JohnX

I suggest that if you have the reasonable capability and reason to do something cool, like blow something up, on occasion, you will take the opportunity if it presents itself. Especially if that is what you are paid to do. There was a well made point about a bomb in a McDonald's bag. You can do a lot more damage with a bomb in a trash can than with something in a cigar tube. No-one bats an eye at trash, but if some over-imaginative ninny looking for excitement in their life sees something like a micro cache hidden behind a grocery store in a clear medicine bottle, it becomes a "drug drop" for the local police to investigate. The sad situation is if someone reports a bomb, the emergency response professionals have to respond to the report as if it was a bomb. That's the way it goes.

I recall my Grandmother telling me once that God created bees but the Devil made hornets. Ouch. The best time to approach a wasp's nest is at night. Check out this link for details. FYI, bees nest in trees, yellow jackets in the ground, (more or less).

Warning. This is a critical post right from the start. Hey, xaf..... over 500 finds and how many placed? One. OK you adopted your other 4. How hard would it be for you to place a decent cache that meets your standards? Perhaps you should spend some time on that pursuit. I agree that placing an intrigung cache is difficult. I have a few placed that alwas get good logs, which pleases me greatly, but I have nearly reached the end of my creative abilities in placing caches. The point of this post is: Consider the fun you could have in placing more than one cache. Give it a try, and impress the local cachers with your hides.

What does instant coffee do in a microwave? Geez, I live a sheltered life... I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time. -- Steven Wright Steven Wright is a comedian with an almost cult following, know for his bizzare one line comments.

Good choice on the GPS. Can you guess which unit I have? Before you go caching, take a few hours to become familiar with the Legend. Remember the direction arrow only works when you are moving, it is not a real compass. Read the manual and figure out how to mark a waypoint, then go outside and mark some easily identifiable spot. Call up the waypoint and hit "GOTO". Using ONLY the GPS see how close you get beck to your original spot from a couple hundred feet away. A little practice might prevent some frustration on your first finds. Also, it may take a while to develop the "Geocacher's Sense" as to how caches are usually placed and found. I usually use the "I am at the waypoint, now where would I hide a cache?" method. It works for me.

I need to create trail maps for an upcoming "Introduction to Geocaching" event. Can someone suggest the best way to use an Etrex Legend, and any of the map sites such as Terraserver or Google Earth to plot a path overlay onto an aerial photo or topographic map? I don't mind paying for access to the Google service, I just don't want to waste a lot of time when I am sure someone knows how to do this already. I have the necessary technology to capture the position output of the Etrex to a laptop in real time via the serial cable. Hardware is not the problem. The software and map creation is what I need help with. Thanks for your suggestions.

Usually 2 of the watchers are government agencies who monitor geocachers and track their every move with the position signal from the GPS. OK, so that's not true, but the watchers did make me a little paranoid for a while until I figured out the number of people watching the cache was a sort of "quality rating". More watchers = more interest = inflated ego for me because I did a good job on the cache.

I have no experience with these containers, but they look good for placing dreaded micros. Coin Tubes

"Preemptive Flame War Strike"

Very cool indeed. I installed it, zoomed in without doing anything but mouse clicking, and found my house and could see the car in my driveway and boat in my yard. Total time, start to finish. 5 minutes. You have to love that broadband. I wish I had bought stock in Google.

A very well made point. Additionally, what would happen if a cute and friendly, absolutely harmless dog was off leash and ran up to a non-cute and very unfriendly dog on a leash? The loose dog would certainly be the loser in that scenario, and there would be nothing the owner could do but bring what remained of the dog to the vet.

I think that what Walden Run was referring to when he compared micros and multis was the time and effort used in creating the cache and finding a suitable container for the location. He certainly does not hate all micros because he had this to say about one: The only dissapointing find I ever had was a multi where the first stage turned out to be a micro in a container so unsuitable and poorly placed that it filled to the brim with water. The search brought you through trails flooded with inches of water, fallen trees and slippery log bridges. The final container was an old plastic pitcher with the cap for the pour spout missing and covered with duct tape. I have developed my own "Geocaching Quality Ratio" which I apply to forum posters. Quite simply put, there are some cachers who rarely have anything useful or insightful to say, and when they get cornered by logic or a clearly worded reply in a position they are incapable of defending, they often reply with insults or a rousing "Tough! If you don't like it, don't go geocaching!" I identify posts made by those people by their avatars and how many "Smilies" and embedded quotes they have in their message. The insightful or funny posters are usually identified by their avatars.

I knew someone who told me how his grandfather solved a problem with an irresponsible dog owner who let his dog roam the neighborhood, and defecate in the old man's yard. The grandfather asked the owner repeatedly to keep the dog out of his yard, and the dog owner's reply was, essentially, too bad, there is no leash law. The grandfather went to the town hall to check, and sure enough, there was no law. But there was one about dogs harassing farm animals, and it stated very clearly that if you killed a dog on you property while it was harassing your livestock, the dog owner had no legal recourse. The grandfather got some chicken wire, put up a pen in the yard, bought a live chicken from a Portugese farmer and dropped it in the pen. The next day, the dog comes agound, and runs up to the pen and starts barking. The grandfather, hearing the barking, walks out the door with a 12 gauge, takes one shot and manages to kill the dog and the chicken. He threw the dog and chicken in the back of his truck, dumped the dog in the owner's yard, and gave the the chicken back to the farmer, who had it for dinner. The police were called and an arrest was made for discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a residence. Back at the station, with the grandfather in the holding cell, the police discover the law actually only applies while hunting. They had to let the old man go, who naturally threatend to have the arresting officer's fired, claimed he was going to sue for false imprisonment and all sorts of heinous violations against his freedom and personal rights. The scene he made annoyed the cops, who then did some research and next day fined the grandfather $25.00 for "improper disposal of an animal carcass within city limits." It ended costing him about $45.00 to kill the dog, but apparently, he thought it was worth every penny.

Thank you for being more gracious than I. My post was a little strongly worded.

I am sorry I came off sounding negative, as I often do. Please notice the subtle hint of my nature in my avatar. I gave my opinion on the risks you take by caching with a dog that you have stated by your own admission, you can't trust or control. I have twice had loose dogs jump on me while caching, where there were signs stating that all pets must be leashed. Here is a quote from one a post to a cache that I found a while back. When I go caching, I enjoy getting away from my usual environment and being able to go on a small adventure that does not include animals jumping on me. If there is a leash law, follow it. If you can't control your animal, keep it on a leash, as you do. As I stated in my original post, I really don't like to see animals not allowed to run free, which is why I do not own a dog. There is a leash law in the town where I live, fencing my yard is impractical and I will not chain an animal by the neck on a dog run. As far as your rant about negative comments, and not receiving the information you want, I have to ask why you are even asking for dog training advice on a geocaching forum? I understand a thread can go off topic from the intent of the forum, but your request way out in left field. Perhaps you could do a google search for "dog training advice with only positive responses" where you might find a forum with friendlier and more knowledgable readers.

My advice is if there is a leash law, follow it. I really don't like to see animals not allowed to run free, but people should be free to travel without being harrassed by uncontrolled animals. Also, consider the potential risk of letting your dog loose. I know of an elderly woman who was knocked down by a "friendly" dog that jumped up on her when she was getting her mail. Her hip was broken and she never returned to her home. This was 20 years ago when attitudes were different. Here is something to think about. Your dog injures someone. There is a leash law that you did not obey. Do you think your insurance company will will cover you in the lawsuit when you were breaking the law? How many personal injury lawyers are willing to sue you for free? Will your insurance company pay for your lawyers? How about the cacher who said this?: "I only take my dogs off leash when I'm in a area that I know nobody will be around." My only possible question is how do you know nobody is around? Geocachers are pretty tricky people who tend to sneak up on you very quietly. Every dog will bite, so please keep yours away from me.

I always wanted to mention the apparent geek factor in a staff, and that I despise carrying anything that won't fit in a pocket, but they do come in handy. To each his own. I have a couple of old ski poles and I will sometimes use one. How is this for a creative use of a staff? We were trying to get a cacher's car started, and were willing to try anything before abandoning the car. We hooked up the jumper cables and revved up the engine for a while in an attempt to boost the battery in the dead car. The staff was on the gas pedal which was depressed with the aid of an electric seat. This was at a cito event and I ended up with the distinction of not doing a lick of work except for CITOing a fellow cacher.

I read the article, and it clearly quotes a National Parks Service volunteer, saying that some caches are buried. Cachers with more time than I have might want to find out how to contact the volunteer and send him a polite message explaining his mistake. At least the reporter did his job in quoting sources, but had the bad luck to interview a volunteer who I hope is not an official representative of the NPS, and really does not understand the care that most cachers take in placing their hides. :The next line is an edit: WOW! Read the next post. Looks like I was wrong.

I had the mis/fortune to help out as official canoe wrangler and fishing pole rigger for a trip my nephew's scout troop went on. When another adult mentioned that geocaching would be a great activity for a trip and that most caches were placed in ammo cans, the first comment from another adult was "So they look like bombs?" I did not say a word about caching at all. People are paranoid, or just have listened to too much hype on TV. Clear containers are better. Having learned my lesson by loading canoes on the roof of my car about 6 times, sleeping on the ground in a tent. having a Gypsy Moth caterpillar crawling on me in my sleeping bag where I don't want bugs to crawl, and forgetting to bring my bottle of Advil, I left after the campfire on Saturday night. I heard the kids asked "Where's Mr. X?" on Sunday morning, and they were told: "The bears got him."

Here you go: I have been waiting a long time to post that image.

What'd you do, run my plate? You know, I was going to chime in and say I'm actually nastier and more argumentative face-to-face, then it occurred to me I'm not sure that's true any more. Horrifying to relate, but it's possible I've mellowed. I can't remember the last time I got into a blazing row with a co-worker or called a city employee bad names. Somehow, that makes me feel rather sad. Beware the Weasel, for I have met her, and although I have never seen her be anything but gracious, I admire her powers greatly. I have never seen her bare her teeth, but I can assure you, if she does, it will be done with great skill.

Hey, thanks to Wreck Diver and the first team who offered to adopt the cache. I really appreciate the offers of help from other cachers. It looks like everything is taken care of.

Who needs a whoopie cushion? I do just fine without one. I used to leave some really pretty nickle plated shell casings in each cache I found, until I found out that in Massachusetts, it's a really bad idea. I used to make cache magnets and leave them in caches I placed. They were very well received and I think I left about 45 of them before I ran out of magnets. I designed business cards, printed them on card stock, sprayed them with acrylic to make them smudge proof and stuck them on the magnets. Hey, here is a picture! (check out www.photobucket.com for free image hosting.) Would I take "signature item magnet"? Absolutely not. A cache magnet? Most likely not, unless it was way cooler than the ones I made.

It could alternately translate to "Anyone who reads this is damned", possibly to searching for the remaining two caches in the multi, but I do think you are cursed. I know how to get rid of it. Do you have any live chickens?

Hey Keystone, I think tossedsalad just responded to a post without reading the thread to the end. I composed an off topic post to the first cellphone/gas station message and only saw your first request when I scrolled down to hit the "Preview Post" button. It was a shame I didn't post the message, because it was really good. Lesson learned. Read the entire thread before posting.