bittsen

Carry whatever personal protection (or none at all) that you would walking from your house to the library or store or civic center. Don't go to places you don't feel comfortable. Geocaching is just another activity of life. It's not any more, or less, dangerous than going out into the world for other reasons.

I disagree

Yes, if you are a premium member. You can download a pocket query of the area you wish to cache and then import it into Excel and sort it that way.

What kind of a panty-waste sissy would get numbed up before a tattoo? (this isn't a personal attack. It's a post of humor)

We have a few legends here. Of course there is the legendary Scubasonic who has the most first to finds than anyone I know of. And there is an unnamed cacher who has over 10,000 finds. I'm horrible with names though. I'd like to think I were legendary but I will be satisfied to think my hides are appreciated.

There are a few threads on geocaching injuries out there. Though I understand your desire to do so, removing any natural vegetation (or offending branches) is contrary to the basic concept of geocaching. We aren't supposed to alter the environment to accomodate our activity.

Quick relief from a bee sting (or insect bite) can be obtained by rubbing a little Orajel on the spot. If it's safe enough to be used in your mouth then it's likely safe enough for topical use. It contains Benzocaine which is closely related to novacaine.

You are right. I have no defense other than the truth. It will either find me guilty as charged or vindicate me. And frankly at this point, whether I was right or wrong, it has become clear to me that I need to step away for a while. As keystone very astutely pointed out, I have become obsessed with ashnikes. And whether this turns out to be valid or not, I have already damaged my reputation. So all I can say is that no matter what the outcome, I was wrong. I think you were actually living up to your reputation. (and even more curious was that you seemed to steal a little reputation from a dawg with eyeglasses.)

I am inclined to believe the OP and feel everyone who doubted her should apologize. To piddlepuss. If I have offended you or caused you grief in any way, I apologize. Geocaching is a fun sport enjoyed by all walks of life and all ages of people. It is one of the few activities that shows no bias towards race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or class. Unfortunately this means that the best thing about geocaching is everyone can do it and the worst thing about geocaching is everyone can do it. If you own a handheld GPS or a smart phone with built in GPS, I urge you to give it a try. Please do not judge the entire geocaching community by the few regulars who post in the geocaching forums. I feel it would be accurate to say that we don't necessarily portray the average geocacher.

He was sleeping.... get the cache but be quiet.

Can't be Ashnikes. Reading the opening post doesn't create the "chewing on aluminum foil" sensation that his posts are famous for. I think this one is legitimate. For me it just does not pass the smell test. I was slightly suspicious when I read this: If he removed the cache but didn't notify the cache owner, people would likely still have been searching for it, so I doubt the area would have recovered that quickly. In fact there may have been more damage because people would likely be searching a lot longer and over a wider area. The statement made me pause, but I gave the OP the benefit of the doubt. Yup, I had the same reaction. Somehow the presence of a cache was killing plants, not the searching? Make you say "HUH??".

ashnikes is a 20+ guy in Florida. Or a 40+ guy. Or a hillbilly. Or from Ithica (sic) New York. Or married to one of the socks. Wouldn't surprise me if he's now an elderly disabled lady married to a guy. Still, I'm undecided. This thread raises several flags, but does not smell particularly like ashnikes. Maybe he's getting better at it. Anyway, the advice given so far are good, and there's not much that can be added to it. He's getting better. But next time he needs to choose a real geocache instead of making on up. Google indexes geocaching.com pretty darn well. If you know how to use it correctly, you can find just about anything you want. This cache does not exist. But if it does, I will gladly pay the OP the $30. Hold on, I will go make a listing with those phrases... And I will expect the $30 in the next couple days. And I will know it was created recently and not when the OP claims it to have been. I will adjust the date placed.

ashnikes is a 20+ guy in Florida. Or a 40+ guy. Or a hillbilly. Or from Ithica (sic) New York. Or married to one of the socks. Wouldn't surprise me if he's now an elderly disabled lady married to a guy. Still, I'm undecided. This thread raises several flags, but does not smell particularly like ashnikes. Maybe he's getting better at it. Anyway, the advice given so far are good, and there's not much that can be added to it. He's getting better. But next time he needs to choose a real geocache instead of making on up. Google indexes geocaching.com pretty darn well. If you know how to use it correctly, you can find just about anything you want. This cache does not exist. But if it does, I will gladly pay the OP the $30. Hold on, I will go make a listing with those phrases... And I will expect the $30 in the next couple days.

Logs usually get stolen more in the Fall and Winter. Even more so since the fuel prices spiked after Clinton left office. The best way to combat this is to not put logs in your caches. A notebook or piece of paper usually will work just fine.

Ashnikes is married to a guy and disabled?? Well, Ashnikes IS disabled, I suppose, but the marriage thing caught me off guard. Edited to add a comma.

I never met him, nor knew of him, but I did get to see him pick up one of my signatures items at GW8. It sounds like he was a great guy and will be missed by many.

Weirdest thing I saw was over 2000 naked muggles riding bicycles. I decided to wait them out before I went for the cache.

If you want to find REAL spiders on the West Coast, head to Clear Lake California. I was vacationing there a few years ago and the spiders there are MASSIVE. I think they eat lizards or something. These things were all over on either side of the resort on privatefamily yards and such. One walkway at the house next to the resort had so many HUGE spiders and webs that you could barely see the front door. The good thing is the staff at the resort were out every morning with portable, battery powered, shop vace and went al over sucking up the spiders. One morning I was up extra early and there was a staff member right in front of my unit. I kid you not when I say the spider made a THUNK as it was sucked into the shop vac. It was horrifying to think about.

The question is.... Did you get a prosthetic replacement? Cancer treatment. Mind moving on now? I know why people get medical tattoos. I wasnt trying to make you uncomfortable. Sorry.

Well, you don't have to leave one in every cache! for example, if I visit five caches in an area, I'll leave one, maybe two sig. items in the ones I like the best. (mine aren't expensive) Then when I log my visits, I usually see that another cacher was at each of those same caches before me- that's probably how everyone does it, making the rounds. I leave a sig item in any cache that can hold one. When I run out, I make more.

The question is.... Did you get a prosthetic replacement?

When I get a paycheck and there's a stamp for a signature, the bank takes it. If it's good enough for my paycheck, it's good enough for a geocaching logsheet.

Before you drop a $20 on a FTF prize, do a little research to see if there are FTF hounds in your area. Many times there are a small handful of FTF hounds that end up with all the FTF prizes. For the FTF hounds, the blank logsheet is the prize. To "pay" them to beat out all the rest in a race seems silly. Now if your cache isn't within the area of a hound then someone will find a nice surprise. ***yes, I am a FTF hound.

I've been into REI twice and both times I was disgusted at the prices. No, it's not about quality being expensive. It's about markup. REI sells cheap junk too and their cheap junk prices are double the cheap junk prices anywhere else.

I stopped making them many many years ago. Pipe bombs are so passe.