Fritz_Monroe

I'm with you Halden. I got mine on my birthday December 10. I can't see myself giving it up. That is unless something drastic happens to caching. Something like it being outlawed might do it, but not sure about that. F_M

Well, I signed up in November and got my GPSr December 10. The first hunt was December 13 and was a find. I'm now at 12 and am loving it. My biggest hunt was with a member of the MD Geocaching Society and I'm hooked. Just tonight, I got off work, picked up Lady Fritz and the munchkins and tried for a FTF. Missed it but got it second. I forsee a lot of family time doing this, espescially once winter is over. (Yes, I reallize it's only the 1st full day of winter) I have lived in the Baltimore area all my life and have been in 4 parks I've never visited, all within the past 2 weeks. One of these parks was right around the corner from where I grew up. I'm sure I'll be making much better use of the state and county parks. I'll keep in better shape, and spend some quality time with Fritz Jr and Baby Fritzette. Definately a good thing for me to start. And to think I stumbled onto this when looking for digital camera information. F_M

If they are still around, they are probably more of a collectible than swag.

Forgot to mention that I decided on the Magellan SporTrak Map. The deciding points were that it was a step up from the base model, it shows the name of the cache, not just the GC # and it just felt better to me. The Garmin Legend would be about the same level as my SporTrak Map. F_M

I'm very new as well. This is basically what I did. Take a look at the forums. Look at GPS Receiver Info and read some reviews. Check to see if your state has a Geocaching Society like the one in Maryland. They may have a "Intro to Geocaching" class, or a get together where you can try out a few different units. Best of all, talk to your friend. Since he's been doing this for a couple years, he can show you the ropes and let you use his GPSr. You can read all you like on-line, but you won't know if you like a unit until you use it. Who knows, if his GPSr is in good shape, you might be able to persuade him to upgrade and sell you his old one. F_M

Well, I just bought a Sony Mavica digital camera. I did a search looking for some information on the unique ways people use them. Found a guy's site that sounded interesting, but when I got there, it was gone. In it's place was a "Look at my new hobby" page. Read it and it linked to geoccaching.com. I was hooked. It did take about a month of research to find which GPSr I wanted, but I'm going strong now. F_M

Thought about using PVC, but many places in Maryland require a clear container. If I can't find a suitable clear container, I'll probably go with PVC. I don't have a firm location on this, just an idea of what I want to place. If I go with PVC, I'll just make sure it's not in a state park or any other that would require clear. F_M

Since we are on this, I'm looking for a cylidrical chaped waterproof container. Must be 2 inch diameter or smaller. The length of the container is not important, but should probably be about 8 inches. I can hear the jokes coming, I just ask that if you are going to respond with a joke, keep it clean, and make sure it's funny. Don't go with the obvious. F_M

ROTFLMAO I'm going to have to try this one. F_M

Well folks, thanks for all the responses. I know what they look like now. I re-read the log of that benchmark and he indicates that he couldn't find it. Knowing the general area, it was probably cemented over many years ago. F_M

I haven't done any benchmark hunting, but was looking at what was around me. I came across this one. It says that the marker is "set in the top of a concrete post 3 inches below the level of the sidewalk and protected by a cast iron cover." Now obviously this is under the sidewalk, but is there any way that I would be able to actually see this marker? Would the info be on the cover? I'd guess there is some sort of access cover over this thing, but anyone ever find one like this? This has a log entry and I have dropped him an e-mail to see if he found it. Just wondering if this is fairly common in big cities. F_M

From what I recall, the zinc is pretty similar to lead. It's fairly soft. I'm sure that we have a metalurgist around here somewhere that could shed a little more light on this. I would think that you would create a 1 sided item, right? I guess with the right materials, you could probably pour a fairly decent 2 sided coin. Don't know what other types of metal could be used without having some sort of blast furnace. F_M

Spotted this in the log of a cache near me. Creapy Guy Guess this would be a JHOCG (Just Hanging Out Crotch Grabber) Haven't made it to this cache to see if he's still hanging out. F_M

My father used to make his own fishing weights. Used lead, but switched to Zinc. Might be worth taking a look at. He stopped making it, but remember him using a cast iron pot on the kitchen stove to melt it. I would think that a fishing catalog would sell the zinc. Never heard of anyone being sued for zinc poisoning. F_M

Something I've been wondering about is if there's a suggested limit on the amount of territory a multi take up. For instance, I live in Baltimore and in the past 10 years or so a lot of movies have been filmed here. Could I place a multi that would take you all over the city? As I'm extremely new at this, it's strictly out of curiosity right now. Once I start placing caches, I may consider a multi. F_M

I'm trying to come up with a signature item myself. I'm brand new to the sport, have 1 find so far, so been working on this. Was planning on doing wooden nickels, but don't think I need 1,000 of them right now. So, I decided to take a cue from the letterboxers. I picked up a bunch of 1 1/2 inch wooden circles from the craft store. Bought a bunch of erasers to practice on and am in the early stages of designing and making my own hand-carved stamps. There will be one on each side of the "nickel" blank. Not sure of the design yet, but it's surprisingly easy to carve these stamps. It's also hand made, so it's original, inexpensive and personalized. You can also pick up single sided wooden nickels and you would only need 1 stamp to personalize it. Just my 2¢ F_M

OMG, Haven't had anyone say this to me in years and had 2 people tell me this today. Well, I've RTFM. I'm urban, so while I will mark the car, it's probably not needed. I'm getting my kit together. Got the water, FRS, cell phone, and extra batteries. Gonna have to grab some zip lock bags for it. F_M

Now that's a good one. Has all the makings of a first class rumor.

Got a Magellan SporTrak Map. Liked a little bit better than the Legend. Tough choice, but the folks here helped a lot. F_M

Well folks, I've joined the sport. While I haven't searched out any caches yet, I just got my GPSr. Going to go out this weekend to look for a couple and next weekend with an experienced cacher. I'm hoping to get some pearls of wisdom passed on to me. Wish me luck. F_M

I've been reading the questions about using a PDA to cache. The questions I have are does anyone here use a Palm 3 to cache? The reason I ask is that I saw mention about the size one one of the files being 2.5 meg. The Palm 3 only has 2 meg. So is the file actually that big? Can I use my Palm 3 for this? Thanks F_M

How big is it? You can't really tell on their web site. There's some dealers around me so I'm thinking of getting some of them to put in caches. Probably be the $1 ones, but maybe a $5 or $10 for a good cache. Hard to imagine anyone not knowing that a $2 exists, but I've had the same thing happen. Now, I just keep any $2, Susan B or the new Sachagewea (these are a pretty decent looking coin) that I get. Who knows, in 1000 years them may be worth something. F_M

Why not??? It's just lemon, isn't it??

If that was a clue on Jeopardy my answer would be, "What is always the main theme at a Moyle convention?" Sn gans (Geeze, I crack myself up.) Hey!!! I wanted to make the Moyle joke.

I'd like to find one of them. Don't think much of it as money, but it's a pretty good looking coin. And it's silver. F_M