Pinfold

Only 15 more signatures needed! If those who have signed it go and ask spouses to sign it as well then we should reach the target. At the rate we are going we may or may not get there in time. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Geocaching/ Pinfold

Both coins from this cache have now been rescued! This is a superb park and a very nice place to go caching. I hope the cache gets its permission shortly. Thankfully I managed to sneak in early Sunday morning and avoid the entry fee. Phil

I really enjoyed it. It was nice to see everyone again. I've got a right old blister on my thumb from that raking though! Must remember to put the gloves on next time! See you all in July! Phil

That'll be appreciated as I own absolutely nothing like this. Give me some gloves and loppers and I'll be sorted. See you all tomorrow.

they can live through a wash cycle and end up in the dryer! they can also crawl out of drains too! they can make a little air bubble when surrounded by water. Well at least they'll be clean when they bite you....

Right, got the co-ordinates. Let's see how Sunday pans out! I'll try and get there early in the morning. Anything to try and help out a fellow Brit Pinfold

I brought one home tonight after going into Ringwood State Park. It was crawling on my back under my T-shirt as I was sitting on the computer and I picked it off. It was a big job and met with the end of a ball point pen. Thankfully it didn't attach itself. I think I'll bathe in Deet before going back there. I assume putting clothes in the washer should kill them? I did have a good check and got my wife to check me over in case I'd missed one. Nasty little sods they are.......

I've sent a really polite e-mail asking for the final co-ordinates in the hope that I get a response. I'm heading up that way on Sunday so I might be able to have a go at getting it if they reply. My next thought would be to contact the folk who found it ask if they could return to the location and recover the cache and its contents.

All being well I should be there on Saturday for the morning. I've enjoyed the area around here for the last year so it would be nice to give something back. I've not got any tools though, didn't pack them on the plane over here! Phil

I once found some lamb castration rubbers in a cache! http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?II...mp;LID=41317802

Pinfold, I couldn't find the the type of container you were referring to. What type is it? Thanks Y2kota, it's the cache container FatPants has been showing above. They're blue tinted transparent plastic, possibly polycarbonate. They're made by 'Outdoor Products' and you can by them in Walmart. Hope that helps, Pinfold

oops, double post after a time-out error.....

No problems with the clips here but those containers leak.... I have had 2 of them out for about a year and they both started leaking pretty early on. Not much but just enough to be annoying and ruin swag. Oh drat, I've bought some of these things as well. I tested one by sinking it in a bowl of water over a weekend and it stood up to that perfectly, but I guess it must be the thermal cycling that it doesn't like. I wont buy any more then and keep my others for caches that aren't too exposed. Enjoying this thread by the way, I've read the whole thing over a few nights. Pinfold

Thanks for all the answers, much appreciated. Just had a good look at their website. There's a video there that explains the valve. It is indeed made from gortex and it allows the passage of air in either direction yet prevents water from entering. I doubt very much if it would cope with submersion but for keeping damp air out I bet it will be just fine. I'd buy a few of these cases but they're so darn expensive!!

Just bought a Pelican case for use as a cache container. It's a nice box, very well made and should do the trick nicely. Just one thought though, there's a pressure purge valve on the side. How does this thing work? I assume it lets air in should the pressure inside fall below ambient atmospheric pressure but would this let water in as well? If it lets air in then surely water might follow, if this was the case it could leak. I'm sure it wont but how does this thing actually function? Phil

I think I'll discuss this with the UK reviewer when I get home. I've no wish to pore over the minutia of the wording, it's a working guide and not legal speak. I want this to be a nice hide that cachers will want to find and enjoy doing so. The experience of the find and the protection of the finder's interests is what is important. As long as there is an understanding both with the pub owner and on the cache listing that no purchase is required, I don't feel it could offend anyone. The entering of a business is also open to discretion. If a cache was placed in a factory or a wholesale trade outlet, you'd feel very unnerved going in there cold -and rightly so. However, the term 'business' can mean a lot of things, a farm for instance is a business yet thousands of caches are placed on farmland and around farm buildings without incident. I think the notion of previous caches not setting precedents is a good one. Each cache should be reviewed on its individual merits. I'm a UK citizen enjoying a work placement in the US (and enjoying every minute!). This would be a cache clue placed in an English country pub, a very different establishment to the bars that so 'infrequently' frequent the US. The village pub is more than just a business, it's a meeting place and it's the closest thing to a public place that isn't publicly owned. In our village pubs we hold village meetings, the 200 club, British Legion, Parish Council meetings, Scout Leader meetings, Church Council as well as a host of sports meetings etc. It's the normal thing to do. The pubs and the publicans are part of the village and we have a pub culture. Pub games abound in these places, some in the West Midlands and Wales even do 6 yard bell target air rifle shooting! It would be a clever cache clue and most folk would enjoy sitting in the comfort of the pub working it out. The pub would also protect the cache clue from the elements and it would be a real bonus to have a clue that was handled on a daily basis by muggles who are none the wiser and yet yield a blatent clue to a cacher. This may not be a suitable cache clue for a bar in NJ, but in the context of an English country pub and with the appropriate provisos and permissions, I think a UK reviewer would probably use due discretion and give this the nod. Phil

oops, double post... Phil

Sound advice well heeded. I was actually thinking of putting only a stage of the cache in the pub. The final cache itself would be outside. I only wanted the clue inside so that it was kept warm and dry (as well as keeping prospective cachers in a similar condition). The clue was along the lines of taking the box that contained the chess pieces and having a small circuit inside. When the box/pieces/board where arranged in a certain way the PIC circuit would operate (all done with magnets and reed switches) and flash out the cache co-ordinates. ...nobody pinch my idea ok?.... Phil

Thanks for the replies, and so quick! I'll open up the discussion with the local reviewer when I get home, it's the early hours of the morning for the UK now. If the 'would I like to find this cache' rule was applied then I'm sure it would fit the bill perfectly. I had a cache outside one of the pubs last year and from what I've read in the logs most cachers went in for a pint anyway and took the cache inside to open it up and sign the log. As much as I love my adopted home in NJ, I do miss the village pubs in the shires! Phil

There's your answer. That's probably that then..... So I suppose if the bar game was left out and 'available' and there was an understanding on both the cache page and with the publican that nothing need be purchased, that would just leave 'entering a business'. Given that where I live in the UK the village pubs are what attract most folk out here I'm sure it could pass with a fair wind if the other parts were negated? Knowing the type of folk who tend to find my caches, most of them end up in the pub anyway. It's a cache that I'm dreaming up for when I get back to the UK. Hey Brian, I'm actually in your neck of the woods, I'm in Passaic county and some of your caches are on my list to do. Thanks, Pinfold (Phil)

Here's one for discussion. I gather there's a rule about not having to ask the staff of an establishment for clues or the cache itself should it be hidden in or around the establishment. I'm thinking of putting together a cache that involves the use of a chess set in a UK pub, a fairly ordinary thing to find in pubs along with cribbage and dominoes etc. My question is essentially this: if the chess set or box of dominoes was kept behind the bar of a pub and somebody (cacher or not) needed to ask for them, would this be acceptable? This wouldn't make the cacher stand out or be anything untoward or unusual as pub games are invariably kept behind the bar. Please discuss, all opinions considered! Pinfold

That's very impressive. Phil

You can use a Tom-Tom for geocaching and I have done it sucessfully! I've used a Tom-Tom One for Geocaching and it works no problem. The trick is to add a 'favourite', and choose to add it from 'co-ordinates'. Give the point a name. The when you're out in the field go to 'browse map'. You will see your target destination as a star and your actual location as an arrow with a ring around it. Keep walking in the direction of the arrow (set arrow to direction of travel rather than north) and zoom in as you get closer. You'll get it down to a matter of feet and the direction arrow will sit over the star when you find the destination. If you need to get a little extra accuracy (not that I've needed it), go to the main road screen as if driving, tap the area of the screen where the signal bars are. This will bring up the co-ordinates of your location and you can dart about adjusting the northings and westings if needs be -not that you probably will. ...it worked for me and I found it far more user friendly than my Etrex H. Try it before you give up and swap, at least this way you can go geocaching and then use it on the road as a normal sat-nav. Hope that helps, Phil

Cables are great. They are pretty much plug and play. Except if you have Vista...then maybe it's working right or maybe it's not. Under XP it works well. Well the cable is on its way so when it arrives I'll plug it in and see what happens. I'm on XP so hopefully they'll talk to each other. I've spent a day with it now and have gotten used to it, awkward though it is. I've even found three caches with it so it must be doing something right. Its operating system feels a bit dated compared to a Tom-Tom sat nav and it needs a lot of button pressing which is not entirely comfortable on the thumbs. It's a 21st century gadget that feels like it was designed in the late 1980s. On the plus side I'm very impressed with the sensitivity. It's happy to work inside buildings much of the time and even produces a track showing me walking around the house or the local pub. It's got its faults but it's still a useful tool and it didn't cost the earth. I did look at more expensive models with the maps but the maps are horrifically expensive and as much as I like geocaching I can't warrant spending that much on a new toy. Hopefully the cable will iron out a few of the niggles such as gratuitous button pressing. Phil