CBT69

just don't be so obvious that others realize you are doing what you are doing, and go to sniff out what you were fiddling with, that's all. 99% of the people ignore someone walking around with a GPS. However, about 15% of the people notice someone fumbling with an ammo box in the woods, or a lamp skirt at Walmart. Just use common sense, and don't be BLATANTLY obvious, and things will generally work out well. _most_ people note clearly in the caches when extra stealth will be required, for whatever reason.

That, and when you look at the 100s of silly coins you have lying around, you begin to see how much you have invested into coins... At least they hold their value better than stocks. It does get rather Disney-Pin Trade after a while. (You think coin collectors are bad.. take a look at Pin Crack at the Disney resorts, stores, mail order clubs, etc)

Yes, I have. And while I realize buying _some_ things from overseas is unavoidable, I don't consider having a run of coins made a necessity, so I'll choose not to send my dollars (and yours) overseas if I don't have to.

Well, usually, if you find a spike in a cache here, there's another 12 within 30 feet of the cache.

A rather tear jerking tale... I'm thinking Granpa could've used a bit of judgment when helping Junior set up the cache. "No son, it's a cache, not a trash can. I know your 3 legged dinosaur toy is your favorite, but maybe we should stick with toys that aren't quite so used? Maybe add a few that aren't actually broken? No son, I don't think your used wax teeth belong in there either." Obviously, Granpa also had trouble handling criticism. Back to the question: I practice the trade up/trade even mantra everywhere I cache. If I find something in a cache that is obvious trash, (I.e: a sales receipt from McDonalds), I'll remove it and leave something of a higher value in its place. If I don't happen to have any swag with me, I'll make a mental note of the cache and come back to it better prepared at a later date. On the flipside of that coin, some people are just ungrateful. Ayup. My girl LOVES the old scraggly hello-kitty toy we traded out of a cache. "junk"? not so sure. My friends boy found a hotel comb (still in the hotel-labeled sleeve) the other day, and thought it was great. To each their own. However, broken sunglasses, railroad spikes, and golf balls? Not so much.

If/when I can find them made in the USA, I will buy. I won't send any money overseas to aquire them, though.

Gotta agree with Riffster there.. the only reason, in a lot of cases, you even have protected lands in PA is because of sportsmen and conservationists.. who also happen to hunt.

Being observant is your best bet. I nearly stepped on a snake (non poisonous, we only have two kinds here, neither of which this was), the other day, simply because I was paying too much attenton to what I thought was GZ and not enough to where I was stepping. Snakes are OBVIOUS if you are keeping an eye out for them. As far as cottonmouths go.. they are one of the few that will CHASE you if given half a chance. Don't assume it will calm down, it's not a bee.. get gone and quickly if one starts up after you. Use your ears. Most snakes don't want to bite you, they want to get as far from you as possible, and they make a very distinctive sound when moving through grass or the like. Pay attention and freeze if you hear that.. they are probably going the opposite direction anyway.

But it obviously _is_ a privelege, as we can be told "no". And there's no legal recourse we have against it. your local or state park can say "no geocaching" and you cannot do it. Therefore it's not a freedom. Sorry, I know you'd like to believe that, but it isn't so.

Ummm.. perhaps I'm late to the party. The Constitution features the 2nd Amendment. Somehow, I don't see Geocaching as a _RIGHT_ as much as a privelege, and in that way, I don't think the comparison in the title of the thread is terribly valid. Not that I don't think an advocacy board/group/whatever wouldn't be a great idea. It would. However, part of that would be policing our own ranks to discourage the sorts of behaviors that typically reflect badly on the rest of us. Bad cache placement, bushwhacking with a machete, etc etc.

There's at least one I know of, off an interstate in New York, on a sign, on the triangle between the interstate, the on ramp and off ramp, (both of which are at _least_ 55 mph), and "no pedestrian" signs everywhere. We saw it, and drove right by it. Especially since the nearest parking is 1/4 mile down, and you have to walk, no shoulder, on the road people are zooming on and off the interstate on. Perhaps it's someone's idea of a good time to play frogger with semis to get a goofy micro that has said "log full" on the online log for six months.. it's not mine.

I have a Tungsten C, and I love it. you need the PC interface cable, Spinner, and Plucker Desktop. That's all you really have to get setup, to go paperless and love it. Having all caches in an area searchable by ID, waypoint, or proximity is a REALLY nice feature that Plucker gives you.

I've watched the bomb squad get a FTF on a cache because someone too eager didn't bother to at least wait till daylight to go wandering around, their flashlight caught some attention, and the resulting container found was detonated! Use common sense, people.

You cannot compare the 2 foot dry-stack fieldstone walls around here, (NE Pa) which were primarily a way to mark territorial boundary once upon a time, and partly a way to do SOMETHING with the rocks tilled out of the fields, with the actualy stone _FENCES_ in Europe, which to this day keep livestock in, etc etc. Yes, we all know tons of drystack walls out here.. some running right through the middle of a boulder field. Most, if not all, the ones I have seen caches in are on public land, in either a nature preserve, or some kind of historic land tract that goes along with a preserved cabin, where the land has been "let back to thicket" as it were. That is not the same thing they have over in England/Ireland. It's more akin, there, to someone putting a cache behind the cornerstone of your _house_ because it happens to be loose.

I use FF exclusively, and have never had any issues that I can attribute to the browser, only what appears to me to be server lag. And when I've switched over to Internet Exploder just to check, have had the same delay issues. (which usually go away in a few minutes, regardless of browser)

Everyone who buys a dedicated automotive unit wants it for road navigation. Not everyone who buys a handheld wants to use it for road navigation. If handhelds came pre-loaded with road maps, the cost of the units would be higher. Then people who didn't want to use them for road navigation would have to pay for something they don’t want. Do you think they should have to that? The reason handhelds are more expensive than many automotive units is that the handhelds meet much higher standards for shock resistance and water resistance. Honestly, I think the "higher price" is because we are gung-ho about our hobby, and if they made them a grand, we'd still buy em. They could EASILY afford to throw the maps in. It's not like they pay-per-map!

Thanks. I just got off the phone with Garmin and they indicated as such. Using the City Nav NT 2009 it should route to roads with turn by turn indications. Looks like it may be the old version of software I am using. Thanks! The_Wanderers The thing that irrigates me about Garmin is the cheaper, car systems come with a really good map loaded. But buy the top of the freakin line handheld? No maps. "Oh, you can BUY THEM for another 150$ or so!" *grrr* That said.. yes, if you get the newer map package installed, you can do it. It can get kinda hairy at times, (got me SEVERELY confused trying to find my way through Buffalo/Erie at one point when we went for another border crossing), however, once you learn it's "quirks" it gets easier. I _WILL_ say it's a lot easier to do it on the PC with a program specifically dedicated to mapping out a route _FIRST_ and then load that in, than to try and do it on the handheld. And double check your route.. we discovered pocket query and such on a trip to toronto.. we only realized it _might_ be a bit confused when it took a 500 mile trip and said it was over 3000 miles, but only because it had us doubling back for caches. And I mean, doubling back 200 miles in some cases.

Heh. I hear ya Follow. people who like to do puzzle caches will often put out puzzle caches. People who like nanos on park benches will often put out nanos on park benches. My suggestion is: A) find another area close by to get some experience in, or encourage "regular" caches to be placed in your area. The one bonus of difficult puzzle caches I've found, is they are far less likely to have coins and such stolen out of them, or become junk drawer caches.

another question, is does that unit make use of WAAS, and if so, do you have it on? It doesn't do me a lot of good most of the time, because I don't have many ground correction stations that my unit can pick up, but on the occasions where it's worked, it's worked _GREAT_.

Uhh.. what? No. The FTF prize is not swag, it's a _prize_, as in, "you found it first, this is yours!"

I thought "yellowjackets" were wasps? Does anyone know this? I'll tell you one thing, they are definitely getting more prevalent. And I can't stand the little buggers, either. Those aren't yellowjackets, anyway. Those are paper wasps. Yellowjackets are tiny wee things that usually live in the ground. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp The ones you need to really watch out for, are these guys http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee They will chase you, and not stop, and they will do it in enough volume that they can seriously injure people, and can, potentially, kill small children, dogs, etc, due to the quantity of venom injected by hundreds and hundreds of stings. Yellowjackets, wasps, and honeybees, will stop chasing you when you reach the distance they consider safe from their nests, and will return to fly a guard pattern. On the pollenation tip: Bees/wasps are not the only thing that pollinates. Flies, many other insects, including nuisance bugs like Japanese Beetles and Stink Bugs, birds, hummingbirds, etc. Virtually anything that visits multiple flowers is a pollination vector.

Whatever you want! I've found new "gold" dollar coins, a certificate for a home-made bottle of wine (age verified, of course, if you want), I've seen unactivated coins, caching-handy items (head lights, grabber arms, first aid kits, etc). And I've seen absolutely nothing but the crisp smell of a new log book. it's entirely up to you, and don't let the haters get you down. If people are anti FTF prize, they can just bequeath it to the STF when they get there.

The "big red arrow" points to an area, not a perfect spot. EVERY cache is something unnatural. Close your eyes, open them, and think "what doesn't look normal". (urban caches caveat: people are sneaky bastiges.. see what can be easily dismantled) The trick is looking for what "doesn't fit" and reading the clues. Many logs actually have clues _IN_ them. Read them. Parse them. When you get to GZ, read them again.. anything jump out? Once again, look for something unnatural. 5 lb rocks don't end up ON TOP OF rotting wood. That big chunk of tree.. would it have fallen that way? Is there a natural "hide' ready made? What doesn't look out of place? Pine trees generally don't have acorns, and oak trees don't have pinecones, etc etc.

Why isn't it? The Constitution states specific rights, but does not delineate those as the _only_ rights. There are plenty of rights not delineated by the Constitution. Use of public lands? Partially addressed there, obviously addressed by our society. If nothing else, it falls under "free assembly", and is therefore a protected right. As someone earlier said.. yeah.. find the obnoxious cacher (we all know a few) and somehow make them stop being obnoxious. Perhaps I'm lucky.. in my area, the "evidence" of caching is less garbage.. but I with a few exceptions, the local crew is good. I know other places are less than stellar. And it's usually one bad apple, too.

Twas g.p.s.-ey, and the shaded brush Did wave, and block the signal; sang loudly did the morning thrush, And the geo caches were original. "Beware the geocoin, my son! The shine that draws, the codes that pull! Beware the camo micro, and shun The junk cache full!" He took his gps in hand: Long time the skip signal he fought— So rested he by the decoy tree, And stood awhile in thought. And as in sneaky thought he stood, The micro, with hidden grace, sat quietly in the whistling wood, all hidden in it's place! One, two! One, two! and through and through The GPS went north, and back! He found it true, and within clue To the next hide track "And hast thou found the multi-cache? Come to sign, my searching son! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callash!" This multi-cache was won!. Twas g.p.s.-ey, and the shaded brush Did wave and block the signal; sang loudly did the morning thrush, And the geo caches were original. (Geocaching, _MY_ Wonderland)