m.austin

Nobody will pay attention if you take your camera along (if you don't have one zoom in with your GPS).

Personally, it was a MOC that prompted me to become a PM cause I just HAD to know what that cache was just down the road from me. Seems it was a series of caches, all old missile bases that are all over this area (each one held a number=letter, with a final cache being found through a math problem using the codes obtained in the previous 17). This series is fairly spread out and I can see why the owner wanted to protect the caches as best he could. I don't mind the $3 per month for the few perks (yes, I know it's cheaper to pay by the year, but heck, I wouldn't even save enough to buy a gallon of gas!)

Hubby will go along with my just to make me happy. It's not that he dislikes caching, but he's ok with not going either. I took my mom along one day, having picked out 5 that I thought she would enjoy. 2 traditionals that were pretty much park & grabs (not micros tho). The other 3 were virtuals. On one of the virtuals we drove around the block 3 times looking for what we thought would be an obvious building. We got a peek down the alley & both gasped in surprise. I told her "THAT" was what caching was about - that "aha" moment when you discover something that somebody somewhere set up for you to find. She decided then & there that she liked caching. I don't see her ever treking through the woods anytime soon, but she'll happily do the easier ones with me. Maybe you need to drag your family along & let them "discover" the cache themselves & see if they "get it"!

Ok, so I officially feel like an idiot. I have paid for and installed Cachemate on my HTC Tilt phone. However, where the heck do you find Smittyware or whatever the heck data they want so you can register the software? Then, I figured out that in order to do anything with Cachemate I had to run a pocket query. I did this once, quite awhile ago. I got all kinds of cool data sent to my e-mail. This time, however, nothing, nada, zilch. No e-mail, no data. I may have done something wrong - I don't know. But the bar is grayed out, telling me I can't run another query for X days, so I would have thought I would have gotten a query sent to me? Finally, is there a website that tells you how Cachemate works? I'm usually pretty computer literate & can figure out how to run whatever software I need on my computer, but I'm still learning on the phone how the file set up works. TIA!

I am really excited about some of these ideas. Cachers are such a clever bunch! The library is only open 12 hours a week, so a bonus cache inside could be accomplished easily enough with warning about the hours (it is worth the visit - the library is an old bank, so the bathroom is in the safe!) The cache will be placed around the corner on the left side of the building, where a small deck leads to the back door. I'm not sure which direction I'm going to go, but because we are so "small town" it won't be anything too "high tech" looking, because THAT would draw attention! *L* Thanks for all the suggestions!

I had decided when I hit 100 finds I was going to hide a cache. I have my location selected, but I need help finding a suitable container. I need something that is waterproof (duh!), that I can both bolt to a wooden deck that I can lock with a padlock. The idea being this cache will be a puzzle cache, with the cache being attached to the deck of our local library (I have permission because I'm the boss!). There will be a list of 4 coordinates that you will drive or walk to 4 nearby locations to obtain the needed number to open the lock. I figure the easiest way to keep this cache from being muggled was to put it in plain site. Where do I find a container that will work for this? This cache is based on GC12JAX. They used a hand built container, but I don't have the tools to build one myself. We do have a nearby army surplus store, but I don't know if ammo cans would work...

Must have been some cache for all that work! *L* My story: (before I start, this is all completely on public land!) the other evening hubby was feeling bad that we haven't had any "quality" time together. He knew how badly I'd been wanting to do a nearby night cache, so grabbed the flashlights & off we went. We arrive & start treking through thigh high grass. Hubby: how far is it? Me: looks like 1/2 a mile??? Hubby: what kind of cache is it? Me: It's a night time cache. Hubby: I KNOW that!!! How big is it? Me: I don't know Hubby: What do you mean, you don't know. Me: I don't know. I told you I was going paperless. Hubby: I thought you were doing that after your new palm arrived Me: no, I got tired of printing stuff out, so I went ahead & started going paperless Hubby: #)*&$@% Me: But this is fun! Hubby: Are you SURE we're supposed to walk this far? Me: No Hubby: Let's go back. Surely there is parking closer than this Me: where are you going? Hubby: I'm not walking clear around this corn field again. I'm cutting through Me: we're walking THROUGH the cornfield? Hubby: it's faster Me: where are you !!!!! Hubby: dang, can't you keep up Me: pant, pant Hubby: we're there - told you that was faster Me: pant, pant Hubby: #($%*#*@ I lost my radio!!! Me: What radio? Hubby: My fire radio Me: the one you can talk to command with? Hubby: yes Me: the really expensive one? Hubby: yes Me: WHY did you bring THAT! Hubby: in case we have to rush back to town (hubby is our town fire chief) Me: dumb a** Hubby: I'm going to look for it Me: let me know how that goes for you I go sit in the car & gulp down water while hubby treks around the corn field looking for his radio. He finally gives up & we leave. We return the next morning during daylight & I'll be danged if he doesn't find it! We drive all over the area looking for a closer place to park. Nope - we have to walk. We'll try again after harvest!

Mine is discovering I'm covered in ticks.

Glad your GPS didn't go under! Just think how awesome you would have felt if you could have gotten at least a smiley for your efforts - but at least you got a good story!

I do this with my high school students. We cut out the hole out of the center. Rub white glue over the edges of the paper, both inside the hole and outside the book edges. Put wax paper between the cover and the book so the glue doesn't adhere to the cover. Close the book & set something heavy on top & leave 24 hours. Then it should be solid & ready to use as a cache! Is this clear as mud?

I found a similar cache once. It was inside an outhouse. I had decided that if it were where I imagined it would be I would walk out with no regrets. I was pleasantly surprised to find I wouldn't have to "go there" to sign the log book and I got my smiley.

I watched it - thought it was really a cool puzzle concept. I wonder if any of them knew they were geocaching? And didn't that one guy only give one part of the coordinates at first? If you missed it or want to see it, the show will be posted on the ABC website tomorrow or Wednesday.

I watched it - thought it was really a cool puzzle concept. I wonder if any of them knew they were geocaching? And didn't that one guy only give one part of the coordinates at first? If you missed it or want to see it, the show will be posted on the ABC website tomorrow or Wednesday.

The first time I had help, I was searching some bushes at a nearby lake. I was dead-on according to my GPS, but being a rather new cacher I just could not find it. I headed to my car totally dejected when this guy comes to the front of my car & holds out his GPS unit. He had seen me searching & came to ask me if I'd found it. When I said "no" he helped me find it. He had previously found it & knew what it looked like. He let me find it, but also gave me several pointers on what & how to look. I don't think I'd have ever found it if I hadn't had his help, & I have found many caches since then because of his pointers. Even though I didn't phone for assistance, I did get help. I also logged that find with no qualms. I don't think calling for help is any different than caching with a group & having several people log the book - only one person "found" it, but all sign it??? If you're going to be picky..... That is my .02 anyways!

How often has this been posted in the forums: What are the rules in Geocaching? Geocaching is a relatively new phenomenon. Therefore, the rules are very simple: Take something from the cache Leave something in the cache Write about it in the logbook This is taken from the Geocache FAQ page. Seems that to log a smiley on the Geocaching.com website you should play by their rules. Write about it in the logbook - pretty self-explanatory. Proves you were there. I would be ticked to discover that people were logging smileys when I was struggling with DNFs on a cache, only to discover those smileys were bogus. I don't mind giving my time looking for something that may or may not be there, but dang, looking for something that is definately not there is a waste of my caching time! Yes, there are people who are disabled & can't cache all caches, but lets be real. I will never go for a 5/5. No allowances should be made for me - I cannot physically do those. But I've done quite of 1/1 that would be easy for a handicapped person to do. Heck, one of them (and it was one of my favorites so far because it was one of my first puzzle caches & I had a blast on a rainy day!) I didn't even have to get out of my car! And I do believe allowances can be made for special circumstances - forgot your pen, wet logbook, whatever. But I do think you need to physically open the cache (or at least touch it - in the case of the frozen in a block of ice cache!)

I started the same way. I even had a sheet of smiley stickers that I used beside each cache I found that I put in my book as well. I began finding it difficult to keep track, and my binder would open & the pages would spill out. Now I use my digital camera and every day I return home from caching I upload the photos from my camera onto the computer and rename them to coincide with the cache name. I can look at my personal finds and I still remember each find, and for me, I believe this is because I have a visual journal reference.

<snip>Please remember that in most states, grabbing anyone, particularly a juvenile, by the arm and dragging them anywhere is an invitation to be arrested on felony assault and battery and kidnapping charges. Using the <snip> method cause the quote feature is leaving all coding showing. Yes, I am a teacher, and hubby & son are both in law enforcement. I am fully aware of laws regarding juveniles. It was said more tongue in cheek. Course if this were 30 years ago it would have been acceptable and approved practice.

Well, you could make friends with the local police. See if you can sweet talk one of them into coming down if you catch this creep & scaring the beejeezus out of him. It would be amusing to have said policeman cuff him & threaten jail time, then let him off with a stern warning that if any caches go missing this jerk-o will be arrested. Or, if you catch him, grab him by the elbow & drag him home to mommy & let her know what her lil' darlin is doing. (not that that will matter more than likely, but you could luck out with an honest-to-gosh parent who would do the right thing...)

Awww! That is so romantic & sweet! You have a great story to share with the future little CharlieBoston's!

As a teacher I am still in shock over the lengths some administrators will go to "protect" the students. Luckily it is more dependant on the administrators themselves and their interpretation rather than some blanket laws. Personally I would view finding an arrowhead as a really cool "artifact" (albeit a reproduction). But I'm no authority so don't go by what I say!

I started out with a Magellan 200. I was planning on purchasing a Garmin, but the $100 model didn't come with a cable & the Magellan did. I had NO clue what I was getting, so I went with $$. The Magellan never did play nice with my computer, and right at 1 month locked up. So I took it back to Wal-Mart & they let me exchange it (even though the return policy on GPS units is 2 weeks). By this time I knew I was going to be using my GPS unit a lot, so I spent another $70 and purchased a Garmin eTrex Venture HC. I upgraded because I wanted the computer cable and decided if I was going to upgrade at all that now was the time. I've had it since April & I have been 100% satisfied. I am planning on going paperless within the next month, so I can't discuss anything on that.

That almost sounds dirty.... Where's the geobacon?!?!

I use my Canon PowerShot A620 when I cache, mainly because it is one I don't care much about. The camera takes great photos, but Canon has such awful customer service I won't be purchasing another Canon camera. While my Canon was in the shop I purchased a Fuji Finepix S700 to use. It was a $300 SLR camera and I love it - best camera I have ever had. Like StarBrand mentioned, it is a bit bulky, but the quality of pictures is worth it.

I generally take pics of the cache in it's original location, but these are housed safely on my computer for my own personal enjoyment. As a cacher who loves taking pictures, whenever I find a cache I immediately look around for a view to include in my log. These never give away details of the cache. I hate it when people give me the answer without giving me the chance to figure it out for myself! Obviously this cacher has no clue that she is ruining it for everyone and needs to be told. Let her know photos of the area are acceptable, photos of the cache are not!

Thanks for all the responses. I think my missing smilies are simply a case of CRS (can't remember something). I thought I was 7 away from my first milestone, now, after adding one smiley yesterday I am now 8 away. Oh well! I'm just glad you don't lose them for archived caches, and knowing I'll get an e-mail if one of my logs is deleted is good info to know. Thanks!