Monkeybrad

Identical post made purely to up my post count.

A hiking buddy of ours turned us on to making our own jerky a couple of years ago. We have one of the cheaper Nesco models and have been very happy with it. I will echo Mopar's suggestion, the jerky gun makes life much easier. It took us quite a bit of experimenting to get our jerky just right, but now I would not dream of carrying "store-bought" jerky. We have also had great success making our own banana and apple chips to carry on the trail.

Not all things can be known, Some things defy explanation, until the time is ripe. There are many paths to the key, including some which have not yet been unlocked. To quote the bard... "There are many events in the womb of time which will be delivered."

The french press jetboil thing is pretty sweet. I bought one last year and have been very happy with it. One thing that I thought was odd about it is that jetboil usually does a great job of making everything pack together well, but I have not found a good way to store the french press equipment, if I am storing a fuel canister in the cup. I am afraid I am going to lose the "stalk" while unpacking sometime. Makes darn fine coffee though, assuming you start with good coffee.

I sure wish I could find these again. Mine "disappeared" from the back of my truck in the parking lot at GeoWoodstock 5. It is the only negative thing I have ever had happen while hanging out with fellow cachers. Anyway, as upsetting as it was to find it gone, now it looks like it can't be replaced. I would love to get a new one.

When you get your bag, be sure to get some sort of insulating ground cover. I use a thermarest self inflating, but there are several styles that work well. I have found that in many instances in temperate zones, your insulation from the ground choice is at least as important as your sleeping bag choice. I have slept warmly with a good pad and a light bag, and I have frozen in a big expensive bag without a pad.

No problems at all using Firefox on my Mac or Safari on my iPhone. I wonder if the recent spate of complaints has more to do with individual users configurations than an actual hardware/software issue?

Looks like Max beat me to it. I will also add that things work much more smoothly if you will talk to one of the rangers before you plan your cache. They will often suggest places that they think are appropriate or will steer you away from sensitive areas that might be damaged by too much traffic. In my experience, as long as you approach them respectfully and work with them, they are very helpful. Like anything else, having a good attitude is 95% of the work.

What color was the herring?

email sent

Congratulations! I am glad to see you are out and about again.

Just paypalled for one, nice coin.

Here's one that is a true 5/5. The Legend of the Golden Banana It took us over a month to solve the puzzle, which required highly specialized knowledge, to retrieve the first set of coordinates to a multi. The stages of the multi include a scuba stage, a night caching stage and then a devilishly difficult final cache that requires specialized skills and equipment to access and open. Definitely a true 5/5.

Just for the record Fly46 is still an active cacher, although she has become less of a forum poster. I have been lucky enough to know several of the reviewers personally and as such I understand and respect their desire for a least a small amount of anonymity. I don't think most players realize just how much flak some reviewers have to endure and what a large job it is. We sometimes look at them as the people who deny caches, but far from that they are truly the representatives of both the players and of Groundspeak. It is kind of like being in congress (not in the negative way). The volunteer reviewers are chosen to represent Groundspeak and to help administer it's decisions, but at the same time the reviewers also function as the players representative to Groundspeak. I know that I have had a couple of "outside the box" placements in the past that were not addressed well under the guidelines at the time. My local reviewer presented my case "up on the hill" as a representative of the local community. It is a big job, with a lot of responsibility and quite a few headaches, and I fully support their desire to not have a comprehensive list of "people to annoy" out there for the few bad apples who blame the reviewers for following policy.

That looks awesome!

Welcome to the game! The local club for the Knoxville area is the Great Smoky Mountains Geocaching Club, you can visit their website here. I am sure that they will be able to point you in the right direction. You can chat with them on their forums or keep your eyes out for one of their meetings. The GSMGC always puts on great events.

With a downloaded route, I usually try to follow it manually. Bear in mind that the downloaded route may not exactly match the trails you are following, that is normal. Consider the route a general guide rather than a concrete " I must stay on the gps route" plan. Sometimes i will set a waypoint at the farthest point of my route to get a general idea as to how far away the goal is, but it is still a very general idea since the distance is "as the crow flies", rather than "as the trail winds". Of course, this is just the way I do it, your mileage may vary. I hope that helps.

It is funny, when I found out that Max was going back to being Joe, it was almost like having a friend pass away after a long illness. I was happy for Joe that he was finally going to be free to play the game as a private citizen again, but at the same time a selfish part of me was sad that we were losing him as a reviewer. I have traveled around a little bit and found a cache or two and I know several reviewers well and I respect them all for the job they do, but Joe was different. Beyond his obvious passion for the game and his willingness to work tirelessly to expand our playing field by working with parks departments and state and national regulatory agencies to create geocaching policies, Joe understood completely what a responsibility it is to be a volunteer reviewer and he always treated the position with the respect that it deserves. As a representative of Groundspeak and of the members of the geocaching community he always worked to make sure that the guidelines were applied equally to all geocachers, whether he agreed with you or not, you were guaranteed of a fair hearing. He also worked extensively with geocachers to help them create placements that were in compliance with the guidelines, without trying to stifle creativity. He and I butted heads many times in the last five years, but I knew that even if we were on the outs personally, I could count on his sense of responsibility and fairness when it came to reviewing my caches. Another thing that many people in our area may not realize, if you don’t hunt extensively elsewhere, is the amount of time he spent making sure that area cache owners were maintaining their placements. It was not until I began traveling around hunting that I realized just how good we have it here. In some areas you will find several caches that have maintenance issues that have not been addressed in a year or more or caches with multiple no finds and SBA’s that have not been attended to. I remember being shocked the first time I encountered this, because we never had that sort of thing at home. In Tennessee if your cache had five or six no finds you could count on a friendly note from your reviewer asking if everything was OK, and if you did not respond in ninety days or if you had not signed onto the site in a year the cache would be disabled or archived. While it was frustrating to be on the receiving end occasionally, it sure does make a difference as a hunter, and I want to say thank you for working so hard to make geocaching better for the rest of us. Of course, there is no way to replace Joe, his dedication to this sport is legendary. His passion for this game as a player is unrivaled and his enthusiasm is infectious. We can only hope and pray that our next reviewer will try to maintain the same high standards that Joe has set, not only for Geocaching in Tennessee, but for the game worldwide. Joe understood that while it is an honor to be asked to be a reviewer, it is not a feather in your cap to be worn in pride, but rather a mantle of responsibility to be worn with a certain amount of humility. He served us proudly and honorably, and he never forgot that to be worthy of the title meant living up to that responsibility, and he never let us down. JoGPS is without a doubt the true “Father of Geocaching in Tennessee”, and I am saddened that our state has lost Joe as a reviewer, but we have regained a great player and it is with a happy heart that I welcome this legend back into the ranks of the players. There are not enough words to say it properly, so I will say it simply. Thank you for your service, I am honored to call you a friend and having you back is “Too Cool”.

There is not a way to view this on other's caches that I am aware of, but then I am not a techie kind of guy.

Piece of cake. Go to a Members only cache that you own, and just below the cache title, one line below where it says "This is a subscriber only cache", there is a link to "Read the audit log (See who viewed your cache)". It only appears for the owner of the listing. edited to add image

The audit log allows the cache owner to see who has viewed the cache page online and how many times they have viewed it, but is only available on MOC's. I make most of my tougher puzzles MOC's just to be able to view this log, although it is by no means foolproof, it helps you to track who has actually solved the cache and who has had the final coordinates given to them. It does not track people who view the cache page offline obviously, so I usually include some vital piece of information hidden on the page that will not be part of the gpx file, so it is necessary to visit the cache page in order to solve the puzzle. Plus it is neat to be able to look and see who is visiting your cache page often, it helps you keep track of who is actively working on your puzzle.

The money paid by Premium Members goes directly to support the website that makes this game possible. The group who spent over a year creating this cache made it a Members Only to reward those who support the site through their membership. There is the added benefit that it also allows them to view the audit log for the cache. btw, Congratulations to NYPaddleCacher for solving the puzzle portion of the cache, let me know if you get in the area to hunt the final.

I live in Tennessee and have hunted all over the southeast, so I thought my Favorites bookmark list might be helpful for you. There are about 200 on the list from all around the country, but the majority are in the southeast. They are listed with the state name at the beginning of the description to make it a little easier to sort. There are all kinds of caches listed, including some of the Southeast's more extreme caches. Monkeybrad's Favorite Caches and if you head just a short distance north you can check out: The Middle Tennessee Geocacher's Club Greatest Hits I hope these help, and I am looking forward to seeing other folks bookmark lists.

You will have a great area with lots of variety to choose from. I live in Tennessee and have hunted all over the southeast, so I thought my Favorites bookmark list might be helpful for you. There are about 200 on the list from all around the country, but the majority are in the southeast. They are listed with the state name at the beginning of the description to make it a little easier to sort. Monkeybrad's Favorite Caches If you are going to be in Middle Tennessee, I would also suggest: The Middle Tennessee Geocachers Club Greatest Hits I hope that helps a little. Feel free to contact me about any of the caches if you would like a little more info.

I was fond of this one as well. Preferably with a longer front end limit and a sunset a day or two after the event.