Lady Loki
-
Posts
137 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Lady Loki
-
-
Definitely agreed around our area, too!
-
We were out the other day and took the long way to a couple of caches, including a point where the 4 year old fell down, and another point where there were thorns. No scratches... until we were walking home and I accidentally brushed by a fence and got a nice big scratch on my arm.
Moral of the story: walking home is more dangerous than caching!
-
I'm finding that I can figure out the surrounding area a lot better with Google Maps. So much easier!
-
And what exactly does that have to do with geocaching? Someone who wants to prey on children at a school has many other avenues of gaining access to the school than hunting geocaches, especially since the caches are unlikely to be /inside/ the school building.
It seems to me like you're conflating two things that have no relation.
-
It also helps if you zoom in as much as possible on your GPS. (Why yes, I did just discover this, why do you ask?
)Do you mean zooming in so you can see the difference between your current location and the cache? Most (all?) devices have settings that will display the distance and direction from your current location to the cache. What device are you using?
Yeah. I do better with visuals than numbers, though, so when I zoomed in to about 50 feet visible on the display, suddenly it worked SO MUCH BETTER at GZ! (I feel pretty dumb about it, but hey, if by mentioning it I can make it easier for other people, including those who are so smart they're dumb sometimes like I am, it's all good.
) I've got a fairly old GPS, a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx I got from a pawn shop, nicknamed the Etch A Sketch. It does what we need, even if I'd like to upgrade. (It's not the GPS in this particular case, it really is me.)
-
It also helps if you zoom in as much as possible on your GPS. (Why yes, I did just discover this, why do you ask?
) -
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing... we weren't in an area that got to see the eclipse, so being able to see it this way is nice.
-
That is awesome! I'm so glad things are going well for both Vivian and your family!
-
1. I do not have a lot of time to cache so being able to chip away at the traditionals in order to finally solve the bonus cache is desirable.
YOu still can split up the cache into the same parts as if for single separate caches.
This cache, for example, has been divided up into up to 16 legs by cachers.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=6d831ec0-e0b0-40a0-ba52-3cb2e630de33
(at least 120km hike)
and I'm sure it will work equally well for this cache
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=bc6fc608-511d-4790-91a6-63898366b82c
(at least 140km hike)
Both caches are something very special for those who do the cache. In our area there are many series of the type you mentioned as alternative above and they receive more visits, but do not play such a special role for the finders.
2. Not everyone has the time to do the entire multi so some will not even try.
That's rather an advantage from my point of view. Many caches get too much traffic anyway.
The problem is you will have a lot of caches out there with unknown coordinates.
Not necessarily as stages can be of the question and answer type.
This takes up real estate and makes it difficult for others to place caches without eventually running into proximity issues because they do not know where the cache are.
That's much more true for cache series like the two hidden by this guy than by a long multi cache of the type I have mentioned above.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?u=Heinzspeedy
A related situation exists locally where a cacher has put out a ton of puzzles that I have no hope of ever solving. Without knowing where his caches are, I am very reluctant to even try placing a cache in that area.
That's more related to series like the ones mentioned above than a long multi cache as nobody is saying that all stages need to be physical ones.
Cezanne
I'm confused by the bolded part. Please explain? I thought the point of the game was to find caches, and to place caches to be found. It sounds like you disagree with that.
-
I. PLACEMENT Guidelines: Placement guidelines govern the physical location of a geocache.
"When you go to hide a geocache, think of the reason you are bringing people to that spot. If the only reason is for the geocache, then find a better spot." – briansnat
There are plenty of reasons to use parking lots. Someone might be on a streak of trying for a cache a day and be a super busy person--they need a quick one. Someone might be having a busy or hard time this week, and finding a cache--even a LPG--releases some tension. Someone might be trying for a cache per county, and they don't have time to go for a hike. Someone might be from out of town and have no way to go find something better. Someone could be recuperating from an illness or they might not be very mobile, and the LPGs get them out of the house.
Caching Streak: all about the numbers. "They need a quick one": Why? All about the numbers again. Need a cache in a County: All about the numbers. Out of towners: (Presumibly for the "prestige" of finding a cache in a different State) All about the numbers. I'll give you the last one about recuperating from an illness or they might not be very mobile, and it gets them out of the house. But then again, that smiley count increases by one, doesn't it?
As I've said before in the thread, I'm not seeing anything there that addresses the shear number of them.
EDIT: P.S. Do you have any idea what a miniscule percentage of the overall Geocaching population cares about going on a "caching streak"? A small handful of highly active premium members in any given area. Parking lot caches are all about the numbers. Always have been, always will.
Personally, I like P&Gs because they're quick and easy enough to entertain my 4 year old. (Which, granted, isn't a great recommendation.) He loves geocaching, but there are days when I can't hike out and find anything else (I'm one of those disabled cachers, and some days are better than others for me to go hiking). Sure, our smiley count increases, but that's not my motivation, nor is it his; it happens, and it's cool, but it's more important to me to get out and do /something/ rather than nothing. As much as we can, we park in a corner of the lot and walk to the cache, and some days, that really is all I can do, but it's something, and it's time spent with the kidling.
So, I respectfully disagree... parking lot caches aren't "all about the numbers" to me, and I'd bet I'm not the only one. Do I prefer caches in the woods or interesting spots rather than just in a parking lot because there wasn't one within the required number of feet? Sure. But I appreciate that the game is flexible enough to allow me to look for caches in different ways depending on what I can physically do that day. (I have had to have stern talks with my feet; some days they itch to get out when my body just isn't able, and parking lot caches at least satisfy that.)
-
BTW, should a CO log their own cache as "DNF"? Would that bother anyone?
It would probably confuse me. After all, if the CO can't find the cache they hid, what chance do I have of finding it?
-
what's more normal than two moms and a four-year-old taking a break near a cool-looking thing?
Nothing at all...but two moms and a four year old poking around a dumpster behind the local strip mall would NOT look normal. And unfortunately these days that's more and more what you get. It seems to be the exception rather than the norm that caches are located near "cool looking things"...
You want suspicious, try being a middle aged man and an adolescent girl (my daughter) sneaking off (or even just nonchalantly strolling) into a patch of woods in the secluded back corner of some parking lot. I'm waiting for some busybody to call the cops on us some day.
Well, I check them all before we go, and I haven't found one yet that's near a dumpster behind the local strip mall. There are a couple that are near dumpsters, but we haven't gone for those yet, mostly because the ones within walking distance and the ones that I'm willing to get in the car for... well, they aren't those.
(I will say that one's by the dumpster of a bakery, but I'd like to visit the bakery while we're there. However, they have early morning hours, and we're not early-morning people.
)Maybe I'm just lucky that the great majority of caches around here are placed by cool-looking things. Definitely ups the challenge of placing our first one; I want ours to be awesome like the ones I've found (or not found but looked for). But it does say a lot about the local cachers, I think, that they're usually placed in interesting spots! A lot of them do have Stealth attributes, which is one drawback of having caches in interesting spots, but as mentioned, I just wave and say hi to anyone looking at us weird. (And to be fair, we're usually not very good at stealth; a loud, active child who's probably going a mile a minute about geocaches, plus two women with unnaturally-colored hair is a situation that doesn't lend itself to stealth. Thus, my approach, acting like everything's fine and we have every right to be there.)
-
Thank you Cheeseheads, for a mature response. In fact, the only one. Such a shame to see so many other people enjoying trolling for the fun of it. What's it like having a chip on the shoulder everyone else? Heh.
Thank you for the nice read today. I have enjoyed the many twists and turns. Do you mind if I put it in my entitlement folder? I think it would serve as a nice example. By the way, the only thing different on the Cheeseheads post when compared to many others is is the moderator tag. Perhaps that helps you read the post better.
+1
After reading the entire thread, then seeing the comment about everybody but the mod trolling, I am very hesitant to post anything, but I will. In my 7 years of hiding caches, I have worked with at least 4 reviewers, and I am familiar with quite a few others through the forums, and I will tell you that I have not known one that did not show the highest professionalism when it came to their reviewer "job". *If* (and that is a HUGE "if") your reviewer had a personal issue with you, you can be assured that it would be addressed in a mature way in a dialog with you. You would not be simply given the cold shoulder, no matter what the issue was. You can take that to the bank.
An apology about your trolling comment would seem to be very appropriate to those that posted before me, by the way. You were being given some very straightforward advice that you apparently didn't want to hear. I'd thank them, if I were you.
+1
In short, wow. Entertaining and informative thread, even if it didn't quite get through to some parties as intended.
-
You might need to be more specific about the area you're looking for people to go with... I have no idea what mid-cities you're talking about, and the forum has people from all over the world.
-
Thank you for the tip! My Twitter name is kitrona, like I used to be on here.
-
My most-used technique for when people are looking at us oddly is just to smile at them and say hi, real cheerful, like OF COURSE it's absolutely fine that I'm there, why wouldn't I be? I think if I looked sneaky, people would be more suspicious, but what's more normal than two moms and a four-year-old taking a break near a cool-looking thing?
I admit, I also use the four-year-old as camouflage. I mean, really, who's gonna take a little kid like that on something illegal or dangerous?
-
One thing we're planning to do is use the polymer clay casting material to make a cast of my icon (which is actually a pendant), then cast it in various colors and put our names on the back, then color them with metallic Sharpies and wipe it off so the metallic parts stand out and give the token dimension and detail.
- Lady Loki
ETA: Er. My icon on the rest of the site... for some reason, the forums haven't seemed to update with my new icon (or new name).
ETA2: Aha! Never mind. I had to log out and back in.
-
I have accounts for everyone in the house and I do the logging for them. (One is four, and the other two can't be bothered. It matters to me, so I do the logging.)
I hope that's not against the rules. But that's how I do it.
- Lady Loki
-
*snip*
Someone mentioned writing logs in the log - I did not know that was ok. I kind of did it anyway a few times when the paper was big enough, because I was so excited (the first cache we found, etc...).
Me too! I've seen people complain about people taking up too much space in the log, so I just sign it and try to get the four-year-old to sign it small.
*snip*
What I really miss are long on-line posts with each find. I want to know why the person was out, what they did, what they thought of the cache, and who found it first in their group. Most of all, I hate seeing the very same text for all their finds in a single day. That just smacks of lazy to me.
I try to remember what was going on when I looked for and/or found the cache and put SOMETHING in. I always figured that the COs would appreciate a log that actually took some time to write, since they took some time to place the cache.
- Lady Loki
-
I combine geocaching with wearing out my four year old. It works surprisingly well!
Hehehe! I'm with you. But I think my six y/o is on to my plan!!
Little Loki perks up whenever he thinks we're going geocaching, and suggests it quite often. I think I've got him hooked! Now, whether the 13 year old will be as enthusiastic is kind of up in the air... at least I know he'll have hiking boots, since his dad promised to get him some.
- Lady Loki
-
I combine geocaching with wearing out my four year old.
It works surprisingly well!- Lady Loki
-
I don't remember how I originally found the site, but I signed up four years ago and found a couple of caches using Google Maps (which was ever so accurate
I'm actually amazed we found any!). I remember wandering around in the car with my laptop and getting frustrated... don't think we've found that one yet, actually, we should do that. Anyway, fast forward through buying our first house, having a baby, being diagnosed with several chronic illnesses and dealing emotionally with that, and a bunch of other life events. We had a friend move in, with her parents, which has been a little rough financially (and medically, weirdly enough). One day we had to take their computer into the pawn shop so I could get to one of my knee surgeries, and I was wandering around looking at everything, since this was the first time I'd been in a pawn shop for any length of time and it was surprisingly nice. Check out the electronics, since I love gadgets, starting at the mp3 players, working my way around to the cameras, hey, this case over here has GPSes. And... WHOA. ONE handheld Garmin, and hey, I could really do something with that...
When we got our tax return, I made my husband go back and buy it for me. Turned out it was originally over 4 times the price we paid for it, and it's been serving us well. We haven't gotten out to get a whole /lot/ of caches, but what we have gotten (and attempted!) has been fun, and has given us lots of stories. I got everyone in the house involved, when they can, but mostly it's me with the itchy feet. I'm currently waiting for my blisters to heal so I can get back out there!
- Lady Loki
-
We have a backpack with a notepad, pens, wallet, cell phone, GPS, batteries, swag, hand sanitizer, and we usually take at least two bottles of drinks with us. Oh, and a small first-aid kit and a camera (an old one so we don't have to worry so much about if it gets damaged). I've been using it for a purse, as well, so it's accumulated a lot of stuff, but there's still two granola bars in there from our last caching expedition.
(The hike was approximately 4 miles, round trip, and we've got a 4 year old, so water and snacks were a must. ) -
Another thing you might want to watch for is handheld GPS units at pawn shops. It's probably kind of rare, but that's how I got mine, and it's pretty high-end, or was a few years ago.
You also might check the "GPS Garage Sale" area here on the forums, or eBay.I found three caches without a GPS; I took my laptop along to look at the maps as we went. (I'm glad I've got my GPS, though... my laptop now has minimal battery power, so taking it along isn't really doable.)
)
) I've got a fairly old GPS, a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx I got from a pawn shop, nicknamed the Etch A Sketch. It does what we need, even if I'd like to upgrade.
New map relationships
in General geocaching topics
Posted
Darn. Here I thought there was a budding romance to celebrate.