hikemeister

Definately winter because in north-central Florida summer fun includes: heat, humidity, dense vines, many very large spiders, many ticks including ones that carry lyme disease, active fire ants and other nice critters, and much more poison ivy. I actually change the terrain rating for two of my caches (HAUNTED and TALL TIMBER) from 2.5 to 4.0 in summer to reflect the hazardous conditions. I love winter in Florida !

I have a cache called Orange and Blue, at a very busy (cars and pedestrian) location in Gainesville, FL. It has been muggled about a half dozen times, and has had 1. A bright orange M&M tube attached to an orange post of the same color 2. A US Army green pill vial hidden in a palmetto 3. A black 35 mm film container attached to a black fence post 4. A grey 35 mm film container attached to a grey post 5. One of those ultra small nanos with its own super magnet 6. And now (I hope) another 35 mm, painted olive green and back in the palmetto I give it about a week until it is gone again. The good news is that it has about 40+ finds and it is at a location I drive by almost every day.

That is a very good point -- a terrain of 1 is supposed to indicate handicap accessible, and I apply that very carefully to all of my own caches. There is no way this one can possibly be handicap accessible, even if it is still there (unless it is the worlds smallest nano and I need to come back with a microscope to find it).

When I have lost travel bugs, here is where they have gone: Travel Bug Graveyard (GC72A8) Check it out.

A few more points regarding this issue: (1) I agree that experienced cache finders sometimes miss easy ones. I am only marginally experienced, with just over 700 finds, and hunted the cache with geoachers with >10,000, >8,000 and >5,000 finds and we came up empty. But I also know that these guys sometimes report DNF on caches that are later found, just like me. Finding many caches does not make one an 'expert finder' of everything. (2) Having said that, it sure is interesting when a 1/1 cache has many DNF over a long period of time. (3) I never suggested that the owner is a liar. Another situation that I have experienced is cache owners who place a cache and then do not go and check on it, assuming that folks just cannot find it because of the hiding style. This particular geocacher is known for hiding 1/1 caches that sometimes take 15 minutes or more to find, with very unique and clever hiding styles. So that is what I am assuming going into this search -- but the location where the cache is hidden (a local eatery) now is closed, so we have literally scoured the area and there is nothing there. My wife says I get too fixated on geocaching sometimes -- I guess all of this discussion about one small cache (which I could just forget) might prove her right. Thanks all for the interesting discussion.

Yes of course I went back and looked for a nano...and yes I contacted the person who hid the nano, but he did not respond. At this point I will just forget about this one and hunt for other caches.

Actually in the case of one cache in question an email to the owner last weekend gave a response that 'check with XXX, who says he replaced it with a nano.'

Yep, perhaps it is time. So you noticed the large number of stale caches in the area, did you. Thanks

There are two caches in our area that have not been found in over a year. They both are rated 1/1. I have contacted the owner and he claims they are there, yet even with some friends from California with over 20K collective finds, we could not find either cache. Most recently the owner indicates that one may have been replaced with a nano by another cacher last month. The cacher in question is a good guy with many nice local hides and he is one of the original geocachers in the area, so I hesitate to use the 'needs to be archived' option - but when is enough enough??

I collect flat smooth stones from a nearby beach and paint them with the geocaching logo and then write FTF and the name of the cache with black ink. Those are my first finder items.

There is a really nice cache like this in Jupiter, Florida, in a narrow strip of land between the Florida Turnpike and I-95. It is located along an old section of a highway that was abandoned back in the 1970s. From an aerial view, it looks like there is no way to reach it except from the interstate roads, but the owner indicates DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REACH THIS CACHE FROM THE TURNPIKE OR I-95. There was no other clue about how to get there. I spent nearly 45 minutes driving around various back roads looking for an obscure / hidden access point and then about 45 minutes more walking to the cache and back through some dense brush. It was a fantastic experience! I would warn geocachers that they cannot access from the interstate, but not necessarily give a clue (except perhaps in a clearly marked spoiler for those who don't want a real challenge figuring out where to start). That driving around figuring out how to approach the site is half the fun.

I ignore parking coordinates and use my GPS to find the nearest place where I can legally (sometimes) park. Hate to say it, but there are many caches in south Florida with parking coordinates and a nice .5 to 1 mile walk along a hiking trail -- where I have found a way to get to the cache from about 100 ft from my car, going over various obstacles including, but not limited to, barbed wire fences, downed trees, extremely dense patches of palmetto, etc.

Wow -- this almost makes me wish I lived in Alabama! We'll maybe visit Alabama.

I have an ETrex Legend and it fits perfectly on the dashboard right in front of the speedometer. This way I have a clear view of the road, can see the GPS, and have a good excuse if I get pulled over for speeding.

My son actually has a photo on his wall of the two of us in a forest holding the container for #100 !!

I think FTF hounds, as you call them, are fantastic! Good for them for displaying such a high level of excitement about geocaching. When we lived in south Florida, in an area with few caches, about five of us started placing caches and then literally racing one another to be FTF. Yep, I did many at night and at about 5 AM. Nothing more fun than to sign the log and see my friend Tom or Leon walking towards me just as the sun came up. Now I just watch others have the fun -- yet we did nab about 4 FTFs last month!

I plan on making #1000 a very special one -- not some lame micro, but a real cache somewhere with a memorable hike. The only problem is that at the rate I am going, it will be a long time! We need to move again, because within a year of the last move, went from about 400 to 650 real fast, then about tapped out with all the local caches. If you have a job it is not so easy to travel and find large numbers of caches.

Yes, great idea. I collect smooth stones from a nearby beach in Florida and either paint or write in black ink my geocaching name and the GC logo.

Yesterday after posting this thread I looked at my list of caches found, and was surprised that every single one brought back some memories -- Hey, I can remember them all (just need that visual prompt) !

I think you are right -- when I found #500 it was on a cache run with some friends and we did about 30 that day, mostly easy urban micros. Like others, I remember very well the special caches -- challenging long hikes with great hides -- Red Scorpion, just north of Jupiter, Florida may be the best of all, or Devil of a Hike in the Niagara River gorge...or was it that cache in Tuscany Italy (Tuscan View)...anyway I guess numbers no longer are so important, and the best memories are of caches not how many found.

I remember in vivid detail my 100th find -- a full size cache hidden in a huge log covered with ferns in a forest west of Sebring, Florida. It was late AM, my son was along, and I was teaching a group of Boy Scouts how to do orienteering and geocaching. In contrast, without looking at the records, I have no idea what cache was #200, #300, #400, #500 or #600...perhaps when I get to #1000 I will take a photo or something. Anyway, is this common? Do most of you (or few of you) keep track of your signficant finds? Is it common for #100 to be very special? More so that #500? Am I just a whacko or did I get bored after 100?

I have about 40 active caches and do not check to see if logs on line match logs in the book / log sheet. If a geocacher wants to cheat, they only are cheating themself, not me or any others. My focus is on the e-logs to make certain there are no problems with wet log books, missing container, etc.

Less then 0.1 miles. We placed a series of caches called 'Deep Woods' along a bike trail that runs through an oak and pine forest right behind our house. Bad news is that in about 5 years the trail will be gone and there will be houses there !! For now we are enjoying it. We have 10 caches hidden within a mile of our house and can check them all on about a 1 hr bike ride.

We have quite a few micros, all hidden in a highly urbanized area in north-central Florida. The ones that are most fun are containers that any geocacher can recognize from about 50 feet away, but muggles never notice. We did a series of these using those colored tubes that mini M&M candy comes in. We have a bright red one, for example, attached to the post of the 'enter' sign to the parking lot of a local hamburger place. It sits there right in plain view, not disguised, looking like an M&M container, but since it was placed (about 8 months ago) it has never been muggled but has been found about 40 times. THese exemplify a feature I aim for in urban caches -- making them relatively easy to spot so that the only challenge is figuring out how to grab and sign without being noticed. Nothing worse than having to do a difficult hunt with many muggles around (though some like that too). To each his own. Hope this idea is interesting.

Thanks all -- I was completely unaware of the geocoin discussions component of the forums.