zihyer

I was faced with this exact dilemma until I read about the difficulties ppl had viewing the touchscreen screens in full sunlight. I ended up going w a 62st off ebay.

The clearance isle at walmart is always packed full of neat swaggable stuff at reasonable prices.

I've actually never made it past trying to understand why anyone would increase their stats. I guess I've always looked at stats as a byproduct or incidental of the hobby. Whatev's

Two visits to a cache location with no luck either time. The 2nd time we spent almost an hour while combining our visit with what evolved into a mass trash cleanup event. Three of us completely scouring the area determined to find the cache. Finally took a look at the log and saw that it was last "found it" log was well over two years prior with 6 DNFs piled up after it. Total derp moment but at least we got lots of trash picked up so it wasn't a total loss. In our defense, the first "visit" was a result of using that intersection as a spot to meet someone else for non-caching business. But still.. yeah, facepalm moment for sure.

Oh, did they change the guidelines? Can we only hide caches that everyone will like now? I could be mistaken but I interpreted Michaelcycle's response as his own preference to not participate. I don't think he was advocating whether or not lockpicking caches could be hidden.

Here's the King5 report: http://legacy.king5.com/story/news/local/2014/07/30/12872034/ I would venture to say they're definitely not environmentalists given their method of container/content disposal and choice of leaving behind obscenity-laden calling cards, etc. My guess is young 'uns looking to make a mark and get attention by pissing ppl off. No different than any other delinquent adolescent behavior. My prediction is that it lasts for a few months and dies out as they get bored and realize how much actual effort it's going to take to cleanse the world of geocaches.

Classy stuff right there. Hope it's just a elaborate troll. If not I'm kinda sad for the human race, in general. :/

1, 3 and 4 seem like things that may be resolved with a firmware update. Is it current? edit:: sorry, i missed that last comment about updating it. Well, i had an etrex vista (cx, i think), and i can't say it did any of those things. Sorry.

Good car GPS for caching discussions: GPS for the car.....can I do this? suggestions for a car unit to direct me to the cache area Car GPS for street navigation while Geocaching Using Car GPS to get close and then switch to hand held map questions before buying a GPS And, just in case you were wanting more of the gps/cell phone discussion, here's a few threads to peruse: Can a Smartphone Replace a Dedicated GPS? What GPS device do you use? Benefit of GPS device vs iPhone? Garmin GPSMAP 62ST vs IPhone 6

Another idea. If you have a local facebook site for selling things in your area, post a "wanted" or "LTB" ad there for a GPS. Post one for each - car and handheld. I did this and got several responses. Since almost everyone either uses their built-in car GPSs or phones to navigate now, lots of folks have their old car GPS units sitting in a box somewhere in their garage. You're almost guaranteed to get bites on an ad like that.

Your impressions are pretty much all correct. Looks like you've been doing your homework/research . Based on your concerns, here's what I would suggest: Go check out local pawn shops and do some searching on craigslist for used car GPSs. You can usually pick up a used car gps for next to nothing ($15-30) at a pawn shop. Leave that one mounted in the car for road navigation. For the GPSr to use for actual caching, I recommend the Garmin 62s or 62st. I scooped mine off of ebay for $100. It needed a new screen which i got off of amazon for $20. I'm in the same boat as you with the battery life on the cell phone. There are volumes of discussion to be found here on the boards regarding pros/cons of cell phone vs. GPSr so i won't even touch that here. edit: You could, in fact, get a high end handheld GPS and load it with maps to do navigation but I find they're just too small. Personally, i know the area i'm caching in. So once I see the cache online using the site map, I pretty much know the general area I'm going to so i'll just drive there. Once I'm close, I'll start spot-checking my location with th GPSr, get close, then park.

Was just reading through the "What irks you most" thread and came across this one: Figured I'd reference it here bc of relevance. Encountering ensuing thread drift as a result of that one would not be at all surprising..

Based on my post above, I don't understand your point of them having to live on forever but it sounds like we might be on the same page in that neither of us want to leave gooey white blobs all over the place. 100% with you on this point. However I do believe there is a comfortable midpoint between "only active owner does maintenance" and "everyone replace caches at the first sign of need". Also, I do like your point about turnover. If I ever reach a find count that approaches the total cache count for my area, I'm sure this will become more of a hot item for me. Definitely something I didn't consider before. Thanks for the insight.

First of all, I'd like to commend you on your choice to learn more about cache replacement and taking the time to ask for opinions. In a perfect [caching] world, everyone would do this. Bluf: I'd say it's a judgement call. I completely understand the tough love approach of urging owners to maintain their caches with NM and NA logs but isn't this a community - based activity? It's not like the CO receives any income or royalties from Geocaching.com for their cache. Ultimately, the one that suffers is the next cacher to come looking for a dry log to sign. And realistically the CO isn't going to be taught any lesson as a result of repeated NM's and NA's. If anything, they're more likely to just sour from the multiple visitors that were there and passed on the opportunity to help out by doing a little maintenance. Now maybe I'm a little too liberal with my willingness to help my fellow cacher and CO. If so, for that I'll stand guilty as charged. Personalities differ and that's not a bad thing at all. I'm not coming down on anyone's decision to not help out; just tossing out my $0.02 on the matter. What I would do is check the logs. If it's a good hide, fun cache and therefore an asset to the community, and several folks have chimed in about wet logs, old broken container no longer holding out water and elements, etc.. well then maybe a replacement is in order. It's possible the CO has fallen ill, been deployed, temporarily relocated.. who knows what. And to be clear, I'm talking about the short term. Obviously, after several log replacements and a few months of unanswered NMs then maybe a transfer or archive is in order. And perhaps that is the central point that needs defining here... "What is a reasonable amount of time to respond to a NM?" Whatever you choose to do though, I would highly recommend being as transparent about it as possible. Log what you did and keep the old container in case the owner would like it returned and cache log (if it can't be moved to the new container). FWIW, someone replaced a container on one of my caches and posted that he did so bc of the container condition. I was very thankful for the maintenance and kind note of the work done. As stated, it's possible not all COs would receive such a gesture with the same attitude. YMMV absolutely applies here.

Great job on these! I really love the thought and effort you put into them and hope to find them one day since I'm just an hour or so south of you. That being said, you may want to edit out some of the actual answers. All the videos I've seen online about caches like this have things like clues, answers and hints edited out or covered. Not sure if this is to comply with an actual guideline.. it's probably more just to keep folks from skipping over parts of the cache and going right to the end. Thanks for sharing!

Many thanks for all the thoughtful insight friends. I've probably spent way more time thinking about this than I should. My thinking was that if I was a guy just out to steal ammo cans, once I learned the trick about just going on this cool website that just hands out coordinates of free loot at no charge, that would absolutely be my go-to source for free swag. Given the remote and [very] off the beaten path nature of my muggled can, I'd wager quite a bit that it was someone w a GPS using gc.com in some capacity. Someone pointed out that maybe it was someone after the benchmarker. Honestly, I didn't even know that was a thing. Bc from that marker, the can wouldn't be hard to spot. The interesting thing is that they took out the original tin (Altoids tin) from the ammo can and left it. At any rate, I really like the suggestion about making them multis. I'll probably go that route. macatac1961's comment kinda hits it home for me. cerberus1, Just out of curiosity, how did you all catch the guy stealing cans in your area? Was there a thread about it? Thanks again everyone. Really appreciate the suggestions and "notes from the field".

Thanks for all the great input! Just the stuff I needed. As someone who has reaped the benefits of free membership for as long as I have, I wouldn't feel right submitting all my new caches as pmo when I get to that stage. That being said, I wouldn't be too upset over losing an Altoids tin but these things I've been preparing to place are just too cool. I'm really stoked about sharing them; especially since they're military - oriented and this is a military town with a rich Army history. It'd be a shame if they all got stolen and I think it'd be worth doing all i could to preserve them. Thanks much for the answer. That makes me wonder though.. if/when my premium subscription expires and I don't renew, would I be able to maintain or even view my pmo caches? Really appreciate the answers and insight on this friends!

Hello I'm Zihyer and, as my post count and join date would indicate, I am a lurker. As you were.

Has there been any evidence or metrics to support whether or not posting a cache as premium would have a less likelihood of it getting stolen? I'm asking bc I became somewhat disenchanted over caching after having a large ammo box stolen from one of my hides. I eventually lost interest in caching altogether and dropped out for several years. Lame excuse, meh,.. Probably but I had researched the old airfield, put in satellite and ground photos of the old bombers, barracks and other facilities from when it was operational. It was a seriously cool find right next to a geodetic marker.. really cool stuff. Ok, rant done. Main reason I'm asking is that I've acquired some very interesting objects that I plan to use as containers for a series and it would really suck if they were pilfered. As a follow-on question, can I change an existing cache to premium? Obviously anyone that has saved it before would have the old coordinates but I'm wondering if that attribute can be changed. (And yes, I realize I'm not premium. It's on the to-do list. I've recently upgraded my gps and, in doing so, exhausted all the resources I have been allotted for GC'ing for a month or two ).

I've read this entire thread and, in doing so, feel I have learned quite a bit about cachers. That being said, the above quote perfectly sums up how I feel about the whole FTF game. It's meant to be fun. If it's not fun for you then maybe there's something better suited for your idea of a good time. Don't sweat the little stuff and yeah... this is the little stuff. "No one here gets out alive" jm

Also, fwiw, I really appreciate this thread and all the photos and discussion in it. It does allot for helping newcomers [however relative] to caching learn.

Honestly, I really think most of this stuff boils down to common sense; or rather it should. Are you harming a live tree with a nail? Probably not but the bigger picture is perceptions. With the way things are these days, it would take much less than a single case of a land owner finding a couple nails pounded into one of his trees to cause a complete debacle for the GC community. Just like in the rock climbing world: every time one guy or group goes out and does something stupid, it makes us all look like reckless idiots w no regard for our own lives. On the burying thing my $0.02 (fwiw) is 1.)Don't dig up other people's land or yard and 2.)Don't require cachers to use a shovel to find your cache. The guidelines are a little more blanket than that but that's just my opinion on it. Personally, I would really enjoy finding a cache in a tube or irrigation box buried in the ground. That just sounds like fun hiding and finding to me. As far as this one: ...two points: 1.) I cache w my 10yr old daughter almost exclusively and I wouldn't let her start probing around a utility substation... period. If it didn't jump out at me at first glance at a site like that, it's a DNF. I've heard of way too many accidents happening from loose grounds and what not. As a child I actually stepped into a muddy area (just wet dirt, actually) that had current running to it somehow from a nearby transformer. It was apparently the result of a hot to ground leak or something. Scary stuff and that's ofc an extreme example but hides attached to high voltage receptacles, panels and substations aren't my idea of safe caching. The lesson I'd rather teach my little one is to respect such things and keep away from them. (yes I realize that cuts out several thousand caches for us and yeah,.. I'm ok w that) 2.) To play devil's advocate, lets say maintenance on that substation involved removal of or maintenance on the 2nd or 3rd conduit from the right on that unistrut. Do conduits ever get labeled or referred to that way? Probably not in a CM document or anything but maybe over the phone from a supervisor, manager, coworker or something. This one's just me talking as a non-electrician. I could be way out in left field - who knows.. just throwing it out there that the hide probably isn't worth the potential repercussions.

I can relate 100% w Lisquo here. I tried when my daughter was about 5 and to be honest, it really didn't click w her. Now that she's 10 I tried again and she is absolutely in love with it. Now having said that and in hindsight, what I could have done to make it more interesting for her is (like Fuzziebear said) plant some goodies and stick to regular or large caches that actually are going to have stuff and not just a rolled up log. Also what you could do, since you have multiple little ones, is give them each a fanny pack and get them all some tradeable items to start with. I took my little one to Walmart and hit up the clearance isle for little knick knack things. I'm thinking once they each have their own little caching kit, the contents of which changes with each trip, they'll be more into it. My daughter really gets into the trading aspect of it. She's alwasys asking me stuff like "Do you think this key is worth about the same as this [plastic] gem?". And now that we're back into the game and she's learned all about it, she wants to start placing more of our own. Good luck and be sure to report back in with what worked for you and what didn't. Have fun!

Just what i needed. Thanks for the explanation!

Is it possible to get notifications of newly published caches in an area? After roughly a thousand years of inactivity, I'm thinking of getting back into caching. I'm curious though, when I submit a new cache, how much of an edge can people have to get the FTF? Can they configure their profile to get an email when something new is published in a given radius/area so they can just run out and snag it as soon as it pops up? Or do they have to periodically scour their local listings for new caches? Thanks! Zi