Zor

It's a mixed bag for me. Generally, I put good comments and talk about my adventure finding the cache. I never say anything nasty or ill-willed towards the CO but there are times where I'll say something that could be construed as negative. Found it, albeit I was pretty ... annoyed by how far back it was. Had a heck of a time trying to find a way to get my short legs and arms to straddle enough to grab it. Should have had rubber boots. Would have made it easier. TFTC I wrote that log about a magnetic keyholder cache that the previous finder had put WAY too far back in the tunnel making it almost impossible to get to. I was VERY irritated but it had nothing to do with the cache owner. I have seen some caches that were in REALLY bad locations and have been very tempted to put a note about it in my log but I have refrained.

If by validated you mean they registered and then clicked the validation link in the email, I believe this user was validated. I could be mistaken, but aren't users who aren't validated shown as such on their profile? If they are, the previous "Zor" did not have any such mention on his account.

I'm on the same page as you. I have gone to places where I was absolutely positive the cache was supposed to be there but it wasn't so I did a DNF. But I have also found caches where the log sheet was SO soaked I couldn't sign it and I logged that as a find since I did find the cache. For me, and this is just my opinion, if I "find" the cache, as in I find the container, or see the container when I'm with a group caching together, or I find what I know to be the remains of the cache, I log it as a find. To me it's all about finding the actual container and if I can find the container, or what remains of the container, I log it. In some cases where I couldn't sign the log or the cache was half missing, I have taken photos and sent them to the owner to confirm my find and so they would know what the situation was.

Well folks, apparently it CAN be done. I sent an email to GC and within a matter of a few days, I am now Zor instead of ^Zor^. HUGE thanks out to GC for doing this for me.

I decided to post this in here even though I've been caching for a few years because I figured it made more sense here. My username is ^Zor^. When I signed up for my account back in November of 2007, I tried to use the name "Zor" but it was already taken so I used the ^'s to keep my name but make it distinctive from the other username. When I looked at this user's profile, it said that the day of their last activity was the day they opened their account. Today, that user is still not active and has still not come back to the website since the day they activated their account. They have logged no finds and have no activity of any kind on that account. I think it might even be possible that this was set up by myself the previous year when I was doing a little bit of research about geocaching but didn't get into it until a year later. I have tried to send messages to this user to see if they are still active (and to see if perhaps the account was mine and I would receive the message myself) but have received no messages back. I am wondering if there is any rule or precedent for being able to change your username to a name that is already taken, but clearly not in use. Is this possible? It's not a big deal for me to be registered as ^Zor^ but I am wondering if it is possible for me to change to Zor since the other user obviously isn't coming back.

Actually the icon associated with the travel bug depends on whoever purchased the trackable codes, not the "type" of traveler. When I did some research for my own poker chip signature item, I inquired GSP about this and they told me that normally you submit whatever the art/trackable will look like to them, and if they approve it, you can buy trackable codes which you then print on whatever. When you buy those codes, you also have the ability to buy the icon for $150. I've never purchased the codes or icons before but I may in the future. I have four travel bugs in circulation (dog tag style) that do not have the standard dog tag icon. Here is a link to one of my TB's that has a customized dogtag. Canadian retailer Landsharkz had them done so they are slightly different than the typical tags but basically the same thing. The end result being, you don't have control over the icon, whoever purchased the trackable code does.

I have 75 hides, 21 of which are archived. For me, I actually intend to hide a whole lot more within the next year. In fact, I am planning on a long series of 100 caches. Maintenance for me is a non-issue. Of the active caches I have now, many of them are large ammo cans out in the woods. I hid them in good places and used good containers to insure they would last a long time. I don't want to have to go do maintenance in those places often. I don't do maintenance runs on caches. I watch and read every log that gets posted and if I see something that is of a concern, I investigate. If I hear a cache is in bad shape, I replace it or archive it within a few weeks. If I get a bunch of DNF's, I disable and check it out and if it needs maintenance, I do it. Any caches that get an NM log, I check out within a few weeks to see if it really is bad. Just recently I found one of my caches that was in BAD shape so I replaced all the contents within a few days. I think if you are hiding a lot of caches, you need to make sure that the means by which you hide them are good and solid, and that if you do NEED to maintain them, you can and are willing to do so. Some cache hides don't really need that much maintenance, or any maintenance unless something goes drastically wrong with them. More than 60% of my caches have never needed maintenance because of where and how I hide them. If I hid a cache that was a several mile hike into the woods, I would make sure the container will last and not just hide some crappy 35mm canister. If you don't plan on going back for awhile, but you want others to see the area, make sure the container is good and solid.

The only thing I was told when I did something similar was to "try" and keep the start coords a bit off from a physical container so that people who find the physical cache, don't accidentally log the Wherigo. Kind of makes sense.

I've tried to run 3 or 4 today with no luck. No GPX, no email, nothing. Just says "Never" as last time it ran. Second time this week this has happened. Very frustrating to not get PQ's since that what we pay for.

Windoze??? Really??? Why aren't you guys using a real operating system....Like Linux. Good luck with the "hotfixes". Nothing works for me sometimes and other times it's brutally slow. The only question I have is why GC chooses to do these updates in the middle of the day? Any other reputable sitemaster does this stuff during non-peak hours. This was definitely not done during non-peak hours. I'm not griping at folks just wondering why the decision was made to do it during regular business hours?

I just ran three different PQ's and none of the emails have come through. I had a PQ run this morning fine but both my 2 regular PQ's plus my "my finds" pq have not generated any email messages. Anyone else having this problem again? No, it's not going to my spam folder either. I always get my PQ emails within minutes of them running. Just wondering.

I've been caching for more than a year now and what you described is exactly how I felt the first few times I went out. The first night I went caching by myself, I went all over the city looking for caches and after something like 2-4 hours, I only came up with one find. For awhile, I was convinced that either my GPS was way off, or I was doing something wrong. I almost gave up on the sport entirely. But, I persisted and it got easier. Under normal circumstances, I would say that I never spent more than 20 minutes looking for a cache. It depends on the cache itself, and the situation. If I'm in an urban setting, I might look and look and give up in 5 minutes simply because I want to hit more. But if I'm in the middle of the woods doing a long series of caches, I look harder because I don't necessarily want to have a DNF in the middle of a series. All of the suggestions on this thread are good. What I found REALLY helpful was to pick say 2 or 3 caches that I want to try and go for, read the descriptions thoroughly, grab the hint, and read the logs, and make sure that it seems like it's a cache I can get. Then I would go out and get them. Once I did 10-20 caches, I started to get the hang of what to look for. Also consider GPS accuracy and when the cache was hidden. If the cache is old (say 4 years), then it was likely hidden with a GPS that is not as accurate as the ones we have today. Your GPS may be accurate to 2 yards, but the one used to hide the cache may have been accurate to 5 yards. It makes a huge difference when you're trying to find a cache. I usually try to zero in as close as I can and if I don't find it right away, I start spiraling outward to see if I can find it. I've found caches that were 25 yards away from GZ. Oh ya, something else. When I first started, I kept expecting that the GPS would lead me to the EXACT location and I wouldn't have to look too hard. What you find is that the GPS gets you pretty close, but then you basically put the unit away, and start looking. It definitely helps you too if you think "where would I hide it? where would be a good place to hide a cache?". Once I realized that I needed to search a bit without the GPS, it helped vastly.

My all time favorite "stealth" was when I was down in the US for work and thought I'd go out one night and do some caching. The GPS led me to this mall where there were a lot of cars and a sort of hedge between two sections of parking lot. GZ was in the bushes so I knew I'd have to dig through them to find the cache. With lots of people around, I literally through my rental car keys into the bush, and then had an "excuse" to be rummaging around.

You said exactly what I was thinking. I also have both the Ibycus and NAV2009. I use the Ibycus exclusively for caching. I always have both the NAV map and the Ibycus map loaded on my GPS but if I am going out caching, I put the Ibycus map on and it has served me VERY well. I used to have the Canadian Topo but I found it to be outdated and crappy. The NAV09 is great for POI's and definitely for autorouting when you need directions. Not so great for being in the middle of the woods.

Hey folks, I will be in Cincinnati next week for a few days and am looking to pick up as many TB's/geocoins as I can to give them some mileage. I'm from Moncton, NB, Canada (about 5 hours east by car from Bangor Maine) and will be bringing a pile of TB's up to Cincinnati and want to try and grab some to take back with me. I've got a PQ of the area so I'll try and hit as many caches as I can that have TB's but if anyone has any suggestions on where I can get some, or has a pile they want to put some major mileage on, let me know. Thanks. - Zor

Well, I've used three different units. Legend HCx, Oregon 300, and a Colorado. Heard a ton of great stuff about the Delorme GPS's but they don't do maps in Canada so I'd never bother. My HCx is an awesome unit. I've managed now to get 2 meter accuracy with that little unit and I love it. Works real good and is dependable. No it doesn't have an electronic compass but I have never had a use for one so can't see why it would be such a big deal. Plus I've heard that many units with the electronic compass require calibrating time and time again. Not sure why. Colorado & Oregon were both nice and excellent units. I can speak from experience to the post about Wherigo caches. They are hit and miss on an Oregon. Some work great, others not at all. No issues on the Colorado at all. I love the idea of field notes on both the Colorado and Oregon. Would love to see this on the HCx. Makes remembering caches far easier when you do a LOT of them in one day. I didn't like the fact that the screen on the Oregon was somewhat dim and the battery life was not very good. I also couldn't seem to find the "Satellite" screen that exists on the HCx to check my accuracy. I did however love the paperless aspect. Having everything in a single unit was great. I have also heard that the Colorado has issues with the "dial" but I don't know for sure. Regardless, I still have my HCx and it is the unit I use everytime I go caching. Love it and I will probably hold off on buying another unit until I know a bit more about them

Same here. 4 PQ's and no emails. Real useful.

Mine's doing basically the same thing. I went to update the link to my Wherigo cartridge and put this in the listing (xxxx is the code to the cart which I've removed for this post): <p>In order to find this cache, you will need to download and install the Wherigo cartridge from <a href="http://www.Wherigo.com/cartridge/details.aspx?CGUID=xxxx">this</a>'>http://www.Wherigo.com/cartridge/details.aspx?CGUID=xxxx">this</a> link. It's translating to: In order to find this cache, you will need to download and install the Wherigo cartridge from "http://www.Wherigo.com/cartridge/details.aspx?CGUID=xxxx">this link. First time I've ever seen this issue.

If I can make a suggestion, the topo canada maps from Garmin are WAY outdated now. You can get the Ibycus topo maps for free. Just google ibycus topo and you'll find the site easily. I use these exclusively for all my caching here in New Brunswick.

You have a couple of options. First off, one of the other posters said that most people don't care. This is more true than you may realize. In a lot of cases, people will give you a quick glance, and move on, not caring what you are doing. I have had some people ask me "Did you lose something?" and I've said, "Nope. I'm good. Thanks anyway" and went back to looking and they moved on. It's amazing how people will just leave you alone despite the fact that you might look weird walking in circles. If you're overly concerned about it, buy yourself one of those orange/yellow vests that construction workers wear. When doing urban caches, put that on. If people see you, they'll assume you're some sort of city/town worker and ignore you completely. Even add a hard hat for good measure. I've done the whole "talk into my GPS like it's a cell phone thing" and it does work too although that sometimes makes me feel a bit weird. Harmless but weird for me somehow.

I can say from my own experience that what people are saying about location is totally true. I have caches in all sizes from nanos to 5gal buckets and the larger ones are always in the woods, or in places with almost no people. None of those hides has gone missing, yet. When I first started out, I hid 11 nanos in those bus stop shelters throughout the city. Of the 11, only 6 remain. Within a few weeks of having them published, I already had one or two go missing. It was a neat idea, but ultimately it didn't work so well because the caches still got muggled, or got lost easily in severe weather. I chalk it up to a learning experience. The ones that are left are in bus shelters that are used far less frequently than the others, hence they have stuck around longer. If you want to hide caches that have tradeables and such, then you're going to need to find good places to hide them, where they won't get discovered by prying eyes.

As I expected, the point I was trying to make was completely missed. I did however get an answer about how the adoption thing works. Thanks for the link.

I have to say that personally, I go through stages of both. Just a few weeks ago, I was super into finding. Took a trip to another local city and cached for 2.5 days straight. Month or so ago before that, I went out and hid 8 caches in a day. Some traditional, a multi, and a letterbox. I enjoy both for different reasons. I like the finding for the sake of finding something neat in a unique location, although there are times that I am purely looking to get my numbers up or hit a certain milestone. Other times, the finding is all about just killing time and enjoying the outdoors. Hiding however is different. I like to hide caches to bring people to different parts of my city. I also like hiding some unique urban hides, and have even done some comical ones (5 gallon bucket painted up to look like a giant 35mm canister). I really do enjoy the logs and seeing what people think of the caches I hide. I would rather hide caches that people can find then hide an "evil" cache that no one can find. I have one puzzle cache that I will probably archive because it's extremely hard to decode the puzzle and there's only been 9 finds in more than 6 months. I really don't like having caches that people can't find. In fact, I'm going to archive the one I just mentioned. Regardless, for me, it's really about both.

Something else I should point out about this... This idea came up also as an alternative to having to archive all the caches on a trail and simply create new ones in the same spot. Just a different means of doing it.

Recently on my regional caching site, a cacher suggested the idea of trading caches. The idea being that two cache owners would literally trade ownership of one of their caches. Owner A with cache A and owner B with cache B would trade so that owner A now owns cache B and owner B owns cache A. The idea being a new way to get local cachers out to areas that they have already cleaned out for finds. Once the caches have been traded, the new owner could then either upgrade, or move the cache slightly, giving the previous owner, a chance to "find" what used to be his own cache. The idea sprang from local cachers who have done most of the local trails and are looking for more caches in the local area to find but with a lack of new caches popping up. If cacher A and B had both hidden a bunch of caches on trail A, and both went out and found all of the caches, they would likely not return to any of those caches except for any that required maintenance. If they did a trade of their caches along the route, it may inspire them to go back to that trail, and re-find what used to be their own caches since they now belonged to a new owner, and thusly may have been moved or changed slightly. Point being, is there anyway within the GC.com system for two owners to swap ownership of caches?