Subterranean

CYBret, that's a neat idea. I'd also use the lanyard, though. Tie the free end somewhere to the pack so that the lanyard acts as a safety line in case your GPS comes unhooked from the Velcro. I clip my Garmin (tirediron posted a picture of the case I use) to the elastic loop on the shoulder strap of my backpack. The pack is designed to carry a water bladder and the elastic loop is meant to hold the drinking straw thing. This works pretty well for me. Matt

That's interesting. In NJ, we have a magazine devoted to places like this called Weird NJ. They have a website and have recently started another one devoted to the USA called Weird US. Anyway, it turns out that a lot of local geocachers are fans of Weird NJ magazine and quite a few caches here are devoted to sites mentioned in the magazine, which is why I even bring this up. That looks like an interesting website!! I'll definitely be spending some time reading through it tonight. There's a Weird Wisconsin site but it isn't nearly as good as it could be... kind of disappointing, actually. Matt

When I was a teenager, the most fun my friends and I had was discovering old, spooky places. Abandoned houses, old cemeteries where gangsters were supposedly buried, and just weird stuff like a dead tree that someone nailed sheets of cut tin to so that it looked like a man wearing a mask were always great finds. We’d often go out seeking the urban legend spots, too, such as the village of midgets (er… little people), a witch’s house, haunted houses, etc. It is certainly this adventurous/explorative character in me that is the reason I geocache. Matt By the way, when polled, nearly everyone thinks of himself or herself as having above average intelligence. I have no doubt, of course, that geocachers really are above average; I just think it’s interesting…

Why not judge the "hardest geocache” based on purple-frowny to yellow-smiley ratios?? Of course, only caches with more than just a few logs could be accurately assessed this way; I’m sure there are many caches with only DNF logs. Matt

I worked really hard for a DNF on Devils Lake Revisited. I'm sure it's not the hardest one out there, but for one that doesn't require special equipment to find, it must rank pretty high. Here's a snippet of someone's log. Matt

Well, mine’s not exactly exciting but I’ll play anyway. “Subterranean” was chosen for a few reasons. 1) I’m working on a minor in Geology. 2) I’m from the “Badger State.” (By the way, Wisconsin’s nickname comes from its strong mining heritage, not because the animal is found there. Miners were called " badgers." You didn’t know that, didja?? ) 3) Another definition of the word fits, also; geocaching is an activity that is often carried on in kind of a secretive way, no??? 4) Sometimes I cache alone, while at other times I cache with a teammate and we log together. Using an adjective such as “subterranean,” it’s impossible for one to know whether we’re a team or an individual… we’re both! Now you can sleep soundly knowing. Matt Edit: Okay, okay... maybe a couple of those reasons are pretty weak but numbers one and three are valid, right??