LocutusMIT

Cape Ann, Massachusetts on a dreary, foggy day. Make sure to read The Shadow Over Innsmouth before exploring. Better yet, get the audiobook read by Wayne June and listen to it on the way.

"What are you doing there?" A: "I'm using multibillion-dollar military satellites to find Tupperware in the woods... Why? What's your hobby?" B: "Collecting spider bites. I'm up to 27 different species." C: "I've lost my marbles. Can you help me find them?" D: "The Bronx Zoo's cobra got out again, and I'm helping look for it." E: "I'm geocaching, Officer."

My own personal code is that if I manage to touch the log itself, or I can verify that the log is indeed missing, I'll count it as a find. If at all possible (and I'll make considerable effort), I'll sign the log. I feel that the physical log is really there for the cache owner to keep after it's been filled or the cache archived, and I hate to stiff the person who put all the effort in to make my day a little more fun. I can think of only three times where I have posted a find but didn't sign the log. In one, the log was so wet that it was simply impossible to get it out of the nano without destroying it. In the second, it was full to the point that I'd need to overwrite someone else's sign-in in order to add my own. In both cases, I posted a Needs Maintenance after logging it online. The final one was my own fault. I was too excited about getting my brother into geocaching that I completely forgot to sign the darn thing myself. Unfortunately, it's way too far away from my home to run by it again in the near future (it's in Florida, and I live in Massachusetts), though I certainly will if I ever get the chance to. I still feel bad about forgetting to sign in, but not about marking it as a find--I did find and open the cache, get my hands on the log before handing it to my brother, and even traded a few TBs. All that said, I think that I'm going to take the less stressful route when it comes to policing my future caches. If it's pretty clear that a person didn't actually find my cache, I'll first email him nicely (perhaps he accidentally logged the wrong cache?), then delete the log if he won't give me a satisfactory answer. If, however, there seems to be at least some chance that he did find it, even if he didn't sign the log, I won't even bother him to ask about it; I'm just going to give him the benefit of the doubt. It really isn't worth stressing over.

Yellowjackets. Most of the scars have faded, but I still find that I'm a little timid when bushwhacking. Gotta work that out of my system.

As the old saying goes, "one man's trash is another man's treasure." I, personally, would love to find small laminated cards of local insects.