Morning Dew

Just one, could you post a picture of the container? I'm a cacher here in Michigan and seeing a picture of the container would give me a TON of information. Both about Michigan cachers, reviewers and GS. Thanks.

Typical conflict that is caused by two parties who don't know what the heck they're doing or how to handle themself in an everyday life situation. 1) The hunter obviously didn't handle it well. 2) You REALLY didn't handle it well by going back. Learn some basic everyday manners. A simple way to figure it out is think of it as this: Pretend you and your buddies had set up a paintball match out on some public land in the woods (I don't even know if this is legal but for sake of arguement let's say it is) and then a hunter comes out and right in the middle of your field starts prepping his gear, getting his tree stand up in the tree, etc. Wouldn't you be like "C'mon dude! What are doing!" OR Imagine you went for a hike with your family and you stopped for lunch. Here comes an armed hunter and begins to set up shop right on the tree your 8 year kid is leaned against eating his lunch. You both have a right to be there. He was there first. Have some respect and beat it. Don't bring yourself to the level of others poor manners just because you wanted smiley.

Just a heads up: In hopes of saving anyone a couple hours of frustration. Apparently GS made some program changes on Friday which caused the Delorme Software Cache Register to import procket queries as waypoints with little to no info instead of as geocaches. Details here: http://forum.delorme.com/viewtopic.php?f=1...=136159#p136159

Mine is pretty lame. I was trout fishing (not geocaching) and cutting the "corner" of the river by bushwhacking through an area instead of following the shore line and I jumped a deer who was bedded down. I never saw it and it didn't move until I was just about to step on it (my foot was about 12" from landing on it) and then it quickly stood up. I could have reached out and touched it. It immediately bolted in the opposite direction. Now I know what people mean when they say the "jumped out of there skin". Absolutely, freaked me out. Actually, it was the GPS's fault. If I wouldn't have know that the river made a sharp bend, I would have never tried to bushwhack it. The mapping software told me the river doubled back and with a quick 150' bushwhack I could cut out almost a 1/2 mile of river, which I knew was poor fishing.

Exactly! For the "macho" replier. The reason being exposed to wet/miserable weather is associated with the cold / flu, etc. is because it decreases your immune system. Your body is compensating for your ignorance (allowing yourself to become wet and cold) and working overtime to try to maintain your body heat and keep up your blood flow. The trade-off is that it lowers your immune defiency making you more suspectable to any virus that is already present in your system. So no, caching in the cold rain is not the direct cause of a cold.....sometimes it is caused by being....well you already know.

I'm not sure if this will be of any help but who knows. I have a Delorme PN-20 (For about 2-3 years now). When you power it up for the very first time you are warned that it needs to do some type of acquisition and that it could take up to 15 minutes to complete. You're advised to do this in a clear area, outside. Fast forward about 18 months and one day my GPS had drifted noticably. It would no longer grab WAAS and the best I ever saw was +/- 28ft. This went on for about 4 days. Finally, I called tech support and they walked me through a reset that included reseting what I believe was called a NVM reset (it's been a long time). The tech said this will basically force it to reacquire like it does the very first time you turn it on. It worked and I've never had another problem since. I'm not sure if the Garmin's act in the same way (first time turn on) or they have this reset capability but I'm guessing they're are more of your model than any other model used in geocaching, I'm sure a google search would pull up the correct way to reset it to reacquire (if it exists). Does Garmin have a tech support number? Oh, I'd also like to add that I always see people talking about "GPS are really only accurate up to 15-25 feet, blah, blah" and I'm sure there is some truth to this but what I don't understand is how come cache placements are so accurate? Before I geocached, I never knew because I had nothing to compare it to. But after about 200 finds now, one thing I've learned is that at least my GPS and the GPS of about 150 other owners seem to agree very very closely. Yes, lots of times I've found them 15-25 feet away but the overwhelming amount of the time the coordinates are very very close. Just this morning I found a difficulty 5 cache. It took me about 30 minutes of continous searching. I usually set my GPS down during this and check it every 5 minutes to see how close it is to ground zero. If it isn't I move it closer and set it down again. In this case it ended up 16 INCHES from ground zero. I've also done a handful of "bison in a pine tree" caches that the coordinates are so accurate that I can tell which side of tree (~ 10-12 foot diameter) it's in before I even start looking. We have very good hiders in our area who take placement seriously and this may be the reason but it still speaks to just how accurate these things are.

Wow, I'm suprised by a lot of the suggestions. The world of flashlights have changed and for a <$100 budget you should be able to get the exact light you want. I'm assumming your GPS runs on AA batteries. If this is the case then you want a light that does the same. Forget the D and C cell flashlights, they weigh a ton and who wants to carry that around plus the huge needed cells for backup. Things to consider. 1) Do you want a belt clip. Some lights come with a clip so you can clip to your belt. 2) Do you want a wrist/neck lanyard. 3) How would you feel about a headlamp instead? Some lights to research. They're all BRIGHT so that goes without saying. All of these lights (except the H501w) will make a standard AA maglite look like you just lit a match. 1) Fenix TK20, comes with a clip and holster. You'll need to supply a lanyard but it does have a spot to attache if you wish. They are absolutely indestructible. See this link, post #51. Two modes Lo/Hi. Pretty easy to use with gloves. Efficient ~ 12 hours on Lo. ~ $55. http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showth...TK20&page=2 2) EagleTac P100A2. No clip. Some shops will sell it with a lanyard and/or holster. Brighter but a bit less efficient ~ 8 hours on low. 2 Modes Lo/Hi. Easy to use with gloves. 3) Quark AA-2 (Sold by 4sevens). Includes clip, holster, lanyard and "handgrip". Currently, a very "hot" new AA light. Time will tell on rugedness. 5 modes. Super lo, lo, med, hi, turbo + strobe modes (SOS, beacon, strobe). Crazy efficient when used on med mode. 4) Zebralight H501w. This a pure flood headlamp. It will provide no throw. The light is only good out to about 20'. But it is great for searching. There are many more .... this is just a start. If I was in your situation I would stretch my budget and get the Zebra H501w + a handheld AA. If you want indestructible (caves, mud, dirt, etc.) go with the TK20 If you want the do it all light and crazy bright, go with the Quark AA-2 If you want simplicity (2 modes) bright and durable go with the EagleTac. Other brands to check out. Nitecore, Romisen, JetBeam, Olight, ITP. Want to find out just about everything there is to know about AA x 2 quality lights? See this thread . . . http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=214890

I toss it in the air and try to finish signing the log before I have to catch the GPS.

Fairly common in my area and really there is no secret. They are just plain hard to find. The hiders around here have the habit of placing them horizontal in the boughs making it even more difficult to spot a camo'd bison tube or matchstick container. I have a pair of gloves and a flashlight in my bag just for these. The flashlight sometimes help because you'll sometimes get lucky and catch a strange glint off something. These hides definately approach the "this just isn't fun" line. If it's close to home, sometimes I'll split my search up over 2-4 days. Drive by, hop out and give 5-10 minutes. If nothing turns up, I'll return again. I still hunt them because I just like finding caches, however they're by no means my favorite.

Hey, I see that you are a premium member so there are a lot of tools already available to you. If you click on the second map down on a cache page it will bring up groundspeaks "map page". You can expand out or in to an area you comfortable with. For example, let say this are has 25 caches in it. Then you can click on each cache on at a time. If it looks like a candidate then you can print it out. This is the way I "used" to do it. Now you have 12-15 caches all printed out with full descriptions, hints, etc. (You reject 12-10 because they are too hard, not your style, 15 stage multi, etc.). Then you can use google maps to get a nice map of that particular area with the caches marked on it and just print it out. OR you can do it the old fashioned way. You can buy a county map book of your state, Wally world, etc. sells them and just leave it in your car. Now you have driving directions not only for geocaching but any other place you might go in your entire state. I haven't bought one in years, but I'm guessing they are less than $20 and I can't ever imagine NOT owning one. This is how I used to do it before going paperless.

One thing you can do is see if your state has any local geocaching clubs / organizations. Then join them and become involved. Michigan (my state) has an excellent organization that divides the state up into regions and does all kinds of things frim CITO, events, working with the DNR or parks / perserves, etc. If you do have a local geocaching club/organization near you, some of them will utilize forums, phone lists, twitter accounts, facebook pages, etc. You can use these avenues as a soundboard to invite other cachers from your area to come out and help with a missing person search. It's a great idea and as you have already discovered make sure they come "over-prepared". So many people have great hearts but they just don't think before they leave their house. An example is showing up for a missing person search wearing short shorts and sandals. Ummmmm "I think if they were on the beach we would have found them by now?" Anyways, I digress, an extra flash light, warm sweatshirt, water, some snacks can go a long ways to help others who show up unprepared. Some thoughts...... We're not looking for corpses were looking for living and breathing people...imagine your reaction when you find one those and they're 9 years old and have been missing for 36 hours . Think positive thoughts. Unfortunately, the geocaching event is a nice idea, but I believe the above replier is correct. I believe these would be rejected by a reviewer because it would be viewed as a "cause." However, I've never seen this discussed or tried before. Definately, worth a shot. The worse that can happen is that it gets shot down. No biggie. Good luck and I hope you get some help on your next search.

I would like to add that if you do choose to put a cache on your 20 acres make it very clear how to get "in" and how to get "out". Parking coordinates would help. In my very short caching career, I have now found 2 of these (ammo boxes on someones property who has some nice wooded land). However in both cases the cache owners mentioned that the cache was on private property but they didn't give any indication how to "approach" the cache. Unfortunately, I'm lazy and can read a map so in both cases I parked my car on the side of a dirt road that gave me the shortest walk to the cache. In both cases, on the way out, I was stopped by someone to let me know that I was trepassing. Once by the actual owner of the land that I was "cutting" through and on the other cache by a neighbor of the land owner that I was "cutting" through. Both cases were friendly encounters and no big deal but obviously it could go another way. So, if your property is adjacent to other private property, you might want to include parking coordinates or better yet an "approach" spot in the cache description.

Do not put it where muggles will be pawing around. If you want to bring someone to a lone tree in a field, put the cache 200' away in a gopher hole. Muggles will be drawn to that tree like a magnet and climb it, sit under it, carve their initials into it and all sorts of things. Your cache won't fair well. A cacher who upon finding the cache see's the tree will meander over and check it out if they desire. There is a bit of an art to putting the cache near your goal without putting it in harms way by being muggle bait. Read that reply over and over and over again. Best advice you're going to get. I see it all the time. -Cache in a park 15' from the picnic tables but still a very tricky hide. Muggled. -At a public boat launch 6' from were it is obvious every single fisherman uses the woods to relieve himself or drop his polished off 1/2 pint. Muggled. -Cemetary cache right in the middle of bush which gets mowed and pruned on a weekly basis. Muggled. Good luck and enjoy!

A great idea! I'm curious as to why you would think anyone would have a problem with it? It's like the radio version of "be the 12th caller and win a ....." However, you don't even realize you're playing when you go to get your cache .

This pretty much answers all the questions you're going to have about what is wrong and what is right about geocaching. And trust me, if you get into this deeper you will find there will be many. See, geocaching isn't even a game, because there are no rules. It certainly isn't a competion. The simplest way to think about it is "it's just something people do..." And everyone does it differently. Once you grasp this concept it all falls into place. So for the situation you describe, you asked if it is acceptable. Well after reading the above paragraph, of course it's acceptable! Acceptable to you? Who cares... doesn't matter Acceptable to Bob? Who cares.... doesn't matter Acceptable to Mary? Who cares.... doesn't matter As long as the group finding those caches is enjoying a fun past time and they all agree about how they go about it, then it's all good. If you apply this mantra to the following scenarios you'll love geocaching. If you don't you'll spending a lot of time on these forums bickering about things that mean NOTHING. - Can you log a find for your own cache? - Can you sign the outside of a container? - Can you log the same cache twice? Many variations on this one? - Should events count as finds? - Should you get a find for a cache you trip over but weren't looking for? - Should you get a find for a multi-cache were you figured out the final spot without completing all the stages? - Should you phone a friend and have them tell you exactly where a cache is and then log the find? Happens all the time. - Should you claim FTF on a cache that you watch the owner place and then pick up and sign the log book? - Should you claim FTF on a cache known only to you (by a friend) and then they publish after you've already signed the log book even though you found it using traditional methods? BTW, this is just a short list and only a beginning. The reason it is like this is because....reread paragraph one. Geocaching has no rules. And when there is no rule book, people will see the pastime differently. I'm certainly not telling you "how to" enjoy your pastime but I'd bet it would be a lot more enjoyable for most if they didn't worry about what others do. Over time you will develop your "own" set of rules and have fun with it. For example yesterday, I went to a cache that was noted for be buried in poison ivy. I'm dreadfully allergic to the stuff. On the way there I was contemplating breaking my "rule" of not logging a find if I don't sign the log book. I was thinking maybe in this case I would make an exception, if I just simply saw the container. It turned out to be not that bad and I ended up signing the log book but.....you never know.

Delorme PN-20, totally paperless and write your logs as you cache. One device.

Gloves Spare Batteries (for GPS and flashlights) Mult-tool Notepad Bug Spray Pen (2) Headlamp Flashlight Water GPS Camera All in a fanny pack except the GPS of course. I've always carried a pocket knife, so I have that as well. This goes with me about 90% of the time. I have all that other fancy stuff...rain gear, snacks, first aid kit, compass in a backpack but it stays in the car 95% of the time.

Woah! Some of you are getting a little carried away. I mentioned that if you want to save a buck get a non-mapping model and you'll have loads of fun and it's totally doable. I did it myself in fact. But...come on. A mapping GPS not needed for geocaching. Puh-leaze. Mapping GPS's are amazing. I've done at least 6 caches now where I've pulled up to a bridge with small parking areas on both sides of the river and had to walk anywhere from 600' to 1 1/2 miles in to get the cache. Without a mapping GPS I would have to flip a coin and "guess" which side of the river the cache was on. With a mapping GPS you "guess" right just about every time. Sometimes the maps are wrong and you end up taking the looong walk but they are amazingly accurate. This is just one of MANY examples of how I soooo love my mapping capabilities.

The above reply is one of the many reasons I avoid all the "I'm geocaching crap." When I first began, I used to get freaked out about muggles but since I've changed my method, I've had numerous encounters but they almost always go smooth and I've never had an incident. Here is what I do: -For authority (police officer, land owner with premission, etc.) I simply say "I'm geocaching". Actually never had this happen but this is what I would do. -For so, so authority (security guard, store owner who thinks they own the sidewalk) I simply say "I'm on a scavenger hunt. Ends right there about everytime. Everyone else, I say "I'm looking for something, wanta help?" A couple times the next question is "What are looking for?" I have a couple wild tales I like to tell, but my favorite goes like this: My girlfriend (I'm married BTW) and I were standing here and she got mad at me and threw a cheap ring at me that I had once won for her at a fair by knocking down some milk bottles. She would wear it for sentimental value. Well, we've made up now and I thought it would be kind of romantic if I found it for her. I tell this story as I continue to search for the cache. Almost always, they start changing their dialog for an excuse to get out of there. Most of the time I don't have to tell the story because once you say "Wanna help?" it puts the game on them. Most are just being nosy. They didn't realize there would be real work invovled and they quickly make an excuse to get out of there. They're nosy curiousity has been satisfied. I had one nosy old guy, who obviously didn't want to help but had no problem standing there watching me search and occasionally making small talk. Finally, I said "so are you going to help me or not?" He made an excuse about a bad back and moved on. I've actually had a lady start helping me as I was searching a line of bushes for a decon. "As soon as she did, I told her that I was actually standing about 20 feet that way at the end of the bushes but I searched their yesterday. Maybe you could go down to that end and double check it for me. She did, got bored quick and made an excuse to bolt." I'm just about muggle immune now. People just don't care. I ended up at a cache in a hospital parking lot again searching for a decon in a bush line. After about 2 minutes I look up and there are several big windows to offices or a reception area of the hospital and several people were just stading there watching me. I waved a big goofy wave and just went right on searching. Found it, logged it (discretly, no one saw this part) and moved on. The cache is still on my watch list and still being found over a year later. For the example above, instead of telling the angry man you're geocaching, you just use my story but you change it to. "My wife and I had taken our son to the park, when we got in an arguement and she threw her $7000 wedding ring at me. I searched and searched and couldn't find it. I was just coming back to search some more. I have to go to work now but I'll be back to look some more." Then circle the block and see how long he searches for that $7000 wedding ring .

Another unit to you "might" want to consider is a Garmin 12 XL. It has no maps but has a 12 satelite receiver and is very accurate (for its age). It also has some modern features like trac back when hiking, allows you mark multiple waypoints (your car), tells you distances to various waypoints, etc. However, the two largest drawbacks are that you must enter in each location one at a time by hand and it contains no maps, so you have to use paper maps if you don't know your way around. However, if you see one it should be very cheap (maybe even free). It is the first GPS I used for geocaching and it worked great. Runs on 4 AAs.

In the terms most of you are talking, there are really an infinite amount of containers that are 100% waterproof (in the context that is being discussed). Of course a nalgene bottle is 100% waterproof. Fill it with water close it, place it on your counter in a bowl and check it in a year. Do you really expect to find water that has leaked to the outside? Again, in the context that is being discussed. This is not taking in to account that plastic will breathe and that a tiny amount of water over time will evaporate out. What confuses so many cachers about what keeps out water and what doesn't (and the main reason there are so many threads over the years about this) is they forget the "closing" part. The reason ammo boxes have such a good reputation is two fold. 1) They are easy to close. 2) They are large enought that the chance of catching something in the seal is greatly minimized. Of couse, someone will now post a reply about the time they found an ammo can with water in it. Again, this is usually because it wasn't closed properly, a bad gasket to begin with or something was trapped between the gasket and the lid. However, they will come to the conclusion that ALL ammo cans are not waterproof (again in the context we are talking here; i.e. not submerged, under no pressure and only experiencing rain and condensation). The biggest problem with a nalgene bottle is not everyone closes it the same way. I might crank it down, you just might give it a few twists. I've been running the following experiment on match stick containers for a couple years (famous for not being water tight but yet they have a gasket and are advertised as water tight). As soon as I find one, I see if I can screw it tighter before I try to open it. Usually I'm able to turn it at least one full turn before it will "grab" closed. Then I'll open it and wala the rolled up paper log is soaked. Other times I will find a bit of plastic bag trapped between the seal and the cap. If you don't believe me, run your own experiments. Buy a lock n lock, matchstick container (must have a gasket), ammo can, nalgene bottle, etc. Put a paper log in each, close them up good and tight with nothing trapped in the gasket. Toss them on the grass in your backyard. Mark your calender and one year later open them up. NEVER open before that. Let us know what you find. And oh yeah, if you find any of the log books signed, you have some good cachers in your area .

It's totally possible but you have to go in with very low expectations. However, we've been blessed with a very happy baby. We've had almost zero problems, he only gets cranky when he's hungry or tired. Your mileage may vary if you have a cranky child, we realize ours is the exception. I do it with my youngest. He started at 12 months and is now 15 months. I use 2 methods. A jogging stroller (3 big wheels, good for easy to moderate terrain) or my prefered method a backpack made for carrying a baby. We've hiked up to 4 miles with him in the backpack. I was worried he wouldn't like it but he seems to love it. He hasn't gotten cranky once. And on our last trip he actually fell asleep in the backpack for the last 1/4 mile of the hike. That is the first time he's done that. I try to use some common sense though. We never go out unless he's had a recent nap and been fed. The backpack has a small pouch which carries the bare essentials. Diaper, wipes and milk. We don't hike when it's hot and high sun. I keep him hydrated by giving him his milk or sips from my water. And of course I have the necessities (bug spray, sun block, etc.) in a fanny pack. The terrian I choose is always easy; well grooved trails, rails to trails, parks, city pavillions, cemeteries, etc. When my wife joins us, it's even easier because then I can make brief detours into rougher areas while my wife manages the baby. The only bad experience we had was very brief. The cache was just off a well troddened trail. I snagged his ear on a thorn. He cried and got over it and I learned to me more careful. I didn't realize just how high up he was sitting on my back, now I know. The worst part of the whole thing. One of the few words he knows is TREE. He has to annouce to me every time he spots a tree. Do you know how many trees we see? Yep, that's a tree.... Too many photos of him can be found by following the links though my profile. No shots of him in the carrier though, I'll have to change that over the next month or so.

Sorry...choose to remove my reply. It didn't say anything that wasn't said before.....carry on.

If you have GSAK, you can also use the "child waypoints" feature. In a simple puzzle cache I enter a child waypoint as a final location, i.e. if the cache were GCXXXX, I enter as FLXXXX. I then have the export configured so these child waypoints are exported to my GPS as well. That way if I solve a puzzle and don't get around to doing the actual cache for a month or two, it still is in my GPS and I don't have to maintain a seperate database and it's not overwritten each time I update the GSAK database. This also works great with multi's. Complete 3 of 7 stages on a mult and have to call it day. Update them as child waypoints (stages of a multi) in GSAK when you get home. Once you download your waypoints again into the GPS and go back to the multi you'll have all the stages (you've found) marked, the original coordinates and they'll all be on a map as well.

If everysingle hider took briansnat view on hints I think geocaching would be just about perfect for me. I wouldn't look at the hint until I needed it and then it would be pretty darned obvious. Of course, there could be exceptions for truly tricky hides. But one thing I've learned is that hiding is an art and this includes using that hint field in a helpful manner. I'm getting a bit better but I'm horrible at finding these things and I definately tend towards disturbing an area the longer and hard I have to look. Consulting a detailed hint would make caching a lot more pleasurable for me. However, it's simply just not that way. Examples. Hint: Across the river. The cache was 225' on the other side of the river which was crossed using a bridge that was 50' from the parking lot. It really made me wonder if it the hider had ever used a GPS before. When I looked at the hint I was 10 minutes into my search at GZ. Thanks! Hint: Look up! It was hidden at the base of a tree. (This one could have been moved by another cacher though). Hint: Park at N XX XX.XXX W XXX XX.XXX Again, I looked at the hint after I had searched for a bit. Hint: This is a multi-cache. Found it immediately, after that hint. Not! NOTE to previous poster. There are GPSr that exist that support paperless caching. My PN-20 comes pretty darned close (800 character limit), I find almost all caches work for this. There are however expections but it's close enough. It does have to be coupled with GSAK but it's pretty much seamless once you have it set up. I think the Colorado model will do paperless as well.