nittany dave

There is a new Adventure Lab Series that is being worked on all along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North Carolina. This consists of adventure labs created by different people for the purpose of bringing the fun to an area of beauty where physical geocaches are not permitted. See https://brp.ncgeocachers.org/ for some additional information And BRP Facebook Group to interact with others about the series and ask questions. The first set of labs is ready and will be set to Public access this weekend, but more are being worked and will come online in the coming weeks.

You didn't bother to say where in NC you were going, but look at the NC page an see if there is an event near your destination. http://www.geocaching.com/local/default.aspx?state_id=34&x=6&y=8

If it caused the "Add to Calendar" link on Event pages to correctly setup the calendar event with the specified times, it would be useful. Otherwise I just look in the text of the event for the time since it is now required to have start and end times for an event.

I noticed this earlier today. Glad to see I'm not the only one and that it has been acknowledged. Hoping for a relatively quick fix.

That was my initial though too, but when I think about where I am, a forum about geocaching (mostly), I kind of agree with moving topics that ask for photos. If I want tips on photography, I doubt that my first stop would be here with all the photography forums, blogs and websites available. If I want to find pictures of sig items, cache containers, scenic views or animals while geocaching, there is now a forum for that and I'll find what I'm looking for quickly. Not that I'll look for it very often.

From their website

It moves around although we're thinking of selecting 1-2 locations and sticking with them to make it easier to organize and for people to know where it will be longer in advance. This year it will probably be more central.

Fix that for ya I see what you did there, but I disagree. Brian stated his opinion about a definition of geocaching and that, in his opinion, these highway PT's don't meet that definition. The edit you made suggests that the opinion is solely based on an emotional response to a type of geocaching. It's like all the threads here where people will be critical of an aspect of geocaching (e.g power trails) and specifically describe issues which exemplify how that aspect is producing a negative impact on the game overall. Rather than address these issue directly, the arguements are met with "don't listen to the pt haters", as if the only reason that someone might be critical of power trails is because they "hate" them. It's a fallacious argument, a type of red herring called "appeal to emotion" where an argument is made through the manipulation of emotions, rather than the use of valid reasoning. I don't know if there is an exact definition of geocaching (from the finder's perspective), but mostly I see it defined/described as finding a hidden container using GPS technology and signing the log. If that is the broad definition of geocaching, then Brian's amended statement is more accurate in my opinion. I don't know if Brian's comment was based on an emotional response or not but it seems fairly obvious that he would not enjoy power trail geocaching. But it is still geocaching enjoyed by some.

North Carolina has it's annual Fall Fling event. It hasn't been posted yet but it should be in late Sept or early Oct. This was last year's http://coord.info/GC468M0

Contempt? I think that's a stretch. I imagine many do it because they don't know any better. Also, some environments are mostly dry and a bison, fake or genuine, will be just fine. I doubt many do it with deliberate contempt. I use them on some hides (fake bisons, not the inserts) and they do seem to get wet inside more than I would have thought. I'm never sure if it's mostly the container or geocachers opening them in the rain or with wet hands. Probably a bit of each. I perform frequent maintenance on them including replacing o-rings, containers, logs, etc. I hang them so they stay off the ground. I'd use a preform or match safe but they are not as easy to hang. What is a reliable and secure method to hang those? I'd like to switch over but don't want them to end up laying on the ground and getting lost.

I think they only come in the fake bisons. Most I've seen that have been out for awhile end up with the threads broken on the small plastic insert tube. I suspect it is from people over-tightening them as they aren't made to be that durable. They do protect the log better than bison alone but you'll have to make a smaller than normal log to fit.

Someone should update the geocaching.com/cito page to show the 2014 dates.

Put on a hockey mask, grab a chainsaw and surprise them

Yeah, I know what you mean. It's only a game, but a local cacher has set a challenge cache and I looked at my geocaching.com calendar where I saw that it was fairly full. Then I made a note of the empty squares and they have been taunting me ever since! I have December filled apart from Christmas Day and Boxing Day and Mrs HGKF even suggested going for a walk (!). January has 11 gaps and my nearest caches are getting further and further away... Only you can decide what is important to you. Decide and be happy.

I just don't see it as an issue at all. Cleaning out old, unused and unpublished listings seems like a good idea to me. Making the reviewers job a little easier seems like a good idea too. If someone can't be bothered to post a simple reviewer note every 3 months then they must be too busy to geocache. Set a reminder on your free calendar tool of choice and post a 'still working on it' note. 1-2 minutes. Someone mentioned they may need to see the cache details online from any computer. Dropbox, Google Drive, any number of other free tools are available to keep your cache details on and available from any pc, tablet or smartphone. It's a change sure, but I think the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and the disadvantages seem trivial to me.

Regarding the statement that I made bold above, I don't agree at all. If local reviewers didn't find the caches they published, they'd have to travel to other states/regions just to find caches. Of course they find caches that they publish. In my experience, most won't FTF caches, especially puzzles but can and sometimes do. In my area, it is truly a rare thing and usually only after the cache has been out for more than a day or two without a logged find.

Post an announcement to the event page. It will email anyone who said they will attend. That's why the announcement log type was created.

Thanks Keystone, this simple explanation is the first time I realized that the Lab caches (Temporary Event Caches in the current example) might become a new cache type if they are successful in the "lab". I'm finally understanding what the lab is. I did 5 at the GCHR (Geocaching Hampton Roads) picnic this weekend and found the concept to be interesting. They took us to places/objects of historical significance. I think the application/website needs some work to integrate better. For example, after scanning a QR code to see the 5 lab caches, we could see the coordinates of each, but had to manually enter them to our GPS or phone. The coordinates could be a link that would bring up the geocaching.com app on the phone. If you didn't have it, they could offer to sell it to you right then or you could copy them to a different app. If these become their own permanent cache type, it will be interesting to see whether they remain interesting or not. I could see the host of any event just setting out some temporary event caches simply for numbers that don't take me to anywhere I'd want to be or to see anything of interest. I guess a lot of today's caches do that already so maybe it wouldn't be any worse.

Ok, I guess I just don't understand the point you're trying to make or your logic errors. 1) We agree that Groundspeak doesn't enable paperless caching, they just make it a lot easier with PQs and API access. 2) Yes, the descriptions are provided for free by cache owners, but you can access them for free online. You just can't access a lot of them easily as a basic member. So again, PM makes it easier to go paperless. I don't understand 3 I really think that PM does help to facilitate paperless caching, but it's all good. I pay for a PM because of that and other things but you don't have to if you don't find any benefit to PM.

Premium membership allows you to download hundreds of caches at a time, thousands in a single day. That "tool" makes it a lot easier to get the cache data into a gps or other device that supports paperless caching. So in my opinion, premium membership does provide a tool that makes paperless caching easier. How else can you get that data from so many cache pages onto a device so easily? So no, it does not enable paperless caching, but it sure makes it a lot easier and for me using gsak, a lot more seamless.

12 years a little over a week ago.

Yes. Favorite Points introduced in December of 2010... Corrected coordinates to Mystery and Multi-caches released in Nov 2011... Thanks, it's been so long I couldn't even remember. Favorite points are something I use a lot, especially when I travel. Too bad PQs STILL don't support that. Thank goodness for 3rd party tools like GSAK to pick up the slack that Groundspeak leaves. Corrected coordinates are useful too but I don't use them all that much. Although the site works fine for me and I have no major complaints, it sure would be nice to get some of the enhancements that have been requested for so long instead of things that Groundspeak comes up with (like messing up the search).

Can anyone remember that last time there was a release where something useful to geocachers was actually released, and worked?

Shoot for the unobtainium membership. But you're going to have to grow a tail.

Here is a picture of the best Christmas themed cache I ever found. The CO had set it up so that when you flipped a switch after opening the cache, the tree lit up and recorded Christmas songs began to play. There were also many blank Christmas cards that you could fill out and leave for other cachers. If you mentioned that you left a card for cacher X, the CO would notify cacher X that there was a card waiting for them in the cache.