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MTBguy

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    Ramblings of an old timer

    in General geocaching topics

    Posted · Edited by MTBguy

    Hello there. I'm MTBguy, based in Joplin MO. I've been a member since 2001. I found out about Geocaching through a newspaper article, and couldn't wait to buy a Magellan GPS 300 on eBay and get started. I couldn't even drive yet, so I used our dialup internet connection to download and print off the cache page within 40 miles, and took off on my bike. After I found all four caches, I started placing my own.

    Fast forward ten years, and I rediscover geocaching through the app that I gladly paid $10 for, and set out to find more. This time there were caches all over town! I just had to walk across the parking lot on lunch with my smart phone to find one. This was great!

    Fast forward five more years. Now I have 6 year old son, who loves to go hunting with me. We'll be off hiking, and he'll randomly say "I wonder if there's and geocaches here?" and we'll bring up the app and find one or two nearby. We don't do it very often though, maybe every couple of months or so.

    Here's the random rambling part. I apologize if this is beating a dead horse, but I've been inactive in these forums for a decade.

    When we plan ahead to go hunting, he'll go find little things of his that he wants to give to someone else in a geocache. We'll go out with a bag full of treasures and hunt for the few nearby. However, most of them now added tiny? What's up with that? Wasn't the point to find a "cache" with stuff in it to trade? Sure, the hunt is fun, but do was the trade. Now they're all tiny capsules with a scrap of paper. They're still fun to find, but when you do I always think "Oh man, another tiny one". My son goes home sad that we didn't get to trade anything.

    As I mentioned, we only do this every couple of months or so. Except now I'm expected to pay monthly for something I may only use 4 times a year? Why are only the simplest easiest caches free now? That kills all fun and spontaneous hunts. No more pulling out my phone when wet think about it to go hunting. I'd gladly pay for another $10 app of that's what it takes. I think it's horrible that the paid app will be shut down in September.

    It appears that this activity has become enormously popular in the last 15 years, especially with a GPS in everyone's pocket. That has been good, since I no longer have to travel 30 or 40 miles to find a cache. However all the creativity is gone. The challenge of finding a spot to hide an ammo can is gone. Technology has advanced a ton. No more printing out pages and typing on coordinates. However, now we have to pay monthly or annually for something, that we've already paid for.

    I can now drive to caches in my air conditioned SUV, but I don't enjoy the outdoors as much and get the exercise I used to by riding my bike.

    All this rambling to essentially say, I miss the geocaching of 2001. I guess I'm just nostalgic tonight. It just seems like with every positive improvement, there's a negative impact. It's been a zero sum game.

    That's it. No point. Time to go confirm a find on my 14 year old virtual cache.

    Have a good night.

    GEOPAINTBALL!!!!!

    in General geocaching topics

    Posted

    I went out with my brother after my last post and we both took our GPS and played some CTF. What we did was started at opposite sides of an area of woods, and hid flags. Then we used our FRS radios to send the coords to each other, and we started heading for the other guys flag. It was really cool, because we were both heading towards each other as quickly as we could, but had no idea were the other person was.

     

    The Mountain Bike Guy from Joplin MO

    ------------------------------------

    Long Live Long Rides

    I Need a Mountain Bike

    in General geocaching topics

    Posted

    Wow, when I saw this post I thought "Cool, I can offer some advice" But I see you people have got it all covered!

     

    I do have one thing to say about walmart bikes vs. bike shop bikes...

     

    Walmart bikes may apear to be just as good as bike shop bikes, but beneth that "Schwinn" name, is a cheap, heavy poorly constucted frame and parts. I have owned three walmart bikes before purchasing a Trek 6500. All three of them had some major part break and had to be returned. I have had the Trek for 1 1/2 year, with no major problems.

     

    Another thing, try this experiment. Write down a list of questions you have about bikes (size, frame composition, quality, ect, even which is better, walmart or bike shop bikes.) Then take that list to walmart, go to the bike section, and find someone there to ask those question too, and write down their answers. Now go to a bike shop and ask the same question. Go home and compare the answers. I think you'll find out that the people at walmart know nothing about bikes, and the people at the bike shop will help you with any questions you have.

     

    The Mountain Bike Guy from Joplin MO

    ------------------------------------

    Long Live Long Rides

    Geocaching on Star Trek Nemesis...??

    in General geocaching topics

    Posted

    quote:
    Originally posted by OlBluesguy:

    How come with all that high tech weaponry they miss so much?

     

    I always notice that, it happens all the time in Star Trek! You'd think Star Fleet training just told them how to push the fire button!

     

    The Mountain Bike Guy from Joplin MO

    ------------------------------------

    Long Live Long Rides

    Arkansas State Parks

    in General geocaching topics

    Posted

    quote:
    Originally posted by LongDogs:

    Well, I have a cache in Pinnacle Mtn St Park that I'll get a permit for as soon as they are available.

     

    I have a cache in Devil's Den State park that I need a permit for! (actually the map on the cache page shows it outside the park, but I am sure it is in the park.) I bet a few other geocachers who have caches in parks were afraid to mention them earlier. Guess we had better get to work on getting those permits!

     

    The Mountain Bike Guy from Joplin MO

    ------------------------------------

    Long Live Long Rides

    Arkansas State Parks

    in General geocaching topics

    Posted

    quote:
    Originally posted by Ttepee:

    Any idea of a head count as to how many bodies you had at the meeting?

     

    Count the "find" logs on my event cache, there have been people logginf it constantly since the meeting ended. If you were there, don't forget to claim your find! Go to http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=49331

     

    The Mountain Bike Guy from Joplin MO

    ------------------------------------

    Long Live Long Rides

    Arkansas State Parks RULES

    in South and Southeast

    Posted

    Great work everybody, sounds like a lot of people showed up at the

    meeting, and had great results! The main points are we can use ammo

    boxes, we get an official state park geocaching sticker to put on

    it, the permits last one whole year, with automatic renewal at the

    descretion of the local park personnel.

     

    They way the permit process is supposed to work, is you take your

    cache to the park office, and tell them where you want to put it,

    they will then inspect it and put on an "official Arkansas State

    Park Approved Geocache" sticker with your name and date on it.

    (Basically the sticker is the permit form and permit itself.) The

    sticker must be stuck on the cache and then you can hide it. There

    will be no charge. Thanks again to everybody for making this work,

    pat yourselves on the back!

     

    The Mountain Bike Guy from Joplin MO

    ------------------------------------

    Long Live Long Rides

    Arkansas State Parks

    in General geocaching topics

    Posted

    I called today, hope some of you did also. I think it would be good if someone had a cache container that they could bring with them that has been chewed through by an animal. That might turn them away from some of the container restrictions. Good luck everybody, hope it goes well tomarrow. Let us know how it goes!

     

    The Mountain Bike Guy from Joplin MO

    ------------------------------------

    Long Live Long Rides

    Arkansas State Parks

    in General geocaching topics

    Posted

    It's great they we we are all letting them know what we think. I have another suggestion though...

     

    Wednesday is the last day that public comments will be taken. I'd like to suggest that as many people as possable (of those who will NOT be attending the meeting) call 501/682-7743 and make verbal comments. Just something simple like "Hi, my name is xxx xxxx, I'd like to comment about the new Geocaching policy since I can't be there... (quickly summerize your opinions) ... I hope you make the right decision and listen to the public comments and the geocachers who will be there."

     

    If we people from out of state, or can not make it to the meeting, can make one more push, I think it would greatly help the Geocachers who are actually going to be at the meeting. icon_cool.gif

     

    The Mountain Bike Guy from Joplin MO

    ------------------------------------

    Long Live Long Rides

    GEOPAINTBALL!!!!!

    in General geocaching topics

    Posted

    Just got back from going paintballing today. No one I was with had a GPS, but we did try the idea of limiting ammo. We gave all five of us 10 paintballs each, the rules were if you ran out of paintballs, or if you were shot, then you're out of the game. It was every man for himself. It was actually a lot of fun, really makes you be careful with your shots. Next time I play with my brother, we'll use GPS.

     

    The Mountain Bike Guy from Joplin MO

    ------------------------------------

    Long Live Long Rides

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