Team Flashncache

You might try posting to the forum for your regional area and see if there are any other cachers nearby who might want to go with you a couple of times to give you some insight into how a cache hider thinks. By and large, cachers are a pretty friendly group, and surely there is someone who lives close by who would be more than happy to give you a hand. Welcome to the hobby, and don't let a few DNF's get you down!

Greetings and welcome to the hobby! How to pick a name: It can be as easy as adding "Team" to your current username. (Hmmm. Sounds like something I would do...) Or, you can take a poll of your Team and try to come up with something that is uniquely "you". Either way, have fun with it! Making it fun for the whole family: For your first outing, find 3 or 4 caches near you that have fairly easy ratings for Terrain and Difficulty. You don't say how old the daughters are, so take into consideration their ages and how fit you all are as a group. Generally speaking, shorter hikes are better in the beginning; but your milage may vary. (Ouch, lousy joke...) Also, looking at the logs of cachers that have already found the caches you seek will give you some idea of what to expect. As far as setting up rules for everyone, try to keep it simple. Nothing kills the fun like having a bunch of guidelines to follow. The FAQ's and Getting Started areas of the website give lots of good info; and there are a number of helpful and informative sites out there run by Geocachers as well. Look through the forums and you'll find plenty of links. That's all I can think of right now, and I'm surfing on my lunch hour to boot; so I better get back to work. Once again, welcome! I hope you enjoy caching as much as Team Flashncache does! edit: D'oh! "Getting Started" is where you're at! (See, you're good at this already!)

Whether or not they are WG$, all US currency is welcome in my cache! The larger the denomination the better...

Team Flashncache uses a North Face Yavapai pack. I think it was designed for use with a laptop or notebook; as there is a padded compartment in the main cargo area. Really a fantasically durable pack! I don't know how much it costs, since I got it with one of my "rewards" programs (one credit card or another) but really like it and would recommend it highly.

Thanks to everyone for their advice and opinions. (And moral support ) I've decided to keep the cache open for the winter; I'll just get off my wallet and get a better container. I guess I didn't realize that good containers could be had as cheaply as $4-$5. Closing topic. (Without asking if I should...)

Yikes...

I don't know whether or not this one has been discussed in detail. I did a couple of searches and didn't really find much... Anyway, I have a cache in a nearby Park. I'm investigating the Park's winter hours and policies to determine if I should disable the cache for the winter. It's not that I'm really concerned about the park getting trampled or an obvious path being made to the cache location; but rather - I'm not so sure about the integrity of my cache container. I don't know how well it will survive a Midwest winter. (I don't want to give away what the container looks like; but I got it FREE when I bought coffee. ) So what's the general concensus? I want to insure a good quality caching experience for the folks next spring and summer; and money's kind of tight, so I don't want to spring for a more durable container. Soooooooo what does the "Caching Community" think I should do? The polls are now open. The choice before you: Should I disable for the winter? Thanks in advance to all who reply!

Everyone has given really good advice. I'll add this bit of comfort: You can't always research a TB. You may come upon a cache that just had one dropped off a short time before you got there, and therefore wouldn't be identified on the cache page anyway. To paraphrase what cache_test_dummies said: A Travel Bug misdirected is better than a Travel Bug lost. Take it out on the town, take a few pictures, see the sights. Show that Travel Bug a good time! (And post some pics on the travel bug page!) I'm sure the owner understands and will appreciate the gesture. (Just a note: Don't post any pictures that show the TB's identification number. That will prevent folks from logging it just because they know the number.) Cache on!

Surely you mean "cache and release", right? Sorry for the awful pun, it's early...

Congratulations, and welcome to the game! Have fun!

I like the picture of the Cedar Chapel bridge. I don' t know how it would look shrunken down to roughly 1 1/2", though. I think it's kind of neat that they post Lat/Lon coordinates for the bridges! <edit typo>

Well, so far so good... I've been given the contact info for my local reviewer and have sent an email their way. The reviewer has placed a note on the cache page asking the cache owners to check in soon, otherwise the cache will be transferred to my care. Good, prompt service from the great folks at GC.com! Can't say enough good things about them! So I'll leave you with the immortal words of Homer Simpson - "So now we play the waiting game. Aw, waiting game stinks; let's play hungry, hungry hippos instead!"

Thanks for the link. That's very good advice. An email has been sent to the contact@geocaching address. For the sake of information, I'll let everyone know how the process goes via this thread. Wish me luck!

There is a cache in a city park near my home, one that I finally got around to finding earlier today. The cache is in terrible shape. Logs from finders for over a year note that the container is full of water, logbook is soaked, etc. I dumped the standing water out of the container during my own visit. There have been several comments in logs to the effect of: "This cache needs some help." Other local cachers have generously dried it out, filled it up with swag again and helped keep it alive. After finding it in disappointing shape earlier today, I emailed the owner to let them know that it was (still) in need of a maintenance run. The email came back as being undeliverable. Here is what I was able to find out about the owners: 1 Find and 1 Cache Hidden. Both of these events happened about two years ago, so I think it's safe to say that they've 'lost that lovin feeling' for Geocaching. So, to make this long story a wee bit shorter, I would like to adopt this cache. Are there any guidelines or procedures for this? Perhaps one of the Mods can hook me up with an approver who handles the 47804 zip code? Any help or advice would be appreciated, and thanks!

This might be kind of a tall order, but could you post a list of everyone who is in for the coins so we can all be sure we got counted? Might help with the "group orders" as well. Thanks,

I think that here in the design phase, simplicity would be best. We could try to cram as many things that are "representative" of Indiana onto the coin, but then it might start to resemble one of those ancient Mayan calendars. FWIW, I think that this would be great for one side of the coin. Shout out to Rupert2, 'cause that's really nice! But what should go on the other side? How many things are truly "representative" of Indiana? Let's start a list. I'll even go first! 1. The Indy 500. (How do you put that on a coin? Do we even want to?) Food for thought... I'm still in for five, regardless... Dave of Team Flashncache

My two cents: I think that the antique copper and black nickel coins look really nice! <edit: corrected terminology>

Put me down for five as well. Thanks,

I would also be interested in purchasing a few when the time comes. Let us know when you start to get some firm design ideas. I really like the idea of having an "official" geocoin for Indiana!

Very nice decal. I hope I find one! Thanks for contributing to the hobby, you've inspired me to start brainstoming about my own possible contribution!

I got a IIIxe last summer. I use Cachemate and GSAK. Both work great!

I was about to fire off a rant about trigger-happy law enforcement officers, but then thought better of it... Look at it this way... Someone engaged in our hobby DOES look a little bit suspicious. Skulking about, periodically looking at a mysterious doodad in his/her hand. Then locating and messing with a "black box" that none of the area's residents even knew was there... If our hobby was more mainstream, then these incidents wouldn't raise many eyebrows; everyone would know what was going on. But since we PURPOSELY try to be as clandestine as possible when 'caching, then it's only natural for people to get the wrong idea about what we're doing. Sadly, these incidents will almost certainly continue unless TPTB start restricting (or even -gasp- banning) urban caches. Not likely, but something worth considering. Does anyone have ideas as to how we might prevent this kind of confusion in an urban setting? Without totally giving the cache and it's hiding place away?

Go "Paws"!!! Bring it down south, eh? Say like Terre Haute?

This thread has taken a decidedly strange turn...

I think that this relates to a lesson I am still in the process of learning at work. Virtually all communication is done via email, which leaves a lot to be desired. Emails (and posts to forums) can deliver a message, but it may not be the message the writer intended. Nuances that are inherent to spoken communication; such as voice inflection and facial expression, are lost when communicating electronically. And all the emoticons in the world won't help. So what's the answer? Reading, re-reading and re-re-reading your post before you hit the "submit" button! And try to take into consideration what potentially inflammatory remarks you may have made. I'm a firm believer in the old adage that "You can't please all the people all of the time." But I think that it is every person's responsibility to offend the smallest number possible! Bottom line: Try to leave emotional responses out of the forums, and check your ego at the door. Let's have fun!