hikemeister

I think it depends on what you want to do with your GPS. I recently lost my old GPS and also got a Summit HC (two days ago). The only thing I use it for is to hide caches and have good coordinates and to find caches in off road areas. For everything else I use the GPS and maps on my iPhone. Urban caches now can pretty much be found with the Geocaching app on an iPhone and a satellite image showing the cache location.

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FWIW, I've found a number of caches that had been creatively signed by previous finders who lacked a pen or pencil. There are all sorts of materials that can be used to mark your name in the log. Yep, there is a real sinking feeling after searching long and hard for a cache and then on finding it, realizing you forgot to bring a pen or pencil. We have signed logs with a stick, piece of rock, and other items -- typically just one initial and an email to the owner. Last summer my two brothers and I found an ammo can about 50 up in a blue spruce tree. When opened, the pen dropped out and we could not find it! Fortunately we were able to make a short drive to get another pen, and then a relay of the log book and pen up and down the tree. But this thread and its original intent has a happy ENDING -- I confronted the fake cache logger, and after calling me an A@#HOLE, she deleted all of her logs from that day, not just mine but all the other fake logs she posted in our town.

THE PLOT THICKENS ! Yesterday I checked my caches and then deleted the fake logs from the web. I also talked to a friend and found that the same person logged about a dozen virtuals in the area and sent no answers to the questions. I emailed another cacher who recently had about 12 caches found by the same phantom (maybe this is where I crossed the line) and got FLAMED! ... with an email calling me arrogant, a big shot, and an A##HOLE. It turns out that the person I contacted was a sock puppet of the phantom cacher! Shortly afterwards, the person in question emailed me, apologized, and deleted all of her fake logs from that day -- mine and all the others. End of story.

We have about 60 active caches, and so there is no way to regularly compare the log books with the online logs. The best we do is make sure they are in good condition, replacing log books as needed and sometimes entire containers.

We just go for them and act like we are doing nothing special. I have yet to find that a cache was muggled after this approach.

We just go for them and act like we are doing nothing special. I have yet to find that a cache was muggled after this approach.

This probably is an old topic -- and if so, please just refer me and that will take care of it, What do you do about phantom cachers -- folks who post find logs online but have signed none of the physical logs? Frankly I do not pay much attention to this, because it is not a competition and anyone doing this is missing out on some real fun. However, recently some local cachers have contacted us about a person in particular who is logging many caches (including several of ours -- we checked) only online. Is it common protocol to 1. Ignore it -- my most likely action 2. Send an email asking if the person visited the cache 3. Delete the log with a note saying that the log book was not signed Any thoughts?

In the past I mainly used ammo cans for full size hides and for micros, used those one dollar plastic match containers you can get in the camping section of WalMart, either painted camo colors or camo with tape. Recently we have had very good results with lock-and-lock containers. You can pick them up at WalMart for about $2 for a medium size container, and if you paint with that special spray paint (cannot think of the name right now) that bonds to plastic, you do not need to sand before painting. I suspect this works OK because we are in Florida, so up north where there is ice and snow I suspect results are much different with plastic. Another approach that many use is recycled containers -- but we have not had much success finding things that do not leak. Have fun!

Just want to emphasize the first part of that response, which is very important... Give it some time before doing anything. When we have cached in Europe, sometimes it is two or three weeks before we get back home, log finds and log TBs and coins we have exchanged.

Did you change the ones that were already found to Subscriber Only? Not much point in doing this as the person already knows where it is. Is the swag so valuable that it warrants excluding Members? If you leave swag in a public place for the enjoyment of the public how can it be stealing? Sure, I don't mind if someone decides to take swag and not trade fair -- even though we always do. What bothers me is that he took some geocoins and TBs and also the log books. So the caches need to be fixed, which will take some of my time (no big deal), and some people lost their traveling items. I guess this is why more often than not, people around here have stopped putting real geocoins in caches, and instead have color laminated photocopies of them for circulation. The main reason for that is to avoid them being lost by novice cachers, but now we also have thiefs. Appreciate all of this discussion and will ignore this guy until he goes away. I like the reponse about him ending up robbing a liquor store.

We concure with Arrow42 and, although we are not familiar with the specifics of the cache location, we would find it hard (although possible) to see how a move of under 23 feet could provide a "significantly different caching experience". In the meantime, while deciding whether to replace or not (if your cache is actually in place), please enable the cache. Too bad you do not get to decide -- it is up to the cache owner. If he / she thinks it is a new experience, you have nothing to say about it.

If we replace with a substantially different kind of hide, we give it a new name and contact the local geocaching gang telling them they can find it again. E.g., Baker's Dozen became Baker's Dozen and a Half. If we just replace a lost container with another of same kind and type of hide, we do not make it a new cache.

A good friend of mine, who died a few years ago, used to joke about our dream job -- being a brewmeister at a brewery. Actually we just wanted to be the person who taste tests the beer. When I started geocaching, and continuing today, I love hiking. So I combined 'hike' with 'meister' and came up with hikemeister. About 1200 caches later I still like the name, even if it is a bit lame

Someone in the Gainesville FL area has been stealing contents of caches and leaving a note saying 'the contents of this cache have been stolen by the famous muggle captain chuck norris.' Five of mine have been hit and I know of at least four others. It has been ongoing now for two weeks. Any ideas other than just ignoring it? I changed most of my caches (except those with long hikes) to Premium Only. That was a pain because we have over 70 active caches, so the guy has screwed us up in two different ways (not to mention that now folks who are just regular members cannot hunt our caches). Perhaps a geocaching sting operation !

Interesting thread with many different points of view. Odd timing because we just cleaned a peanut butter jar and have it in the garage ready to be painted. My only concern before reading this thread was how long it would take for the paint to wear off and the bright red cap become visible. Now after considering the issues, the jar is headed to the recycling bin. So that's it for me on this thread -- we'll make a personal decision and move on.

I really do not like urban micros in muggle rich areas that require a lot of searching, so all of our urban micros are in plain sight and we give detailed instructions on the cache page re. where and how they are hidden. That way all the person has to do is use some stealth grabbing and replacing, and not spend time hunting around in shrubs in a parking lot.

I really do not like these for more than one reason. 1. There are a number of caches in the Jacksonville area hidden on old inactive power boxes. There also are caches hidden NEAR live power boxes and on at least one occasion I have opened the box to look inside. Obvious issue is that it is dangerous. 2. There now are caches hidden around north central Florida using a fake alumnium electric plate with a patch micro on the back. A friend of mine hunted a cache last month and thought he had found one of these -- it was real, and he was confronted by the police for attempting to vandalize university property. That's all I have on this one...well, perhaps just one more thing - just as bad are ammo cans that still have the original markings on them regarding the ammunition, in particular when hidden in urban areas

Yep, the good old 'pretending to tie shoes,' 'pretending to get a paper out of the box,' 'pretending to drop the quarter on the ground to look under the box' work real well. With lamp skirts, we just go for it -- and when we hide this kind, we use magnetic containers so if a muggle does walk over later and lift, they will see nothing.

My son and I always use stealth when finding local caches, because we always can come back another time if there are people around when we reach the site. If we are doing a park and grab micro that is far from home, we first attempt to use 'stealth' but have sometimes just gone for it. We never 'just go for it' if it is a cache with travel bugs or coins and there are muggles around.

We geocache with people who have very different approaches to finding caches in muggle rich areas -- Stealth People -- who will spend considerable time figuring out how to get the cache, sign the log and return it w/o being seen, and sometimes even come back at a different time to avoid muggles Go For It People -- whose general attitude is 'heck, if they put the cache in a place where there are muggles, it is their problem if it gets muggled' The second type just charges in and finds the cache and ignores whether or not there are people nearby. Because we sometimes cache in groups, we have been involved in both approaches. The interesting thing is that I will usually watchlist caches where we and others use the Go For It method, and I have yet to see one get muggled after the visit. What are you? a. A Slealth Person b. A Go For It Person And, what are your thoughts on these two very different approaches (typically aimed at urban micros)?

Last month we found a new twist on the parking lot skirt that was quite fun. It was a metal skirt on one of those information signs in an outdoor shopping mall, right in front of the main doorway into a woman's clothing shop with considerable traffic. The funny thing was that we just lifted the skirt (noise and all) and pulled out the cache with people walking everywhere, and they literally ignored us. This has been my experience with muggles -- that except for the police and security folks people are so used to seeing strange things or focused on their own thoughts (most likely the latter) -- they don't notice you pulling out a cache right next to them. So we don't worry too much anymore about whether we are being watched or not, and to date it has not led to any muggle stolen micros -- we watchlist them.

I'll tell you an interesting related story. Last year one of the older local caches, owned by a geocacher who once attended University of Florida, was archived after several local cachers, including myself, looked for it and thought it was gone (we all had previously found it). I contacted the cache owner and asked if she was OK with me placing a new cache very close to that site. Affirmative and cache placed. Last month a guy emailed me indicating that my cache was full of water and that the brown paint was almost entirely gone so that the bright blue lid now was visible. My cache was a black micro tied up in a tree. He had found Abby's old cache. I emailed her and let her know and we agreed to trash the old one and keep my new one active. Strange things can happen! I guess this REALLY confirms the notion that if can't find it, it may not be missing!

This thread amazes me in regard to where it has taken us -- to everything from the cost of gas to issues associated with disabilities. How about bugs and coins? The really is the only down side I notice with P&G micros. We go somewhere and want to drop TBs and/or coins, and only can find micros. More than twice we have come home with those TBs and/or coins for this reason.

geocaching .com is opposed to social agendas at caches, which is (i think) a sensible policy. Interesting general concept, but is it always followed. Last week I found a 'Christ Centered Geocaching' coin in one of our caches and it was trackable on GC.com. Someone must have approved it. The coin clearly indicated that there was a straight and narrow path to heaven. Fortunately I had just enough time to log it before some athiest cacher stole it from me.