Clyde1140

Use the 2-part epoxy sold in wal-mart and other stores, it is about $2 a tube. Adequate prep of the ammo box is essential. Rough it up with coarse grit sandpaper and wash all dirt and residue off. Dry completely, and apply the epoxy. Most brands have a 5 minute working time from when you mix to when it begins to set, so work fast and in small sections. After all your larger camo pieces are in place before the epoxy sets sprinkle birt/dust over the epoxy to give it a more camoed texture.

I see this statement all the time and it drives me nuts. Seven trips will cause soil compaction to the point that plants cannot grow? I've seen abandoned roads that are paved in 6 inches of concrete/asphalt that have been abandoned less than 20 years ago that are covered in native grasses and have trees growing in the middle of them. I have walked sidewalks in cities were the sidewalk has been displaced, broken up by the roots of a nearby oak tree. I have walked across lava fields that have plants and trees and flowers growing on them. It may take a while but if nature can take back a road after 20 years it can take back my geotrail after 2. I think the point is, why should 'nature' have to 'take back' anything? Surely not for your or anyone else's pleasure. If existing maintained trails are not adaquate, there exists a means to have additional trails constructed. Fortunately such changes are not made on a whim. Should valid authority determine that such trail expansion is not advisable, then responsible, adult persons accept that and move on with their lives while working constructively to cause change that is in everyone's best interest, not anyone's self-interest. I believe that the same ought to suffice for all uses of public lands, not just hiking, rock climbing or bird watching. Because humans are a part of nature, just as surely as deer, bear and every other creature. Just like bears use the same tracks, so often will humans. Nature taking it back is nature reacting to humans just as it did 2000 years ago, or 10,000.

The whole problem with this train of thought is that any human activity is assumed to be invasive to the ecosystem, when in fact humans have been impacting the enviornment and living in it for just as long as the other creatures there, in fact one can easuily argue that recreational activity now is much less impact than living off the land 2000 years ago was. The "natural state" includes humans, always has, and an effort to create one without humans is creating a false enviornment and is misguided.

My last thought on this: We've had had the EOD team here respond three times this year to caches identified as possible bombs. All three were cylindrical tubes painted either black or camouflaged. I've never heard of an ammo box being called in as a bomb anywhere. A person who is likely to call in a bomb scare on an ammo box is likely to do so without ever getting close enough to read either the military markings or the geocaching sticker, They are also likely to call in scares on any other cache they see in the wild. Those with experience in such things will tell you that: A Bison tube closely resembles a bullet. A lock -n- lock cube closely resembles the crate C4 comes in. Cool Whip tubs are the right size (if maybe a little too tall) to be easily mistaken for unburied land mines. In short, nothing we do will prevent caches from being reported as suspicious devices, including putting stickers on them. Muggles do not generally call in ammo cans, in my experience they steal them. Ammo cans will probably always be in the minority of caches reported, because they tend to be far away from urban settings. A bison tube looks like a turn of the century large bore round kind of in passing, but nothing modern. And thats an iffy one. I have opened and used a whole lot of C-4 and never seen it in a container that looked like a lock-n-lock............. But a cool whip container is almost like a TC6 but it has smooth sides with no ribs. That is a good idea for a training aid however if I fill one with cement.

On camo, here is my method: Clean the can and knock any rust off, then paint a good base coat of field drab (think of olive drab with a but more gray ) then camo it a bit with OD and brown (never black...you don't see black in nature). Next I get a couple tubes of the 2 part 5 minute epoxy available at wal-mart for $2. Mix it, spread it over one side, the top, bottom and back and affix rocks, sticks, grass etc to match my intended surroundings. once I get all the big stuff on I sprinkle very dry, very fine sand/dirt. Be sure you don't glue the lid shut. I have a half dozen or so I did this with weathering in the backyard to make sure they will hold up and adding some character. Works for decons and ammo cans

Of course, they could simply trade it at the next cache they find. I think that as long as you don't hide a cache with no trade items except your gif certificatess, it's fine. I've found gift certificates in caches many times and never considered them a problem. Of course, if they expire, they become trash. Naah, it would just be a thing I drop off every now and then, not every find. And it is a military surplus store, so they can get ammo cans, decon boxes, P-38's, patches and other cache containers or swag easily for the amount of the card.

I run a store, and the gift certificates would be redeemable for $5 or $10 in merchandise of the persons choice. No gimmics, no strings. Plus the certificates are actually made from military dog tags.

Yup, get rid of those original markings and at the least label it something like "Official Geocache" with the website on it. A can of flat black paint at Lowes is less than $1 and will do several dozen cans. I also make it a point to peel the labels off decon boxes and since the lid has the hazardous materials warning molded into it that gets conevered with glue/epoxy and camo to make sure nobody picks that up and gets worried.

I don't want to run afoul of the rules for keeping caches non-commercial so I am asking here first.... would it be OK to place gift certificates for my business as swag? Or would that be seen by GC.com as promoting a business?

Do we know who the author is? Is there a contact so we can start a very positive, descriptive, heartfelt letter-writing campaign to sway this to the "good" side? Don't waste your breath, she and her staff went out of the way to edit cache logs to make them appear much worse than they were and downright lied at hearings..... they have an agenda and don't care what the truth is.

For anything smaller than ammo boxes I use decon boxes. Waterproof, very tough, the lid is attached with a nylon cord that also has a metal hook for hanging if need be, and already in a good color. Buy them here

Make a run up fron Atlanta to Franklin NC, then through Sylva, Waynesville, Clyde, Canton and then Asheville. A very high cache denisty area.

I agree, I have one near me that was placed a little over a year ago and has one finder.... it is very high on my list to find soon!

I am not a big swag fan, but I always have stuff to leave and I usually leave something and sign the log.

Is it possible to change my username and not lose my finds?

We use clear packing tape on just about every type of clear screen you can imagine here in Afghanistan, it is cheap, easy, and always available.

Interesting. I am an Army Reservist mobilized and overseas from a unit in SC. The deepr I look into this the more I agree this is just a political stunt to help her reelection. The lies and distortions used go to show her ntentions were less than 100% innocent. I will be off active duty by the time her campaign is spooling up, I wonder how well it will read when it gets published that she passed a bill banning the favorite hooby of several soldiers form her state while deployed. Geocachers may not be a big enough group to care about.... but I can tie us into a group that people do care about. Her dragging the VA into this has convinced me that perhaps the public needs to know the whole story. All political actions have repercussions...I hope her campaign manager is thinking about all of them.

Toothpaste Rub it in with a soft cloth and it usually polishes the smaller scratches away.

I use a Streamlight Twin Task 2L, it has a Xenon buld that does 72 Lumen when I need bright light, and 3 LED's for long battery life when I don't. For under $30 it can't be beat, mine has survived a tour in Afghanistan and still going strong.

I run a shop that sells outdoor/camping gear, and we had a big problem with people buying sleeping bags, tents etc on Friday, going camping, and returning them on Monday. We now have a policy that returns on such items are for exchange for another like item if deective, no refunds. We were losing way too much money on people who did that.

FF/ first responder, on leave of absence as I am headed to Afganistan

I can second this cahrger and battery setup, they are amazing, I love mine. 15 minute charges and I get about 14 hours from a set in my Sportrack Map. Definitly a money saver if you use batteries like I do, and a time saver compared to standard rechargables.

WO1, USAR. 12 years in now, 33 left to go till retirement. MOS 919A.

Is it appropriate to mark a find, especially one that has not been recovered or used in many, many years, with flagging tape or one of those small surveying flags, in order to hopefully make it easier for future users and identify the location to those doing grading etc?

Its happened once, the GPSr was a dead giveaway it was a cacher, I just said howdy and told him about a few nearby benchmarks and left him the sheets as I ahd already found them. Just say hello.