t.v.wildfire

I would be happy to help you release some of your trackables into the wild.

I'm not sure if this would be considered as a gadget cache or not, but I made a cache container (disguised as birdhouse shaped like a rabbit, GC5ngtg) that had an ear that was held on by a magnet. If you pulled on the ear (see hint) you gained access to the inside of the birdhouse. Inside the house was a wireless doorbell dinger. About 100 feet away from the birdhouse was a stump that I had hollowed out that contained the cache and the doorbell ringer. You had to reach into the house, take the dinger in hand, press the button and follow the sound to the real cache. People seemed to like it, but sadly it was destroyed in a wildfire. Once we get back to normal I'll be putting out caches again.

I've been meaning to email you, but I didn't want to bother you if you are busy/overwhelmed. I wanted you to know that our family is thinking about you and praying for you (so is everyone else in our geocaching community). Thank you.

I am/was a cache owner as well as a firefighter. I have been fighting the Okanogan Complex fire for 17 straight days as of today,and I lost all three of my caches as well as my home nine days ago. It's starting to look like this won't be over until the snow flies. We did get a bit of rain this morning, but not enough to help too much. Since I lost all my woodworking equipment I probably won't be replacing my caches soon and I'm very sorry that a few TB's and a coin were lost to this monster.

What's your Mom's number?

My caching partner and I often travel 100 to 150 miles (one way) to grab a few caches. I have made a 350 mile round trip just to attend an event. Fuel costs have slowed us down a bit, but if it's a good cache, we'll go after it.

Hi Malemotives, I too am located in Washington. If you can find a local cacher in California, you might suggest a race. I have sent out two bugs (TB4HAAY and TB4HA2Y) and had extremely good luck. People tend to want to help a little more (I think) if the mission of the bug is to win a race. If you find a local cacher who wants to race, you might suggest that he or she gives you a bug and you give yours to him or her. Bring his/her bug back to Washington with you both release the others bug on a certain day. Make the mission of each bug to find it's way back home. If the bug gets within 50 miles of your home, you can pick up the bug in person and declare yourself the winner. The other race I had a bug in was a meet and greet race. The other cacher (same one as the first race) and I sent our bugs to the same cacher (known to both of us) and the bugs visited as many meet and greets as they could. This race was a year long race and was a lot of fun. If you decide to try either of these suggestions, please contact me so that I can put your bug on my watchlist and sit back and watch the fun. Good Luck, and if you ever get the chance to come to my side of the state maybe we can get together to find a few caches. We have some great Ghost Towns caches over here.

My most favorited cache is my only cache(GC4V0JJ). Since it's placed so far out in the boonies, I tried to design it in such a way that people would feel the trip was worth it, and walk away with a smile, and not just a smiley. It doesn't get many visits but people seem to like it very much. I have e-mailed everyone who has found it and thanked them for making the trip, and for the favorite point. Most have e-mailed me back asking if another similar container is in the works. It is. I hope the next one will be as much fun for the finders as it is fun for me to design.

My most favorited cache is also my only cache so far (GC4V0JJ). It doesn't get many visits, but most people seem to really like it. Since my cache is so far out of the way, I wanted to design it in such a way that people would feel that the trip was worth it and walk away with smile, not just a smiley. People have been very kind with their comments and I really appreciate it. I have emailed each person who has found my cache to thank them for coming all the way out here to find it, and most have emailed me back asking if another similar container is in the future. It is. I'm in the process right now of designing another one.

I see no reason we can't hold a Giga event in central/north central Washington. After all, we live in one of the most cacher rich areas in the world. I put my first cache out about 4 and a half months ago and already it's had 5 visitors. At this rate I should have my 5000th visitor sometime in the year 2379.

My favorite cache sites are cemeteries, ghost towns and old homesteads. I live about 20 miles from Riverside Washington in an area known as The Tunk Valley. In Riverside there is a very nice cemetery with a grave that's located 500 feet outside the cemetery. It's the grave of Frank Watkins, Riversides only murder victim. Frank was a horse thief and his headstone reads "He just had too many horses in his corral." The people of Riverside didn't want him in the same cemetery with their good kin so they buried him 500 feet outside the cemetery. We were caching near an old homestead one time when we came across what appeared to be the grave of a child. The little stuffed bear had been attached to the cross for quite some time and probably (because of the harsh winters and hot, hot summers) won't be there much longer. There was no name or date on the cross but it obviously been there for a long time.

In the six plus years I've been caching, I've only had one experience with the law. It was in the middle of February and the days were warm enough to melt some snow during the day but would freeze it again at night. I was on a remote road at a fairly high (4500 ft.) elevation and was able to park well off the road. When I got out of the truck I found that GZ was a little over a quarter of a mile down a steep and heavily wooded hill. I made it down to the cache and was disappointed to find the ammo can under a log covered by eight to ten inches of solid ice. No way I was going to go through all this and not sign the log, so back up the hill I went to grab my shovel. I got back down to the cache and started chipping away at the ice. Twenty five minutes later the cache was in hand and the log had been signed. Back up the hill I went. You have to remember that it was a steep hill, it was cold and it was a high elevation. I came bursting out of the woods, trying to catch my breath, doubled over and holding on to my shovel to keep from falling down. I looked up at my truck and saw a State Trooper parked behind it. He gave me the index finger come hither signal, but I was so out of breath that all I could was hold up my hand and shake my head no. He gave a quick blast on the siren and repeated his request for me to join him at his car. I figured I'd better do it. When I got to his car I was still trying hard to catch my breath. He rolled down his window and said "I really need to ask you what you're doing. You're in an isolated area, you come charging out of the woods, you're out of breath and you have a shovel in your hands. What's going on?" Still out of breath I pointed to the GPSr in my shirt pocket and managed to say "I'm....a....Geocacher." He said "Oh....I've heard of that....Goodby." And off he went.

Actually I live 3.2 miles south of the middle of nowhere.

There are 5 caches within 10 miles of my home. One of them is mine. Believe it or not.....I've found them all!