johmer79

Like T&DJay said, GPS Treasure Hunt (GCWPDC) is in Centre County, as well as Welcome to Mo Valley Geocachers (GCVVD8), and STATE QUARTER Back (GCWN03) are all pretty fast. Other than that, there aren't any quick ones in that part of the county...unless you're good at finding caches on tanks, then you can find Pretty (Dam) Cool Geocache (GCWN03).

I was looking into buying Google Earth plus because it says you can use your GPS in real time on your computer screen. I'm not sure how this would work, since you probably don't have an internet connection while you're in your car. If you find out any information about this, I would really like to know! Thanks!

If there are any Michigan Wolverine fans/geocachers that are making the trek to Central Pennsylvania on October 14th, I would like to let you know that we will be hosting the Please Don't Squeeze the Cacher! (GCY1A5) event cache the following day at the nearby Whipple Dam State Park. If anyone would like to join us (there has already been interest in the event from a sourthern New Jersey caching group) I'm sure the Penn State and Michigan fans can coexist nicely outside of the confines of Beaver Stadium for a few hours at least! Let us know if you would be interested!

That name is too long!! I'll have to go with something a little more boring.

I would vote for Central PA if IV Warrior is going to be recruiting people from other area websites. And IV Warrior, you're from Lewistown, right?

Just so everyone knows, I have reserved a Pavilion at Whipple Dam State Park for an event cache on Sunday, October 15th. I'll be making a cache page soon, so stay tuned for more info!

Since my other half is leaving town this weekend I could probably spend a few hours with photoshop too...it'll be more constructive than playing Madden 07' all weekend.

You're pretty much an honorary CPA member anyway. :-)

I just contacted the people at Whipple Dam about holding an event. Unfortunately, the earliest I would be able to set something up (I have weddings to attend, and wedding preparations of my own in the meantime) would be Sunday October 15th, the day after PSU's home game against Michigan. Hopefully I will hear back from them soon. I know it's going to start getting chilly by then, but it'll still be a good time to get together. Let me know what you think.

I thought about that too, but unfortunately local caching groups wouldn't (and probably shouldn't) have the ability to change the rules in their area. So maybe it would just have to be a set of preferences or something. :-)

Luckily at this time, those cachers aren't prevalent around here...but you're right about the newcomers wanting to up their numbers. I wanted to have a lot of finds when I started, but then when I found some great caches, I knew that's what the game was all about. I realize that not everyone thinks that way, but to each his own I guess. I'm hoping that this can start some good dialogue. And mercn8rs, there are some options out there for relatively inexpensive domain names if you could put the php into a simple site. We can discuss further.

Well...since it seems to have become an issue around here, I would like to offer my commentary about the state of caching in this area (and in general). Back in April, we had a nice little CITO event over at Shingletown, and a few of us were discussing the quality of caching in the area. Compared to other areas (e.g. Harrisburg), Centre county has a great mix of cache types, including relatively simple finds that are fun for families, long hikes, and difficult multis and puzzle caches. When out-of-towners come to the area, we quite often see logs from people who are impressed by the quality of caches in area, and I think that kind of reputation is great to have. Recently, as it has been noted by previous posts, there have been several caches placed in the area that are relatively easy, and it was stated that this was the intended purpose. It seems that many places have become "numbers" happy, and I think that is sad...but I have to admit that while I don't want to see Centre County turn in to one of those places, I still try to go find them. I also understand that people all play the game differently, so everyone's philosophy will be slightly different when it comes to placing caches. There are the caching purists (who have been around longer than the micro cache) that have standards where a part of them dies every time a micro cache is placed. There are also the purely urban cachers who have never seen an ammo can. While I participate in all styles of caching (I've been known to go to Harrisburg to grab 30 micros in a day), I personally enjoy a more involved cache...one that is either mentally or physically difficult, or one that takes you to a beautiful place that you may not have discovered on your own. At that CITO event, we discussed starting a Centre County caching organization with a goal of maintaining the high standard of caching in this area. While I realize that not everyone will buy into it, I still think it's a good goal to have. Using Salvelinus as an example, I am saddened to see someone who has placed so many great caches get so discouraged with the sport/game that he is archiving his caches. I think that if people don't like the direction that caching is taking in their area, they should do something about it. Keep placing high-quality caches, and people will take the time to find them. Play the game your way, and maybe others will follow. There is nothing in the geocaching guidelines that says a person has to succumb to the desires and trends of others, or find caches that they don't find enjoyable. Geocaching has evolved into a sport for many types of people. Our actions as a whole should tell us how the Centre County caching landscape will evolve in the future. As members of a geocaching community, I believe that we should continue to place caches of varying styles and difficulties so we can maintain our reputation for providing a quality caching experience for our residents, as well as our visitors.

I've also been thinking about buying a domain name for a Centre County website, but I'm not sure if there's interest, or if I have time to maintain it.

My favorite cache in northern DE is Rockford Multi-cache. If you have some time, this is definitely one of the best around.

Sounds like a good assortment to me. It looks like we'll get an entire day off, so maybe we'll do those in the evenings and span out a little when we have more time. Thanks for the suggestions!

Well, we do have to fly in and out of Denver...so maybe we'll have to look into it. :-)

Hi everyone. We will be out in Boulder, CO from the 23rd to the 29th for some work-related stuff, and we want to get some caching done while we're out there. Can anyone offer some suggestions of must-do caches in the area? We like finding all types of caches, so I'm sure we'll use as many of your suggestions as possible. Thanks!

I haven't seen any this year...but I haven't been out very much since it has been warm. The last time I ran into a rattlesnake was two summers ago at Stone Valley Cache II (GC8E8A). I was walking through some tall grass because I was too lazy to stay on the trail, and when I came out on the other side, the snake slithered out onto the trail a few feet in front of me. But it wasn't interested in me, and went about its business.

I'm a newbie coin collector, so today was the first day I ever got a geocoin in the mail! I've gotten some as presents from my friend, but never this way. My first acquisition...the 2006 British Columbia coin.

That was definitely well done...I haven't seen any media outlets giving geocaching such a positive spin before. Here in central PA, our positive reputation (especially with DCNR) is really growing...especially because of the numerous CITO events in the area.

I was just looking through the old posts, and I found a "favorite geocaching photo" topic and the pictures were amazing. The only problem is that the last post was almost exactly a year ago! So let's get this started up again, because I'm sure people have been taking photographs in the past year. This time, if you like, tell us a little back story about your photos, or at least which cache you were searching for when you took the pic (if you remember). I'll start... This is a picture of an ice covered Lake Perez at the Stone Valley Recreation Center just outside of State College, PA. We came here to nab a few caches, but the closest is Stone Valley II cache. This capped off an amazing January of caching in Central PA. This is my favorite water fowl, who lives near the Duck and Cover cache, also in State College, PA. Whenever you throw this guy a piece of bread, he wags his tail 4 times. And you can't help but feel bad for him since he has some broken wing feathers. Finally (for this entry anyway) we have the train bridge over the Upper Falls at Letchworth State Park in NY while I was home over winter break. I was going to find some nearby caches, but the trails I needed to take were closed because they were covered with ice. So I just took a few pictures instead. Once this thread gets moving, I have a few more to post. POST THOSE PICS EVERYONE!!

I found a cache last weekend where I couldn't get the log out of the container. So instead of not signing it and claiming a find, I just stuck my pencil in the container and tried to scribble something legible. At least the owner knows I'm not lying. :-)

I'm currently a grad student, but in 2 months I'll be a research meteorologist working on numerical modeling for the government, military, or whoever funds our grants.

These are usually the only ways I will log a cache without leaving explicit proof in the cache container or first contacting the owner. Another cache I ran across was haphazardly placed as part of an event, and the maintenance was awful. I found the cache, and it was "inside" a ziplock baggie that had two sides open. Inside the baggie were two centipedes and a cache paper that looked like it was in the process of being recycled by mother nature. So I reported it, and I got credit for the find...then the cache was immediately archived. I have run across some interesting DNF issues that I would like to share as well. I saw a log by one cacher, who will remain nameless, that said the following (i'm paraphrasing); "This was a 1/1 cache, and I looked for five minutes and couldn't find it. But since I'm so great, it must not be there...so I'm logging it as a find anyway." And as far as I know, the owner never deleted the log! We were caching a few weeks ago along a rails-to-trails, and there was a cache that was up in a tree, with a terrain rating of either 1.5 or 2, I can't remember. My counterpart climbed the tree and signed the log with no problems. When we got back and logged the cache, we noticed that someone made a log consisting of "LOL that's funny" and posted a pic of the cache up in the tree. So it's a spoiler, AND they didn't actually find it. Finally, we have the most recent incident, where my friend placed a 7-stage multi cache out in the woods. The potential FTFer found the first two stages and half of the third (therefore giving him half of the coords). We think after that, he skipped the rest of the stages by simply walking a longitude line until he found the cache (which he claims was two hours of walking around in the woods until he stumbled upon it). He signed the log, but I don't think this is a find either, since he didn't do the cache the way it was supposed to be done. I can't wait to finally submit my first cache so I can thwart the cheaters. :-)

I saw a log not too long ago that said something to the effect of, "I searched for this cache for 5 minutes. It's a 1 star difficulty, so if I couldn't find it, it must not be there, so I'm logging this as a find." If you didn't find it, it's not a find!!! It sometimes angers me when people do this, but hey...we're not getting paid to geocache. If we were, then I might make more of a stink about it.