The Chaos Crew

the pay back is the journey not the destination - I love multi-caches! Yes, they take longer, but usually the stages you visit along the way really add to the experience and the enjoyment. In fact sometimes people deliberately build a multi cache, now that Virtuals are verboten, to bring you to a wonderful wonderful spot, where there isn't anywhere sensible to hide a physical cache (or there are permission issues). You gather some info at said wonderful spot then find the physcial cache nearby. It also adds an extra bit of fun to the proceedings if you have to work out the final co-ords after doing a bit of detective work. Long live multis! If you're not a numbers guy, then why would you prefer 8 x half an hour searches for straightforward traditionals over 1 x 4 hour search for a fun multi? doesn't make any sense to me. My family are happy enough getting a small handful of smileys per week (sometimes only one or two), but smileys that we have really had an adventure earning. Yes we see our fellow cachers ramping up the numbers at a much higher rate, but I bet we are having just as much fun as they are, maybe even more!

thanks everyone for replying to this thread, it makes fascinating reading. A few of you have mentioned Letterboxing, and I used to do this with my parents when I was younger - and Orienteering with my mum - so geocaching really is a perfect fit (especially given I'm a bit of a tech geek) and I'm kind of surprised / disappointed I didn't find out about it sooner, in a way. Although, that said, it took me a couple of years to really get going with it in earnest due to home circumstances and various other stuff, so I probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything with the knowledge if I had found out about it earlier anyway…

I'm really impressed with these. I didn't even consider the 550 (which had just come out) when I bought my Oregon 450 because it seemed like a big jump in price for the addition of a camera which I assumed would be pants. All I found when I researched it were official example pics from garmin, which I didn't trust. But these all look great!

A submarine pen, it was used for bombing practice during the II-world war. It has now been filled in but when standing on top of it you can still see the craters. The Cache was GC115CT - Submarine Pens II it has since been archived. oh that sounds interesting - pity the cache has gone

I’m actually really envious of those who discovered it early, like yourself dogastus. I wish I had been googling for info on that camera in 2003

I was kind of lumping them under the "Brit" banner - sorry to all the proud Welsh, Scottish, and Cornish Independence activists What's a "sub pen"?

I saw a thread like this a while ago in the general forums, but I’m interested in how my fellow Brits (and Irish peeps ) first discovered the hobby. I originally found out about it via a throwaway mention on an arts and crafts forum I frequent, back in early 2008. But I got to thinking about this yesterday, and I wondered whether I would have discovered it between then and now if I hadn’t noticed (and been sufficiently intrigued to google it) that one little mention back then. My only friends who geocache, are those who I have met through geocaching, and I can’t recall ever seeing it mentioned on the news / on a TV programme etc – other than those programmes I was directed to via this forum eg the Radio 4 programme a few months ago, or the recent quiz show that had some cachers as panellists. I wouldn’t have heard/seen those otherwise. The reason I thought on this yesterday, was that I was sending a Postcrossing postcard, and on the recipient’s profile it said that she and her family go geocaching every weekend. I’m pretty sure that is the first time I have naturally come across a mention of geocaching in all this time. It sometimes feels, because we talk about it amongst ourselves so much, and bring every little media write-up to each others’ attention, that the hobby is so mainstream now. But most “normal” people I talk to still don’t seem to have heard of geocaching. And like I say, apart from seeing that one little mention by chance almost 3 years ago, I think I would also have been blissfully ignorant until reading that Postcrossing profile. It’s such a big part of my life now, we plan most of our weekends around caching, that it’s weird to think that if I hadn’t been browsing that crafting forum that day, and hadn’t spotted that particular post, and hadn’t had the time/inclination to google it….it doesn’t bear thinking about lol So – how did you discover geocaching? And if you had missed that first opportunity, would it have been years like in my case until you came across it again?

Releasethedogs - As another impoverished Brit, I read the original Brit's post about never getting to the US as "I'd love to but can't afford to" more than the "I wouldn’t visit America if you paid me” that you seemed to hear. It really is prohibitively expensive nowadays to visit the States, sadly. The fare you quoted is not far off the $1600 for two people that NYPaddleCacher originally stated. Add a couple of children to that equation (who have to pay full fare), and you are looking at $3000 just to get there, before worrying about the expense of hiring a car / somewhere to stay / food / etc. A two week trip to the states for most families would cost at least $5000 (I speculatively priced up a trip to Florida last year for 2 kids 2 adults and couldn't get it below $9000, and that was going budget all the way apart, but did include theme park tickets etc) I certainly don’t have that kind of cash spare, do you? If so, lucky you! But I will keep playing the Lottery, and maybe one day you’ll see me logging the trifecta Back on topic – I don’t have any problem with the area around Groundspeak HQ having some extra souvenirs – that’s a nice additional reward for anyone who goes to the trouble of making the pilgrimage. But I’d also like to see more acknowledgement of the “rest of the world” in plans for souvenirs - I expect/hope a more world-wide view will roll out eventually.

that looks fantastic - I think that's our milestone cache found - thank you!

That so annoys me , it's just so rude. I just grab them back Similar sentiments here. I found one cache a couple of months ago and left a GC. At the next cache I met another group of cachers going the other way, told them I had just dropped a coin in their next cache, and moved on. By the time I got home they had already grabbed the coin, logging from their iphone I don't see the problem here, surely you put them into the cache to be grabbed by someone else ? Yes... but... It's generally considered "polite" to give the previous holder of the trackable at least a few days in which to complete their own logging and drop the item off into the cache. Many cachers like to make a note in their cache log of which trackables they've dropped off, they like to make it part of their caching experience for the day. Also, if it gets grabbed before they've had a chance to log the drop-off into it doesn't accrue the mileage for that step in the journey (unless the cacher who does the 'grabbing' remembers to give that item a 'visit' to that previous cache before they move it on into another one.) MrsB Yes, it's this second point. By grabbing the trackable it misses it's log of being in that cache before the other team got hold of it, they didn't take it out of my bag, they took it from the cache where I put it, and the log for the trackable has no record of i visiting there, which makes it untrackable, and easily lost. eeek! I had no idea this was considered rude!!! I did find a trackable once in a cache that wasn't "officially" there. I must admit I did do the "grab" thing as I logged the cache that evening....I thought I was doing the other cacher a favour to save him/her the bother!! What I did do though was dip it into the cache I had got it from first and then retrieved it from there, so hopefully that sorted the mileage issue. But I honestly had no idea that what I did was not the done thing. Sorry! You live and learn....

We did that one the other week, and it is definitely worth a visit (if you can time it right) – although it’s in Wiltshire not Warwickshire! If you’re travelling that far though you might as well keep going to Dorset as Tyneham Village is similar to Imber, but more interesting to visit, IMO. And it also has a virtual cache. That photo on the Warwick Uni webcam cache page sure took me back, I was a student there from ’86 to ’89 – ah, happy days! Back to the OP’s question, I haven’t done many caches in Warks as I don’t live up in that neck of the woods any more, and the nice multi we did on Abbey Fields in Kenilworth seems now to have gone. So I’m not a whole lot of help! But as a Canadian expat, you might enjoy this one that I’ve had on my watchlist for a while (I can’t help but be drawn to it, I’m a huuuge ice hockey fan and Vancouver are my team ) : http://coord.info/GCPQP9 I hope you enjoy your visit

watching with interest as we also have a milestone coming up and don't want to waste it on a run of the mill cache. and Ms QC, you already know which ones are my favourites in the area, trouble is you have already done most of them

Congrats on your #500 Mr Bad Fish! I like the certificate thingy that you took with you, neat idea that I may well copy for our next milestone Your blog is looking good – I’ve added it to my reader It would be nice to read more detail about your own adventures, that’s the kind of geocaching blogs I personally enjoy reading more than the general “how to” info, and I suspect that would be the case for most who have been caching for a while. Having said that, your “how to” stuff is clear and well written and I’m sure will be very helpful to any beginners stumbling across your blog, so a mix of the two would be great.

Toronto top of league, Pens 29th, Oilers leading the NW..... who turned the table upside down????

Must admit, I never really understood the YOSM cache at all, despite having visited the webpage. So thanks to this thread for clarifying I have a weakness for trig points, off to scour the list to see if there are any of my local ones on there so I can pay them a visit and log this unique cache....

it wasn't deliberate - but yes, it appears I found one cache on Feb 29th 2008 on a day trip to Bath - and DNFd another - so that's lucky, if I do ever decide to try to fill in my calendar, I have the most difficult day already checked off

The trouble is it results in you being 'too darned nice' to the wrong person. Why not be nice to the general geocaching community who may also fall foul of visiting a badly maintained cache rather than to someone who seems to have lost interest in his/her own cache? good point well made well it's out of my hands now anyway, Deci has temporarily disabled it waiting on the owner's response. I strongly suspect there won't be one, so presumably after a certain time limit the cache will be archived?

I just feel a bit bad as I don't know the owner's circumstances, and I don't like stepping on other peoples' toes. I'm too darned nice, me If it does get archived, then my plan is to replace it with something pretty much identical, and credit the original owner on the listing. I'd just feel a lot more comfortable if I knew I had his blessing, if you see what I mean....

you couldn't resist converting it to base 10 either, huh? binary-geeks-r-us!

I can't log on to check from work, but I'm guessing I'm still last? sob. that'll trust me to put all my eggs in one basket. At least Bobby Luongo seems to be finding his form early this year - he normally waits until November But he won't help me anyway because you lot have all picked him too!

that looks like a lot of fun and neatly combining my two favourite things just a pity it's a little too far to travel!

OK Deci - I feel a bit bad now for drawing attention to the cache and forcing your hand to take this kind of action.... I do hope the owner isn't annoyed.... but then again it's not right to leave it out there active in a state either. Let's hope for a happy outcome to this one.

Kryten - the only reason I was going to put a note on was so that people could contact me if the cache needed attention again, as obviously I wouldn't get notifications of "needs maintenance" logs, not being the actual owner ....but yes, you're right, I could dispense with that and just remember to keep an eye on the listing Team Noodles - I'd be reluctant to suggest the cache is archived as that would then lose all its continuity and also that seems a little unfair on the original hider who put in all the effort and legwork to set up a great cache in the first place. I wouldn't want to change a thing about it other than the broken box - the multi stage and location are great. So if it were archived and then I replaced it with an identical cache, that would seem a bit cheeky, don't you think??? I wouldn't want to in any way take any credit away from the original placer, I just would hate to see the cache die. And yes, it's only a week since I emailed the owner directly, prompted by the appearance of yet another Needs Maintenance log, but I did make the same offer on my own log back in August, and there were 2 other needs maintenance logs before mine, since when the owner appears to have logged into geocaching.com, according to his profile, but without responding either in words on the listing, or, clearly given the most recent NM log posted October 3rd, in action at the cache site itself. Gosh that was a long sentence I'll give it a couple more weeks and see if he responds.... in the meantime, please nobody archive it off before I (or the owner!) has had a chance to sort it out

Hi all I recently found a cache that, despite being local, I had been ruling out of my searches up until that point as the recent logs (going back a few months) all told the same story – cache damaged and wet and urgently needing maintenance – but the owner was not responding. One of my travel bugs then got logged into the cache on the website (around a month after it had physically been put in there, apparently, which is a pity as we would have mounted the rescue mission sooner otherwise) – and rather than leave it in a waterlogged cache we decided to go and retrieve it ourselves and move it on to a drier environment. It actually turned out to be a great cache, in terms of location, a fun multi which took you on a great walk in a local beauty spot, with a good sized (but damaged beyond repair) cache at the end in a fab hiding spot. My travel bug, sadly, was nowhere to be seen, all there was in there were a few dirty wet swaps and a sodden log book. The lid of the cache is broken and there is no way it can be made watertight. There have been many found logs referencing the state of the cache and a number of “needs maintenance” logs, going back over a number of months. But no response at all from the cache owner, who does not appear to have been active in the sport since Summer 2009. It would be such a pity to lose the continuity of this cache so I’d hate to see it archived. I have emailed the owner and offered to adopt, but no reply. Would it be considered OK for me to unofficially adopt the cache – ie replace the container and logbook etc, and put a note on the cache page to say that I have tidied it up and will take on ongoing maintenance duties? Or do you think this will annoy the cache owner? (he does still seem to log on to geocaching.com occasionally according to his profile page, even though he hasn’t logged any finds for over a year) I don’t want to break any unwritten rules or step on any toes….I’d just like to give this great cache a little TLC! Sarah Chaos PS I’m asking in the UK forum as I’m aware that sometimes etiquette can be a very regional thing! And what goes in this situation in the States might not be seen as “on” over here… PPS it will be fairly easy I'm sure for the detectives amongst you to figure out which cache I'm talking about, but I'd rather it wasn't referenced on here as I don't want to make this a public slagging off of the owner - who after all did once hide a really excellent cache - and I am sure has extenuating circumstances which have made it difficult to maintain the cache.

I’ve never found a cache during an event yet, although sometimes pick up one or two on the way there or way home afterwards. I like to put faces to names and meet new people, especially locals, as it is fun to later spot their names in logbooks. And my lads like to wear their trackable t shirts and be “discovered”, and to run around the car park looking for travel bugs on cars. I wouldn’t say I really fit the social butterfly tag though as I’m pretty shy, so I do a fair bit of wallflowering. I’m hoping that will change as I get to know more people in the area, so far I have only been to a few events and still feel a tiny bit like I’m gatecrashing a private party, iykwim