bumblingbs

Shunra gave me a TB that had once held cremated remains, and he picked it up at Mt. St. Helens. It was an interesting idea, the family was sending bits of him to all the places he had wanted to visit, but I was really pretty glad it was empty when I got it. Sometimes I check to see how the TB's I've touched are doing, and the poor guy's TB was stolen. Glad he wasn't still in it. It was weird, though, there was no mission tag on it, so if you opened it to see what you'd picked up, there he was on your lap.

Well, this has been a challenging topic for me, because I don't know if I want to be the cache police or not. But since this thread started, somebody logged one of my caches and said they hadn't been able to sign it because they didn't have a pencil. Please, don't go looking, I don't want to embarrass anyone in particular. I tend to believe they found it, it was a nice log - on the other hand it is a downtown cache not far from a store. Since this thread has started, I've gotten two logs on another cache that actually do look suspicious, and I'll be checking the paper log. Haven't checked any of my archived caches yet, but that would just be incredible. They are not there. ~Best

No, it's not where it was intended to go. I was only pointing out that there is a lot of bad cache behavior, and I don't know if you can effectively change other people. I think you can try to do the right thing yourself. If I find your cache, my name will be in the logbook.

Ok, so, can I delete the log of everyone who has exhibited bad cache behavior? You took the most expensive item in my son's cache and left a mini-eraser? You left my cache out in plain view, didn't put the lid back on it, whatever... I think in the end, the only geocache behavior we can really control is our own.

I've got a lot of archived caches, and never checked them for recent Found Logs. So, OK, in that situation I could get quite nasty.

Well, I've got to say I'm torn here. One half of me says that nobody should log any of my caches falsely. The other half of me says to let them play their own game, they are only cheating themselves. I don't know.

If the logbook is absolutely unsignable, leave something, however small, so that somebody could verify that you were there. I've known cachers to scratch marks with mud, and yes, blood. Or leave a mini pine cone, something. My geo-friend and I did a really tough cache at the end of a long day through a sea of nettles, and when we got there I was so excited to find it! But, I didn't have a pen/cil. Oh, *&$#%. Fortunately, geo-friend pulled one of my mini-golf pencils out of his back pocket. Geez, I've never liked him so much! I've never deleted a log because I believe somebody wasn't actually there, but I did see one log that didn't match up to the logsheet. Never challenged him, though, because it was a 1/1 cache; he'd done, and signed my nearby cache, and his log indicated that he knew this one. I'll chalk it up to an oversight. And, no, actually I don't usually compare the written logs to the online ones.

I finally got the paperwork for this cache, so that's good. I'm going to wait a few days to submit it, so that it's new (ish) next Saturday. There's not much rush here for FTF, so it might still be fresh. There's a small group of us going that day to Shunra's 'Wading For Eraseek', which leaves from Fort Flagler. It's a minus tide kind of walk to Rat Island, which has seals, not rats. If anyone is in the neighborhood and wants to join, it's not an event cache but anyone is welcome. E-mail me for details.

Ah, well, at this point I am definitely hoping for a written permit. I gave them a SASE, and well...it's been long enough that I'm not 100% certain which waypoint on my GPSr is the cache. I'd sure like to see it in my own handwriting on the permit, otherwise I'll have to drive out there to make sure. Yes, my stupidity.

You will not get anything physical from the parks. The only thing you can do is verify with the Park manager that the permit was approved by district. If it was then submit your cache, if not find out why not and work with the park manager to make changes so it will be approved.

Just offhand, does anyone know the status of Mt. Jupiter, by Quilcene? It's logging, not weather that's been an issue there.

You're making me itchy. I'd like to do the PCT. Only been on a small section of it in southern California. Geocaching didn't exist then.

My Bookmark list is for caches "along" the trail, not "on" the trail. You won't find any caches on the trail, so there has to be some distance criteria. I have hiked several portions of the trail, including the 27 mile stretch between Chinkook Pass and White Pass. I questioned if I was hiking the trail, how far off would I go to get a cache. I chose 1/4 mile. That may not be the same for everyone and each has to choose how far off the trail they are willing to go to find a cache. Some of the caches pages were sent to me as recommendations by others to put on the list. My only way of verification was either take their word for it, or as I have most of them, I checked using a map. I'm hoping to get some trails software for my birthday. if so, I will double check each cache on the list. If they're not along the trail using my 1/4 mile guideline, I will remove them. In the meantine I have removed Georoo's Skyline caches and Green Eggs from the list per your comments, although I felt Green Egss was close enough, being right along the highway near where the Crest Trail crosses.

I'm really not in a hurry, and it's actually getting easy to not care. I wish I had placed a spectacular cache, one that was worth fighting for, and I didn't. I placed a "nice" cache, nothing more. Green trail, cache near an overlook. That's about it. I have verbal approval from the State Park area manager. But, I don't have proper approval to submit the cache. It has now been 24 days. Is there something broken that I can help to fix? Edited to say State Park, not State Perk. That would be something, no?

No, nothing bad there. I contacted the cachers and they were very nice. I'm glad to have the coins out of there before the weekend, so as to not cause confusion.

Thanks again. Somebody else has logged the cache and now there's not seven, there's nine geocoins in my micro. I guess I don't understand the practice of logging coins into caches where they haven't been. I mean, the cachers found the caches, I'm not questioning that, but the coins, with the exception of a micro-micro coin listed, surely wouldn't fit. I'm not understanding the point, and haven't seen this before. I'll e-mail the cachers.

OK, thanks. I've never met the geocacher involved, but I believe it is a very nice and geo-responsible couple. They logged my cache yesterday evening, so maybe they just ran out of gas and will log the coins out today.

I have a microcache called Global Warming that a cacher did a "virtual coin drop into". I don't understand this. The cache now shows an inventory of 7 geocoins, and they can't be there, the cache container is too small. I'm afraid that either someone will come to the cache hoping to find a geocoin that's not there, or mis-understand the size of the cache container, because at a glance, it appears big enough to hold 7 geocoins. Could somebody explain "virtual coin drop"? Perhaps the cacher intends to log them right back out, but they are listed as I write. Thanks!

Well, it doesn't matter to me if I get a verbal OK or get mailed a permit, I'm only repeating what I was told. I guess the part that surprised me was the amount of time it would take, which is directly tied to the fact that the permit has to go to some regional office that I didn't even know existed. I mis-spoke, or mis-wrote earlier about there being three area State Parks, there are actually five, only three of them have rangers on property. The ranger I gave my paperwork to is titled "area manager", he is responsible for Fort Flagler, Anderson Lake and Mystery Bay. I was really just surprised that he couldn't sign off on a little lock-n-lock, that it had to go to higher management. The guy knows his park, knows exactly where the cache is. If this is the way they want to process caches here, I'll do it. Our local State Parks are beautiful, and haven't had any new caches for a long time. I was just curious, because this ranger used to OK caches with a handshake and an instant permit. Fort Worden here I come.....

Oh, I just wanted to add this about the process, because I didn't know, and the ranger told me I'd done it wrong. What I did do was go for a walk with my family, hide a cache, and then go over to the ranger's office to fill out the permit to make it "legal." What I was supposed to do, was bring the cache with me, go find the spot where I wanted to hide it, get the coordinates, and bring the cache with me to the office so that they could eyeball it and discuss the location. Then, take the cache home with me, wait for the permit, and make another trip out to hide the cache once I had the permit in hand. I was gently scolded, but my cache has been sitting in the park since the day I hid it.

Well, I've had park permits in hand before, before the new agreement was reached. But then, I had them in hand the same day. I have four caches in mind for Fort Worden, and if each is going to take 3 weeks or so to get permitted, I'd better hop to it to be done by the WSGA campout. What worries me is the cache I was thinking I would have the most fun with might not be do-able. It's open to interpretation of the new guidelines as to whether it's acceptable or not. I think I could get it through the park supervisor, but I don't know who regional or district is. Never had to deal with them before.

I hid a cache in Fort Flagler State Park on April 25th. The ranger has a rep for being cache friendly, and he was very nice to me. He has my paperwork, and the permit is supposed to come in the mail. Well, it IS May 7th, so I called today to ask if everything was OK, did he need anything more from me? He said, oh, no, everything was fine, it was approved, but that the paperwork had gone to the regional office. He thought that I would probably get my permit in a week or so. Um, is this the norm, now? There are three State Parks in my area, and I'm the first to hide a cache since the new guidelines were established. So, I just don't know. Thanks.

I just bought some buttons from Bumble Buttons. The owner is a geocacher, and she sells some FTF buttons that I liked. Her buttons always get grabbed fast, but I have never seen one of the FTF ones around here. They'd be fun to find, without going overboard on spending. I've put out something like 40 caches and can't afford $50 gift certificates.

I like to hide caches. And I have a bag or two of swag. Also, a limited budget. So, if you make lousy trades into my caches, I'll restock them, but that may mean one less cache I can afford to hide. I think that's too bad.

Well, this a good question for me, because I am planning a cache inside and on old concrete bunkers and batterys. I was thinking of small, laminated paper coordinates, but what would be the best way to attach them and have them be completely removeable? Would duct tape hold on concrete?