bilbo19

and to all our fellow tech-geek-cachers...we will try to hold true to form and we will again have another decked out techmobile for all to play with see ya there!!!

Looks like 3 phatboyz will be attending. myself, deity_steve and jerbear. Thought I would post...not that anyone cares See you all there.

Concerning the missing hiker...at this time: the search and rescue and police have set up there base camp at the Denny Creek Trailhead and have closed this area off to hikers. Not sure if it will be closed for your hike on Saturday but thought you should be keeping an eye on it. I would hate for all of you to show up and have it closed to hikers. Have a great hike!!! Lets all hope they find the missing hiker!!!!!! bilbo19

Looks like 4 of the 5 phatboyz will be attending the cache machine (bilbo19, deity_steve, jerbear and kiltsurfer)!!! We are sooooooo ready to go!!!

I have a question...some of you more experienced hikers may have the answer too. We were looking to do a long hike later this summer and we were looking up the banana ridge cache and saw some others near it. So my question is: Can you take the mason lake trailhead and head to the summit of mt. defiance, hike up to grab "mt. defiance cache"...continue along the ridge and grab the "banana ridge cache"...and continue on and then come down the back side of "do you feel lucky...well do ya punk" and grab that one and head out below that cache and leave the mountain from there??? I hope that made sense looking at topo software it looks like it is doable but still trying to get used to reading it so I thought I would check with you all thanks for any thoughts!!!

Sorry, I did leave a signature coin in it's place. Any suggestions where the Moun10Bike Madness USA geocoin should go? Perhaps a cache with a Moun10Bike signature coin in it? Yeah there is this little cache called phatboyz alpha cache that is about 600 feet from my house I can walk there and grab it HAHAHAHA! Ok seriously...a cache that I could grab a USA coin and a MT Bike Coin would be great Ok seriously...any cache would be great...maybe a little advance notice that it is going to be placed would be cool maybe a post here to let us "hikers" know so we can plan ahead for a trip?!!?!? just a thought Actually I was kind of looking forward to the other signature coin in the cache but the weather just sucked too much to make the attempt this time. But I will get a coin sooner or later...mark my words!!!

Yeah what jerbear said...PLUS I/we were bummed that Marcus Arelius went up on Friday and took the coin we were looking forward to getting Hopefully he places it somewhere where we can get to it before it gets taken again I again want to thank evergreenhiker for the directions...just because we didnt do it this weekend doesnt mean we are not going!!! We will use your information at a later date.

Yep 3 of team phatboyz will be attempting mailbox on Saturday. We are soooo excited about it, that is all I do is think about it. Need to work on getting some sleep. deity_steve and jerbear are going with me. Should be a hoot! This will be our 3rd hike already this year. This is a great posting, I will make sure I check it often. We have also been discussing Camp Muir for later this summer with thoughts of going to the peak next year. So I will keep the forums posted on that and will check on others to see what is going on. I would like to thank Evergreenhiker publicly for him taking the time to email me back with answers to my questions!!! That is soooo helpful...it really helps get people like myself out there. Sometimes it is hard to find the answers you need and being able to email people like John and check the forums is a great help and eases peoples minds who arent quite sure!!! So thanks evergreenhiker!!! Good luck to all on Sunday who tackle this "hill"!!!

I believe I am the cacher that found that first to find at 7am when the cache page posted it was open at 10. I want to say a couple of things about it. First, myself and the other guys I geocache with have some of the greatest times caching at night. Gives a whole new outlook on finding a cache. Second the park in question that was open at 10am...well I work right across the street, I have a cache of my own just down the street from this cache...I know this park, I knew exactly where it was when I saw it posted. I dont think I did anything wrong going in early knowing that it wasnt a park that really "closed" was close to the parking lot that you could see your car, and it was light out. I think the biggest thing for all cachers is to use common sense. If I thought that I would cause an issue in any way I wouldnt have gone. I KNEW it wouldnt be an issue. Besides if people were to initiate a ban on night caching in parks you would still have idiots (believe it or not there are idiots in geocaching) out doing stuff they are not supposed to be doing. I have no doubt that I will have a run in with a police officer some day and I also have no doubt that when I explain myself they will think it is cool and let me on my way. Show respect, be honest and smile and you are on your way. I dont always night cache or more acurately early morning cache but I go to work early and sometimes I like to cache before work and before it is light out. That is my decision and I will use common sense when doing so. SO with all that I proudly take credit for that FTF at 7am for that cache. bilbo19

Well it looks like the battery is the issue in my case. I got home and took the back cover over and proceeded to move the batteries around in different ways and I finally found a spot that if I barely moved it it would shut off. I then secured the batteries and tried bumping it again and it never shut off. I havent put any foam in it but it looks like that should be some kind of solution. Unless someone else out there has a better way of securing the batteries in place. It will king of suck to have to make sure that is in place everytime you change batteries. Now I have to decide if I should send it back to be fixed...what are they going to do to fix it?!?!? Either nothing or put a piece of foam in it HAHAHA.

Thanks to Neo-Geo for those posts and thoughts. I think that might be it. I hadnt thought about the batteries being "loose" I think when I get home tonight I will try putting a piece of foam in the battery compartment and see if I can duplicate error ie shutting off. I will post my results later and let everyone know what happens if I find the batteries loose or not and if a piece of foam will fix it. Erick

I received my map 60 a couple of weeks ago and I noticed that when I bump it too hard usually up around the top by the antenna it will turn itself off. I am assuming this is not a normal thing but wanted to make sure in the forums. I am in the process of getting an RMA with Garmin but thought I would check here first. The reason I noticed it at all is I had set it on my dash and when I turned a corner it slid to the end and (didnt fall) hit the end and turned off. SO I tried it as a test and held it in my hand and tapped it. It took a little bit of force but not nearly hard enough to hurt it or do any damage. So anyone have this issue??? Erick

I wasnt going post anything but thought about it for a while and after reading my teamamates comments I decided to post this statement about this last issue. I will not respond to any comments made after my statement I just want to say it and be done with it. Ok here is my .02 cents worth If jester did have permission to go in and practice rock climbing that still wouldn't make it legal to go and get the cache in my opinion. The rules say that if a park is closed then you CANNOT GET THE CACHE. It doesn't say if it is closed but if you have permission to go do something else you can sneak off and get the cache. The rules are in place so it is fair for everyone, having one person on the King County Team have permission to go into a closed park is crap! This makes it an unfair balance to the teams. Even if it is for something completely unrelated to geocaching! He should be able to go and do his climbing but the park is still closed under normal circumstances so it should be unavailable to him and to all!!! I also think that the TB should have been placed back in the original cache after nolenator changed his mind and things were worked out. We are not playing football or baseball where a play has to stand because people are watching on tv. We are playing a kids game and as I recall...when I used to play those simple games with friends we used to get in arguements all the time when there was a question about a call. Most of the time if we couldnt figure it out, what did we do...A DO OVER!!! Thats right a do over. I dont see why one couldnt have been put into effect here. Sometimes we as adults try to make too much of it and screw it up...case in point how this game has become. I dont think someone would of had a problem going and getting the cache and having a do over...maybe someone needs to make that an official rule These two issues I stated above have changed the whole complexion of the game...granted probably nobodys fault but probably to a degree all of our faults. I will be the first to say I am competative as will most of you but I think most of us geocache not to be competative but to get outside and have fun, be a "kid" and treasure hunt...(as a side that is what my 4 year old nephew calls it as I ams sure others call it) meet people and get some excercise. I have met some very nice people, I really enjoyed the pizza party and look forward to more events like that to get to know more of you. To cut this short well to not make it longer I will say that this has ceased to be fun so I will no longer be playing the potato game. I look forward to seeing others on the field when our competative blood has cooled down and geocache in piece. Like my teammate blueheron said...this sport has become part of who I am and I dont want the game to screw that up. I look forward to seeing more of you out and about. I would like to thank travis for trying to make this game work and for all the hard work he put into it. It was a great idea (maybe we should set it up for just kids...they probably wont screw it up just kidding) Maybe my comments will spark some dialogue and the ref will change some of his rulings and that will help save this game...to late for me but maybe save others from leaving. Take care and see ya out there. bilbo19

Sorry for the late notice but I will join the fray and help out Pierce County!!!

Four of Team Phatboyz will be there and we are SOOOOOOOOO looking forward to it. Since we live in Tacoma, we will be driving down the morning of and if there is a party the night before we might just drive down for that as well Looking forward to doing some serious caching and seeing everyone again. CANT WAIT!!!!

to do some caching...anyone need anything dropped off over there...let me know. I am leaving Wed. Oct 22. Bilbo19

please dont eat me weird fence work in progress have all been added and gone live! A few more to come.

just my .02 cents worth but i think the 27th would be too much trouble with the holidays...I like the 20th to relax before christmas (yes this maddness is a form of relaxation) and the 3rd would be a good way to bring in the new year!!!

Thanks Kilt for posting that for all of us. We had a blast on this. To answer or reiterate a few questions. Your timeline was very good for the morning and most everyone stayed together really well. Then after lunch it seemed a lot of people/groups started skipping caches and made there own schedule...not sure why!?!?! We stayed on the list and went in order...I think two times we flip flopped a couple of caches, mostly because we took a wrong turn and ended up at the other one first. Lunch was right on time...just when we needed it and was great to have there waiting for us...Thanks again!!! Dishman trails...ahhhhhh how I love those trails Well we were getting a little tired before this set of caches and after these we were plum tuckered out!!!! We stopped to get new beverages after this and it helped quite a bit BUT it took way longer than we thought it would and those hills, rocks and trails were a bear!!! By themeselves no problem, but in the middle of 80 other caches whew doggie...me no like Dishman trails took a long time and so did cache explosion #1 (but that was mostly because we were stubborn and couldnt find it) so we searched forever and still didnt find it!!! Ben Bur trail took us a bit longer than normal. The three of us got split up while Kiltsurfer was parking, so I headed up ahead of the others. We decided on the short cut up the side of the hill, when I reached the hill I looked up and saw this elderly couple out walking there dogs...not sure why they wanted to walk down that hill but they did and the elderly man FELL about half way down the hill and only stopped when he hit a tree!!! I stood there helpless until he stopped. I ran up the hill to see if he was alright, he said he hurt his leg and couldnt get up, SO I helped him up and carried him down the hill. Stayed with him a few minutes to make sure he was alright (his leg was swelling a little) but he started to gingerly walk on it. He said with his wife and a stick he could make it home. I watched them walk off and made sure they were ok before I took off up the hill again. Met up with deity_steve and explained my story...found the cache a moved on!!! Just thought I would share the excitement we had We were really stoked about some of the caches we saw over the weekend!!! We are really looking forward to placing some of those types of caches on this side of the mountains! SO lets keep them on the hush hush till we can get some out there hehehehe! Like kiltsurfer said, towards the end we started skipping some that we knew would take longer than a few minutes. but that was cool because there was some neat ones still to be found. cache explosion #2 was very cool, these kids playing in the park came up to and asked what was going on...there were a lot of people here awhile ago...and they were searching for something as well. we explained what was going on and they thought it was cool...we found the cache without them seeing it or us get it and returned it hidden better than we found it. travisl, if I may offer a suggestion...it would be to try and make your schedule to reflect the length of the day...meaning that at the end of the day if you could make your route hit more of the easier caches (assuming you know the difficulty and length) and ones without too much of a walk. When it is dark it is harder to make the longer walks because they become even longer! And people are getting really tired so some easy to get to caches would be nice. I guess they could still be difficult finds but easy walks! just a thought I am sure there are more things to say but I will cut this off. I think most of it was answered and we had a BLAST!!! Thanks all and look forward to seeing you again! bilbo19

WOW...Sorry to here about the fire Travis...hope all goes well and you get everything taken care. I take it everyone was safe and it was just property loss?!?!!? If you need anything or if there is anything the phatboyz can do...let us know, we would be glad to help if we can. bilbo19

I read the whole log from the old tree...and I really dont know what to say LOL

This sounds like it is going to be a hoot!!! I think team phatboyz is going to have to come up with a few strategies although we do have a secret weapon...look out for kiltsurfer hahahhahahah

nobody what to help me log this cache come on...if anyone is going down to the keys hook a fellow cacher out

I went to NW Harvests page and got a list of the most needed foods. If you can bring some of these items that would be great: General Food Items: Pasta Peanut Butter Canned Fruits & Vegetables Hot & Cold Cereal Tuna Fish Spices & Seasonings Salad Oil Spaghetti-O's Whole Meals: Stews Meat & Gravy Pork & Beans Soup Raisins, small boxes Ramen Noodles Infant and Baby Foods: Baby Formula Canned Milk Powdered Milk Jars of Baby Food Infant Cereal

Well...the big announcement, looks like at least 3 of the phatboyz will be heading over for the SCM...maybe even 4 of us I am sure this is the news everyone has been waiting for LOL. We are looking forward to some great caching and meeting a lot of you. See you there.