15Tango

Sorry for feeding the troll, but this log-- was on this cache--Bad old Putty Cat--I'm an enviromentalist myself, a member of the Sierra Club, and I was a Biology major in college with plenty of coursework in plant physiology, and after visiting the cache in question myself yesterday, I don't see anything wrong with it. I would consider anyone like cachecare/eagleXplorer taking it based on their own misguided principles to be theft.

Datum is singular because there is only one point on the Earth that is 0 deg. 0 min. 0 sec. and that zero point is the datum. Because the earth is ovoid and a map is flat, the different datums (i.e. WGS 84, NAD 83) are different interpretations of how point B relates to the datum. The datum is always where a north-south line bisecting Greenwich, England meets the equator.

This Bug was something I found in a cache, and after keeping it with the rest of my geocaching stuff for about 6 months, I ended up placing it in a cache as a trade item, then a while after that, I found it in a third cache. At that point, I finally decided to turn it into an official Travel Bug.

Been there, done that--after looking for a few caches that are no longer there and looking for a regular sized cache when I should have been looking for a micro, I've bookmarked the WAP site on my cell phone, and so far, it's saved me from wandering around in the woods with no apparent purpose.

On the main page, there's a button that says get the book, and clicking shows where you can order "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Geocaching" from Groundspeak or Amazon. Since I'm into instant gratification, I've gone to 3 different Barnes and Nobles in the Twin Cities, as well as one independent bookstore, and have to post a big fat DNF for each one. I've had clerks look it up for me, and they didn't find it on the computer, and I've tried to find it by scanning the shelves on my own. What genre would it be under anyhow? Travel? Sports? Computers? Has anybody else had any luck finding this book by physically going to a bookstore, or am I just going to have to order it on-line?

Does anybody know what that hand sign means in ASL?

Found cache in good condition. Took HEAT round, left Burger King Spiderman toy. TFTC!!!

Yes, they really call the trail "the SHT", and it really is--sometime soon, I hope to string together 3 or 4 weeks when I don't have any other responsibilities and thru-hike it myself--the best I've done so far is three of four sections over Labor Day weekend a few years ago. Of course, it helps to listen to some old George Carlin while heading up to hike the SHT--he has a commentary on the subject from the early-mid 70s. And, in defense of mtn-man--he is as current, if not more so, with State, County and Local park regulations in regards to geocaching as any Minnesota cacher, and has been up to our fine state seeking caches on many occassions. He is actually revered by many of us more active Minnesota cachers, and a local cacher has even launched a Travel Bug in his honor. I also applaud GC.com's policy of not approving so-called "vacation" caches for the same reasons that mtn-man stated--if you can't maintain the cache, you are littering (when the cache starts to degrade), and you are also taking up a 526 foot radius area where a local isn't able to place a cache.

I used to come to these forums daily, but our local geocaching association, Minnesota Geocacher's Association, has it's own forums, and those cover anything I'd be interested in. I don't even lurk here except for maybe once a month or so, or someone on our local forums will reference a thread here.

We have the same thing here in Mpls/St. Paul--there's been sightings that've made the local news of a black panther that's been sighted sporadically in the north metro.

The latest excuse is max pool limit reached--at least I'm no longer a deadlock victim. I made the mistake today of visiting 9 micros today with a Travel Bug before I visited a real cache, and made the mistake of logging it in and out of each micro--I've been logging my 11 finds and 1 DNF since 6pm, and it's now 8:40pm--maybe I should limit myself to 4 or 5 caches a day--that's how many I got logged before things got bogged down.

One of the best Midwest organizations out there--Minnesota Geocaching Association

After having a few events and meeting other local cachers in the area, I like reading more than TNLNSL--even though our paths cross online much more often than they do physically, I can get a better idea of what's happening with these individuals who have become my friends from a well written log. I would prefer a log that read "Your cache sucks, this park sucks, and your coordinates suck" than TNLNSL--at least that gives me a better idea of what I need to fix as far as my cache placement. But back on topic, the best (worst?) logbook entries have been "Took mechanical pencil, left McToy"--so okay, Einstein, how are the next finders going to sign the logbook? "N" is for Knowledge!!!

I had Guards last weekend, so I didn't have any caches to log, so I guess the site worked great for me. Today (or yesterday), I had 8 finds and 4 DNFs and they all went through with no problem.

I sent my eTrex Vista in because the rubber around the edge came unglued, and they replaced that, the screen, and they also found out the memory battery was leaking, so they changed that, all for no cost. With all they replaced, I'm wondering why they just didn't steam off the serial number sticker, put that on a different unit, load all my stuff back on the new unit, and send that one back to me.

Buy a "geocaching cloak of invisibility"--an orange safety vest. Muggles will assume you're out there in some kind of official capacity and leave you alone. If they do question you, any of the afore posted lies will work.

I think the etiquette is up to the approaching cachers, and not those already at the site. When you're at the site, you're sitting there pawing the trinkets, deciding if or what to trade for, reading the log, writing your own log entry, and basically distracted, and most likely don't even know you're being approached. I've approached other cachers already at the cache, and waited off a ways for them to finish. I've also met other cachers while they're still searching--I'll ask if I can join them, and if so I do, and if not, I'll agian wait until they're done with the cache or give up before I search.

I think your idea is great. If and when I get deployed, I would enjoy getting cards, letters, emails, etc. from people. Two questions--how much do you trust fellow cachers, and would you be comfortable posting his FPO and email here? If not, that's totally understandable, but it would give those of us from different areas an opportunity to send our support.

Where I work, the more I accidentally mess up and the more I bother management, the more likely I'll get noticed and thus the more likely I'll end up in the front of their minds when they have to pick someone for employee of the month--so if those warnings work by the same principle, it's a good thing, right?

Last September, I hit a pair of caches in an out-of-the-way park during the afternoon during the week, and had parked in one of two or three spots in the parking lot that was in the shade. I had the park all to myself when I got there, but when I got back to my car, there was a couple parked next to my car doing "that." But as far as finding people communing with nature back in the woods, I haven't yet, and I hope I don't. There are a few parks here in Minnesota known as meeting places for those who enjoy an alternative life style (not that there's anything wrong with that), and they have caches that I haven't found yet.

If we really are what we eat, then I'd be fast, cheap, and easy, especially if I actually stop to eat while caching. Famous Dave's BBQ or Fuddrucker's always works for a bite after caching, though--If I can't find one of those, anyplace with beer works.

Try telling anyone in health care about an easy BM (Bench Mark to us, something else to health care workers) you had.

Used my wap phone geocaching for the first time today--I'm maybe a little too detailed with my log entries, so I did those at home, but it worked great for seeing if the cache I was about to seek with an old cache page was still there, and not disabled, archived or with a different set of coordinates.

55102--St. Paul, Minnesota--481 caches in 20 mile radius

Snow caching is great--especially here, where mosquitoes are the state bird. I've only been skunked three times this winter, but on one of those, I saw later that the posted coords were off, so I'll be back. As far as geomuggles following the tracks and finding the cache, just wander a little ways off and leave some yellow snow--they'll follow the tracks, find the yellow snow, and figure that's why there are tracks leading off the main trail.