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BikeBill

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Everything posted by BikeBill

  1. Briansnat wrote: <<I like where I live. The New Jersey Highlands.>> NJ gets a bum rap. There are many beautiful places in NJ. I'm in SE PA but I've been doing a lot of caching across the Delaware in Hunterdon County. Very rural.
  2. Here's a coincidence: I was caching yesterday and another cacher walked into the clearing. He was wearing galoshes, had safety goggles up on his forehead, was holding a clipboard, two GPS's a walking stick and had electronic things hanging around his neck that I couldn't identify. It was Stayfloopy. I had heard of him but never met him before. We found two caches together and then split. He seemed really friendly and I had no idea he had nearly 13,000 finds.
  3. TerraViators wrote: <<I know I hate it when I've gotten out of bed, driven 20 miles for a FTF....>> Since you're in Texas, that shouldn't be much of a problem. A 20 mile drive only takes 10 minutes!
  4. I'm too sleepy to come up with puns, but if you want to make a hole in a rock you can use a hammer drill something like this: http://www.harborfreight.com/3-in-1-1-inch...mmer-97743.html - with the right bit. The drill not only spins the bit but has a hammering impact action that helps break up the stone. That's assuming the rock isn't super hard, of course. I've used these on concrete and they drill pretty fast. You could probably rent one at a tool rental store.
  5. I saw this thread and downloaded the book to my Kindle. I'm only a few chapters into it, but so far it's keeping my interest!
  6. Very nice. Excellent for city caching unless it's hilly (or you're a climber). I have to ask - why is there an extra chainring stuck in the chain near the rear sprocket?
  7. <<17. A lot of seemingly waterproof containers…aren’t.>> And the more waterproof the container is, the more likely the log is going to turn to mush after some doofus signs it in the rain and puts it back into the container soaked.
  8. Learn something new every day! I didn't know hard drives had strong magnets in them. And I just threw five of them out (after encrypting them with a sledge hammer).
  9. I picked up a couple of 50 caliber ammo cans at a flea market last weekend. The majority of my hides are camo'd Lock 'n Locks and I've never hidden a big ammo can before. Rather than sticking them behind logs or under a geo-pile, I was wondering what creative, diabolical and devious ideas you guys have for hiding traditional full size ammo cans? My area is suburban/rural with an assortment of woods and parks scattered around.
  10. I'm using the compass pointer on the GPSr to home in on a distant landmark (distant being maybe 1/8 mile or so). The times this has happened have been when I was in open areas (fields, etc.) where I can see far ahead and trees aren't a factor.
  11. I use a Garmin 60CSx for my caching activities. When I'm searching for a cache, sometimes I can see a landmark (large tree, etc.) in the distance that the GPSr is pointing directly at. As I get close to the coordinates, I often find that the heading has changed and the GPSr is no longer pointing toward the landmark but off to the side of it, sometimes by a considerable margin. Does anyone else notice this? Does anyone know what causes it? I'm talking about open ground - not under trees, etc.
  12. I used the old-school Fels Naptha bar soap for years if I thought I was in contact with PI ( http://www.felsnaptha.com/ ) . They have some tips for getting PI off of your clothes on their site. You can usually find it in the laundry department of the grocery store. It's been used for PI prevention for over 100 years. Lately I've been trying some of the newer PI cures but the Fels always seemed to work.
  13. I retrieved it and things went well. I posted a separate topic about it here: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=252990
  14. Now that I'm back from vacation, I contacted the detective who had possession of the cache that patrolling officers had confiscated (see http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=252431 for that story). He told me to make an appointment to collect the cache. I made my appointment and picked up the cache today - GC1A5QH - from a secretary with no problem. I didn't meet the detective but exchanged email with him several times so I know he was aware of the Geocaching and he told me that I could put the cache "back in play". I sent a follow-up email to him today telling him I had put the cache back under the covered bridge and re-activated it, as I wanted to make sure that there was no misunderstanding about this. There wasn't - and he thanked me for stressing the parking regulations in the cache description. I'll call this one a win!
  15. OP here - Yesterday I again emailed the Bucks County Park and Rec Board about Geocaching and got a reply today! The woman said that they look upon Geocaching favorably (except in environmentally sensitive areas) and are currently developing a policy which they hope to have in place in the fall. She mentioned our area Geocaching organization - SEPAG - so I'm thinking she is getting input from our side. I volunteered to help with policy development. So currently the county parks have no Geocaching policy, which may explain their lack of response when I contacted them in the past.
  16. This situation may have resolved itself in a satisfactory manner. The detective responded to my email thusly: <<Bill, No citation, no nothing, just make an appointment to see me and you can have the box of goodies back and put it back in play. Patrolmen are just doing their job and anything suspicious gets their attention. Det-Cpl Roy G. Ferrari>> The term he used - "put it back in play" sounds pretty positive. Maybe I'm not headed for the slammer after all. Just in case, I had "GEOCACHE" tattooed on my knuckles with pen ink. I want to be able to blend in. Regarding getting proper permission in the first place - well, I tried. At that point (2+ years ago) there was nothing on the Park & Rec Department's website regarding caching (there still isn't except for the event someone mentioned above) and I emailed the park people and they never got back to me. So I figured it's public property and went ahead. I emailed the detective back and told him that I'd schedule an appointment next week to pick up the cache (I'm currently vacationing). If you don't hear from me for a month or so after that, something went terribly wrong.
  17. I had contacted the park authority (email) about placing geocaches and they never replied. Many other caches are on county park properties, for what it's worth (and this bridge has a public (county) road going over it). I was under the impression that the parks had no direct policy. The PA state parks do, and allow geocaches if you clear them with park personnel, first. FYI, here's the link to the offending cache: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...da-0c8d50b7dc48 As you can see, I made it very clear about the daytime parking situation. <<and/or to undergo imprisonment for a term of not more than thirty (30) days.>> Oh, No! - I'm going to the Big House! Bill
  18. I got the following email from some cachers this morning about a cache that was hidden in a rural covered bridge: <<Long story short we found this cache Saturday around 8:30 or so and hung out until 9:00. We decided to leave then due to the rules regarding the bridge at night. Our friend's car broke down so we were stuck there until 10:00 PM and sure enough cops rolled through around 10:05 right before we were goign to leave. They asked why we were there and my friend made a mistake by mentioning geocaching and one of the cops who was being particularly douchey decided to ask us for the cache so he took it and said "We will destroy this, this is considered illegal dumping, tell anyone who does this you can't put this here" blah blah so on, and so forth. Cop 2 didn't care but Cop 1 got on his high horse and made a big deal out of the situation like it was some kind of vandalism or as if there would be a bomb or drugs inside. So anyway, sorry for the loss of the cache, we know it's not entirely our fault but we feel responsible to some degree. Cop 1 also made a big deal about how he found out from reading the log book that there's a website. Suburb cops have nothing better to do I suppose.>> Shortly thereafter, I got the following email from a Detective of that police department: <<This item was found by the Solebury Twp PD. Should you want to reclaim this item and its contents, contact me. Detective-Corporal ........ Solebury Twp PD>> I don't want to walk into a trap and get cited for something so I sent the following back to the detective: <<Detective-Corporal Ferrari, I was already contacted by the people from whom the cache was confiscated. They told me that one of the officers that confiscated the cache said that hiding such items constituting illegal dumping or could involve illegal drugs or such. Nothing could be further from the truth. Geocaching is a legitimate activity and caches are hidden all over the world. There are over a million caches and 4-5 million geocachers. It is a wholesome, family activity that takes people to new and different places. The covered bridge, if I am correct, is part of Bucks County Park property. There are many caches hidden on various park properties (for example, Core Creek Park has ten). The purpose of hiding a cache at that particular bridge was to allow geocachers to witness the beauty of it. It has been hidden there since March 2008 and has been found 73 times (and not found a few times, also). I would love to come and retrieve the cache. I do not, however, want to be cited for anything. What is the status of that situation? Regards,>> What is the forum's take on this situation?
  19. We have some cachers around here that I'm convinced are consistently using soft coordinates just to make things tougher. They use good gpsr's, as I do, but their caches are very often 30-40 feet away from my GZ. Not a big deal in a field, but a big deal in a thicket. Also, I'm not an Apple fan but do have an iPhone. I wouldn't even consider using it to set up a cache's coordinates as it's way too inaccurate. I decided to try for a cache the other day using the thing and had no luck. I went back later with my Garmin to find the iPhone was about 60 feet off. The iPhone is really handy for calling up descriptions, logs and hints in the field, though.
  20. Saw this while searching for a cache near Bristol, PA. Trees are adaptable things:
  21. I turned a lightweight, titanium mountain bike into a machine that weighs about as much as a $59 Huffy!
  22. One thing that was already mentioned but I'll bring it up again because I think it's important - A hiking pole. I have a pair of lightweight, telescoping Leki's and I always cache with one of them (not both). It's ideal for pushing away thorns, branches, brambles, barbed wire, cobwebs and larger poison ivy plants. Also, it's great for digging around under stumps and other dark spots where you may not want to use your hands, and sticking into soft soil/leaves to listen for the 'thunk' of an ammo box. Also, it's kept me from falling on my butt on numerous occasions. I was out caching with a friend a few days ago and while I was using the pole to poke around under a stump he said "I can see why you carry that thing!".
  23. I have a couple of Panasonic Lumix digitals. One is a compact super-zoom that I use for travel photography and the other is a little one that's easy to throw in the geo-bag. Both are 10 megapixel, take great pictures and both are highly rated. Panasonic has a compact DMC-TS1 http://gizmodo.com/5139949/waterproof-pana...digital-cameras and a TS2. They are waterproof, shockproof and dust-proof. They look good for our purposes as they are designed for rugged outdoor use.
  24. Someone placed a cache locally celebrating ten years of Geocaching. Their cache was a C&D, log only, micro. Since the first cache was a 5 gallon bucket, I thought this was ironic. I like some micros but many are just easy hides for the CO with little thought or preparation involved.
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