debaere

This is partly why I stopped caring about swag in caches almost from the beginning. I tend to look in the cache just long enough to find the log, sign it, and close it back up as quickly as possible. My wife, who is a non-cacher but often accompanies me for the fun of exploring new areas, will look at the swag a fair bit, and she loves it when I find a cache full of stuff. Despite this I do carry some decent swag items in my geobag in case I do happen to stumble upon something cool I'd want to take. That has come in handy as the first time I showed someone else about caching their kids wanted to trade for an item, so I was able to provide a suitable trade item and simultaneously use the experience to teach them about trading even or better.

I don't keep it a secret, but I don't tell everyone I know either. Most people in my life know I geocache, and I have gone caching with many of them. I've even converted a friend to caching. I also mention it in my blog. I tend to only talk about it with people who I think will understand what it is. I absolutely hate trying to explain it to people who I know won't understand, or care, about it. Come to think of it the above is true for most things in my life. I am not the most social of people so I tend to only talk to people about things I think they will actually care about, and stay silent for the rest of the time. Based on this I would say I talk about caching about as much as anything else hobby-wise in my life.

This, to me, is the only reason to celebrate 10-10-10. Perhaps that day I will carry a towel around so I can be a real froopy dude.

The only one I really use on a regular basis thats Geocaching specific(i.e not FYI, LOL, YMMV etc.) is GPSr - GPS receiver. Normally use it in a context similar to "my GPSr was jumping all over the place". There is also LPC, whose expanded name is a spoiler so I won't expand it. I don't chase LPCs so I never use it in a cache log. Oh, and I've seen STF: second to find.

My son was a week old when he first went out (to church), and 4 weeks old when we found our first cache together (in Roanoke VA in November - was chilly!) He's 10 months now. A good baby back pack is essential to remain hands free. It is amazing how little you do need to bring a baby on caching trips. Make sure he's well dressed for the weather. We normally kept him in his PJs, added some gloves, extra socks and a hat, and wrapped him in a baby blanket. He was warm and cozy, even in the snow. A couple diapers/wipes/cream, and some food (either Mom or formula depending on what you are doing food wise for him). The most essential thing is to being extra pacifiers. And put the ones you do on clip-on straps. They get dropped a lot and you never know when he's gonna need it. The one main change for me was that the kid has a schedule which is best kept for your own sanity. This slows down my caching trips as I had to stop every couple hours to feed the kid. Aside from that there shouldn't be a great deal to slow you down. Good luck and enjoy!

hands down http://coord.info/GCK31A It is completely awesome recreation of... well.. I'll let you look at the pics in the logs to find out.

sure there is http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?p....page&id=82 Hrm. They should really make that more visible. I went to the "hide a cache" section and looked at the linked guidelines, which are completely absent of any guidelines for terrain ratings except pointing to ClayJars system. ClayJars system also does not specify anything about wheelchair accessibility being an easy rating I agree that a rating of 1 should mean wheelchair accessibility, however its completely possible to go through the process that Groundspeak lays out when placing a cache and not get any guidance that this should be the case. The link to the page you mentioned requires searching for it, and that isn't a reliable method to ensure people will search for it. As a result it is not wise to assume terrain 1 is wheelchair accessible.

Three countries cached in one day in Europe doesn't sound like that much of a challenge to me. My very first caching experience happened across two countries (Belgium and France). I drove in three counties in a span of an hour (Belgium -> Luxembourg -> Germany), so it shouldn't be difficult to do three countries in a light morning of caching. Caching in 6 or 7 European countries would be more of a challenge in my mind, depending on exactly which countries they are . The Benelux countries+ France & Germany could be easily done in a day. Having said that, if you want to do it, go for it. It sounds like fun. There is no official challenge I am aware of regarding multi cross border caching runs, and bragging rights are a matter of personal opinion, but I wouldn't let that stop me. In this game the only people you have to compete against is yourselves. If I was back in Europe I'd be tempted to try a multi country run myself, but do yourself a favour and do it for self satisfaction of a personal accomplishment and don't worry about how it looks in other peoples eyes. BTW which 3 countries did you have in mind?

I can't see anything in the guidelines for hiding caches that specifies a terrain of 1 being wheelchair accessible. There is a cache attribute for wheelchairs tho, so if that is not set I would not expect the cache to be wheel chair accessible.

Why not use existing services like Google Places?

Why not use existing services like Google Places?

It is a default string, and a great way for Trimble to advertise its products to its target audience. They probably think it is awesome marketing, to me its just really bad caching etiquette.

Virtuals are great, and I normally enjoy doing them. My vote is to bring them back, but I don't want to open that can of worms except to use it as an example of my enjoyment of them. Virtuals got me to see the Natural Bridge near Roanoke VA, and close by was Foam Henge (an artists re-creation of stone henge). I never would have seen that without virtuals. I am not such a big fan of earth caches, mainly because I usually don't care about the "nature" aspects of it (how many "look, its a watershed! If you use your imagination and squint just so you can imagine the water flowing downhill to that river/lake/ocean do you really need? I am not a huge fan of the "heres 12 questions to answer" aspects of them either. I would much prefer the simple "take a pic in the location and post it". Sometimes the long question ones feel like school. The only time I have enjoyed the 10 question ones were in places like the Natural Bridge where each question took you to a different section of the park, and all of them were unique and interesting. Having said all that the positive of virtuals and ECs far outweigh the negative in my mind.

Arg... double post monster got me again. I'll take this opportunity to say that I also liked your mix of text and photos. It adds a more personal feel than just a blob of text would.

My feedback: Your articles are well written. Keep that up! I personally don't mind the static background, but the translucent background needs to be a bit more opaque to make the text easier. Making the font a size larger would be good too. I have added your blog feed to Google Reader so I will get updates as you post them. Looking forward to it. Cheers Dave

That looks like its exactly what I need. Thanks!

Hey All I am looking for trail data for North Carolina, specifically the mountains in the western side of the state (Blue Ridge Parkway & area). I Googled for maps but I couldn't find anything that seemed to fit. I have a Garmin GPSMap 60CSx so a format that fits that model is preferred. Any pointers greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I think there is just a tad bit more to your continent than Southern California. Northern California for starters Also there is the whole Silicon Valley sub continent.

If I was to guess I would say a grasshopper of some kind jumping close to the camera lens.

If I was to guess I would say a grasshopper of some kind jumping close to the camera lens.

Personally I like a little bark in my caches.

Interesting that they x-rayed it first. I wish more bomb squads would do that. I must wonder why it would cost "thousands of dollars" to x-ray a package, though. Well the last time I went to the emergency room for a sprained ankle they x-rayed it - the bill was almost $700. Add to that the cost of multiple police officers on scene, for several hours, plus however long it took them to complete the resulting paperwork etc. Not to mention the bomb squad. I would not be surprised if >20 law enforcement officers were involved in this in its entirety. I could easily see how the incident cost thousands of dollars. I am not sure why Harrahs would be billed for it tho. Sounds like the FD overreacted and called the cops. Not being directly involved I can only speculate wildly, so I'll stop here

How is the reviewer going to help here? Reviewers jobs are to ensure/enforce that caches meet the guidelines. They have no control over how players play the game. Having said that to find a reviewer in an area look up the description for a cache in the area, find the very first log entry, and that will be the reviewer. Cheers

I thought those mountains looked familiar, then I read your geocaching.com profile and realized you are 1.5 hours down the range from me (I'm in Lenoir NC). I always love getting up into the mountains - it never ceases to disappoint. Love the pics. It is absolutely fantastic scenery

Thankfully