happypete

I'd also point out that we've stopped writing to ourselves...my logs used to be much longer, the more caches I find, the less I write down...

I've only run into fellow cachers once, but some sort of hat-type uniform would be awesome. I guess anyone wandering in circles with a GPS is a pretty good indicator.

Welcome aboard! I would like to tell you that the initial enthusiasm for a new activity will pass and you can resume your previous life. I would like to tell you that. The awesomeness just doesn't work like that...so much free time to spend staring at trees looking for their micros! The world is vast, and full of caches...

This depends a lot on your environment. I currently use a Delorme PN-40, which works pretty well with certain reservations more appropriate to a different thread... It's bright orange color is a great asset (for when some thorn plant steals it) in rural Ohio. If I lived in, let's say Chicago, I'd want an Iphone to blend in, and a totally different set of gear. My current daypack would have to be traded out for something that would blend into an urban environment. There's a lot that goes into caching, but the first principle is stealth...and blending into your environment requires you to study it in the first place. Hope you find something that works for you! Post it when you do!

I don't often log my DNF's. I usually assume they are my own fault, and that no one in general will benifit from hearing about how thick I am. That said, sometimes you get to a place where you have zero'd in with the gps, taken care to read the previous logs and the hint, and still fail...these will often turn up muggled or missing. How to tell the difference, it seems to me, is really the question. Logging the former is nice but, well, trivial. Logging the latter potentially saves people loads of time repeating your futile quest, or get the OP to head up some maintenance work. I dont' have a hard or fast rule, I wish I did. The longer I do this, the better my "geosense" becomes, and the better decisions I make regarding stuff that's broken vs. stuff that I'm failing to find. Your thoughts appreciated.

I have had this experience exactly once, met a couple of cachers out together approaching from a different direction from me. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed this doesn't happen more often. There aren't that many cachers around me, and it would be great to meet more of them. The interesting problem this one occasion presented was this: I spotted the cache almost immediately, and they started wandering around about 40' off...do you tell them where it is? Do you let them find it themselves? In my case, I asked what they would prefer, and they were happy to have me point it out, but the whole thing still seems a neglected area of protocol... Thoughts appreciated!

On the whole, yes definitely... But I think it also depends on the hide. If your cache is 4 miles up a hill all on its own, the people who head up there after it are far more likely to leave longer log entries IME. I certainly doesn't help that in my area many recently published caches (not just the micros) ask for finders to leave only thier names and a date, to extend the life of the log. Reasonable for micros, but kinda silly for anything larger, it seems to me. Anyway, interesting thread.

OK, I guess it's time I said Hi. I've been one of those "lurkers" for a while now, and honestly I've never posted before mostly because caching is mostly a real-world activity for me, and rather too many posters in here seem oddly hostile about various things with regard to a hobby I find to be both relaxed and relaxing. I don't remember exactly what got me started doing this...it may just have been an excuse to buy a GPS, but it quickly became a different way to see the world, seeking out its neglected corners and seeing the magnetic key holder under a handrail that the thousands of people who pass by every day not looking for it have missed for years... I've certainly been frustrated by a few caches over the years, but never to the point of being angry at the people who hid them. Anyway, howdy all!