jim32809

When you walk 5 miles round trip in 95-100 degree heat for a single cache, just so you can add Arkansas to your map.

I once hunted a multi in which the first stage had been reported muggled, but I went after it anyway. Discovered I could find stage two based on the description in the listing, then it was an easy find for the final. Did I cheat? No, I don't think so. I've been tempted at times when I've spent over an hour on a shrub hunt to just go home and log a find. But my inherent honesty won't let me do that. I don't consider it a find until my name is on the log (and I don't care if someone else signs it for me - I usually sign for the group anyway).

Testing.

I print out my cache pages and carry them on a clipboard, so if there are muggles in the area I just take the clipboard with me and play the "inspector" routine. I figured this out after sitting in a Wal-Mart parking lot for 15 minutes with a constant flow of muggles. I grabbed the cache, then moved on around the parking lot, making occasional "notes" and at the furthest one I signed the log. By that time the muggles had cycled so I returned and inspected the pole by my car one more time and drove off. Another trick is to take a camera. I'm not a small guy so I don't have a lot of flexibility. Sometimes I'll point the camera under the bench or inside the low pipe and take a picture, then look at it. Several times I've located a cache that way. If anyone were to stop and question me, I'm just taking a photography class and our assignment is to take interesting pictures of normal objects and that the professor even mentioned the bottoms of benches! I have known of people using the orange vest and hard hat tactic. I've read several books where someone gets around a hospital, plant, office complex, etc. by just carrying around a clipboard and nobody questions their presence. It isn't just to act like you belong, you have to "look" like you belong too. I was hunting a downtown Orlando cache not long ago, and people would look at me and then look away. Then I had a nice lady offer me a ride to the Salvation Army for a shower, clean clothes and a hot meal. I realized that I definitely looked like one of the transients that haunt downtown so that explains the behavior of both her and the muggles that looked away from me. Of course I had just completed a cache called "Fear Factor Urban Wetlands" and nobody can come out of that one looking clean, so I can't blame them.

If I'm in a heavy muggle area, I take my clipboard with me and play the old "inspector" routine. I think I've inspected 25% of the light poles in the Orlando Metro Area. One time in the St. Louis area I was waiting out some muggles at a spot where a rail-to-trail path crossed a road and a car stops and the driver asked if I was a trail inspector because there was a maintenance issue about half a mile down the road The only true muggle encounter I've had was when I went to a lake park for a cache. My GPSr pointed me to the spot where a dock went out into the water. Problem? Lost of muggles. Three were older folks and I consider them safe. Two were "moms" sitting at a covered bench. Then I saw a bunch of teenagers with a jetski and tube coming into shore. I walked around a bit and determined that GZ was right at the start of the dock - obviously tucked underneath. Of course no way to do it without being noticed. I had a hunch the kids were okay so I asked them to do me a favor, and a few swam under the dock and after a short while located the hook it was attached to and retrieved it, then they all sat around me while I signed the log. That's when I noticed why I had a hunch that these kids were alright. One of them was obviously learning-disabled and what I had subconciously noticed was them taking good care of his safety getting back on to the dock and that he was included in the group and not a hinderance. Good kids!

Yeah, remind me about the "having fun" part when I'm trying to find a micro that's apparently hidden in some bushes and I'm covered in scratches and bug bites and sweating like crazy and I CAN'T FIND THE &*$% THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've seen posts that say not to use a GPS navigation unit as they try to keep you on roads. I have a Mio DigiWalker C230, and when I discovered that I could change the route parameters to "vehicle type - pedestrian" I started finding caches - 5 in my first day! All of them needed the pedestrian setting to locate. While a treditional GPSr would probably make it easier, I'm doing fine with my Mio unit.