oakenwood
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Posts
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Posts posted by oakenwood
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Does anybody know where I can buy some helium-filled red balloons, about a meter in diameter?
I need them by Saturday.
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I agree that words can have colloquial meanings not found in the dictionary.
Take, for instance, the term "grammar nazi".
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There are lots of deer around here, and they leave trails to follow, which I often use.
You have to spot them (hoofprints are one clue) and walk crouched or bent over.
Thorns are the only big problem. Usually I can push them out of the way; sometimes I break the branch.
Gotta watch out for spiderwebs, though. I typically wave a long twig in front of me to catch them.
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There's a black nano on a black iron fence around a fountain in downtown Montgomery AL. The fence is decorative cast iron with a vine and leaf pattern, about 3' high and 50' in diameter, so it takes a real search to find it. But, the homeless who sleep on nearby benches have made it into a cash machine... they move it after every find and charge the next frustrated cachers two bucks to tell them where they put it!
That gives me an interesting idea. Give the cache to a homeless person, then post the coordinates to their favorite hangout, with instructions to ask the person for the cache. They pull it out of a pocket, and you have a find.
Is this exploiting the homeless? It's not "Bumfights", but some people might be sensitive about these things...
Alternately, you could give the cache to anyone who frequents the same place regularly: a bar patron, someone at Starbucks, etc...
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I've found a few. For LPM's, you can zoom in the Google map until you can see exactly where it is. That's harder to do in the woods, because there are fewer points of reference.
I'm currently perfecting a way of caching using a Motorola iDen phone, which has a GPSr, but only gives you your present location. With a magnetic compass and a scientific calculator (to do the all-important arccosine calculation), I can navigate without a map.
Once I get it all worked out, I'll write it up and put it online.
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Yep have had several of mine Muggled, as well as replaced a few for other cachers that had been muggled.
There was one in particular that was a fantastic spot so I was going back to the area the next day so I contacted the cache owner and he said it would be great if I replaced it so I did.
ScubaSonic
I did that once, with part of a really nice multi-cache. I didn't think to notify the owner, and he replaced it himself a couple of months later. For a while, there were two caches. I had to go back, find his, and merge them.
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Any chance the muggles had four legs?
I don't think so. The container wasn't damaged. The lid was pulled off, which is hard to do without opposable thumbs. The log pages with writing were torn out, and the rest of the log was missing.
I'd say they had two legs, and don't like toys. They even left the wind-up walking turtle.
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First to find it's been muggled. One of my own caches, in fact.
I was out for a walk, and stopped by to check it. Looks like it got hit a few weeks ago. If there's a silver lining, it's that I got some new swag out of it.
Anybody else ever find a muggled cache? Had one of yours muggled?
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Some types of chain-link fence posts have caps that can be pulled off. I'm talking about vinyl-coated fencing like in the picture at the top of this page. Place a magnetic micro under one of the caps. Cachers will have to climb the fence, remove the cap, and look inside.
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There's a thread for this sort of thing.
A scratched cornea? You go to the head of the line. Very sorry to hear it. That sure beats poison ivy.
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Even if you're not FTF, there are other firsts:
FTL = First To Log. You found the cache, but weren't the first to find it. Still, you were first to log your find online.
FTDNF = First To DNF. There's a certain pathetic charm to this one.
FTBSOBM = First To Be Scared Off By Muggles. You would have found it, but didn't want to give away the cache location.
FTP = First To Post. You may not have even been to the cache, but you were first to post a note. "Hello world" will do.
FTNET = First To Not Even Try. You read the cache listing and stayed home. Here's to you, Mr. I-played-Halo-instead guy!
FTLAPOEM = First To Leave A Picture Of Eva Mendes. In my book, that beats a FTF.
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It helps to deter rival FTF hounds. Get burned like that a few times, and you might stop.
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I often keep looking well after it's stopped being fun. Sometimes I find it. Those finds are extra sweet.
I've learned that sometimes it's just not there. One time, the owner moved the cache, and I had the old coordinates on my Garmin. Sometimes they get muggled. You could be a very long time looking for one that's not there. At some point you have to throw in the towel.
What makes me stop looking? Sometimes I run out of light. Sometimes I get thirsty/hungry. Sometimes I decide to come back when there are less leaves on the ground. Sometimes I'll go away and come back after I see a fresh find in the log, so I'm sure it's there.
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I recently got a grant to order 6 GPS units, and i'm looking at this one.
Are these capable of taking waypoint files (.gpx or .loc) from a computer to load the waypoints, or do they have to be entered in manually?
Garmin's MapSource software (it comes free with each unit) can open those files and load the waypoints to the unit. No need to do it manually.
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I stand up for the hunting community as much as the next guy, but I also call it like I see it.
The sentence that ruffled some feathers should have read "They're too often stupid, ignorant, intoxicated, and will shoot at anything that moves." That's what I meant. I wasn't trying to perpetuate a stereotype, just provide a warning. Like I said, I was referring to the worst hunters. The other 99.99% are fine, but it's that one guy in ten thousand that just has to get his buck despite being a alcoholic dimwit that causes the trouble.
He's also the one that gets all of the media attention, thus the stereotype. The odds of getting shot by one of those dopes is pretty low, but the consequences can be so catastrophic that it's worth playing it safe. That's why Maryland has its first-day-of-deer-season rule.
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I have a Garmin eTrex Venture HC. It's great for the price-- it has a sensitive receiver and WAAS. Just remember to enable the WAAS.
It doesn't come with the USA topo map. You'd have to buy it (for 100+ bucks) or download free maps, which are available on the web.
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I got lots of swag just by walking around the house with a cardboard box and asking, "Do I really need that?" It's surprising how much disposable junk we have lying around.
You'll turn up odd stuff that someone might actually want, like AC adapters, playing cards, Livestrong bracelets, hand tools, shoelaces, etc. etc...
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I'm a hunter in Maryland. By a look at your profile, it appears that you are caching in Pennsylvania. I've never hunted in PA, but I'll do my best to give good advice. Be advised that I'm not a lawyer, and this is just my opinion, not definite legal advice. To be sure, ask a lawyer or game warden.
Most states have a law that prevents interference in hunting activities. In PA, the applicable statute is found here: http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.as...p;q=151077#2302
Briefly, it appears that you are entitled to cache just as much as a hunter is allowed to hunt. The law is intended to prevent people from intentionally interfering with legal hunting. If you're doing your thing without intending to disrupt his hunt, he has to allow you to do it.
The guy in the tree should have held his tongue and waited for you to leave. He was just being an inconsiderate jerk. I can understand that he paid for a license and has limited time to hunt. Even so, hunting should teach patience, which this guy clearly lacked.
Next time, tell him that you have as much right to do what you are doing as he has to do what he's doing, and that you'll be gone in a few minutes. That should work. Remind him that you're not trying to interfere with his hunt, what you are doing is legal, and sometimes we have to share public resources.
BTW: Hunting is (mostly) prohibited on Sundays in PA. You might have less trouble then. I also recommend checking the schedule: http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.as...60&q=161003 and avoiding caching on the first day of any given deer season. Things can be a little crazy at those times. The worst hunters come out of the woodwork. They're often stupid, ignorant, intoxicated, and will shoot at anything that moves. Maryland actually prohibits any hunting but deer hunting on the first day of deer season, because of the problems it creates.
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I'm kidding, of course.
But has anybody ever placed "prize trash" at a CITO event? It's kind of like a golden ticket. The finder redeems it for a prize.
I haven't been to any CITO events yet, so I'm curious.
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"Getting sane people to walk in circles and talk to themselves since 2000."
"I was FTF and all I got was this dadgum poison ivy."
"Dude, where's my car? I forgot to mark it."
"So much CITO, so little time."
"Walking Into Spiderwebs is not just the name of a song."
"Got WAAS?"
"My cologne smells like OFF."
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Having had the joy of searching for a cache in a crumbling rock wall, let me say I won't do it again. I'll just take the DNF, no matter how far I've traveled. It wasn't just that there were a zillion places to look. I was constantly worried that one would fall and smash my foot. Plus, it destroys the wall, bit by bit.
But the worst is "Oh no, not a fence post micro!!" You know, where you have to climb a chain link fence, pull a cap off a post, and look inside. Then you climb down, walk to the next post, do it again, and again, and again.
I don't think anybody mentioned this yet. Probably because there are few cache owners that sadistic. I only did that search one time because I was trying to get my first FTF. I never found it. Maybe it was never there, which would be part of the plan if they were trying to be really evil about it. Later somebody did find it, or at least they claimed to.
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Another cache muggled due to lack of stealth. At least the muggles put it back. They even added swag.
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I saw this thread yesterday and thought "Have I seen a golf ball near a cache? I can't remember."
Wouldn't you know it, I was out caching today and found a golf ball. Go figure. It was deep in the woods, too-- miles from the nearest golf course. Must've been a heckuva tee shot. Maybe the wind carried it.
Hunter etiqutte (meaning the kind with guns)
in General geocaching topics
Posted
Blair Cache Project. LOL.
I liked the music. What was it?