside this ammo can he's holding? A description of the cache, and geocaching in general, was inside the container sitting prominently on the corpse' chest.
"Hmmmm, geocaching. Oh I see, it's a game. I can go online and participate in a worldwide game of hide-and-seek?"
Apparently, Dakota County parks don't have a geocaching policy, and dozens, if not hundreds of geocaches are hidden with the boundaries of their parks. But good news... It looks like the cache owner will get the cache back. I hope so. It was a fabulous series to hunt.
-
It seems that a couple of muggles accidentally stumbled across a coffin in the woods, and instead of going along with the fun, reported it to the Dakota County Sheriffs Department. Officials immediately went into CYA mode, and hauled the cache out.
The idea was to find and collect clues from 12 Halloween themed geocaches, and use those clues to find the bonus cache - a full sized toe-pincher coffin, complete with skeleton and traditional ammo can.
I wrote a post about it on our blog.
Complete with video of our find.
You can read about the building of the cache container.
The cops even wrote an article in their newsletter about it.
Read the posts on the cache webpage - and maybe add a comment of your own.
-
I just got the Sprint Mogul PPC. I've been looking at software for it, and the best I've found is the BackCountry Navigator. The screen shots look great, but I'm not sure if I need to get a GPS program to work along with it. There's a free trial, but I'll probably wait till spring to try it. Geocaching in the cold & snow kinda bites here.
-
The decision to separate "physical" caches from "virtual" caches is the only pragmatic decision to make. If one wants to do "virtuals", look them up on Waymarking.com. What's the problem?
A 'Cache' is a container that has contents. A virtual has no place as a geocache.
-
We have a blog dedicated to geocaching. I follow about 40 geocaching blogs in my reader, and I'm amazed that there are not more. Since we all sign the logs and we all post on the cache web page, I would think that blogging was a natural extension to geocaching.
Seems to be a bunch of active bloggers on Twitter.
Hellolost, try this format in your sig file.
-
I'll second what watchdog2020 said. When your GPSr reads 100 feet to the cache, STOP! In reality, you are closer than 100 feet. You should wait until the distance reading stabilizes before continuing. Usually it will count down to 50 or 60 feet, and the pointer will be pointing right at the cache. Learning this was our ah-ha moment.
On very difficult hides, after you've looked for 20 minutes without finding the cache, repeat the above sequence. But rather than walking to where you think the cache may be, sit down, relax, and observe. There is a clue somewhere. What is it? This is how you develop your Spidey sence.
On a recent geo-hunt, we were ready to give up our search. So I sat down - looking, observing. Then I noticed a roughed up spot on a low tree limb. A shoe print! The cache was in a hole, high up in the tree. We would have never found it.
-
When you create the TB page (by entering the tracking number and all pertinent information) there is a link to "Print Info Sheet". We usually print that and shrink that sheet down to the size we like - by copying & reducing it - then laminate it with photo sheets. You can get the photo sheets at any department store. The we punch a hole in it with a hole punch, and thread the chain through it. You can see an example of it here.
-
Double post. Slow server.
-
All money found in geocaches should immediately be sent to me.
-
Nice video. Should be lots of help to new folks.
-
It may be a bit off topic, but my wife got the Blackberry Curve and downloaded the Trimble app. It has it all, and is every bit as accurate as our old GPSr. Last several trips out, we've left the Garmin at home.
-
That's too funny! And who cares what the number is. Nobody is going to call it anyway
-
We're going at this all wrong. The answer is, we dumb-down the hobby of geocaching so that everyone can enjoy it. High technology is not for everyone. New rules:
Geocaches are not to be hidden. In your urban areas, where internet access is not so accessible, just place the geocache on the street corner.
All geocaches must be the same size - roughly the size of a Kleenex box. Placers of nanos obviously hate . . . well, they hate somebody. Trust me on this.
All geocaches must be painted bright orange. Again, there's a reason. And it has something to do with hate.
All the above will be enforced by passing a new amendment to the US constitution.
-
Keep a couple other factors in mind. Tree cover or nearby hills can affect accuracy. If you are in a forested valley, you might as well sit down and have lunch. It's going to take a while for the GPSr to stop jumping around. What unit you are using is important too. The newer models are much more accurate than an older one.
That being said, the operator has a lot to do with it too. On a good day, a good geocacher, with a good GPSr, could find a dime on a football field.
-
Usually, to find a hidden geocache, you would enter the coordinates of the cache itself. Then let the GPSr guide you to it. The coordinates that you entered is an open field just north of a mobile home park - outside of Fulton, NY. There's no geocache there. But those coordinates are .4 miles north of the Birds of a Feather geocache.
If you are looking for that geocache, try entering N 43° 19.900 W 076° 23.285 into the GPSr, and follow the arrow to find the cache.
Hope that helps.
-
There's a couple of threads on this forum about meeting muggles, but it's always fun to talk about new experiences. My never-fail, muggle proofer is to carry a small plastic garbage bag. As I search for the cache, I do a little CITO. In very clean parks, I some times have to pre-load the bag with a little trash.
To muggles, it looks like I'm just picking up trash. They never ask.
-
There's been a lot of interest in this new form of micro-blogging. One of the fascinating features is the ability to post photos from a cell phone. To geocachers, this is a really cool idea.
As for spam, I only get updates from members of my choosing. It's a great way to keep in touch with other geocachers.
I posted a short tutorial about Twitter on our blog. If interested in Twitter, there's a good start.
-
I placed a new travel bug in a cache two weeks ago, and when a cacher picked it up, they entered a date prior to the date that I dropped it. Now the miles traveled is twice what it should be.
Is there any way that I can edit that post and get the correct date in there?
No big deal, but it's in a race with seven other TBs, and I just jumped into a big lead. I like winning, but it should be fair. Here's the TB URL.
-
I don't know how your GPSr works, but I'll bet if you are following it to "zero" feet away, you've probably walked past the cache. If you are under tree cover or around hills, you've probably walked way past the cache.
I always stop when my GPSr says that I am 60 feet away. Without turning right or left, I watch the number of feet count down on the display, and the arrow adjust. Nine times out of ten, after a minute or two, the arrow is pointing directly at the hiding spot and displaying the number of feet away.
Pretty doggone accurate for me.
Your family will get used to working as a team. As you watch the GPSr, they anticipate the point. And when you point to the spot, they'll be on it like a dog on a bone.
-
Wow. Not too many like that in the upper midwest! Might just have to run down from the Twin Cities before winter to get that one.
-
As an active member of the geo-blogger community, I am constantly on the search for new blogs and blog-posts on the internet that pertain to geocaching. For me, reading about peoples’ outdoor adventures is almost as much fun as being there. But sometimes, geocaching blogs are hard to find. If you currently have a blog about geocaching, please put the word “geocache” or “geocaching” in the title of your posts. It makes you much easier to find.
For example, rather than a title like, “Family Fun in the Park Today” try, “Family Geocaching in the Park Today.” That way, a simple Google blog search for “geocaching”, displays your post.
If you don’t currently have a Geocaching blog, I encourage you to start one. I find that it’s a great way to discover new friends and read about others’ geocaching adventures. It allows people from all over the world to read about your exploits in geocaching. For example one of my posts about The Ultimate Skirt Lifter was featured on ottawageocaching.com. Now people all over the world are reading that post. Pretty cool!
It’s incredibly easy to start a blog. I would recommend Blogger.com for the beginner. It’s free. There’s no spam, popups, or banner adds. In 10 minutes, you can be on the blogosphere, posting your stories for all to read.
Now get out there and blog.
-
I live by Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota.
-
My sister-in-law, with whom we have been caching quite often - and has her own profile on GC.com - always has referred to it as geocatching. And she is well into her . . . um . . . 30s! Can't get her to change. It's kind of cute.
The Best Geocache in Minnesota - Confiscated by the Cops
in General geocaching topics
Posted
Just to let you know, Bart (the coffin builder) inspired me to place a Halloween themed cache out on the Luce Line Trail, west of the Twin Cities. It's a styrofoam skull with a fake meat cleaver buried in its forehead. Lots of fake blood! It is cleverly named, Splitting hairs.
I didn't place a geocaching sticker on its forehead, so I hope no one calls the cops and reports a human skull hidden in the woods.