crockett3663

I'm still relatively new to the sport. I know that when I go online to serach for caches to download there is a way where I can specify particular types of caches (i.e. micro only, large only, etc.). I'm looking to download a series of larger caches which would be kid-friendly and contain swag for my kids to trade. Can someone please remind me what I have to do on GC.com to download only specific cache types?

So did you say "Yes", or what???

I'm pretty new to the sport yet so I just make sure to always bring along a pen AND a pencil (in case the log is damp and won't accept ink), and just use whichever item is most convenient. However, I've also spotted many log books that have rubber stamped ID's and address labels used as signatures. A few have even had specially printed "caching only" stickers with their caching username and some additional info printed on them, and I think THOSE are pretty clever. I personally don't mind if someone has used one of these stickers to indicate their find. They obviously found the cache...who cares HOW they "sign" the long book??

I always keep my GPS in hand, but my backpack is filled with various items, including but not limited to: Cache info pages extra pens and pencils extra log sheets First Aid Kit small Mag Lite extra AA batteries for GPS and flashlight multi-tool (useful for removing logs from micro caches, among other things) recycled plastic shopping bags for CITO and another to keep trade items seperate swiss army knife cell phone treking poles for hiking steep grades, as well as clearing overhanging brush and making sure hollow logs don't house biting critters water bottles

I've never met him, but there is a guy here in Wisconsin on the Wisconsin Geocaching Association web site that goes by the name "Should've Bought Him the Tie". He got his name when he saw a TV commercial a few years ago where a woman bought her husband a new GPS unit and he couldn't put it down. At the end of the commercial, the wife sighs and says to herself "I should have bought him the tie." Very funny stuff.

I'm 45 so I don't qualify for your informal poll, but just recently I did see a poll where it indicated a guy my age is right in the "wheelhouse" of most cachers. I think the reason you don't see a lot of 20-somethings out caching is because of the reasons already stated: dating/partying/drinking/etc. To most kids that age, geocaching probably seems like an "old fogy" type of activity. If you're my age or older, you no doubt recall when metal detectors were all the rage for beachcombing retirees...I've got a feeling that's how a lot of the younger generation now feels about us!!!

I voted anonymously, but I don't mind telling my age in public...I'm 45. The reason I don't mind telling everyone is because I don't LOOK to be 45. I have all of my original hair, and very little of it is gray. Plus, most of the people I work with are younger than I am, so they help to keep me young. I know...you're jealous...it's OK.

I'm not the tread originator, but I'll speak up for everyone, if that's OK. To me it doesn't matter what your nationality is...if you're proud of your country of origin and the fine men and women who serve it, feel free to post...and boast about your love of country. As for me I'm always proud to be an American...this weekend perhaps more than any other.

I never served in the military, but on this weekend when our country will once again mark and celebrate it's independence, I think it's not only proper, but necessary for everyone across the nation to approach as many vets and active military personnel as possible and say "Thank You for your service." These men and women have served or are serving so that folks like you and I can live the life we choose and have the freedom to do the things we want to do. Thank You to all of the fine men and women who have chosen to serve and protect this great country. Your efforts may sometimes go unnoticed, but they will NEVER be forgotten or taken for granted!!

Responding to my own topic here: This thread has somewhat morphed into a "To DNF or Not DNF" discussion, so I'll add my two cents. My son and I were out caching just yesterday. I downloaded about 20 caches before we went out. Well, I think once we got to about five of the locations, we decided against actually looking for the container. For instance, three of them were hidden within a county park. Well, once we got to the park and figured out where two fo the three would be, we chose not to search for them, mainly due to very thick brush and knowing that the skeeter population would be virtually unbearable. Now, since we never actually got near GZ and actually looked for the container, I chose to do nothing as far as a DNF is concerned. My opinion is that if you don't actually look for the container, then DNFing is not necessary.

Wha..wha...what?? Too many unanswered questions??? What the hell were you reading??? This would obviously be a case of some random dillweed destroying someone else's cache, not one that they owned. What reason would a person have for destroying his own cache?? "Was the container still viable?" Read it again...it was destroyed!!! "Did the fellow cacher replace the container in queston?" Ummm...highly unlikely. If said hypothetical cacher willingly destroyed a cache container for no reason, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the last thing this d****g would worry about is replacing the cache with another container. Wow, you need to calm down just a bit. None of the answers to my questions were available in the original post, otherwise I wouldn't have asked them. Go back and read the OP again and then read my questions again. Every one of your comments and statements is based on assumptions you have made that are not supported by the OP. Have you ever been exposed to a "query" where you are presented with a hypothetical situation and you have to ask yes or no questions in order to figure out the situation? I have and I took this to be one. Your response proves the point of how easy it is to leap to wild conclusions that are not supported in any way by the information provided. Very good points! I am not sure what it was that set off the "crock it" poster so badly, but the questions which you posed in your first post were valid, relevant and important. And, I must note, those questions have still not been answered by the OP! You know...I have to apologize to all of you, because I truthfully didn't think that there were any unanswered questions. Now, after seeing some of your comments, I can see where someone might be unsure of how to respond without knowing all of the details. Please accept my apologies for flying off the handle so quickly.

Thanks for the tip. That explains why the tag that was attached had the word "Switzerland" written on it. Well, I'm not planning any trips to Switzerland or anywhere else in Europe, but I know of several communities here in Wisconsin with a large Swiss population. I'll plan on dropping it in a cache near there and keep my fingers crossed that a local finder will take it back to his homeland. I know it's a longshot, but a fella can dream, can't he??

Thanks everyone for replying so quickly. Your replies have really taught me something. I will do my level best to get the bug into another cache in very short order.

Wha..wha...what?? Too many unanswered questions??? What the hell were you reading??? This would obviously be a case of some random dillweed destroying someone else's cache, not one that they owned. What reason would a person have for destroying his own cache?? "Was the container still viable?" Read it again...it was destroyed!!! "Did the fellow cacher replace the container in queston?" Ummm...highly unlikely. If said hypothetical cacher willingly destroyed a cache container for no reason, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the last thing this (person) would worry about is replacing the cache with another container.

So if I come across a bug or coin I don't need to replace it with anything?? Wow...OK, I'm glad I asked. Now, a related question. How long is too long to be holding on to a bug before placing it in another cache? The one I took today I found near the end of our caching day, and we were right within a rather small mileage area. I think I would have felt kind of goofy if I had placed this bug a mere two or three miles from where I had found it. Can I hold it for a week or two before I place it in another cache say...50 miles away? or do I need to get it into another cache...ANY cache...as soon as possible?

While out caching with my son today, I came across two hides where each contained a travel bug, the first ones I've ever seen (I'm still a noob). I took the TB from one, but I'm holding it right now until I find another sutiable cache to put it in. Is it acceptable to replace something as important as a coin or bug with a small, inexpensive toy? I feel like I should provide something more significant as a replacement item. Can someone please provide me with a short etiquette lesson?

I'm still pretty much a noob, so I'm still on the lookout for as many caches as I can find, however, because of my noob status, I'm currently shying away from puzzle caches (which I find rather difficult), multi caches, or anything with a terrain rating over three stars. I got into this hobby to spend more time with my 9 year old son, and I think I'm a little too over-protective to purposely lead him into searching for a cache that might be in a territory where he could easily be hurt, like an extremely rocky ledge, deep water, etc. Maybe next summer when he's a year older and we've both got some experience under our collective belts will I push the boundries of our cache searches.

I just recently got into this activity/hobby/addiction as a means to (pardon the over-used phrase) spend some quality time with my 9 year old son. He's at that perfect age right now where he loves to look for "buried treasure", and this is about as close as we'll ever get to becoming "Captain Hook", so that's the main reason for my dive into geocaching. I'll echo the sentiments of ElephantMama as well and say that I enjoy getting my son (and myself) out of the house to get some excercise (he doesn't even realize he's doing it!!), enjoy nature, and see parts of our hometown and state that we might otherwise have never discovered. My son is at that age where all he and his friends ever want to do is sit around each other's houses, playing video games and watching cable TV all day...even when it's a day like today (cloudless skies and temps right around 75 degrees)!! I keep telling him, when I was a kid, I'd run out of the house right after breakfast to play ball with my friends, and my mom wouldn't see me until lunchtime. Then after lunch, I'd be back out the door and wouldn't come home until dinnertime. Not the kids of today though...too much techy stuff to occupy their time. I'm a history buff as well, so I'm finding out very quickly that I enjoy all of the cemetary caches we've found so far. As I pass one grave after another in search of that elusive cache container, I'll gaze that the different headstones and try to imagine what the lives of those different folks were like. Did they serve in the military? How many kids did they have? What kind of work did they do? All of those things I probably wouldn't even think about if I weren't standing there right at that very moment. I've got to confess too that I just enjoy the excitement of the find, like the OP mentioned, I kinda get a thrill out of knowing something that very few others know about, like where a cache is hidden. I also enjoy meeting up with other cachers out in the field, like I did today. Completely by accident, I bumped into a group of other cachers, and we all hung around for a few minutes just trading stories and whatnot...it was a blast. So there...that should give you a good doorway into my mindset.

Really??? I would think that would be a form of cheating, especially if the owner had already left an encrypted hint on the cache page to start with. Maybe that's just my pride showing through. I'll welcome a hint I did not ask for, but I think I'd kind of feel like a failure if I asked for any more help. Are there others out there who've approached cache owners for additional help?

How long do you spend looking for the container before you give up and consider it a DNF? I'm assuming that a large part of that time frame is dependant on the idividual circumstances of each hide. If it's a micro, do you spend more time looking for it, simply because it's tiny size makes it much harder to locate that an ammo box, for instance? I liken this situation to searching for a lost ball on a golf course. In that sport, the general rule of thumb is that once you reach what is believed to be ground zero for the ball, you don't spend more than 60 to 90 seconds looking for your ball before dropping a replacement. Obviously there is no time limits in looking for cache, but realistically how long do you usually spend before you give up? My son Drew and I recently went looking for Creek View (GCYAD3). We looked on both sides of the creek and probably spent a good 15 minutes there before we gave up the fight. So again, how long do you look, and what kind of criteria determines the time you'll invest before giving up?

My wife and I have friends that are fellow cachers, but I know for a fact that they rarely if ever log any actual finds. They've told me that they're just simply not in it for the numbers. It's possible that many of the people who've tracked down your hide just don't feel the need to log their visit.

I got into it because my 9 year old son is always wanting to look for "buried treasure" when we go camping, so I thought that this was the perfect activity for him and I. Lately we've been spendig much more time together and getting along pretty well, so it's working out great.

I agree. In the fast paced world we all live in today, people just don't seem to take the time to enjoy "the little things" that slowing down can bring. When I plan caching outings for Crockett's Caching Crew, it's done with the idea of spending an entire day of getting out in the nice weather, doing some hiking, and seeing parts of our world that we normally don't get to see everyday (at least not from certain angles or directions). I mean, I might pass over the same bridge or small wooded area on my way to work everyday, and it's gets to be routine. But if I do some research, I might find that the same bridge or wooded area has a cache nearby, and I can enjoy seeing that same part of my everyday world from a different perspective, and I learn to appreciate it all a little more.

Right now, I'm kind of in it for both: numbers and just for the love of it. My wife doesn't really have an interest, and our youngest son is only 4 years old, so he'd too young to grasp the concept just yet. So this is really a hobby for my 9 year old and myself. As a 9 year old boy, he likes to find the ammo boxes filled with little toys that he can take. For me, I get a thrill just out of making the find. When I first started this hobby about a month ago, I heard about micros and how they were nothing more than a tiny container with a log. At first I thought that was kinda lame. Now that I'm finding bunches of them, I'm cool with just logging the find. I haven't come across any coins as of yet, but that's OK since I don't have any to leave yet, so I don't want to be taking those. Right now I want to log as many finds as I can so I don't feel like such a rookie on this and other geocaching boards as well. Maybe when I hit a milestone or two I'll begin to feel different, but for now, it's getting the numbers and making the find.

Next time someone questions what you're doing, just ask them this simple question: "You haven't seen a blood stained knife laying around here, have you? I must've dropped it as I was leaving here last night!!"