BikeBill

I like to bike cache on the Rails to Trails in the area. There are caches in abundance on some of those. Some parks are good, too. I have a handlebar bike mount for my Garmin that makes caching convenient. I'm not a big numbers guy, though. I just like the fun of geocaching combined with the exercise and scenery. Now if it would just stop raining....

I know where that island is. Whatever you put there, secure it well. It floods like crazy as you probably know.

My quick answer is that I like both technology and the outdoors. I got into Geocaching because it combines the two. Now that I've been doing it for a while, I have to say that I love that "Ah-ha" moment when I find an exceptionally good hide. I also really enjoy planning and hiding my own caches and appreciate getting positive feedback from them.

Well, that video was 4 minutes of my time wasted.

After I saw Wegman's noted above, I stopped by one to check their selection. They had mostly medium and small L&L's, with one nested assortment of round ones for pretty cheap. What I found interesting is something apparently new - a Lock 'n Lock 'Premium'. They were so clear I initially thought they were glass. Fairly expensive. They'd make the bomb squads happy, though!

I forgot to check this thread for a few days and I'm the OP! Well, I'm glad it lead to a spirited discussion. Like Briansnat, I have a comparison between PA and NJ that I think shows how PA's cache approval system inhibits hides even without the fee. There are two parallel state parks that follow the canals on either side of the Delaware river between SE PA and NJ in the area of Bristol to Easton. The Delaware Canal State Park is in PA and the Delaware/Raritan Canal State Park is in NJ. The trails along the canals/river are scenic and great for walking, biking and caching. I like to mountain bike along the NJ side while geocaching. The PA side is nice to ride on too, but there are almost no caches, where NJ has many. Of course, caches on the NJ side don't require approval. The PA $25 fee is not much of a factor here because this is not a new phenomena. Take a look at a Geocache map for the caches from Trenton north to above Frenchtown. You'll see the disparity I'm talking about. The caches (in the canal state parks) are almost all on the NJ side.

<<I'd venture to say that the typical geocacher is better than average park citizen.>> I agree. As a group, geocachers seem to be better environmental citizens than a lot of other groups. I doubt that most of the junk out in the woods or at the edge of a river/lake came from cachers. I'm not patting myself on the back about this as I'm a relative newcomer compared to some of you. I'm just relating what I've seen in the habits of other cachers. I've been impressed with their environmental awareness (okay, so there is the matter of geo-trails). Parks should be happy to have us.

dbrierly wrote: <<Considering that other users of natural areas pay fees (hunting, fishing, parking, etc.) it shouldn't be surprising that geocaching would be included as well.>> All good points, but here's what I think the difference is - hunting requires game and land management, safety enforcement, etc. Fishing requires some of the same plus stocking fish. Parking requires that lots be built and paved. Geocaching requires that the parks .... Um, not that much. In fact, like Briansnat said, maybe they should be paying us to develop and maintain our caches! We are putting the time, money, thought and planning into them. The park's contribution is not that great, especially if one of their goals is to encourage facility use. Now I'm not seriously suggesting that they pay us, but I still think that being charged a fee is over the top. They should be encouraging geocaching like Katsbear said Utah is.

Cardinal Red said: <<The $25 Geocache permit policy debate started about mid May 2010.>> That's good to know. I looked for a date on that page of regulations and saw none. You may well be right that Tyler rangers aren't enforcing the Geocaching regs. I'm sure they have a lot of other things to do. FYI: The cache we were looking to bring back was http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...=y&decrypt= It's a pretty good puzzle/two stage with a Lord of the Rings theme. To find the first stage you have to translate from Quenya, an Elfin language. That was an education for me, as I'm not a fan of the series. Anyway, the first stage is still intact so we were going to use that and replace the final, then rename it slightly and give the original CO credit for his idea. Now we may take it elsewhere.

That might have been funny several years ago, but the US dollar and the Canadian dollar have hit parity several times in recent years. As of Friday, $100 Canadian would buy $99.85 US. Several years ago? In March, 2009, $100 Canadian wold have bought less than $78. But please excuse me for attempting to inject some levity.

Narcissa said: <<If Ontario Parks wanted $100, I'd happily pay it to be able to place a cache on their land.>> Yeah, but that's only $4 in U.S. money!

I just took a look at the number of caches in the park in question, Tyler. It's a bit over 1700 acres in Bucks County and currently has six caches. About a year ago it had eight. I don't know when the fee scheme started but I could guess!

I guess I suffer from the rather idealistic expectation that those who manage the parks should welcome and encourage activities that attract responsible visitors. I can understand that they would want to have oversight of geocaches in their domain, but I still don’t like the ‘fee’ concept - especially when the onus of thought/planning/labor for the geocaching is on the CO. Unfortunately, I think Student Camper is on the right track; some officials see Geocaching as a possible tool for revenue enhancement and, as SC wrote, some <<may be using this as a tactic to discourage anyone the use of THEIR park for any uses except THEIR own>>. I saw some evidence of the latter when management at the local State Park unilaterally banned all the mountain bikers from the unpaved trails with no warning or consultation with local cyclists. The explanation was trail damage concerns but to this day they still allow horses on those same trails. Fortunately, in our area, there are many fine sites to place a quality cache without paying a fee or having to have it re-authorized periodically. <<I think the fee probably weeds out irresponsible cache placements in a way.>> They could easily do that without the fee. The fee also weeds out excellent caches by those of lesser means. Grossly unfair, in my opinion. <<I'd rather pay $25 to a state park than see some store using a geocache to advertise.>> I’d rather not see either. At least PA State Parks don’t charge for admission - yet.

Maybe some of you PA cachers know all about this but I just got the information. Another cacher and I were thinking of resurrecting an archived cache that had been at a PA State Park. I contacted the park and they said that they were okay with that, and to follow the instructions at http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/geocaching/permit-process.aspx Now I knew that the PA DCNR required approval to place caches in their parks - and that's fine. I have yet to place one on their lands just because I didn't feel like dealing with their bureaucracy. But I did NOT know that there was a $25 fee for "a review process, including a Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory search (PNDI) that insures its location is compatible with other park and forest activities." I have a feeling that whole process probably takes some ranger about 30 seconds of looking at a map, if even that. Not only is there a substantial fee, but once you get approval, it is only good for three years. Then you have to go through the whole process again and apparently pay the fee again, too. They will forgo the fee if you do something like sponsor a CITO, but even that is up to the individual park. Do other states charge fees for cache placement? Am I justified in being annoyed about this?

Coldgears, In '08 I drove to Chicago and then followed Route 66 to LA. It was a lot of fun and there's books and web sites on how to follow the old alignments that list many attractions along the way. Then you could drive from LA to San Francisco and take Old Lincoln Highway back east. It's not as well documented as 66 but it goes right by where you live! Also, check www.roadsideamerica.com for lots of wacky stuff in each state. They have an iPhone app, too. Regarding N. Dakota: I just drove through the state via US Route 2 last month on my way to the left coast. In Rugby, there is a monument that marks the geographical center of North America, so that's at least one thing to see. I also went through when the sunflowers were blooming at the sunflower farms. There were acres and acres of giant sunflowers which were very cool to see.

I picked up some decon containers for $2 each at an Army Surplus store during a recent trip. These are the real military units (they had some knock-offs there, too). They seem to have tight fitting lids but it take some effort to snap them back on. I can see cachers not snapping the lid back on completely and then its soggy loggy time. I thought maybe a light coat of Vaseline around the edge of the lid may help. What kind of experience do you guys have with these things?

I got a chuckle over the way the bottle on the right is turned so it says "OUCH". People who check their blood glucose can relate.

+1 with Knowschad. I've glued many materials with many glues and none work for all materials. That being said, epoxy and Gorilla glue work well for a lot of things.

Saw one at Myrtle Beach, SC, last summer. It was an industrial-looking plastic electrical box (not a little residential type) on the ground against a larger (real) utility box. I probably would have left it alone but I saw the top cover was ajar. Inside it was a bundle of wires and under the wires I found the (soaked) cache contents. I didn't like the whole idea much but logged it anyway. Had the box's lid been screwed down tight like the CO intended, I would have left it alone (and the contents would have been dry, too).

Lots of good advice, people - Thanks! Buttaskotch - I didn't use Starbucks but I did use Burger King and McDonald's along the way for wi-fi (and bathrooms). Good luck on your Route 66 trip. I did that in October '08 and it was a great adventure. This time I was following Old Lincoln Highway east from SF. I took U.S. Route 2 to go westward. Both routes had lots of miles with no wi-fi or cell coverage.

<<What are "'toods"? >> The Latitood & Longitood... Just silly slang.

I occasionally take off on long road trips, primarily to sight-see and explore/experience the country. I am not as avid a cacher as many on this board but enjoy it and decided that I want to do some limited caching while on my trips. I cover a lot of ground, though, and can’t take the time for extended searches. I did a trip from PA to the left coast and back recently and decided to bag at least one cache per state that I traveled through. Once I was in an area, I would locate the caches in one of two ways: 1) From a motel with wi-fi, I’d use Geocaching.com to check the local area for suitable caches, then search them out; or 2) Use my iPhone to locate nearby caches and then load the ‘toods in my Garmin for the final hunt. I did a fair amount of camping so the motel wi-fi was often not an option. One problem I ran into was that I was in lots of areas with no wi-fi and no cell coverage. For example, I was almost out of Montana before I found a small town with AT&T cell coverage and then used my phone to get the ‘toods of a cache. I realize that if I was really organized, I could map out caches to find before I departed home. I’m not that organized, though, plus my route wasn’t written in stone. How do you guys cache while traveling?

The Panasonic DMC-TS2's are shockproof, waterproof, dustproof and freezeproof. Kinda pricey at $345 but they are 14 megapixel with a decent zoom range: http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-TS2-Wa...3616&sr=8-3 I've had three Panasonic Lumix cameras and have been very happy with them.

I have one that I've had out there for a couple years. I bored a hole in a chunk of wood (literally a chunk - it was a piece of wood meant for smoking on a BBQ) and glued a test strip container in the hole. I had one problem. I got a report that the log was wet. I pulled the cache to find that was the case so I tested the container by submerging it under water for an hour. Afterward the container was completely dry inside. Apparently, someone was caching in the rain, got the log wet and put it back that way. Those containers are so air and water tight that a wet log will never dry. Other than that, I'd say they make great little containers. The ones I use are a bit smaller than a 35mm film canister but I would imagine different brands are different sizes.

There was a cache in my neighborhood that I would do some upkeep to from time to time. The CO suggested that I adopt it as it was closer to me than where he lived. It wasn't in danger of getting archived or anything, we just did it as a matter of convenience. We kept both our names on it though I'm the 'official' owner now.