~Mark~

It was early April, and I needed to get out caching, so I took the day off work just to get out in the sun and cache. I had a DNF on this one in the fall, and just wanted to clear it off my list. I gingerly climbed down the rather steep slope towards the lake. I looked for a few minutes around the old crab apple tree, but didn't see anything, so I decided to move down a little farther and look back up the hill to the back side of the tree. Well I learned something that fine morning. I learned that early morning dew, poison ivy, and tennis shoes just don't mix. Quick as a flash I was face first ear deep in poison ivy. I got up only to have to rummage around in the stuff to find my walking stick. I found it, along with my car keys, stood up and just smiled. There was this old lady looking down the hill with a quizzical look on her face, and no kidding, she said to me, "Sonny I'm not positive, but I think thats poison ivy your swimming around in." Quick as a flash I told her, "Yep, I hadn't gotten any yet this year." As her and her husband walked away I found the cache, got the smiley, and after all that I never got one itch.

This is good. I must re-think everything. I've been logging my caches as a time stamp so I can go back and look at the fun I had with friends while they checked out my caches. I never once thought about climbing the Geocaching community ladder. I didn’t realize that a person with less than a thousand finds could put so much pressure on the community. Wow. Do I want to be looked upon as a Geocaching extraordinaire? . . . . No, I don’t think I could handle the pressure. I guess I will continue to go out with friends, have fun, and not worry about my World Geocaching Ranking. But just to make everyone happy, I promise I won’t put out any more hides, although not one of my hides is a mindless micro under a lamppost, and if I’ve put that much pressure with my six finds to upset the balance of the Geocaching community then I will close the caches I have out there, and I will delete my find logs. Heck I’d hate to be the one to fluster the Geocaching Community.

I hate finding Geocoins in caches, I feel like it's the kiss of death. Around here a Geocoin's life expectancy is about three seconds. If I find one I will adventure dip it until I can personally hand it to someone else. At least that way I feel it has a little bit of a chance. If I see one in a cache I feel like it's my obligation to keep it safe until I can make sure it goes to a person instead of just leaving it somewhere so someone can add it to their private collection.

True, but since I'm the one who started our local group and I don't much give a darn about how many I find, the last thing I'm going to do is buy myself one of those coins, and for sure no one in our group will ever get one for me. They all know that I like coins that will remind me of a person, day, cache, event, or group. If you look at the TBs and Coins I own you'll see what is important to me. Exactly! I use notes to write notes, I write logs for memories. Take a few minutes and look at a few of them. I enjoy writing logs as much as caching.

Wow I can't believe there is even a debate about this. Yes I've been logging my caches and events as found, not because I want to show I have 8 more finds, but because sometimes you just have to have fun. If I'm out with friends who are looking for my cache, I'll write a found log describing my time at that cache. I use it more as an earmark so I can look back on the day we were there. If me having an extra 8 finds is going to make the world spin backwards then by all means I will remove them, but I think Geocaching is fun, a great way to get out in the woods, and best of all, spend time with friends. I could give two cents for how many finds someone else has, nor do I honestly care how many I have. Now I've used different caches as milestones, such as events and friends caches, more to commemorate the day, or lift a friends cache a little higher. Seriously when you come right down to it the amount of caches a person has doesn't matter one bit to me. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked "How many caches do you have?" and I don't have an answer. I'll usually give something like around this, or not yet 1000, or my favorite, "Not a clue." I just don't care. When I talk to cachers I'm way more interested in listening to people talk about the adventures they've had over how many caches they've accrued. I don't care about how many finds you have. In the end it's all about having fun, and until someone starts giving out trophies or better yet money for how many caches you find, then I'm going to continue to log my caches as found. Not to increase my cache count, but to make a log about how much fun I've had watching someone try to find my cache. Yep I'm a bad person who needs tared and feathered, but I'm sure having fun doing it.

Found It!

I wish more people were like this! I'm one of those people who everyone is talking about. I only get maybe 10 to 12 finds each caching trip, hence the low find numbers, so there are some caches that (Oh dear I say) I don't sign the logs. For this I will take full criticism, but if you ever READ my on-line logs you will know for sure and without a doubt that I was at your cache. I never give a spoiler, but I make sure the owner has a smile and knows I was there. I'm not one for being FTF, I have a few, but not on purpose. So to make a long reply longer, the way I feel, if you find the cache, and have fun with it, fill out the on line log and have fun. Fun is the KEY word in Geocaching, not NUMBERS. OK, I'm off my soap box.

I wrote an Earthcache this summer, and it was rejected. I wrote a letter to the reviewer, and he told me to go a different rout with it. After taking a long time researching the area I re-wrote the listing, and now I'm not sure how to make sure the reviewer sees it. I clicked the box to send it to the reviewer, but after a few weeks I haven't heard anything. Tonight I checked over the listing, and found the box was unchecked. I'm not quite sure what's going on, or if I'm doing something wrong.

This is bigger than a Micro!

The writeup said Terrain 3.5, but it should have been a 5.

What movie is this from? I vaguely remember it... Spaceballs!!

I just wanted to thank the Groundspeak people for bringing back the Google Earth feature to Geocaching! Now I can lay out my trip, looking for caches as well as Waymarks, and places to eat and stay. It is a very important tool for me, and I was crushed to see it was gone.

I love the swag you find in these large caches.

I say, does anyone have tweezers to get the log out?

It's a Nano! A Nano! What were you thinking hiding something this freaking small in the middle of the woods?

This is going to blend in so well!

It's an ammo can! at Riverside! I'm in!

Did you bring a pen? It's another micro.

How can I still be thirty five feet off

This is giving me an idea for a cache!

I just recently found out what Keystone said about the needs maintenance note on a cache. Before I post a Needs Archived note I make sure I go through some steps. First I post a DNF for the find. I do this because most of my DNFs are because I simply missed a great hide, but if I didn't it is noted that someone couldn't find it. I then write an e-mail to the owner asking the owner if it's still there. Next I will put a watch on it so when someone does find it I can pack a lunch and go after it until I find it. If it isn't found, I keep a note of that too. After more DNFs show up I will check it one more time, and if I don't find it then I will write the Needs Archived.

If I could unscrew my brain this is exactly what I would have wrote in the first place! Very Nicely Done!

I used it all the time to look for the best way to attack a cache. I hope it comes back!

Oooops double post

I have noticed a few people wrote they can't remember what happened at all the finds they do in a day. I am one of these people. Well Groundspeak has a solution to this! They gave us the ability to text to our field notes. I now send a text from every cache, and I also have it set up to Twitter this. Now the wife can keep track of where I am on top of what is going on. I leave notes about each cache, and when I go to write my logs it is a big help. I get the order I did my caches, as well as what happened. Now I am truly paperless, and since I forget a lot this helps me remember all the fun we had. On top of that I have made a pact with Geoguin to never use TFTC again. This is just us. I always say everyone caches differently, and that's what makes it fun. Do what you want, and enjoy what you do.