Team Perks

Sweet! I remember being able to do this when I first started caching. It'll be great having that capability back.

How many people expect that they'll still be so enthusiastic about geocaching in five or ten years? Most of the cachers I've known drop out after a couple years or so, even if they're die-hard enthusiastic from the get-go. I'd absolutely be willing to pay more per annum for better features (say, if you got unlimited PQs or better search options or some tangible benefit). Nit would I buy a lifetime membership for many hundreds of dollars just so I could have the LT member moniker? Not a chance.

Stickers are more practical for some of us. I've been using stickers for years, mainly because I find it very difficult to write legibly under usual caching circumstances (i.e., crouched on the ground without a good, flat writing surface). I'll squeeze my scribblings onto the smaller log sheets, of course, or ones that I think will get wet or mangled...but in general, it's still easier for me, personally, to just put a sticker on the log book. I've never quite seen the point of putting dates on stickers, either; I used to do it, but then I realized that, hey, the cache page will show when I was there anyway. If I want to write at length about my experience, it'll be on my online log where I can type to my heart's content.

It's been fun reading all the skeptical criticism. This crops up every time someone claims some sort of 'record' of whatever variety. I knocked off 263 caches in 20 hours or so with EMC once. We weren't dallying, but we weren't exactly scrambling either. We could have easily have done 300, but we ran out of caches to find. Knowing these guys, 413 in 24 hours is entirely reasonable. For those of you who don't actually know VK's, f0t0m0m, and EMC, there's a very simple explanation: Every single one of them is insane. Seriously. They're nuts. The kind of people who would starve themselves and cross their legs for hours straight instead of making potty breaks. Peeing time is caching time. I repeat. INSANE. And that's how I know they were able to do it.

I've got the date marked on my calendar. (I actually had to go buy a 2010 calendar for that.) The SoCal4x4Geocachers crew is ready and willing to offer any needed assistance.

Currently: very infrequently (unless I happen to be nearby already), usually because I very infrequently need to. I try to hide caches that are not likely to get plundered, and that are of durable construction, and that don't have teeny-tiny log sheets that need to be constantly replenished. I'm slowly archiving most of my old micros, so most of what's left are ammo cans in fairly remote areas. I have several caches that have been active for years and that I've never been back to because every finder has reported it to be in good shape and properly hidden.

It's partly about density, but more so about planning. I'm in a dense enough area that I could clean up 30 caches in the span of several hours if I cared to. My last outing involved 37 caches and 4 DNFs all along the same road (25 miles of slow driving on a dirt trail), plus another 175 miles of driving to get home from where I had started. I can't even begin to count how many caches I passed up along my way back...

Boston...

Who wouldn't jump at the chance to steal the "TeamAlamo" name once he changed his? (Rhetorical question.) It's a dummy placeholder account so that wouldn't happen.

Woohoo! My age group is winning!

263, I believe it was, in roughly 22 hours, with Cachepal and EMC of Northridge, CA. We thought it would be fun to see if we could knock off 250+ in 24 hours with no locals driving us around, no splitting up, no lifelines, no signing the outside of the cache, nothing that could even remotely be considered fishy. We stopped after 22 hours because we had run out of caches to find. It was a blast, but I don't think I ever want to do that again.

R.O.B. posted three... So here's two. Only a couple more posters til "Thunderbirds Are Go!" Wait. Now what we were talking about again?

While LPC saturation is quite tiring, I like the occasional lamppost hide. Why? Because they're easy, and I'm terrible at finding caches. I've probably DNF'd more caches than most people have found. Seriously, I DNF'd a cache recently after the previous finder had let his 3-year-old daughter find it (yes, it was still there). So after a string of defeats, it's nice to have the occasional guarantee that I'll actually find one.

I agree that retributively deleting others' cache logs is poor form, but as far as I'm concerned that's between the two of you and doesn't need to be aired in these forums. I do have to add that, regardless of who is in the right, publicly bashing others tends to reflect more poorly on the person doing so than the person being attacked.

Online, I just use GC.com. No need for me to make things more complicated. In the field, either I have a piece of paper that I scribble notes on, or I don't find enough caches that I can remember everything by memory.

I don't think it's necessarily ridiculous. If you're in a fairly small town (as Bradford seems to be) and you and your friends happen to enjoy hiding caches for each other to find during your lunch breaks or in the evenings after work, eventually you'll start running out of good places to hide them. So either you archive existing caches and hide another one nearby or you start hiding caches in really lame places. Or you just don't hide any more caches. No matter what, evidently you'll hear someone complain about it (as this topic shows!). Now, do you know that it's the same cache? The coordinates show it 30 feet away from the old hide. That could make it an entirely different cache. Either way, the only way you'd know is if you went looking for it again. (Random story: Several years ago, after some friends took us out caching for the day, I hid a cache near their house as a token of my appreciation. Turns out there had been not just one but TWO old, archived caches in the exact same rock formation, in the exact same hidey-hole as we hid ours in.)

If I were a reviewer (and I'm not, so take this for what it's worth), I would probably accept that as being a reasonable distance and frequency to adequately maintain the cache. Just be sure to be up front about this, and include that information in your notes to the reviewer when you're submitting the cache listing. That doesn't guarantee there won't be any questions or issues, but you'll certainly improve your chances. Again, though, that's just my own opinion. If for some reason there are concerns that cannot be readily resolved, I would reiterate what StarBrand has suggested and resubmit the cache once you've established a bit more of a track record of finding and maintaining caches that are more distant to your home.

Um. If the log is full, then your cache needs maintenance.

From the cache listing guidelines: So, each person's "caching range" will vary. If you have a clearly demonstrated caching pattern and your hide is within that general area, it's a good bet the cache will be approved. The important question is, if a problem arose, how quickly would you be able to get out there? The fact that you visit an area several times a year may not be sufficient if you can't demonstrate that you will be able to respond promptly to any immediate maintenance needs. I've placed caches hundreds of miles from my home and had them approved no problem because my past finds show that I am often in that area. I wouldn't necessarily be able to stop by those caches right away, but I know that I could get out there within a reasonable period of time should any problems arise. I'm sure there are areas much closer to my home where my cache placement would be questioned because I rarely visit that area and have found very few caches there. In other cases I have had to enlist the help of friends or other cachers in order to get the listing approved (not necessarily because the reviewer insisted upon it, but rather because I knew ahead of time that I would need help). Without knowing where you live or where the campground is, it's hard to say. But I would suggest that sicne you are pretty new to the game and have a more limited find history, you may find it more difficult to get a cache far from home listed without (at least) a more definitive explanation of how you intend to maintain it.

Attacking minor grammatical errors instead of discussing content is a fantastic way to win your argument, no?

Who's to say that the FTF would either 1) live anywhere near the cache (by chance, I've gotten FTF's that were hundreds of miles from where I live), or 2) actually want to adopt the cache? Also, considering the quality of the caches I've seen that were dropped off by people on various road trips, I would personally be hesitant to even want to call them my own.

I'm finding it very difficult to be incensed at this. If I videotape myself catching a fish at a scenic lake, or driving my Jeep up a great 4x4 trail, have I ruined the fun for anyone else who might go fishing on the same lake or driving up the same trail? I think not. Honestly, how many people are going to be scouring Youtube for geocaching videos in the first place? (I know I have better things to do.) Second, how many people are actually going to remember what they saw on the video by the time they get to where the cache is hidden? (I know I wouldn't.) Third, what makes you so sure that anyone who DID happen to discover the video, and who happened to live nearby, wouldn't respond by saying "Hey that looks cool, I should visit that cache"? (That's been my reaction to plenty of other videos I've seen unrelated to caching.) As far as I'm concerned, bring all the photography equipment you want to my caches. Film the scenery, the hunt, the find, the container. Post it on Youtube. Tweet it. Write about it in your blog. Frankly, rather than wanting to rant, I'd be quite flattered that my cache was worth your time and trouble posting for the world to see.

Several years ago I drafted up a cache page entitled "The Pocket Knife, Ammunition & Fireworks Exchange" but, knowing Groundspeak would probably frown on the idea, I never dared submit it.

Fine, I'll be the crotchety one. I don't have kids. In fact, I tend to find kids annoying (though with a few exceptions). So, I go caching so I can get away from other people's kids.

I as well just spray over the original paint. It does fine without any prep work; I pretty much wipe any dust off with a towel and that's about it. As for what type/brand, it doesn't seem to. I use the cheapest spray paint that Wal-Mart sells. I think it's 97 cents a can, save for a couple colors I like to use that run a couple dollars apiece. It eventually gets scraped up a bit if you hide it in a bunch of rocks, but never in 5+ years of hiding ammo cans have I needed to take one out of service for repainting.