Lime Candy

I moved one of these (Old Speckled Hen) over the weekend. Good luck everyone with the race!

Stinkerbelles, if you are sure that your coin won't be resurfacing, you could re-activate it so your kids can still watch its travels. You know its tracking number, you can grab it back from the current keeper. Make a tag with the tracking number on, attach that to something like a keyring then release that. Put some explanatory wording on the tag too, and change the coin's name to include something like "copy" "replica" or "proxy" so future finders will know what to expect.

Really pleased you've managed to do some caching at last! And really pleased that your mom took you. Shame about the DNF's though.

People play the game in different ways. Quantity not quality and vice-versa, FTF's, high-star rated D/T etc. I've been playing for 2+ years and cache saturation is definitely approaching in many areas near me (there aren't caches 528' in all directions, but almost every path/park has caches). But that in itself encourages the cachers to dream up new ideas - e.g. all the owners of caches along a particular path co-operating to archive their old caches and create a new series. I have no clue about the other 5 but cricket's changed too - huge rise in popularity of twenty-twenty and the introduction of the third umpire.

That's what I call being SERIOUSLY well-prepared! And I have to ask - what notices have you corrected?

Difficult one. 4-5 trackables going missing over 18 months is quite a lot, it does sound as if some lowlife is targeting your cache in order to steal trackables. I suspect that if more trackables are left there, they are likely to go AWOL as well. I would be tempted to replace your cache with a micro. Just change the cache size on the listing and add a comment explaining why. Cachers can then still enjoy the location. But also set up a new cache (big enough for trackables) that is harder to find - either a traditional requiring a walk to get there, or a multi or puzzle. In my experience it's usually the quick drive-bys that attract trackable thieves, to coin a phrase they go for the low-hanging fruit.

It could be the case that your TB is too big to fit into the caches they are visiting, so the dipping is to record that the TB was there.

I have 2500+ finds and use a Garmin Etrex Vista HCx with the TalkyToaster maps. I also take along a map (either a real one or one printed from MemoryMap) with the planned route. And I always have a single sheet of paper which has the cache hints and any notes on (I’ve either written these down or copied/pasted them into a Word document and printed that). I’m not aiming for paperless, because in the field I find it’s invaluable to have pen & paper, to work out multi/puzzle formulas, make short notes about the find itself, or copy down trackable numbers. One day I will upgrade my GPSr, probably to an Oregon. I envy Oregons for the ability to read the last 5 cache logs in the field. But they do use a lot of battery power.

I've been caching for over 7 years and I am still not used to it. I'm not used to it either. Something like 12/30/2010 is of course obvious, but something like 04/05/2010 isn't.

Maybe not out of the blue. But keep emailing and build up the friendships, explain the situation you're in, that for whatever reason your parents can't take you caching. Make it known that you'd be very happy to tag along on a group caching trip.

How do you know they won't? Have you asked them? Anyway, it won't be some random person, it will be a fellow geocacher. Better still, a family or group of fellow geocachers with kids your age. How are you doing with finding out about any local cachers?

Well, if you see them finding your cache, certainly go up and say hello. Introduce yourself as the cache owner and ask them about their caching. Exchange email addresses and the friendship starts from there. I've met quite a lot of cachers 'in the field'. All of whom are good friends now.

Are you saying Girl Scouts are weird and geeky!?!?!?! Check out the “cool cache containers” and “The Hunt/The Unusual” threads for interesting things about geocaching that you can tell your friends about. Show them some travel bugs/geocoins with interesting missions on the geocaching site.

Jacob I seem to remember you had another thread like this a while back. Lots of good ideas were put forward then, and lots more are on this thread, have you tried any of them? Nobody can wave a magic wand to make your parents take you geocaching. You need to ask them outright. What do you normally do as a family at the weekends? Could you suggest a family walk/picnic in a park/forest where there are some geocaches, or incorporate bagging a cache into your usual weekend activities? Speaking as a parent of teenagers, I would be only too delighted if my kids wanted to spend time in the great outdoors. Just what is it that your parents don't like about geocaching? Your friends think geocaching is geeky and stupid? I thought that too until I tried it. It's their loss.

The following examples are reasons why people keep loads on their GPS. 1- you go out to do a circular walk and it absolutly tips down so you decide to go somewhere else cache and dashing 2- You plan to do a set of caches and find that they have closed the road and you need to do others instead. 3- You go to an event and end up on an imrompt ramble with a load of other cachers. 4- You decide to pick up a few caches by car and the weather turns fantastic so you finish up and go for a walking set. 5- You finish really early and think, ill go and do those as well. 6- your out shopping and you know you can pick up a few on the way home The list goes on and all of the above have happened to us on loads of occasions. Its nice to just jump in the car and go anywhere you want without having to worry about messing around with uploading GPS' first. For me it's all those reasons, plus the old chestnut "because I can". If the capacity's there, why not use it. I have 1000+ songs on my ipod but will probably never listen to some of them.

Depends on how the offer was made. Some CO's would graciously accept, I suspect the majority would be pissed off though. Especially if they were native English speakers - who are often the worst offenders, with cache descriptions like this: "Your looking for a small tupaware box. Its not to difficult to find."

Interesting discussion. I just enter solved puzzles directly onto my Etrex Vista, but with a unique icon (blue dot I think). I also download caches (but not unsolved puzzles) as POI's, I'm up to 15000+ with no problems. When I occasionally get "Waypoint Memory Full" on the Etrex I delete all Found Geocaches which clears more capacity. In the field, when navigating to a solved puzzle cache, I just change the icon from blue dot to Geocache and I get all the proper geocache navigation.

I definitely need a real map as well as my Etrex. I usually plan the route on an OS map and use that to navigate by, but refer to the Etrex for the last 200' or so to get the cache. Useful to know! That's my Plan B now.

I agree that your local reviewer is best placed to advise on this. There are already some out there - I can think of 4 caches in pub car parks that I've found.

I knew there must be a reason why those red elastic bands keep appearing at my feet. 'Tis a gift from the Geocaching gods. MrsB

Hi HB! I'm in the UK too. What are you frightened of in the woods/forests (apart from dogs)? I sometimes cache alone in woods/forests and am most frightened of hurting myself – falling over and hitting my head, tripping and breaking an ankle, getting a branch in the eyes etc. So I always tell someone where I’m going and when I’ll be back, take care, don’t attempt anything extreme and always have my phone with me. Lone female caching in urban and suburban areas is great. I am invisible. Nobody looks twice (or even once) at me, a middle-aged woman dressed for shopping.

My Etrex's rubber edge started to come away last summer - I think the warmer temperatures melted the glue a bit. But I found the ideal solution - I've wrapped two of those red post office elastic bands around the rubber, they are exactly the right size to keep the rubber in place.

The site definitely grinds to a halt on Sunday afternoon/evening. Can only get worse as summer approaches. Must be even more annoying for US cachers if they get the same slowdown on their Sunday morning, wanting to get out caching but having to wait ages for the site to run their PQ or whatever. Due to the slowness, I now write all my cache logs in Word, so at least I can get them done while I still remember details about the day! Then when the site has sped up (sometimes the day after), I can very quickly copy & paste the entries into the cache logs.

Sat-nav does bring its own set of problems though. I know someone who got a delivery van stuck under a low bridge, because they thought the satellites up above could actually see the van, measure its height, and would not send it down a road with a too-low bridge!

I've done this with Cubs while at camp. We had groups of 5 sharing one GPSr, having turns of 1/10 of a mile each. We devised a walk which took in 2 existing caches, and we placed another 3 temporary ones (not listed on the geocaching site, just big ice-cream tubs full of loot set up for the day). The Cubs really enjoyed it, they liked the swapping of loot best of all though.