DanOCan

I can see where the BLM has some legitimate points. There can be no denying the fact that a cache brings increased traffic to an area, and to a very concentrated area at that. How many cache logs do you read where you see comments like "I never would have come to this area if not for Geocaching."? How many times have you been to a cache and discovered that the area has been totally dismantled by people turning over every log, poking in every hole and generally being a nuisance in the pursuit of the cache? Geocachers on the whole are very sensitive to the environment, but it is the visible minority who will make the news and colour peoples' perceptions of the activity. The park wardens do have a responsibility to protect the natural areas. In the Crater Lake example, either the people who placed the caches in such a way that people naturally trampled "sensitive off-trail vegetation" either did it because they didn't care about the environment or they were ignorant of the consequences of their actions. Either way, the park wardens stepped in and put an end to it -- as is their right, regardless of whether it is public land or not. Sure, there are park rangers out there who will say "NO" to a cache, just to fuel their own egos and not base the decision on any sort of rational thought. But, I think we would find that, again, they are the visible minority. (And, no, that doesn't refer to skin colour!) Just because land is "public", doesn't mean we can do whatever we want on it. After all, I can't go on to public land and set fire to it even if my tax dollars pay for its upkeep. Maybe we need to face the fact that some areas are environmentally sensitive enough that we SHOULDN'T be placing caches there in the first place -- especially caches that require bushwhacking or other "off the designated trail" uses. Let's work with the BLM and other agencies, rather than painting them all with the same brush. Let's try to make sure that the media highlight things like CITO and make sure we have permission to place a cache so we don't damage our reputation. OHV (off highway vehicle) users have a reputation for environmental damage -- whether it is deserved or not is not for this discussion. But, as caching becomes more and more mainstream, we need to be very careful about how others percieve us, otherwise one day anyone spotted with a GPS will immediately be branded as some ground churning, plant stomping, environment damaging trespasser. Sorry for the length of this post, I just get really passionate about things like this that could have long lasting repercussions on this hobby.

I did some more searching on the web, and that error seems pretty common. I tried everything from disabling my hardware firewall, removing VirusScan 8.0i and clearing my caches, etc. Nothing seems to fix it. What I did discover, is it seems to be related to my ISP, because both my desktop and my laptop have the same problem. As well, I get the same sort of error when I try to post pictures at a place like photobucket.com, so I know it is not related to gc.com. In addition, I can post pictures to gc.com and photobucket.com using my account when I am at work, so it is not account related. Something I want to try is to take my laptop to work and see if it does the same thing, just to totally eliminate my software load as a possible cause. I'll keep you posted.

I have to admit I am not as good about this as I should be, of course I have only grabbed 3 or 4 TBs, so I have time to reverse the trend. I agree, the pictures make the story and all we can do is lead by example and hope others follow. I promise to do more from now on.

Here is my personal favorite travel bug that I have ever logged: Cricket the Travel Bug The little guy is so darned cute it is amazing he hasn't disappeared yet like so many others. We had a great time traveling around with him before we found a home. As for caches I haven't personally logged, the pay phone (mentioned above) and Cindy The Cinder Block are my faves.

Here is a success story I am pleased to have played a small part in: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=88077 That little ball had a pretty eassy trip across Canada, other than getting stalled for a couple of months.

Great story, despite the sad ending. I think it would be a great cache if people take the time to read the story beforehand.

Count me in -- my cat's breath smells like cat food.

For us, it never fails. If we bring the the radios we don't need them and when we leave them at home we could use them. Normally it happens when there is a section of trail that my wife doesn't want to try and navigate so I go on alone for aways. I always forget about the Channel Two thing, so I can't say whether I would have ever heard another Geocacher on the air, but from now on I will make more of an effort to bring the radios on each outing and keep it on Channel Two just in case.

Cheapest I could find it on the 'net was same as you -- $120 plus taxes and shipping. Depending on what you want to do with it, you may want to look for Metroguide North America v6. I found it's street maps were much more up to date than Metroguide Canada v4 (for our area anyway).

My wife bought me a compass for Christmas, and I used it on our last find. It made it a lot easier once we got close to the cache, there is no doubt about that. She bought it for me because she heard me complain so many times about how hard it was to find caches when they were in places where it was hard to keep moving. That being said, I don't think spending more money on a GPS with the builtin compass is worth the extra money when a simple compass will do the same thing for a lot less money.

For me, the lameness of the cache is determined by the location more than anything else. When I think back on my favorite caches, I'd be hard pressed to tell you what the contaiiner was or what was in it, but I could describe the location in great detail.

I had no idea that people were so intent on hunting down caches just because they appear close to your home coordinates. I will use that as a starting point, but I won't go out and hunt a cache if it doesn't sound like it is in an interesting place. If you know in advance that a Found Log will be deleted, and you are worried about improving your numbers, why would you bother hunting the cache in the first place? Everyone relex, take a deep breath and remind yourself that this is just a way to pass the time, it's not life or death. With all the flames I expect I better put on my fire-retardant balaclava. Cheers, everyone.

I just wanted to pass along my thanks for the tutorial. I spent most of the last weekend making 3D maps of the areas where I cache the most often. One of the areas didn't have the 1:50000 data available on GeoBase, but otherwise the coverage seems really good. Now to save up more money to register all that software.

I agree with what you are saying. We had plans to hide our first cache last fall but it just never happened. We have now been caching for more than a year, despite only having 40 finds. After you start reading the forums you start getting the impression that if your cache isn't something totally different from what has been seen before it isn't worth it. It seems "a box hidden in the woods" isn't worth it to a lot of people. I certainly have my doubts that any cache I place would meet with the approval of the people for whom the hunt just isn't enough. Anyway, I think you should find 10 - 20 caches before you start worrying about hiding a cache. (There, I got back on topic.)

Positives - Chance to discover new places I have never been before. This is the big reason I still like virtual caches, even if they don't have a "Wow" factor. - Physical Exercise -- we now have an excuse to get and do something rather than an "aimless" walk. - Helped me justify the purchase of a GPS unit to my wife. Negatives - Increased expenditures on fuel and vehicle maintenance. - Explaining geocaching to friends and relatives who "just don't get it." I now resort to just saying we are going hiking. - Makes the hours spent in the office all the more pointless and frustrating.

It is very rare that we trade anything. For us, it is about getting outside, going places we normally might not go and the hunt itself.

Other things I use my GPS for: -- As an odometer / speedometer when I go for walks or bike rides. -- Downloading routes from Mapsource for driving directions And, lamest of all, to see how much distance I travel while mowing my grass on my lawn tractor!

I eventually signed up for a membership because I wanted to do Pocket Queries -- no other reason. And, you know, it was worth it!

Good suggestion. I tried manually resizing the pictures before uploading and it still doesn't work for me. I used to upload pictures all the time so I'm not sure what changed and why it is now broken for me.

It seems lately I have been unable to post any pictures with my logs. After entering all the information and selecting the photo, I get a "Page not Found" error: The page cannot be displayed The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings. I have tried both Firefox and IE, and neither one seems to work. I have also made sure I am allowing cookies and popups from geocaching.com. Everything else seems to work OK on the site. Any ideas?