tzipora

I posted this last night, but when I reread the rules, I realized that my entry was ineligible. So I found a Paint emulator and learned that my skills are mostly made of fail. Please note that I intend no major changes to your design; the text should be considered to still be there, as should the awesome dots around the border of the circle. The fact that you can't see them in my image is proof of epic failure on my part. Without further ado:

That would be hilarious to put in the woods. With that kind of investment already put in, a webcam would be necessary. With a YouTube channel.

I can't figure out how to edit the colors on my mac, so I hope it's not too much trouble if I just describe what I'd do based on your schematic. I hope it makes sense. Your design is very beautiful, and I can only hope to do it justice. Thanks for letting me play. It was fun to be a little creative! In place of transparent #12 everywhere except the sun, I'd like glow #3. In place of transparent #12 in the sun, I'd like transparent #4. In place of transparent #7 on the wave, I'd like glitter color CA-9. In place of transparent #7 on the legs, I'd like glow #8. In place of transparent #7 in the sun, I'd like transparent #24. In place of transparent #16 on the wave, I'd like glitter color Laser. In place of transparent #16 in the sun, I'd like transparent #4. For metal, I'd like antique bronze.

I'm still at 0 for even my furthest-traveling TBs. There are three in the field, all being held onto by the cachers who picked them up months ago. Dirty darn! I'm going to be a happy camper when they get placed, though. The person who has two of them is a friend of a friend, and they're at least 1448 miles away from their starts...if only they would get somewhere!

And Alaska is bigger than any of the places you mentioned, but we're only one state. It is what it is. I wasn't able to leave my state to get the pin; it would have taken an airplane flight or two complete days' driving to get to the nearest non-Alaskan EarthCache. In any case, I thought geoaware said that the United States and Canada could count states, and other countries just counted countries. But I might be wrong.

I'd love that Grizzly pack. That's a nice line! Thanks for sharing. I'm a gear junkie, and it's nice to see new things to drool over.

My mom found a TB that wanted you to add a keyring to the collection. Between where it started and when she had it, it got pretty big. I also saw one that wanted you to add fire department patches to it. When I looked through it, there were patches from all over the country. It was pretty cool.

Mazel tov!

Bingo, baby! Freaking sweet! It's over here! MF-er, I swear I already looked there. Guess which one is for group play, and guess which one is for tough hides.

AGREED. Except I go for a tent that I can kneel comfortably in. For me, ease of setup is important, as are vertical/near vertical walls. My last tent was the Marmot Aeros, but my dog freaked out in it and tore the mesh. I replaced it with a North Face Minibus 33, which has more nylon around the sides. They're both fantastic. Big enough that when the weather is crappy, I can invite friends to join me in my tent for food and cards.

That's because hamsters aren't LAME cache swag. They're AWESOME.

Was a premium member with you? That happened to my mom once, but since I was with her at the time we found it, I grabbed the bug from her and placed it in the cache.

The same thing happened to me. I found a cellphone on the beach at San Diego. I phoned the owner and we arranged for a place to hand it back. I waited at the rendezvous and the owner didn't even get out of the car, just held her hand out. I received no thanks, just a grunt as if it inconvenienced her. We used to do stuff like this all the time when I worked in Loss Prevention for a national chain store. Folks would leave their cell phones, and then we'd call someone to let them know we had the phone. Usually, we picked the person who had 5 very recent missed calls, since we figured that guy was helping the owner look for the phone. Typically worked. If that person didn't answer, then we went for "Home", "Dad", or "Mom".

VERY BAD IDEA. should a thief steal your incar gps, they know your name, address and the fact YOU AREN'T HOME. thieves are doing that here in phoenix to rob your house. While it's good to be vigilant, this really isn't so bad. Putting your name and phone number in your GPS gives honest people a way to return lost/stolen items. It doesn't really do that much for thieves. They really have no way of knowing for sure if nobody's home. How many families have multiple cars? If it's the personal information you're worried about, keep in mind how much of that same information is already available elsewhere in your car (if they've broken into your car). Also, did you notice how much personal information these folks were able to find using the internet? It's already available to the honest and the dishonest alike. It can be scary, but taking precautions should allow you to live somewhat normally. A life lived in fear is no life at all. That said, I love stories like this. I put my name and phone number in my GPSr helped my friends program contact information into their GPSrs, because I've heard several stories about units coming back. As power69 said, though, it is best if you keep control of your GPSr and your car so you don't run into unpleasantness.. like not being able to go geocaching!

I'm a big fan of bevy.

Those are very decent tents. I'd also suggest the REI Quarter Dome, which comes in 2 and 3 man versions.

The Marmot Aeros is a 3 man affair, and very simple to set up. The first time I did it, it took about 5 minutes. It's also lightweight.

REI also makes decent, cheaper ones. Their small is also smaller than the smallest Ruff Wear small, which is what I needed with my little dog. I highly recommend having a pack on a highly energetic dog. When Juneau wears hers, she is much more obedient and gets better exercise. Just do make sure that they aren't carrying too much; Juneau is 15 pounds, so she only carries a small waterbottle, poo bags, and puppytreats.

The problem with trail walking a dog that isn't 100% command trained is that sometimes a dog will catch you off guard and yank the leash when they see a chipmonk or something. Next thing you know, your dog has lost itself in the woods (assuming its a wooded area) and has a leash attached to it. Not a good combo. A "Halt-E" type collar helps a lot. She knows better than that now. While we were working on it, I used a carabiner to attach the leash to my backpack so she couldn't pull it away from me. The Haltie collars don't work so well on lhasa apsos and other dogs with small snouts. I do like the Illusion collar, which is more of a slip collar style. She does not misbehave when that one's on!

My lhasa apso isn't 100% responsive to verbal commands, but she does well on a leash. She loves geocaching, although she seems to think that it's just another word for walking. I didn't really do much training for her to get her ready, though. We just started doing walks, then added in finding a geocache or two, and now we can geocache all day.

I live in bear country, so I try to have as few dishes as possible. My family often makes fun of me, because I live on granola bars, beef jerky, and dried fruit when I'm out. As I venture into longer trips, I'll probably add in those dehydrated cook-in-bag meals to my menus. When I have dishes, I won't wash them within 150 feet of camp in order to prevent bears from coming around, preferably in a stream or lake. I typically use Dr. Bronner's and use the boiling water method for getting food un-stuck from the pot/pan.

Dogs would always count with me. Except, perhaps, for the earthcache in part of a park where dogs are not allowed. Then it would be a tough one since I take dog regulations seriously when I am out with mine. There is that. I wouldn't have my dog with me for that one. Then we'd have to go for a camera balanced somewhere, set the timer and run shot.

My opinion is this: if a picture of my dog at the site doesn't sufficiently prove I was there in the mind of the developer, then I don't really want to play his or her game. I will appreciate the trip to the location and any learning I received, but...

Wow, now those were two very clever cachers! I placed a cache, and when I submitted it, I made a typo on both the northing and westing coordinates, but described the location. When the email came out, I noticed the error, and immediately disabled the cache, noting that the coordinates were significantly wrong. Approximately 80 miles wrong. A genius of a local cacher figured out where the cache was and FTFed it, even before the actual coordinates were posted.

EarthCaches: for when Geocaching just isn't nerdy enough