Firespinner

There are several times I've NOT logged a DNF, and it has NEVER been because of laziness or for ego-protection. The one's I've NOT logged: 1. I stopped by on the way home from work and only had 5 minutes to cache because I had to get somewhere, so I felt my hunt was half-a**ed anyway and I didn't want to cause a cache owner to think it was muggled since its just because I didn't make a good attempt. 2. I didn't have a GPS and was just 'guestimating' based on the map. Again, didn't want the cache owner or other cachers to think it had been muggled. Most likely, it was there and I was in the wrong spot because I didn't have a GPS yet. 3. Stopped by and there were too many muggles for me to get out of the car and walk into the bushes without arousing suspision in this type of area...so I didn't even leave the car. I only feel a DNF shoudl be logged if I got out and got into the vacinity of where the cache was supposed to be. But if I had gone twice and there were too many muggles to get in the vacinity and I was sucessful on the third try, I might say something in my log about finding it on my third attempt. It doesn't mean my first two attempts qualifiy as a DNF since it was my lack of stealth that kept me out of the area. 4. and numerous times I've been out with the husband or kids and something comes up so that I can't make a full-fledged attempt. Again, this doesn't mean its a DNF since I didn't get the chance to look, but in a later successful log I might mention that this was my second attempt....it IS my second attempt, but the original one wasn't an actual hunt so doesn't warrant a DNF.

When did you get these hosted on this site? I have contacted that site owner 3 times over the past several months about getting sig items listed, but they never respond. I thought they must have stopped doing it.

I've seen people talking about using shrinky dinks as sig items. You can get clear shrinky dink pages, color your own designs on them and bake! I think I'm gonna try it. For now I'm making beaded necklaces as sig items.

Also. not only are they often on the back of guardrails/ signs but sometimes they're painted to look like part of somethign else. The one i found was painted silver and was located just above where the garbage can attached to a light pole in a store parking lot. It was painted and located to look like part of the bolt mechanism holding the can on to the pole.

Good idea! Do you have their email address? The parents cached under the same account name as the teens (if they cached at all). That's the only contact info I have. The emails go unanswered--and the account has been logged into recently. The last time before this was February, but they've been online in the last week. I don't know them. I assumed since you know that the teen caches with their parent that you knew something about them. In other topics like this back in the fall someone was talking about a situation like this, but the parents and kids had seperate accounts. I thought that was the same in this case. The people emailed the parents and the problem was quickly solved. If in this case they are using the same account, you're probably out of luck considering the teen probably is the one logging in and getting the emails. Sorry it didn't work for you.

I'm not sure what you mean "back where you last picked up the coin/bug". Once the traveler is logged into a cache the mileage will be between that cache and the last one. Sometimes there's no cache close enough to show where the hand-off happened. That's just the way it goes. I think that's what he meant. From my original example, it will look like the bug traveled from OH straight to CA without traversing through TN...but we aren't geocaching when we meet up...we're just meeting up and helping bugs travel cross country...we won't actually be caching in TN.

I would say, a VERY polite email...but to the PARENTS, not the teen. Typically, that would get more action.

Thanks! :-) I can always count on these forums to give quick answers from many people! :-) Thanks again.

yeah...we would be unable to go to a cache anywhere in the area. Many people have explained the 'grab' method of logging, and we'll probably just do that even though it won't make the mileage extremely accurate.

Thanks! I didn't know how much the 'milage' accuracy was important since in my example, that would show mileage from CA to OH without counting the mileage from TN. Thanks for the info. :-)

Same here... when we find one, we check the history and then we usually follow them for a little while afterwards. So far we haven't put a formal watch on one, but might do so if I continued following one's progress for a while. Me too. I figure that this is a common practice. I like to see where they go after I set them on their way.

This has probably been asked before, but I need a quick answer and can't find one in recent topics. (and I'm posting in the TB board too since it applies to both) I am going somewhere soon where lots of people will be gathering from all over the US. A subgroup of us who like geocaching will be getting together to chat and meet. I would like to trade any traveling coins from my area for others from people who are far away. That way, we get people's coins to move far and can likely help many on their way to a goal. Here's the dilema..... The place we are going is a private get-together on private land. The coordinates of this place are not to be posted at all. I know the milage will be off because of this, but what would be proper protocol on how to log this trade? For example....I live in Ohio. Say this gathering is happening in Tennessee. Someone from California comes and we trade coins. Then she takes the ones I gave her back home to Cali and releases them there, while I take hers back to Ohio for release. Is there a way to just mark that she passed them off to me without logging coordinates? These will not be put in a cache during our trade...it will just pass hands. I don't want to log these as coordinates, because there is NO cache in the location we are meeting. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

This has probably been asked before, but I need a quick answer and can't find one in recent topics. (and I'm posting in the geocoin board too.) I am going somewhere soon where lots of people will be gathering from all over the US. A subgroup of us who like geocaching will be getting together to chat and meet. I would like to trade any traveling TB's from my area for others from people who are far away. That way, we get people's TB's to move far and can likely help many on their way to a goal. Here's the dilema..... The place we are going is a private get-together on private land. The coordinates of this place are not to be posted at all. I know the milage will be off because of this, but what would be proper protocol on how to log this trade? For example....I live in Ohio. Say this gathering is happening in Tennessee. Someone from California comes and we trade TB's. Then she takes the ones I gave her back home to Cali and releases them there, while I take hers back to Ohio for release. Is there a way to just mark that she passed them off to me without logging coordinates? These will not be put in a cache during our trade...it will just pass hands. I don't want to log these as coordinates, because there is NO cache in the location we are meeting. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

standard and easiest geocacher disguise...... put your GPS unit to your ear. Laugh and talk. Pretend its a cell phone, and wander *presumably* aimlessly while talking and kicking rocks.

I just saw other people mentioning the light-pole caches. Once I pulled up in Meijer at a light pole with a garbage can attached. I could clearly see the cache (disguised to look like the bolt assembly holding the can to the pole). I could also clearly see the cop parked 2 spaces away. I still got the cache, without being noticed. It was a good excuse to clean out the car! I filled a small bag with reciepts and empty fast food papers (my husband always leaves those in the car........grrrrrrr). I got out and with one hand threw the bag in the trash while the other hand reached up and snagged the cache. Back in the car, I took it apart, signed the log, then complied another small bag of papers and repeated the trash can procedure while replacing the cache. :-) Usually if you look like you have a purpose, and don't glance around suspiciously, you can play it off and not be nocticed.

I use the gps as a pretend cell phone technique a LOT! Once I get in the area, I also tie my shoes frequently. Once I was several feet into the woods off the bike trail when a woman came up walking her dog. She wanted to know what I was doing and I said I saw a stray kitty. I then asked her to move on because I was afraid her dog would scare it off and I wanted to make sure it was ok. I then squatted, stared into the woods at nothing while saying "here kitty....its ok" until the woman moved on and was out of ear shot. lol. This technique would work if a muggle has a dog.....but would only get you more attention if they have kids with them, so use it carefully. Another good excuse (if they see you looking under rocks/ rotted logs..etc) is to say that its a school (yours or your kids depending on which lie you could get away with) science project and you're looking for bugs.

Has anyone sucessfully fixed a "Failed to create UDS Manager" error on a Triton? I have a new Triton 400 and it worked great. I really liked it. It was rugged, easy to use, VERY accurate and in general lots of fun. It's my first GPS and I was surprised at how easy the 'basics' were to figure out. Anyway, I connected to vantagepoint (my computer uses Vista 32 bit) properly after setting the connection setting to 'vantage point' in the triton unit. It then it said that I had Firmware 1.30 and that the 1.31 upgrade was available. I accepted the upgrade but partially through the upgrade, it suddenly stopped recognizing my Triton and said the GPS wasn't connected. Since it was stuck there, I cancelled the upgrade. I then disconnected my triton, powered it off and on and got a "failed to create UDS manager" error. It wouldn't do anything else. So I pushed a bunch of random buttons, removed the batteries for a while, reinstalled them, pushed around on it and somehow I fixed it. Then, I checked and it had reset the 'connectivity' to something else other than the vantagepoint option, so i thought that was the problem. So I hooked it back up and it was working again, then vantage point again said the 1.31 upgrade as available. Since I thought I had found the problem earlier, I thought it would work this time...so I accepted the upgrade again. The same thing happened, and now it just gives me the "failed to create UDS manager". I cannot figure out which random button things I did before that reset it. So i called customer support and they had me do a reset (holding the escape, enter and power buttons at the same time). That didn't fix the problem so he wants me to send it in for repair. I told the guy that I was a bit afraid to send it in for repair because I had heard many people having problems getting their repaired units back and I didn't want to send mine in and never see it again or have to wait 6 weeks without a GPS. He said he understood so he gave me a fax# and a case# and told me that if I faxed my proof of purchase to with the case#, they would send me a new Triton 400. He said I would then send mine back, but not until I got the new one first. I am ok with that since that way I will get one before I give this one up, but it still seems stupid that I would need to send this back because of a software issue. It worked PERFECT before I tried to upgrade. I KNOW I fixed it the first time this happened but I don't know how! Has anyone else had this error and fixed it themselves? And please, Magellan bashers, I don't really need a bunch of replies of "Magellan sucks", or rants about their customer service. That isn't helpful, its really a broken record, and only makes people roll their eyes and wonder how much Garmin stock you own.

I'm new and I'm still totally jazzed about it, but I had to put my caching on hold due to a knee injury that isn't healing. I know many people who like the idea of caching but aren't 'in to ' it enough to do it in the cold icky weather months. Hopefully my knee will get healed enough to do some soon....I am in possesion of someone's coin and I need to release it.

Sounds like it's pretty impossible to physically sign a log book in a cache and have it be deemed a 'bogus' log. Bogus logs are on the website, not in the cache. I can see caching without a GPSr being more of a challenge but fun none the less. The main thing I can see you missing out on is multi-caches. Kind of tough to go find a stage, get new coords, run somewhere and plot them out, run back out and get the next stage... etc. And the one bonus you have is you don't have a GPSr who LIES to you like Mr. Garmin often does to me.... "Hey, the cache is right over here 15-feet.... yeah, right there.... WAIT.... I meant 28-feet back this other way.... yeah, right there.... NO WAIT... I mean 65-feet back this different way...." GRRRRRRR........ hehehehe I guess I worded it wrong or ambiguous because you misunderstood what I was saying. I should worded it "A bogus log according to most is a log on the website claiming you found the cache when you in fact did not physically go out and find it and sign the paper log. It is more of a challenge without a GPSr, but is definately still TONS of fun. I do miss out on the mulit-caches and caches which are in the woods and don't have lots of hints on the online comments/ log page.

it's not a bogus log if someone finds your cache without a GPS. A bogus log according to most is a log claiming you found the cache when you in fact did not physically go out and find it. I am new and I have 8 finds to my name. I dont' have a GPS unit. At first, I could not afford one. Now I'm waiting for a specific model to make it to a local store in my area. The fact that someone can't afford to buy a GPS should not mean that they can't enjoy the fun of geocaching. As long as they're following the rules (sign log, dont' move the cache,..etc) then it should be ok. Most people don't own handheld units PRIOR to needing/ wanting one. And thus, most new people to geocaching aren't in possession of a GPS unit when they first find out about the game. I would think that they probably try a few first to decide whether they'll want to play long term. Most people wouldn't run right out and buy a $100+ tool for easier clam schucking until they've shucked a few clams by hand first to see if it's something they'll enjoy doing. The only thing I do differently since I don't own a GPSr yet, is that if I hunt in the suspected area and don't find the cache, I don't log a DNF since I don't have a way to make certain that I'm in the correct area. I might log something still on the cache page, but I used the note function insted of the DNF frown face, and I explain that I didn't have a GPSr with me.

Usually, weather (heavy rain or temperatures/ windchills below 30 F.) or work/family commitments. right now.....a bum knee, crutches and a blown engine in my truck. :-( It has not been a good month.

A woman was walking with her big dog on the bike trail and asked what I was doing (I was tromping through woods/ bushes a couple yards off the paved bike path). Seeing the dog, I quickly asked her to continue on her way and explained that I was trying to get a skinny stray cat to come to me so I could check it and make sure it was ok. I told her that it was starting to come near, and then darted further into the woods when it saw the dog. She continued down the path, and I started into the woods at nothing saying "here kitty kitty....its ok" until she was out of sight and ear-shot.

double post...computer is flaky today

I've seen logs online where there is a note instead of a smiley and it just says "bug drop". I always thought it was the cache owner just noting that they visited their own cache and left a travel bug.....but I bet it would apply to this situation as well. If you're worried about logging a 'found it' smiley again, you could use the note funtion instead and explain you've found it in the past but were just revisiting to drop a bug. :-)

I've never been caught with 'cache in hand'. I've only been 'spotted' twice along the trail, both times by muggles. The first time I was with some friends and some lady shouted out "Are you looking for something?" (she could see us from her house but we WERE on public park property.) My friend shouted back "yea, a box" and left it at that. I'm sure the woman wondered about that for the rest of the day. The other time I was off a paved bike trail about 5 feet into the woods when a woman walking her dog on the trail stopped and asked what i was doing. I told her not to come closer with the dog because I had seen a skinny stray cat and I was trying to see if it was ok. I stared off into the woods at nothing and kept calling "its ok kitty......come here". Now wanting to scare the cat off further, she quickly moved on and i continued the cache hunt.