ReZappers

I'm somewhat new to this group, so I might as well pat myself on the back as well. We started caching last November, just celebrated our 100th cache this past Easter Sunday, at the "NJ Easter Egg Cache" in Loantaka Park (appropriate cache, eh?). Will be interesting to see how more difficult geocaching gets once the undergrowth, thorns, poison ivy, and bugs show up on the scene. Snowless winter days with frozen ground certainly makes the bushwhacking easier! ReZappers (cliffmama)

As a geocaching woman who hikes through mud, thrashes through thorns and climbs cliffs for fun when I'm not geocaching, I don't think smelly candles are the kind of thing I'd be looking to take from a geocache! However, I would appreciate a tape measure, they always come in useful! p.s. smelly candles make me sneeze.

I mostly trade toys because I have kids who like to trade for other toys. But in honor of the original post, I just went online and mail ordered a bunch of swag that should be enjoyable for all ages (stuff like lapel pins, mini-flashlights, buttons, etc...). While I feel it's the hunt and the find that is what makes geocaching enjoyable (and luckily my kids do agree), I do admit joy in finding things in there that I would want, like a humorous button, a mini-sewing kit or keychain flashlight.

Glad to hear that it's acceptable. I'm flying from NJ to CA next week, and thought I'd collect up a bunch of geocoins and TBs that want to travel far and wide and swap them with others in CA and bring some of the CA ones back to NJ. I thought about checking for TBs in my caches to see if I could help any get some big mileage.

I had my camera with me, but I just wanted to get out of there. If he saw that I took a picture of him, he'd possibly have reason to come after me and I was alone.

Had the strangest thing happen today... made me realize that I'd better make sure my husband knows where I am when I run off to do some random cache on the way to or from work, just in case something horrible happens. I was in our local county park which is over 2000 acres of woods and lakes, and had just located a cache only about 1/10 of a mile from the parking lot. It was about 4 in the afternoon on a sunny but chilly day. As I was looking through the cache, I saw a guy off in the woods about 250 feet away, he seemed to be adjusting his pants, so I assumed maybe he took a dump off the trail. A few minutes later, he was still there hanging around. I thought perhaps he was another cacher and was waiting for me to leave the area. As I was putting the cache back (pretending to tie my shoe), I looked in his direction again to see if he might have seen me put it back and geeez... the guy was standing there facing me with his pants down. He was far enough away, but he definitely had no pants on. I got the hell out of there as fast as I could. Gave me the creeps. The next cache I went to, I was looking over my shoulder every other minute. I can't believe there are people who are that messed up and desperate for a thrill to do that sort of thing!

Hmmm, I think I narrowed it down - if I change the days I want the query to run, and those days have already exceeded their 5 PQ's a day limit, then I believe I get the error page. If I change other fields but don't touch the days to run it, then it appears to work. The website should give me a useful message about why it's a problem, not a generic error page.

When I take an existing pockey query and change a field or two and try to save it, I get an error page with the logo and "Sorry! We encountered an error when requesting that page!". If I copy an existing one, then edit it to make a new one... same problem. The only thing that works is if I create a new one from scratch. It's been doing this for at least a day and a half. Same problem on Firefox 2 or IE 7 on two different Windows XP systems. It's driving me crazy! Anyone else having this issue? Anyone fixing it? Thanks!

Not sure they actually save the whole listing (description, maps, hints, log entries)? I guess gpxview only works for pocketPC and I have a Palm Treo 650. Cachemate looks like it only saves text, not graphics, so no maps I'm guessing?

I want to email myself some cache descriptions so while I'm on vacation and doing some geocaching in an unfamiliar area, I can view the cache info from my smartphone or ipod touch without having to be online having to print out tons of paper. I want the map as well as the logs, so the printer friendly version (without the logs) or the pdf version (without the map) won't work for me. So I tried to email myself the original web page by doing a select all and pasted it into my email. But I get an error trying to attach a file named "closelabel.gif", which doesn't appear to exist in the html source of the web page (is it in some java script?). So is there any way to get around this? Any way to email myself the listing which includes the map and the log entries? Thanks...

Thanks folks. Took your advice and logged the finds.

When you "find" a virtual cache, do you log it as a find and then email the owner with the answer, or should you email the owner and get the OK before you log it as a find? I "found" two virtual caches by the same owner, emailed them almost a month ago, and haven't heard back yet. Reading the logs, a number of people logged it as a find and said "emailing the CO" or "email on its way". So I assume they log it as a find, then email for confirmation (which seems like it should be the other way around). Other virtual caches I've "found" I waited for confirmation from the owner and heard back within a day or two, but this has been almost a month without a response (and I emailed them twice). Profile says the cache owner has been logged on since then. I don't suppose I got the answer wrong, they were pretty much no-brainers (one was to read the historical marker and answer the obvious question). Should I just go ahead and log it as a find like everyone else seems to be doing or wait indefinitely?

Unfortunately, that won't work for my iPod Touch. It doesn't allow you to use it as an external hard disk - so I can't save any descriptions on there. I thought I could email myself the cache descriptions, download them to my iPod Touch email application and refer to them later, but without an active internet connection, it appears it only saves the headers of the email.

I'm not crazy about the PDF version of the cache descriptions. You can't hide images (and they waste a lot of paper), the additional hints box is usually in a big empty box - huge gap in the page, which also wastes space, and it doesn't print the map, which the printer-friendly version does. If I'm coming from out of town, I like the map so I can have some indication of where it is so I know how to get there and where to park. I also can't read PDF on my smart phone email or web browser. (I have a Treo 650). I would love a printer friendly version of the cache description with pictures, maps, hints, logs - and the option to hide them, and be in a format that can be easily emailed, saved in text or html format, or bookmarked and viewed. Then I could save them on my smart phone or any pda for reference and avoid all that paper.

Read the log entries. Sometimes they give hints that can help. Also, you sometimes have to think out of the box. One puzzle was just a weird drawing of lines and curves. No other hint. I was totally clueless. So I read the logs. Someone's log entry mentioned another puzzle like it that they solved. So I looked at which caches that user had solved (luckily there weren't hundreds of them) - and I looked at the similar cache's puzzle and that one had a hint that helped me figure out how to solve the original cache's puzzle. Turned out to be tracing the finger movements of typing the numbers into a phone keypad! Who would have thought? Some of them are really hard, it has nothing to do with being a stay at home mom or whether or not you're a genius. Google often helps - including looking at google image search results if your puzzle has pictures.

I think it's inappropriate to make this personal. Keep people's names out of it. However, I think most people will look at those ratios and judge for themselves that these cachers on the list are doing just fine. Plus, there are many other ways to be a good cacher besides just placing caches. I'm a newbie, only started in November, and I got addicted quickly. However, I try to be very prompt about logging and moving TBs; I post pictures to enhance the log; I bring extra mini pencils, little pencil sharpeners and ziploc bags with me for caches that need them; and if it's not far from the car, I've brought wet logs to the car and dried them with the car heater, dried out the cache container and tried to make it more waterproof. I think these things are certainly important contributions as well. I live in suburban NJ near NYC with a very high concentration of caches. I've been researching where I can place my first caches, but there are hundreds of them out there. The sport will not suffer in my area if I personally don't have a high ratio of caches I've placed. I wouldn't judge geocachers on any ratio like that, and I hope no one judges me like that either.

I haven't been caching for long, but I kept running into caches without pencils or with broken pencils, so I recently started carrying a bag full of mini golf pencils with me when I go caching (you can buy a big box of them at Staples) . I have found many opportunities to leave them, seems like half of the caches I've visited needed a pencil. Then while shopping for other swag, I found really cheap little pencil sharpeners on the Oriental Trading Co website (72 of them for $4.95). Whenever I go geocaching, I bring a small backpack with trinkets to trade, my camera & GPS unit, and now a small supply of mini pencils, pencil sharpeners and a variety of sizes of ziplog bags. It's a minor investment to help maintain other people's caches since they were kind enough to place them for us to find. I hope others do the same for me when I start hiding my own caches.

I noticed today that when I move around in the map, it leaves up the list of caches it originally found (when they're no longer viewed on the map) and hitting refresh doesn't clear it. The blue line that bordered the previous view also won't go away. Anyone else getting this?

Anyone have good or bad experiences with the cheap beach containers, like these: oriental trading co beach safe containers Have they stayed waterproof?

What I meant was that the cache is unpublished, inactive and not subject to review. That is, the check box in the listing form that says "Yes, this listing is active (For new listings, if you want to work on this listing before it is reviewed, uncheck this box. Reviewers will only see the listing in the queue when it is checked.) " is unchecked. So the reviewers won't see it and it will not get published until I check that box.

Do most people feel it's important to put the waypoint and cache name somewhere on the cache container or the logbook? If you create the listing ahead of placing it (but don't publish it yet), then you get a waypoint name and can label everything first... then place the cache, then go home, update the coordinates & description and publish it & get it reviewed. That's what I was thinking of doing... And yeah, I would look at the maps of the area first to make sure there aren't any other caches nearby. I have read the guidelines a couple of times... just want to see how people go about the process.

Gotten really into geocaching and we would like to place our own caches. So many topics, don't know if this was already covered, scanned a bunch of them already and didn't see it. What order do people do the steps to place a new cache? a. Do you carry pre-made caches around with you and if you happen upon a good spot, place it, then get the coords and create a listing when you get home? Many times we're out hiking or geocaching and say "that would be a great place for a cache". Have considered just taking a couple of ready-to-go cache containers with me in case the perfect spot presents itself. But don't want to have to go back and label everything. b. Or do you think of a good place to put one, and create an unpublished listing at home so you have a waypoint name and then you can label your cache container & log with the name & waypoint you've chosen at the time you place it? Then go and actually place the cache - ready to go and labeled with waypoint and descriptive name? Then adjust the coordinates and publish it? c. Or do you find a place, go back to it with a cache suitable for the location, then create a listing, then go back to it and label it with the waypoint name? Unless it was really nearby and easy to get to, this seems pretty inefficient. I'm sure there are many variations, just curious what seems to be the most efficient way you've found to do this.

Hi, I'm just starting sending off my geocoins on their journeys and would also like to have the mileage start from home instead of the first cache I drop it in (which may be far away). Can anyone create an unpublished cache - what type is it ("unknown"?) Is it violating any rules to create an unpublished cache that will never exist anywhere but in your home? If I "dip" my trackables in my unpublished home cache, does it show up in the logs (and thus become published)? I don't really want people to know where I live. Is it rude to go to someone else's nearby local cache to "dip" my trackables in there so the miles are logged from close to home? I'm not sure I'd want to see my cache's logs filled with someone else dropping off and retrieving their geocoins on the same day just to get the miles logged from the desired starting point. Just trying to figure out how this works before I try it and screw up something. Thanks!

Well, some of us on here are experienced rock climbers and would go for it! (Except I don't live in the UK).

My 5th grade daughter is in a small girl scout troop and some parents of other scouts in her troop ran into us geocaching in our local park and thought it would be lots of fun for the girl scout troop to do. I am thinking of volunteering to take her troop out for an afternoon of geocaching. How would you handle the "goodies"? Would each girl bring an item to leave, perhaps take an item and sign the log book? Or should I be the sole representative of the troop's find and sign the log & claim the find in my Groundspeak account? Perhaps leave one thing from the troop as a whole (since it's unlikely to be enough goodies for everyone, or it may be impossible to fit goodies from everyone)? I'm currently thinking I'll let the girls sign the log and we'll leave 1 item as a troop... but not take anything (unless we want to move and track a travel bug as part of the activity) and I would claim the find on my account since the troop wouldn't have an account. Any others take their scouts geocaching, and how did you handle the logistics? Thanks!