OneOfEm

If torture is OK, I'd think reviews of bars would be OK, too. -OOE

I let mapsource set the route. I'd forgotten that once before when we drove this trip that we went past Scranton. I'll have to tweak our route. Thanks for the advice! -OOE

We're going to be passing through Pennsylvania on our way to visit my In-Laws in VT in a few weeks. We'll be heading up I-81 to I-78 east. We're planning a stop somewhere along this stretch, and will likely have a few late afternoon hours to hit a few caches. Does anyone have suggestions on a good place to stop with a nice cache or 3 that shouldn't be missed if we're in the area? Thanks! -OOE

ziplock.

If the hide or location or puzzle doesn't seem interesting enough to you, then there's nothing wrong with adding a little more info up front like I did for this park-and-grab cache. It's an easy find, but the story and the container make it more memorable IMO.

Since they target law enforcment for their UV light sales, I'd guess they would work fine for exposing certain "materials."

If you still have the box and the manual, you might be able to get 25 cents on the dollar for the Meridian.

We've had one local instance where a body was discovered very near a cache, but it wasn't found by cachers and Geocaching was never mentioned. It was a decapitation in a wooded area. The body was less than .1 mile away from the cache. Several weeks later, I was visiting a county park/boat ramp to try to find a good location for a cache, and although I didn't find a good hiding place, I did notice some oddly trampled high grass right next to the water. As I was getting into my car, I noticed people watching me from their porches at three different houses (it was at the end of a residential street). On the way home, I heard on the radio that they'd discovered a body right there earlier that same day. No wonder the locals were staring at me. They were probably trying to get my tag number.

I'm a good ol' owl too. SR571 SR-574 here. We finished the course in December. I might finish my ticket by next December.

Something was wrong with the simulator you showed above. The cache wasn't in one of the stumps!

That's off-topic. I asked for signs found while geocaching, not during your other hobbies.

Locally, a cacher tried to get permission from the director of a county-owned equestrian park to place a cache on one of their trails. During a face-to-face meeting, the director said that the park was only to be used for equestrian-related purposes. The cacher argued that the general public does use the park for other things (hiking and even a monster-truck show, for example) and tried using the frisbee logic. It fell on deaf ears. He then tried going up the ladder to that person's boss. He could not get a return phone call. He then went up the ladder another rung, and that person's boss told him he'd look into it and would come up with a decision "by the ned of the month." After two months, there was no answer. The cacher then contacted a County Commisioner who, in turn, called the county parks director to set up a meeting for the cacher. After discussing the specifics of Geocaching and the response from the director of this specific park, the county parks director gave across-the-board approval for Geocaching in all county parks. Two things strike me about this: 1) you have to talk to someone who's high enough up the ladder to not be afraid to say "yes;" 2) why in the world would this county need two layers of supervisors between the director of a specific park and the parks director??? (edited for typo)

The data cable uses the same connection.

My wife picked up one for my son a few months ago. It works about as well as micro mag-light (the AAA one) while it's at full charge. We haven't timed how long the charge lasts. It does require a little more vigorous shaking to charge than I thought it would. While not heavy - it weighs about as much as a 2-C flashlight, it's not something I'd want to rely on as my primary lightsource. I use a Petzl headlamp and a Photon as a backup for backpacking, and I carry an X5 primary and Photon backup while day-hiking/caching. This light would realistically replace none of the three. It's nice to have in the house as a dependable flashlight.

While I find it mildly interesting to see a list of the TB's I've found displayed on the "My Cache Page," I'd much rather see a listing for my bugs similar to the one that's shown when you click on the TB on the Profile/User Stats page. The at-a-glance summary about each bugs whereabouts would be helpful. Just a thought.

Your initial cache loot looks just fine to me. I agree that the contents were likely plundered, key or not. In the past, I've fully restocked one of my caches and visited to drop off a TB after two visitors, and it's been EMPTY. The key-TB's make it harder, but certainly not impossible. I've stopped putting information on cache contents in the cache description and have stopped adding notes when I restock the contents. I figure it's much better for a would-be-plunderer to see a note from a previous finder saying that the cache contents are sparse than to see one from me saying that it's full again. Concerning the budget scaring off future hiders: we don't all intend on hiding 50 caches. I'm focusing on quality.

I found the charred, melted, and shattered remains of a thermos-cache that was in the middle of a control burn area. I placed a complete micro in the remains (with a note in the new micro-log), moved the remains to a less conspicuous location, and logged it as a find. He's since replaced the cache, but never questioned my find. I always carry a few complete micros.

I placed a Bug in one of my caches the day before the cache was plundered. Perhaps prophetically, I named him "Doh!"mer (Homer's twin brother). Doh!

You can expect frequent to infrequent emails detailing the finders' exploits. Even if it's only one out of five logs, when someone writes how they enjoyed the find, it makes the hide worthwhile. I'm sure you'll get your share of those. [] Concerning maintenance, from what I've seen with my limited number of hides and a greater number of finds, a bunch of 1/1's would require more maintenance than 3's or 4's; the "easy" caches are visited by EVERYONE. On average, ammo boxes require less maintenance than rubbermaid clones or even most created containers (PVC, etc) since they do a more consistant job of keeping out the weather. That said, you'd get far more "hits" at a lower $ investment with a bunch of 1/1 plastic containers than with the same number of 3/3 ammo boxes. It's really all about what you want to give the finder and what you want to get out of it as the hider.

I have no intention of pushing the issue any further, and I've already followed their advice and created "mock" finds to bring my numbers back up where they belong. I've considered the possibility that he might trash my caches, however, only two of my caches are at real risk from him. If it happens, it happens. I'll just create another account to hide future caches.

IMO, the specificity of the hint should increase with the proliferation of potential hiding places at the cache location (or with heavy tree cover). When there are only a few possible hiding places, there's really no need for a hint. For example, on my last hide (a catch-4-TB-puzzle cache), if you get within 50' or so of the cache location, the clue will make sense if you're thinking about it. Even then, it will just tell you that you're in the right area and you'll still have a hunt. I intended it more as confirmation that the puzzle was correctly solved.

I wouldn't have posted at all if there was a way to figure out who I was talking about (the logs are deleted).

Hot: a TX Geocoin Not: the arm (see below)

For me, while the count is a record of sorts, it really doesn't matter. The logs I place in other peoples caches are really more for them than for me. I'm going to keep caching as if this never happened.