ChileHead

You can download a GPX file of a geotour from here: https://www.geocaching.com/play/geotours Select the tour, then select the download option. Here's the tour you mentioned: https://www.geocaching.com/play/geotours/jack-trail Edit: Sorry, I see you already found the gpx file. How do you think a PQ would be different?

FYI, something broken recently at Waymarking.com that broke my hacky site. This version still seems to work, but if you notice something that used to work and doesn't anymore, let me know: http://geotrailsw.com/Waymarking (as normal, forums correct this to use an upper case W and it shouldn't be - I need to make a shorter alias here)

Something broke it recently, I'm still not sure why as I didn't change anything on my site. In the meantime, I have another version here (with a lowercase "w", but the forums instead on correcting it to upper case!) http://geotrailsw.com/Waymarking I haven't gone back to check what version it is, but it seems to still work.

Encourage people to solve the puzzles, and in lieu of a find on your cache offer to make them some Pavlova instead. :-)

This is geocaching.com not puzzlesolving.com Just solving the puzzle misses the geo part and the caching part.

I use it to keep new cachers using the free app away from my caches, as many of them have no idea what the rules in geocaching are. It also keeps invalidated users away from my cachers, as I have a real problem with cachers that can't be contacted via email.

You are probably using the new search, which after clicking the map results link, doesn't have a side bar. Try the old search here: https://www.geocaching.com/seek/default.aspx After doing a search, the map results should bring you to the map with the sidebar.

As I've been saying since the first power trails started appearing, no good would come out of taking a low impact, low visibility activity and turning it into a high impact, high visibility one. And that's precisely what these PTs and most of the "geo art" have done. I was pretty much a voice in the wilderness in the beginning. Glad to see that more and more people are starting see this nonsense for what it is, a threat to the long term viability of our game. We're already seeing the fallout from power caching in NJ with a new, draconian state parks policy and a total ban on some state lands. + million or so It really sucks to see caching banned on NJ state lands. I don't know the history of this policy, but if it was caused by the geoart and power trail crud, we really need to take a deep look at all aspects of our game.

I'd rather see this, where some effort was made into finding the cache, after spending hours getting there and back, than to see people claiming finds on caches that weren't there by signing a throw down, or doing the container swap game.

I don't do streaks or challenges, so the dates for me personally are irrelevant. You're right, this whole issue is not a huge deal. That said, suppose I knew a local cacher who claimed a 1,000 day streak. If I had seen his/her signature in multiple cache log sheets, *and always with a date beside the signature,* I would be just a tiny bit more certain of the accomplishment than if the signatures were randomly placed and never dated. The reason should be obvious, but if someone hasn't read the whole thread, it's simple - if there's no date on the log sheet, then you can choose to log online at home anytime - for example, on a day when you're sick in bed with the flu, and want to preserve your streak without going through a 18" blizzard! Reason for edit: to change "your" to "you're." Cascade already pounced on me once today for spelling "rogue" as "rouge." Oh yeah that's what local Facebook groups are for. We've caught people in the act of forward dating logs and then later using them for a streak. They got mocked and we snicker at them at events, but that's about it. If they want to claim a streak, whatever.

I don't do streaks or challenges, so the dates for me personally are irrelevant.

Yikes. The date is not relevant to anybody looking at the logbook. The date is online. There is no requirement to date or time the log. Would you suggest the date has to follow a specific format too?

I almost never put the date as I have no idea what the date is most times. I usually know the year and month, but never the day. I don't do streaks or challenges, so I have no interest in the actual date I found it. Often logbooks are torn up a bit over time, random loose sheets fall out of the books, or there are already random signatures it's often hard to find where to sign. I won't spend a lot of effort on that.

Don't list them on geocaching.com. Hide the caches, print out information about them including coordinates, and let the kids plug the coordinates into the GPSs. If you are using smart phones, you can't use the geocaching.com app to find the caches as they won't be listed, but you should still be able to manually enter coordinates into an app. Caches listed on geocaching.com are open to everybody, so this doesn't seem appropriate for what you want to do. I've taken scouts out 5-6 times in the past, and always hide caches of my own and never submit them to geocaching.com.

There used to be a power trail guideline. It will be hard to get it back, I'm afraid. Too many people enjoy hopping in and out of their car every 528 feet. Though I'd hate for our game to become an all about the numbers game like that parking lot sticker defacement game.

If you can code, it would be pretty easy. I have something similar. For example, this cache: http://coord.info/GC5442E requires you to open a page, and you are given the corodinates 60 minutes after you open it. You could do something similar by having a QR code open a page, drop a cookie in the browser, and only after 28 hours would it reveal the coordinates to the next stage.

Remember it was the giga event in Germany this past weekend. With 5000 people logging it and tons of other caches at the same time, I'm sure that was a contributor.

You need a physical logbook. You can't enforce that the cacher "log" virtually. What you could do is have the Pi serve up a page people have to go to on their smart phone or tablet, collect information or coordinates, that brings you to the actual physical cache with logbook.

I just want to find boxes of crap in the woods. I could care less about somebody's favorite team or favorite {whatever}. I'm happy to see the write up talk about how great the view is, or the history of the spot, or something about the location. I skip over all the blah blah blah about stuff unrelated to the cache.

Obviously this account is a sock puppet for another account. Which, last I knew, was against the forum guidelines to post with a sock.

I originally bought the app when I had a Droid X. I have since reinstalled it on my S4 and my Nexus 7 without a problem and without being charged again. Most likely if you are being asked again, you may be using a different account/profile. In the app store you should be able to see who you are logged in as - double check that if you have multiple google accounts set up for your device.

I did a similar series of caches in Florida a couple years ago (http://coord.info/GC44R3A) There were a few dozen caches in a abandoned development, where the roads and street signs were all in, but only a handful of homes were ever built. It was pretty cool to drive through the area, feeling like some alien picked up the houses and left everything else. When I pulled into the area, I saw a couple police cars driving around and one of them eyed me driving into the area. On one of the first finds, I see the car drive up again and pull up behind my car. I came out of the overgrowth and explained what I was doing. He had never heard of geocaching before. A second police car pulled up, fortunately, as he knew all about geocaching and had seen many other cachers in the area. Seems like areas like these attract crime, being mostly abandoned. There had been some rapes in the area, where women were dragged back here. There were several cases of arson as well, one of which was still smoldering when I was there. For the few families living in such an area, any traffic is going to cause alarm because of the history of crime in a mostly abandoned area, so they are likely to call the police and raise an issue. I'd much rather see caches like these, that are CLEARLY not on public property (somebody owns it, not the town/county/state), than to have more bad press given to geocaching. Archive first, unarchive if permission is proven. There are plenty of other public lands to geocache on.

It's not a park. It's not public land. It's not government land. The caches don't have permission. The land is private on land that hasn't been completely developed. I see no problem with the archival.

That wouldn't have been published. A challenge can't specify how you find a cache ... how do you prove it? The honor system isn't something a challenge cache can use.

It's no longer 1993. Please don't make flashing text, that scrolls in multiple colors, with flame images around it. A nice subdued congrats is fine and less annoying.