SimbaJamey

Nice One?

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I'm still new at this, but I've already had my first run-in with a Park Ranger. I was looking for a devious cache that I only managed to find on my 3rd try...and only because the CO showed up for a maintenance visit the last time I was there (She said I should log the find but I said I didn't find it so only logged a note). She had to tell me that I had the cache in my hand at one point but had tossed it aside in my search Anyway...on my first try I was there searching for about 2 hours and it started getting dark on me. A Park Ranger showed up (Parked his Jeep next to mine)...I guess he watched me doing the drunken bee dance for a minute before calling out to me, "Geocaching?" I laughed and said yes and then asked if he had a hint for me. Unfortunately, his response was, "I didn't know we had one." ...I said, "Bummer" He than said he'd go close the gates at a couple of other parks before coming back to make sure he wasn't locking me in. A rather positive LEO encounter IMO. I've read a lot on here about what people say to muggles and LEOs. Personally, I would never try to make something up. People (especially LEOs) are not evil and I don't think they should be lied to. Maybe having been on both sides of the badge has skewed my perspective, but really I do believe that honesty is the best policy (Does that make me a sap?).

The first cache I ever found (no, not the first one I looked for) was a ODS cache I think it's a neet idea, but I agree that with so many around now it's kindof a bad idea. As for me? I have 80 finds and just placed my first hide this past weekend. Was I ready before? Probably. But it took me a couple of tries at making a cool cache container to come up with one worthy of putting out there (A friend pointing out a cool location close to home didn't hurt). It only took me about a month or so to get burned out on magnetic micros and 35mm canisters in trees. I had thought about putting 'seed containers' in a cache as swag, but I've decided against it based on some of the things already said here. I've really enjoyed the more creative caches I've found and would rather put out and see more stuff like that in stead of caches placed just because there isn't one within 528'.

One of my best friends showed me a TB she had found and told me about geocaching several years ago. I have so far met 2 other cachers, 1 CO and 1 finder...Both female. I've gone out looking with several friends and family members...quick accounting, 5 female and 2 male. I was thinking the ratio was skewed in the other direction.

'98 TJ photo near Happy Valley

Here's a thought...Why don't the cops start checking the google cache map when they get a call about a bomb?

Worst container so far? I'd have to say it's a toss-up between two I found in a local park. One was a shredded plastic baggie stuffed down in and un-capped PVC pipe on the side of a telephone pole. The whole thing was full of water (And yes, the PVC pipe was part of the pole and had a wire coming up out of it that went up the pole). Just up the trail from that one...was a plastic baggie wrapped in about 8 layers of silver duct tape. The zip-lock part was completely torn and useless so there was no way to seal it up. Oh...and it was on a piece of fishing line NAILED to a tree Not exactly, but... Although the container was ok (plastic tube with a pop-top), the worst location I've seen was in a cement wall drainage pipe in the middle of what can only be described as a concrete trash dump (100 foot square concrete pad with a solid layer of broken glass and other trash on top) with the cache about ten feet from a homeless encampment. Most of the logs talk about walking through the homeless camp to get to the cache (When I was at GZ cache-in-hand my GPS was still pointing me 40' into the middle of the homeless encampment). When I wrote in my log that the location was lame and suggested the CO move the cache just slightly to the much more scenic boat launch area, the CO responded with a note on the cache page (and several emails) calling me, "A Moron" and chastising cachers in general for their expensive GPSrs and McMansions. He did move the cache though.

Wait.... I'm confused. Don't the rest of you wear ghillie suits when you're out caching?

On days like today when it was just too dang hot to do anything outside (even too hot to make yet another try at a stage on a multi I just got another email hint for...probably less than 1000' feet from where I'm sitting and the shortcut involves walking through a creek)... I tend to sit around the house and watch Golf and Baseball on tv all day take that time to work on solving puzzle or mystery type caches nearby that I've not managed to crack.

Seems that nobody has mentioned micros as stages in a multi...Do they not count as micros? About 20% of my finds so far have been multis and almost all of the 'stages' of those have been micro containers, just big enough to hold the coordinates to the next stage. Some of them have been EXTREMELY creative with either the container or the hide location (One was a 'flag pole' pine cone micro up a tree on fishing line, one was a bison tube wired inside a crack in a stone wall, another drilled and glued into a rock, etc.). It only took me about a dozen finds to figure out that my idea of fun is probably more suited to multis and traditionals out in the woods moreso than LPCs and other PnGs...so that's what I tend to go after. Doesn't stop me from getting a quick smiley from the pill-bottle behind the local Acme...just means that when I plan to head out caching, those aren't the ones written into the plan...they're "Caches of Opportunity" as it were. They're all fun...some are just more fun than others.

If I remember correctly the, "Super Happy Fun..." concept... Wouldn't that mean we'd all have to then cache in groups so that we could toss the cache to one another until it would presumably open or in some other way indicate which member of the group was supposed to open it?

Translation: File 13

I just got my 50th. Decided to do something a little special (didn't want to hit another P&G nano for such a momentous occasion ) So a friend that just got a 2 boat rack for her car came over and we headed out for our first ever paddle cache. Totally awesome!!! Combines 2 of my favorite activities! There's a 10 mile run a little North of me that's just thick with caches. Need to get a second boat carryin vehicle for a 1 way trip...but I think that will happen this summer Funny...when I read "Rochester" in the previous post...I had to re-read the posters name several times to make sure it didn't say ChiliHead

I ponied up the $12 for the invisishield for my Colorado this week. Ordered from Zagg and it arrived in a day and a half (I ordered it around midnight) Went on pretty well, although I dropped it after I sprayed it and ended up with a tiny fingerprint on it and one little 'hair' under it. Not a big deal though and almost un-noticeable. Not quite invisible...has a bit of an 'orange peel' texture to it. BUT Way better than the case I used to use on my Vista! Nearly invisible in direct sunlight or with full backlight on. If it protects it from scratches...WELL worth not only the money but also the slight slight degredation in viewability.

U.S. Army 11B (Now I believe 11B4) 1985-1988

I have 3 that I've bought over the years but that very one is my favorite and the one I use most often. It's more than bright enough for caching, small, lightweight, has red lights for increased night stealth (and less night vision impairment), and seems to run forever on a set of batteries (I think I'm only on my 2nd set in 5 years and I use it all the time). By comparison, I also have a Petzl and a really cheap one (About $4.50), probably also from walmart that works pretty well (nice and bright) but uses more batteries and is bigger and heavier than the others (although not huge and super-dorky like some I've seen in the $5 range). It's the only one with a regular lightbulb (non-LED) which can be helpful in some situations (I like that light better for reading (like in a tent)).

Routeable roads AND trails!!!

Yup. I had 2 early DNFs with a Vista HCx that I went back and found with a 60Csx no problemo. I was told by a fellow cacher that those 2 were both placed using a 60. Went back to do one again with a friend after I got my Colorado...and DNFed it again

I couldn't read this whole thread...I usually click 'back' when they start going downhill. So with that said, I don't know if anyone mentioned this yet... I returned my 60Csx about a month ago but IIRC when the arrow would do a 180, the "Distance to Destination" would continue counting down as I approached the cache so I just kept walking to GZ following the 'backwards' arrow.

\noob_on Ok...I have an etiquette question regarding the full logs. As my caching backpack gets fuller I'm sure there will be replacement logs for full ones I run across. I have no problem dropping a new log into a cache when the book is full or replacing busted baggies. My question, however, is what to do in the case of the micro/nano caches where adding another log to the container isn't an option. Isn't part of the 'game' that the CO gets to keep the old logbook when it gets full? I'd hate to replace a full one and then end up getting a nasty email from the CO asking why the heck I took their scrap of paper. And I'm sure I'll hunt the little ones less and less the more I get into caching (I'm enjoying the cooler hikes more)...but the nanos are still out there at places I go anyway so I'll probably keep getting some of those smileys. I just looked, 19 of my 49 finds have been of the micro/nano variety...If I had to guess I'd have to say that at least half of them have had full log sheets. So seriously, what is a cacher supposed to do in those situations? In one case there was a magnakey with 6 months worth of 'soaked log' entries on the cache page and when I wrote my log it said something to the effect of, "Couldn't get the wad of pulp out of the baggie" Again, I don't mind replacing stuff like that...but am I allowed to without stepping on the COs toes? I'd certainly hold onto the logs and would happily deliver them to the CO at an event or whatever...would even put them in the mail if that's the M.O. \noob_off

Don't most of the places that sell them have a 'printout page' for various sized micro-logs?

Plate of shrimp!!!!! I was JUST pondering submitting my name change request that I've been pretty much set on exploring for about a month. When I signed on I had no idea how important it is...didn't realize there were message boards or that I'd be meeting other cachers, etc. While I was still thinking about it and wondering where this thread had gotten to that I saw last month because it's where I saw the instructions for requesting the change....Up it pops to the top of the recent posts list!!! And for the record...Simba was an Elephant LONG before that silly little lion runied the coolest nickname I ever had (Let's just say my old goalie nickname, "Blotto" will NOT be the one I request ).

I'm a noob so I don't have quite so many complains yet. I do have one MAJOR complaint though... Why oh WHY did all those people still send me 'bills' this month when I explained to them last month that I couldn't pay them because I'd discovered a new addiction and all of my time would now be split between reading the Groundspeak message boards, shopping the online GPS stores, and of course running around in the woods looking for tupperware!

I just ordered a caribeaner compass dilly and some geocaching stickers to put into my first cache hide.