Tonka_Boy

We've had both good and bad luck with our TBs. Our Christmas Golfer never made it to the 2nd cache. Stolen out of the first one we put it in. I even drilled a hole through its belly to make it less desirable. Making a TB "less collectible" will increase its lifespan. For example, a golf ball with a hole drilled through and the tag attached will probably fare pretty well. But our Christmas Golfer was just too cute. I'm hoping that it went to some snot-nosed child of an over-indulgent parent, that whined until the TB was pinched to shut him up. Or perhaps some newbe that didn't know the concept of a TB. I don't want think that there are dishonest people out there that just steal things because it's cute. Personally, I would feel horrible if I were the cause of someone's TB disapearing.

Whether by chance or bad luck, you've chosen caches that offer the most challenges. Micros and bridges. Both can be very very difficult. Try this one. It's a full size ammo can, the page has lots of pictures and descriptions. Looks like a great find for an experienced cacher as well as a newbe.

Although it has been stated that you should not use food containers for a geocache (critters may nibble on them) I think that used, plastic peanut butter jars make great containers. They come in several different sizes, are water proof, and as a cub scout pack, you should be able to come up with a bunch of them in a short time. Another idea is plastic coffee cans. The lids snap on rather than screwing, but they works nicely.

Just like above, try the easy ones first. Read the descriptions and the logs - you'll be fine. We use a Garmin 12map, (old) and have posted very few DNFs due to the GPSr. In fact, without tree cover, it puts us right on GZ!

Hey cool article. My wife and I were interviewed for a geocaching article in the May issue of Lakeland Boating Magazine. http://www.lakelandboating.com/geocaching/geocaching.pdf]The online version and be found here[/url].

Great article. I wrote something similar on our blog. If a person were to hunt only large caches, finding them without a GPSr would be pretty easy. Some pre-planning, a compass and a map should get a person pretty close. And with a few hints from the logs, it should be a snap. We are going to try it this afternoon. But I'm still going to bring the GPSr... just in case.

We geocache in Minnesota, so I had the sames question - How could anyone get that many finds in a single day? But as Kit Fox pints out, geocaching in southern California is a totally different game than here in Minnesota. I've placed several caches out on a biking trail near us, and from the moon they look really close together. In reality, it's a 4-mile round trip to find five geocaches! But it's not about the numbers.

Google Earth works pretty well. Click on "Add a Placemark". You can drag it around the map and get coords, or create the placemark and type in the coords that you are looking for.

I like Blogger. Having a site like Groundspeak host the blogs would be too limiting - maybe too political too... Blogger is free, way easy to set up and use, and no flashing adds (unless you place them yourself). There are quite a few geocachers that already have blogs on several different sites. You can click on my signature line to see a good example of a geocaching blog. With links to many others.

You don't want to do any geocaching in Minnesota today. It's snowing! Can you imagine what falling snow would do to satellite signals? Now that would be some challenging geocaching!

Be patient with the device and your skills as a finder. After a while, you will develop a fifth sense (spidey sense) that will be of equal value to your GPSr. It's true, once you get close to the cache, the pointer will appear to go crazy, and you start the drunken bee dance - walking around in circles. At that point some people put the device in their pocket and start looking for the hiding spot. Personally, I then switch to the Lat/Lon readings and try to get pinpoint accuracy. (I'm not suggesting that anyone SHOULD do it MY way.) Sometimes that puts me right on the spot, but more likely because of tree cover or hillsides, pinpoint accuracy is difficult. And buy that time, my wife already has found the cache.

Geocaches, like the people that hide and find them, come in all sizes & shapes, degrees of difficulty and cleverness. Some people like the quick grabs for the numbers, others wouldn't dream of doing a parking lot, skirt lifter. And it's all good. It's a fun game where you can decide which caches you want to find. If the description doesn't turn you on, pass it by. There's lots more out there.

Best geocaching blog in the universe! The Northwoods Geocats

Welcome to the game, and congratulations on the finds. It only gets more and more fun.

We've done several geocaches that were accessible only by water craft - some here in Minnesota, a few over in Wisconsin while on vacation. Let me say that they are water craft accessible in the summer. Reading the cache logs reaveals that some folks walk across the ice to score the finds in the winter. There's not going to be a list of geocaches accessible only by watercraft. Part of the fun of geocaching is not having a list. You'll just have to do a zip code search of the area and find the geocaches, just as if they were on land. And where there are no geocaches on the water, you can hide some.

Following the advice above, using a combination of Geocaching.com and Virtual Earth http://maps.live.com/ you should be able to get yourself within 30 feet of any cache. From there, just look around.

Put cash in it. Then email me the coords before you publish so I can check to see if you did it right.

It only gets better with time... And remember, it's not about the numbers??? Welcome aboard!

I hope I don't get Markwelled on this one. . . Wouldn't it be a great idea to place a micro on a loved one's headstone, or maybe nearby? A description of the deceased life and times could be published on the cache page, and everyone that found the cache would be asked to participate in a moment of silence to think about the one who passed. I'd be thrilled if someone did that for me.

We have a pretty old GPSr, but we still manage to find geocaches. One thing I've learned is to stop walking when I get to 100 feet from the cache, and let the GPSr "catch up". Depending on your device, and coverage at that time, you may be walking faster than it indicates. By the time you get to zero feet away, you've walked right past the cache, and then you start the Drunken Bee Dance - following the arrow in circles. Total frustration! When you stop 100 feet away, don't turn left or right. Just stand still and observe the readings to see when they quit changing. When they do, the arrow should be pointing in the right direction and very nearly at the hiding location. Go to a likely spot, set the device down, (unless you are in a very urban setting), and look for the cache. If you fail to find it, go back to the device and slowly move in the direction of the cache using the Lat/Lon readings. Not the arrow! At this point, you are too close for the arrow to work. Keep in mind, that when the hider of the cache took the original readings, they weren't walking around in circles. They were sitting or standing still for several minutes observing the Lat/Lon readings, not the arrow. Find their cache in the same manner. My experience with this method, puts me right on top of most any cache. Hope that helps.

I like snakes... Tastes like chicken!

Here's my contribution. This is the under-side of a rubber spider from the dollar store. I epoxied the cache container inside the body. Here's a shot of it out in the woods, in it's little hidey hole. I covered it with a flat piece of bark. Almost mean! And by the way, the cache is named Sugar and Spice!

What you are suggesting is totally acceptable. In fact, I know a geocacher that carries his own trackable and logs it in(and out) of every cache he finds. It's all just for fun. If you are going to bounce it in a bunch of caches in one day, though, I'd send the owner a message explaining what you are doing. Remember, for every cache you log, the owner will get two emails. If you log 50 caches in one day, that's a lot of emails for the owner to wade through.

While I don't consider myself a "pro", I like the KISS method of life. The Missus likes a bit more tech in her world, so she uses GSAK & carries a Palm, while I carry the GPSr. (We always cache together.) I jot the lat/lon on a piece of scrap paper in case I need it. That's a lot easier than repeatedly asking her for the readings. Right now, we select our caches according to the winter friendly attribute, but in the summer, we choose geocaching sites that will take us to places we've never been before. That way, we not only score finds, but we get to enjoy the journey.

Here's a couple of hints. Some mentioned above. When you are looking at the cache page on geocaching.com, study the information carefully - the size, difficulty, description, past logs. When you are new, choose large containers - easy finds. Jot down any hints you may find on that page. When geocaching in the snow, only choose caches that have the "snowflake" attribute. If it doesn't have the winter friendly attribute, it's buried under the snow - don't bother looking for it. When you are out in the field, and getting close to ground zero (GZ) SLOW DOWN, even stop. A good geocacher will use their Spidy sense as much as the GPSr. You can't do that while zipping right past the cache. When I was new, I walked right past many caches, then I was walking circles trying to find the right place. A time will come when you will recognize the hiders M.O. And you'll spot the hide before the GPSr says that you are close. It may be frustrating at first. But the obsession is worth it!