Arktoi

I was so happy to see several eclipse-related events already published despite it still being three months away, and this one is just about as close to the action as you can get! I would love to be there but I'm still working on transportation...anyone out there willing to allow me to carpool with them from any of the nearby larger towns/cities (Nashville, Bowling Green, Paducah, etc.)? Message me if you'd be interested in seeing if we can work something out! Hoping to be there to meet some cachers and see this sure-to-be-awesome eclipse!

The #1 way to improve your hiding skills is finding more caches by different folks, so you can see different hiding techniques. It looks like you've found some already, which is great and should help fill in some of the blanks, but it looks like all but one that you've found are difficulties 1-2, so you haven't seen some of the really crazy ones yet. I wouldn't be too worried about making your hides too hard - as long as the difficulty rating reflects how difficult it really is, and as long as you're still abiding by all the geocaching.com rules for hiding a cache.

As others have stated, there are numerous potential issues with flash drives that are out of their packaging and already have content on them being put and kept in caches. However, you may be interested in something called dead drops, which are not nearly as close to something out of a spy novel as you might think - they are USB drives that people have placed all around the world with the intention of others finding them, checking out the contents, and perhaps even adding their own content. There are MASSIVE security issues with this of course, but if you're interested in that kind of thing, looking into dead drops is probably the best way to go. Good luck with your caching!

So that's the only reason given for placing a cache there? So basically there was zero thought put into it...couldn't even go to the effort of coming up with an original location... Saying that there was a previous cache at a given location where a new cache is being put out isn't the same as saying that's the *only* reason the new cache is being put out. Presumably the CO of the recently archived cache had a reason for putting one there to begin with. I like to give them the benefit of the doubt, anyway, if I haven't taken the time to at least glance at the cache descriptions myself. It really wouldn't be right to assume anything either way without digging a little deeper - that is, reading the cache descriptions fully, visiting those caches myself to actually see the location, and/or asking the COs directly.

Ha! I always wondered how he did that...

I've never heard of any kind of etiquette regarding this, so to the best of my knowledge there is none. As far as the rules go, you can place the new cache as soon as the old one is archived, no waiting period needed. Just keep in mind, if it's not in the *exact* same spot as the old cache, that you'll have to take into account cache density, as well as gaining permission to place the cache there and all the other normal steps for creating a cache listing.

If you want, you could also somehow put the tool with the cache itself. I've encountered a few like this (GC2M6D6 and GC4888X come to mind first). In any case, caches which use a tool for extraction or retrieval are always fun IMO!

On at least two occasions, I found food (a mint and a small piece of chocolate) in caches, and I just took them with me when I left and threw them in the nearest trash cans. Things like that that could attract animals and such are OK to just throw out, no need to trade for them. I also remember coming across business cards once or twice that I also took with me and threw out. Caching-related "advertisements", like personal pathtags and such, are cool, but business cards are just in really bad taste and don't belong in geocaches. To summarize: Don't feel bad about just removing bad swag and not trading for it, if all you're going to be doing is trashing it.

Last year during a trip through New England and during my pre-caching days, I came across this lovely little hiking area that I kind of fell in love with - I'm not even exactly sure why since, although it led to a beautiful view, there are a lot of hikes that lead to beautiful views! But now that I'm caching, I find myself thinking it would be the perfect spot for a cache, at least as far as the hike and view are concerned. It's in the Gilford, NH area, and I believe it is far enough away from all nearby traditionals that saturation wouldn't be a problem from them, though I'm not sure about saturation from other cache types, like mysteries and multis. I don't know what kind of permission might need to be obtained to place the cache there, though I believe the land is owned by the local government. I don't want to give the location away just in case the person hiding it decides to make it a mystery or anything, but if you frequent that area and would like to place a new cache at a beautiful, quiet little location after a small hike (as I remember it, it took me maybe half an hour of steady, but not rigorous, uphill hiking - I'd put terrain at about a 2.5 or perhaps 3 - though I could be misremembering how long it took), then please message or e-mail me and I'll be happy to provide more details! I feel like this is kind of an odd request/situation, but I really would love to bring more people to that place, and, being in the woods, there are plenty of possibilities for a variety of cache containers!

Just discovered this part of the forums today while doing a little exploring - if anyone ever needs any caches adopted in the Montgomery County or Dauphin County areas of PA, shoot me a message or an e-mail and I'll take a look at it/them!

On my very first day geocaching, I went with a friend, and the second one we found had some kind of code or clue in it for another one...it was listed as a traditional and I simply didn't pay enough attention to the description, which clearly stated that there would be a clue in it - and of course when I was talking to my partner in crime about it later he said, "Yeah, I saw it on the inside of the lid - were we supposed to do something with that?" D'oh!

Yes. Go to notifications and set up the options you want/need. (PM only). For non-PMs, there is no notification, but whenever you have access to a computer, you can do a search on the "Find a Geocache" page (under the "Play" menu), set your filters to however far out you want to go, and then sort the results by the "Last Found" column. Future event caches as well as unfound caches of any other kind will show up at the top - just make sure to toggle it twice, as initially they show up at the bottom of the search results list. I used this method before I realized GMs could do notifications. :-D

Thank you, all! :-)

I haven't found any TBs in the wild yet, but I did see one pop up in a cache after I found it, and it got me thinking. Is it bad etiquette to go back to a cache you've already found to trade TBs? I am aware of the general rules for TBs - don't hold them for long periods/keep them moving/only take them if you can further their goal if there is one/etc. And the one that I specifically mentioned before has since left that cache again anyway, so I won't be picking that one up - I'm just asking for future reference. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I'm not aware of any etiquette rules, but for me, I would *love* to meet other geocachers out there in the wild!! Thought I might have spotted somebody else looking once or twice, but after a few seconds of observation I realized they were muggles after all. :-( If I saw someone who was clearly looking for a cache, I would almost certainly go up to them and introduce myself, and I would hope others would with me, too! But that's just me - I'm not sure if everyone would like that.

My biggest question - and it might seem a little ridiculous but hear me out - is was it actually at coordinates that were posted for a geocache? And does it fit the description as well as you can tell (e.g. it's not a micro when the size should be "medium", it's not out in the open when the difficulty is a 5, etc.)? If both of those are yes's, then it would at least be worth checking out. I would try to extract the paper since that would be the log - just make sure you're as careful as possible, especially with very small or not-so-well-maintained logs (I'm very new myself but I've already seen a few that absolutely needed to be handled delicately). The fact that you describe it as a plastic bag makes me hesitate to say that it's probably the cache, because I can't imagine someone putting out a cache that's a plastic bag, but I could also be misunderstanding your description. In general, anything that's done in good faith isn't going to get anyone coming after you with pitchforks. You sound like you're trying very hard to do it right and be respectful, so as long as you keep that up I don't think you'll have any major problems. If it is the cache, and the log is in a poor state, notifying the CO is always a good idea, either in your own log or in a message to them if you're not comfortable doing that for whatever reason. Hope this helps!

Very new myself but if someone actually comes up and asks you what you're doing, just go ahead and tell them you're on a kind of real-life treasure hunt and you're closing in on the goal! You can explain it however you like, but just make sure you are very upfront about it. Being shifty or unclear is a great way to raise that person's suspicions even further, and the last thing anyone wants is a confrontation or even to have the police called on them. If anyone claims you're somewhere you shouldn't be for whatever reason, a good rule of thumb is to just apologize, explain that you didn't know, and leave. No cache is worth the kind of conflicts that might arise from that situation! I went out caching for my first time the other day, and while I did end up in at least one very public place, with lots of potentially suspicious muggles, I was with a friend, and I think that helped keep suspicions down. In general groups are less suspicious than individuals.