WalruZ

It's a long story, but as a newbie I found myself 2 hours from the parking lot (where I would receive a ticket for being parked after closing) with only 30 minutes of daylight left, and no flashlight. Fortunately I 'knew' the trail network well enough to find my way out in the dark. Sure, bring a flashlight, but more important, know how much daylight you have left when you start. Divide that in half, add that amount to the current time and set your cell phone/pda alarm for that time. When the alarm goes off, turn around.

Many high-number cachers I know try to search for the cache with just the coordinates at first. If the going gets tough, they'll go back and look at the description, then the hint, then the logs. Then, when they log the cache, they'll read the description if they haven't already. Doing this makes caches a little more challenging. Sometimes descriptions will have size and hide information in them, and not reading that ahead of time makes it more of a hunt.

Around here, "small" is something that holds a cup or two. Anything bigger is regular, but it's subjective. AFA PBJs go, I've always considered them to be a great container, but that's climate dependent. In CA we don't get enough rain to ruin them.

there are a number of apple employees that cache - try posting this question to the local forums at thegba.net

On the gc.com google map (the one that shows surrounding caches on the map and in list form), a webcam cache (gc7695) that I have done and logged quite some time ago (I checked) is not marked with a smiley face indicating that I did it. Obviously that is not a big deal, but I thought you might like to know.

so true. The biggest hazard in night caching is calling attention to yourself. More light is not necessarily better. A dim led light that shows you the trail and a brighter led headlamp for searching (to keep your hands free) is best. My best tip here is to watch where you park. Don't park in a park lot just because the cache is in the park - find some nearby street parking and walk a little further.

Currently a cache page shows how many users are watching the cache. I think it might be nice to also see how many users are ignoring the cache. Reason? If enough people use the ignore button on caches they don't like, and cache listers can see that number, perhaps those who hide undesirable caches will catch a clue...

They don't have gaskets, but that's not the problem. The problem is that the strap gets caught under the lid unless you are very careful to position it out of the way. Lock & Locks rule. They have gaskets and positive locking. Like ammo boxes, you know when they're locked shut, and unlike ammo boxes, they don't look like they hold live ammunition.

you don't just post a note. you choose "update coordinates" and you check the box that allows you to enter coordinates for your log. that changes the coords, assuming they aren't too wrong. otherwise, contact your reviewer.

I have 500+ visits, only about half are on waymarks i've posted. The only way to make visiting as important as posting is to actively do both yoursef.

A fake rock-shell that held a plastic container underneath. I have two SF hides that are like this and frankly, considering the work that goes into the shell, I would rather lose the plastic container any day. I'm also told that in this case they also found the tupperware but no contents. In another more or less nearby case they just found the shell. Both locations are muggle-rific, and the rock shells have been doing a more or less good job of protecting caches that would otherwise disappear within days. The finders emailed me and appraised me of the situation. I'm cutting slack on these.

Whenever this comes up I usually point out that ready-to-hide caches are one of the most quickly traded-for items that can be left in a cache, either by the owner or by a visitor. There are a number of variations that can be done, with-wire, with-lanyard, with-magnet, just cammo-taped, film-can, magnetic-tin, key-holder, beach safes, etc. Larger caches can accomodate small tupperwares. Even with all the cammo, tape or paint, and logsheets and even small swag, they're cheap to make. If you monitor cache logs, you'll see they're quickly traded for. Why not?

Three things: 1) Units not available until fall 2007. 2) They're worth waiting for / adjusting your purchase schedule accordingly if the sensitivity is good. If you need a unit for a few months look on craigslist for something to bridge the gap. 3) If you're evaluating mapping GPSs, consider the curmudgeon's view - the user interface of mapping GPS's sucks major asterisk. IMO, you are better off getting a basic GPS unit and getting your mapping and autorouting on a palm or PPC platform. You get more flexibility, better ease of use, and usually come out ahead, cost-wise. I know the 60Cx is what "everybody uses", but god, what an ugly stupid-looking thing to walk around with. They should all come with a "DORK" transfer tattoo for your forehead...

when clicking on a gallery image from a log, the fancy new image preview brings it up fine, but it appears that the border setting is just a wee bit small and the close button does not appear, although it is actually there and if you know to reach for it you can press it just fine. At least not in my firefox.

You can already rate a cache by mentioning what you like or don't like about it in your visit log. That's what I do.

My advice is to mention the FTF prize as a note on the cache, not in the cache description. After it's been found by a few people nobody is going to care about what the FTF prize was, and after it's been out for a year (you hope) nobody is going to give a foo about what it had in it when it was hidden. Use a note and you can be more descriptive about what the t-shirt prize is, as the note is less obtrusive.

Escape from alcatraz was my 2000th cache find, and a very worthwhile one. It takes a good part of the day, but it's well worth it. I still have the certificate somewhere... Visit thegba.net and ask for more recommendations in the San Francisco forum.

Both look pretty good. I've done something interesting with these lately. Take a large piece of bark from, say, a dead stump - something that's 6x10 or so and at least an inch thick. Screw the lock/lock top into the bark - jus put the top against the bark with the outside facing the bark, drill a starter hole and run in a wood screw. then fill container and snap shut. This is somewhat better than just covering the cache with bark because the cammo is 'built in', as it were.

As a general rule, the best thing to do is to get a somewhat stronger rare earth magnet than you might think you would need, and attach it to the inside of the container. You can use glue, but on the inside of the container duct tape often works well enough. Trying to keep the magnet on the outside of the container is usually a losing proposition. ETA -- uh, yeah. like the OP said. (blush)

Bleh. Geocaching is not about driving around looking for a parking spot. If correct parking is non-obvious, mention it. That said, good parking is usually reasonably obvious, and I don't include it. OTOH, for hiking caches it's good form to mention the appropriate trailhead since these can be terribly non-obvious.

A single member of each team had to take a pre-programmed rhino and find an air force 'pilot' hiding in underbrush. Once found, the 'pilot' entered in coordinates of a 'landing zone' area where the racer was then picked up by helicopter. I would like to point out that the rhino does not have a compass, and it's very unlikely that the racers understood that the GPS determines your direction of travel by comparing recent fixes (ie, if you stand still the arrow is useless.) (aside: I am a fan of the electronic compass) it was pretty amusing and I was suprised at how difficult a time some of them had with the task. There were some 'newbie' mistakes. Dustin did well. she went followed her arrow, peeked into the bushes and there was her pilot. She had no problem reaching the landing zone either. Danielle went crashing around in the underbrush for quite awhile before finding her pilot and also had trouble finding the LZ. It seemed like she might have been spending a little to much time looking at the arrow and not enough time looking at her surroundings. Charla seemed to be traveling in circles and couldn't understand what her Gps was telling her. Her army 'handler' repeatedly told her not to push any buttons and then reset the rhino to the navigation screen for her. Lord knows how she got through it. Oswald was funniest, to me. He followed the arrow reasonably well, but when he got close to the 'pilot' he just stopped. The crewman was back in the bushes, sitting and waiting (probably realistic) and Oswald walked back and forth, sort of expecting him to just 'be there'. Much like a first time cacher, he didn't go the extra 20 feet to actually look for and find the pilot.

Considering how much I cache I can hardly afford to let my premium membership lapse. Last Saturday I did a 7 mile hike with Ks of elevation change and am sore sore sore, and happy, happy, happy. 10 caches. I certainly would like to log my caches at will, but doing so is quite secondary to my fundamental reasons for caching. Still, I wonder if perhaps TPTB might task someone with looking over some common pages, such as the cache page, and removing functionality that draws on the database, at least for the interim. For example, I could live without seeing each finders #of finds next to their ID when viewing logs. Perhaps there are a few more database draws that could just be commented out, as it were, to try to improve overall performance. At this point I would gladly trade functionality for performance. Just sayin'...

never mind. as soon as i complained, it fixed itself. evil things, these computers.

Somehow I managed to double-log GCT8M7. Both logs also ended up with a 4/1 date. The site refuses to allow me to delete one of the logs. It also refuses to allow me to edit one of the logs to change the date to 3/31 (the date I intended to log.) Is there anything TPTB can do for me? It is possible that internally, the logs have a very similar time, thus the problem. (I was using the WAP interface.) Perhaps a latent bug?

Whatever happened to the forum about the site? Did it get big enough for it's own domain? Anyway, perhaps it's load, but whatever it is, I can do most things other than delete or edit a log.