Cow Spots

Cow Spots occasionally looks at puzzles from afar for mental stimulation, you betcha. Found some great puzzle cache creators throughout that way. And through emailing these folks back and forth over the years, I've found several cachers who've been kind enough to play-test some of my puzzles and vice versa. (Which I wish more puzzlers would do -- can't tell you how many times I've caught blatant mistakes or multiple solutions which render something unsolvable.) Rarely have I had the good fortune to have actually gone and found any of these in the field, unless I'm already making a trip to the area. I've from Tucson, and I have managed to get a bunch in San Diego (including a first find, yay!), some in Minnesota. But most of the time I'm content to work 'em out from the relative comfort of the blast furnace that is Southern Arizona. Since the topic is remote finds, IMHO, that's lame. Back in the day, I sometimes used to post a note that I'd solved it, but I think I've since outgrown that. It is up to the conscience of the individual cache owner, but I'll wipe any finds on the cache page that don't have a matching signature on the logsheet. And have already done so in the past.

Glad to hear you're OK. I'd like to send Cowspot Jr out to help, but it's a school night.

I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

Come on, boys! The way you're lollygaggin' around here with them GPS's and them compasses, you'd think it was a hundert an' twenty degrees. Can't be more than a hundert an' fourteen. HAW! Cache 2000 : Welcome to GOLF!

You can always go the other route. Just say NO to Sudoku!

Just wanted to say a big thank you to all the SD cachers who I had a chance to bump into this weekend. I had a blast meetin' up with you crazies!

There's an outside chance that TT might swing through the SD area sometime this weekend.

Regarding "Beta-Testing" of puzzle caches, I generally try on my puzzles to have another cacher from far outside my general area test my puzzles before they go live. I've also done the same thing for other cachers' puzzles. (Including San Diego area.

Anyone know whether the trick will still work with IE7?

I heard of one once where the cache was a micro, just a log sheet hidden inside a plastic 35mm film canister. Oh yeah. The film canister was hidden inside a giant plastic office water dispenser jug. Oh yeah. There were about 100 identical empty film canisters in there with the real cache.

If a solver of one of my puzzles doesn't know for sure that they got the right answer, then I didn't design the puzzle well enough.

On an unrelated note, my little brother got the waypoint code GCWKRP and made a puzzle out of it.

Fun with Genetics! Who is who? Answer : Top to bottom Birth photos of my son Colin, my son Jason, and TT's new son Andrew. Think they're all related?

Who likes pictures?? TT V 2.0

My best prize was a fully functional GPS reciever as a first finder prize in a killer puzzle cache : MINIAC-1 Log In addition, the cache owner included a T-shirt with the logo of the cache as a bonus First Find prize.

Umm.... really bad idea. Invasion of privacy, in my opinion. If the cache is really worth saving, in your opinion, then, yeah, send an email to your local reviewer to request adoption. If it's a lamppole micro that continually fills up with water, then maybe it should rest in peace.

Start with a polite email to the cache owner. Just because they're not actively on the trail doesn't necessarily mean that they don't care about their cache. If you don't get a response, and it's something simple about the cache that needs to be maintained (like a new logbook, ziploc bag, etc.) go ahead and do it. Nothing wrong with being a good neighbor. If the cache is thrashed, and you don't get any response from an email, then I'd consider a "Should be Archived" note. But try contacting 'em first.

Here's my personal favorite : Erta Ale Volcano

Totally off topic, but too cool a pic not to share. My son Colin (TT's nephew) after our commercial flight back home from Minnesota.

It saddens me greatly to learn of the likely muggling of "Don't Fear the Reaper." Pulling that trick on my little brother with the help of Tom and Dan was probably one of the greatest experiences I've ever had geocaching, and seeing the look on Jeff's face when he realized that he'd been had was simply priceless.

Holy Ammocan, Batman! :D Anyone know happened???? Yeah, I do, but I'll let Jeff fill you guys in when he gets the chance.

Let's take this one at a time. You're comparing apples and oranges by accusing me of 'giving up.' The one cache that I chose to archive since it kept disappearing was because I determined that I had placed it in too high traffic of an area. My fault, not a thief. I never suspected a cache maggot thief -- the cause was poor placement on my part. Two different situations entirely. Live and learn. If you know it's not there, it's your responsibility to say so, and either correct the situation or archive the cache. Your approach might thwart the thief --- though I doubt it --- but if a cache isn't there, and you know it, you're affecting other cachers. Plain and simple. Example : John Doe Cacher goes looking for a cache. He gets a DNF because the cache has been stolen by a thief. Joe Bob Cache Owner is aware that the cache has been stolen by a thief. Who should John Doe Cacher be more irritated with, the thief, or Joe Bob Cache Owner, who knows it's gone and didn't say anything? Perhaps a cache handled this way should be listed at a different website entirely -- maybecaching.com sounds like a good possibility. I _do_ sympathize with your problem, but I think you've got tunnel vision regarding the thief and might not be fully aware of the side effects.

Let's see. I'm listed as owner of 14 caches. Of the three that have been archived --- one got stolen 3 times, and I chose to archive it because I felt that I had made a poor choice of location in retrospect. One was a co-hide with my brother that was archived after he left the area, and the third archival was due to the cache being buried by rising floodwaters. Of my 11 currently active caches, I've had to replace 2 : 1 that was stolen, and one that was inadvertantly taken away by workers in the course of their duties. Fortunately, I have never suspected a habitual cache thief --- just muggles, would be my guess. Telling people about a cache thief absolutely is proving accurate information. It's just not telling a hunter the full story. This is where a "temporarily disabled" option, or even a note is entirely appropriate - something to the effect of "The cache may have been stolen, and I will check this at my earliest opportunity and replace it if necessary." Because it's your cache -- you chose to place it there, you chose to agree to maintain it, you chose to be responsible for it. The only burden I share as a cache hunter to prevent a cache from being stolen is to rehide the cache as well as I found it, and in the cache of high-traffic areas, not to be too obvious to non-geocachers while searching for it. What other duties should I have for your cache? By listing the thief problem on the cache page, you are providing a caveat emptor to a prospective searcher. But by deleting pertinent information about the cache being missing or not, you're certainly concealing information, aren't you? You can't stop a thief that is determined enough. They can pay for premium membership. They can solve a puzzle. They can create a sock puppet to get the coordinates directly from you in email. As I said previously, I absolutely sympathize with fighting the thief. My opinion is that there are better ways to handle it. It's my opinion that you should provide the best information you can about the cache. Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Maybe I'm missing something. To me, part of your responsibility as the owner of a cache is to make an honest effort to provide accurate information about the cache to prospective fellow geocachers. This includes reasonably accurate coordinates and the current status of the cache, be it missing, damaged, or "good to go." Removing information that accurately reflects the current status of the cache, or the last known status of the cache, does a disservice to anyone that may seek it in the future. Hey --- I sympathize with someone dealing with a cache maggot. But this one's cut and dried. Removing pertinent info about the status of a cache does more harm than good.

I think it's totally acceptable. Codeword only caches (those without a logbook at all) aren't approvable anymore, but as it stands that looks OK. Whether or not you make it clear on the cache page that they'll need to come back is a matter of personal taste. Of course, depending upon the encryption you use, it may very well be crackable without doing the fieldwork. Some puzzle cache solvers can be pretty crafty