ShadowAce

Cache : Picacho Peak http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=gcc5d6 Our Left/Took entry: We took the coveted TDP backpack and left a ceramic Buddah in the cache. Response from another cacher: Removed granola bars , took buddha (thanks, I collect them), left batteries. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...07-34908911e96f I, and my son who also made the hike, were really excited to read this.. It made me go to my boss and ask him to bring more back from China the next time he went that direction. So for us, it is about letting people know and for us to keep track via past logs.

We carry hiking sticks most of the time. If you do not have a stick in our 'neck of the woods' you can almost always find a cactus rib or a palo verde branch. I take my four year old and eight year old out in the desert at night to cache and we have never once been bothered by coyotes. Arond here they are not much bigger then small dogs and they run in fear when they see/smell/hear you. We have been followed by Javalina but they have never been aggressive. We worry about Lions and Rattlesnakes more then anything else. In Tucson a large part of one of the canyons was shut down because of mountain lions. I have never heard of a tril being closed because of coyotes. As for the 6" knife idea?? I would prefer a 6' staff or a good rock over a 6" knife. I dont think I want to be that close to the teeth of anything that is trained by nature to hunt. A predator is going to know about the teeth of an enemy and you knife might not be much more to it then a mouth of another animal. If it attacks, it will move a good bit quicker then I think I could. While on a night hike with a buddy we spotted two green eyes with our flashlights.. Judging the distance and height from the ground, it had to be a lion. We threw a few good softball sized rocks at it and the eyes did not even blink. About 2 minutes later they went away.. (We both had pistols, but we were not going to shoot unless it started coming close very quickly). So I guess my personal response is the knife is good if it is a non-friendly person, but I would prefer something with a little more range when dealing with predators.

Since all you want is someone to agree, no matter if your correct or not, regardless of where you stand on any issue, is to simply AGREE WITH IT.. So here you go I agree, you are a leader of men and we will do well to follow your insight. Now that that is over, I can say that I will continue to hold my own opinion which is different from yours. But I AGREE and GOOD POST.. -- When I hike for over 6 hours through boulders and cactus to find a capsule that contains just enough paper to put five names on, I will most likely log it with TNLNSL and I might not even put much of an online post because that is what I FEEL like doing. Enjoy the day...

Still looking for this down here in Arizona..

Active caches only.. 14.8mi = 200 caches. of which 12 are not yet found by us.

And I had so hoped to actually get an El Diablo walking stick.. Ah well.. Least it was for a good cause. Congrats.. and hope all is well.

Just a quick note to add a vote to the 'Lighten up' version of the replies... I trade if there is something worth trading for. I will take the candy wrappers and actually leave somthing if that is all that is in the cache. But That guy that is leaving cow bones as a trade item is not doing a whole heck to improve the caches.. Maybe you should say TN LN SL is much better then 'I took the nice watch, dropped in two cow vertibrates.. Thanks' Or is it me? Is that better because they traded? Least my TN LN SL was followed with a 6 paragraph online log about the adventure in the hunt.

I do not think its being a replica makes it less unique and to some it just may be the one end-all be-all statue regarding Native American heritage. ok I know I probably should not even go here, but how can something be a replica and unique??? That word in and of itself means one of a kind, no other like it. Replica means a duplicate.. As for the statue itself and Geocaching not approving it, I think it would be bad form if it was approved. Why you might wonder? Well, read on.... : http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/9601/0070.html http://www.dickshovel.com/JansenPicts.html http://www.dickshovel.com/WKLAltr.a.html "...the Lakota people do not wish to have the Francis Jansen sculpture as part of this Bill. The people were not consulted about this sculpture and no one connected with the Wounded Knee community or actual landowners authorized such a sculpture. Should the Park Service insist on locating the sculpture on Wounded Knee lands, the Lakota Nation now and forever disavows any obligation to maintain, protect, and/or preserve such sculpture." Wounded Knee Landowners Association... Now it is someone interesting that the Landowners will not even allow it to be there and we are going to pick fights because it cannot be a cache? I wonder if the cache submitter works for the sculpture and is trying to get more people interested in it so that it can be placed where she wanted.. And you must have shot Kennedy!

If you compare numbers with other people this is most likely an issue. If you do not care about numbers and do it for fun, who cares. We have seen people log finds when the cache is known missing. We have seen people replace someone elses container then claim a find. we have seen people log finds on there own cache. We have seen people who will log a find, the cache gets moved 2 feet because of one reason or another so the person comes back and logs a second find. We have seen people log multiple finds on an event cache because they 'found' all the temp items hidden for an event and wanted a smiley for everything they did that day. Only the cache owner has the power to decide if the find is acceptable and most cache 0wners are to nice to delete the multiple finds.... We try to not let it affect us and I have once or twice even email the cache owner when I saw they logged a find on there own cache. Both teams had less then 10 finds, so I knew they were still learning. The only people we 'compete' on numbers with are ourselves and close friends.. Even then we do not get real serious about it, we use it to tease and torment more then prove value. Your milage may vary, but we like this road.

That last rant aside... This is nothing new or even anything I would worry about. I can say that if this had happened the day I fell off the cliff while looking for a geocache I might be a tad worried.. I was able to get SAR to my location only after I could tell them my coordinates (in three different formats). If it had been turned off they would not have found me nearly as timely as they had. This is an example of why I do not fear the big bad government just 'flipping' the switch whenever they want to. If they find airplanes flying without pilots being guided by GPSr's then turning it off might be a quick way to down the aircraft. hehehe

Date: Sep. 24th 2004. Cache: Razorback (GCJWWC) The accident? Fell 40' from a cliff.. The story: is here.

I am fiarly sure I know where that image was taken.. Feel free to email me and I can answer your question.

This one has only been stuck in a few caches Most of the time you can find our TB running around a city / town / or the mountains. We believe we have the honor of being one of the first living TBs and I do not know of any other TBs that people created like this one. What makes it so different? Well the TB number / Tab will never be removed from the hitchhiker. Rain or Snow, Desert or Ocean.. In bed, showers or hiking, the tag number is always there.. Come find it and join the list of people who have had fun with it. It's Alive!!!

#28 When visiting old battlefields, mark the location of unexploded ordinance. Share these waypoints with your friends who also go visit so they do not find them by accident.

You spend alot of time, money and effort to find out it was a disappointment and worthless. -=Doh!

So who is going to remove the knife to make it a proper cache?

Basically flat Only slight elevation changes. Easy to do in a wheelchair, stroller, bike, etc. Most people consider a 1 difficulty to be handicap accessable. You might consider looking at http://www.handicaching.com/ "By rating caches using a simple system, handicapped geocachers can quickly find the caches they are able to do. Too often a 1 star or 2 star rated cache turns out to be impossible, causing dissapointment. Handicap ratings aim to avoid that. " Again, personal opinion

I just completed my addition to the pot. Now, where do I send the 'extra' cash to increase my chances? hehe just kiding.. I am glad to be able to help.

For the first question, only people who have found the cache can really give a true answer unless you send them pictures of the area and the hide location. I have seen containers the size of a small tuperware on the side of a rockslide.. Cache rating of a 2 dif.. Now the person that hid it can most likely walk right back to it, but if you take in GPS accuracy, thats alot of rocks to have to move.. I have searched for a 2 dif cash for over 3 hours without finding it.. Next person says 'quick find'.. So luck is a portion in caches like that. Other times I find a 4 or 5 cache within 2 minutes of getting on location, so it is very much in the eyes of the holder of the moment. As for the second part.. Laugh all you like, but we have caches in our area that have stumped people with over 1400 finds.. Why? Because it was not a drive by micro. Never let stats fool you. numbers are very rarely an indicater of much. (Yep personal opinions)

There are many caches in southern AZ that tell how long it took the cacher to go car-to-cache.. This has always been helpful information. You may want to give a little note that says something about your condition. We have a cacher who said 2 hours car-to-car (note this is to cache and back, not hunting time).. Yet some people take over 2 hours just to reach the cache site. Why? Because the hider is known to local cacher as a freakin mountain goat who can climb sheer cliffs. Once you find a few of there caches you determine that your safer slower way will normally double the time it took them. This is useful to my family when we go for the caches in question.. yep, personal opinion.. Some examples are: GCKWBA GCJFPK GCJ5PW GCC568 GCB838 ect ect ect.. The cache owners of these are Wily javelina and Mindfulness. Both of them are avid hikers and have real detailed information on the cache locations for most of the hike climbs.. I hope this helps you in some ideas. -=

Some people delete DNF's and just log the found. Some people leave the DNF and post a found. Some people delete the DNF and put that information into the new found. Depends on the cache which one I will do. I more often then not will copy my old DNF information and paste it into the bottom of my new find if I get a find on it. This is entirely your choice. I will let you know why we do it though, in case your interested, or you can move on tot he next now. We try to make complete logs, many times there is not much to be said about the mcdonalds parking lot cache so we have simple logs, but more often we will write a story / log that really tells what we did at the cache and getting to / from the cache. My cache log entries are normally shorter then my online logs. I know a few people who read my logs start to finish and have even emailed me after.. This is fun. So if I go to a mountain top and dont find the cache then go back, we feel that it is still an extension of the log. We are proud to talk about the animals we see and the people we may have met. My children, 4 and 8 now, feel like the log entries should be a form of diary of the trip and we sit down and figure out what to write.. If I solved a puzzle that took four months to figure out, I am happy to talk about the new scars on my head from banging the wall. Use your judgement and post them as you see fit. I dont always put a DNF log until I have been back to the area a couple of times.. Why? Cause sometimes it is just us being slow whitted that day and I know that when a DnF is posted on my caches I will go check on them. Why make the cache owner fret because I had a 'slowboy' day.. After 2 or three attempts, I am happy to log a 'You beat me, I need help' log. So.. um, ok, rambling stops here!

Oh my.. Now is this not a perfect expression of opinion.. I can see it now, I did not agree with your cache so I stole it. I thought it was bad enough having to avoid muggles, now I guess we have to ensure we dont upset cachers or they have the right to steal our cache??? As for the TB's.. You can always send email to the TB owner and ask if they want it moved.. If they tell you to get it out of that cache then by all means you now have the right to do so. I have seen many travel bug hotels and most of them ask that you leave something or trade something in the way of a BUG.. If you disagree with a cache, please try to work with the cache owner and admins or at the very least ignore the cache.. But you have no right to steal someones cache because you do not like it.

Just a thought, it has happened before, email the owner of the Virtual and explain the situation. Depending on the virtual, they may be willing to archive it so a traditional can be placed there.. ---- January 27, 2003 Decided to archive this one, so my buddy could put a real cache in the surrounding area.... ----

I personally am happy for you as it appears to be a good thing, but I am saddened as well because I was working on designs to submit and see if I could get a staff. I guess I will have to go find some scout master around town instead.. It just wont be the same. Good luck to you and yours in this game we call life. I hope for nothing but joy in your selection.

RazorBack Sep 24th and it looks to be a great evening.. I decide to take the afternoon and do some hiking.. (log entry) Here is the scoop... Last friday, the 24th, I left work alittle early after a long week and planned to get this cache. I parked at the trailhead just before 1500. I arrived at the cache location, after a few wrong choices, around 1745. I realized I would not be able to go back the exact same route because I was unable to climb down the way I climbed up... I started looking for a different route when a rock slide out from under me. I was able to grab onto a crack and hung by fingertips for alittle over one minute. I knew I was going to fall, the best I could do was 'aim' my fall. My plan worked fairly well, all things considered. After much falling and a very hard landing, I recovered my backpack, camera and cell phone. I walked approx 120-150 feet before the world started going dark. I realized my injuries were alittle more serious then I had hoped for so I called 911 and explained my situation. It was now just after 1800 hours and I was instructed to turn off the phone to conserve batteries. Four more phone calls and about 4.5 hours and I had members of S.A.R.A. coming up the hill for me. They checked me over and decided there was no way we were climbing down. We got to spend the night and wait for morning until Ranger (the helicopter) could make a successful pickup. Spent most of Saturday in the trauma center and amazed everyone when we found out all the swelling and lumps and cuts and bruises ended with nothing but damaged tendon's, contusions and cuts.. No a single broken bone could be seen in the xrays. Bruised rib, knees and baddly sprained both wrists. Trully a lucky day. Long story, but a trully memorial location. Please do not take this as a bad indicater for the cache. I just had back luck with a single rock. I loved the views and will likely make that climb again sometime just to get my best and to prove to myself that it aint all that bad I left a YJTB and a turtle. Took the bandana. TFTC **Edit to add** Got back from the Orthopaedic specalist today.. The left wrist is broken.. Still feel very lucky** One month later and the knees still hurt. Ribs still hurt. Radius is still broken.. BUT I still have FTF on the cache.