Coach Steve

This all started with one cacher here in So. Utah. (BillionJ) When he took his young kids caching, his youngest daughter couldn't pronounce the word 'geocache', so she shortened it to "jeek". Actually, there are very few of us around here that use the word. "Cache" and "cacher" are much more common. We are pretty open around here and you would be welcome to come find some of our great hides, whether they be called "caches" or "jeeks". It's all good because it's just a game and a lot of fun without all the drama.

Discovered a very neat atlatl point at 10,000 feet in a meadow. 3" long, black and white. Took a photo and left it there.

My favorite is when someone asks what I am doing, I tell them I am tracking radio collared Gila Monsters. Works every time. If I think the person would make a good cacher, I actually tell them what I am doing. Otherwise, the Gila Monster trick works for me.

Thanks a lot.

I want to use the pigpen cipher to put out a cache, but can't figure out how to put the "pigpens" on my cache page. Can anyone help me?

Best way for me is the Oregon 400t. Has all the information that the cache page does in the palm of your hand.

Having been there, and knowing the folks who put this trail out, I agree with the security issue. It seems that someone (who sleeps with a night light) got concerned that too many people were using the roads and visiting the towers, and contacted the power company and the BLM. BTW, you did not have to drive off-road anywhere on the trail. The maintenance roads went right to every tower. It's really too bad. It was a surreal experience doing that many caches (421) in one day. It got to be rather tedious, but the company was good and we actually smiled a lot. I actually think Glenn Beck mentioned the Trail of the Gods as a liberal plot to destroy American society, so his minions took appropriate action.

Having spent all day Saturday doing 464 caches along his trail, I have a few observations. Don't do this from May to October. You will end up on the lower end of Death Valley, and the temps will get 130 on the desert floor. Parts of this road are 60 MPH, and parts are crawl and look out for rocks. You cane walk to the steep ones if you don't have clearance, but it sure makes it quicker and easier with 4X4 and clearance. The vehicle is not as important as good tires. Those desert rocks can tear marginal tires out. Take much more water than you think you will need. This desert will suck it out of you, even in March. Take enough food to keep you going. It was routine at times, but then you would find a "Nevada Nano". You'll have to see those. Mostly it was actually fun. There were six of us and we were actually smiling most of the time. We started in Primm and ended at the Death Valley road. About 10 to 11 hours all together. It almost took me almost as long to log them as to find them. No blackberry coverage out here, and very little cell phone either. Take all the usually precautions on this one. And if you go in May, watch for the rattlers!

Here's mine. I was driving up a fairly well-traveled road in the middle of the afternoon. As I came around a bend, there was a guy, naked from the waist down standing in the road looking down. As he saw me, he hurried and put his shorts on, then bent over to pick up his camera. The only thing I could figure was that he was taking pictures of his naked genitals. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. I had a hard time finding the cache I was after because I was laughing out loud. Why couldn't it have been a female?

Southern Utah, of course.

One way to avoid those "parking lot" woes is to look for caches with a terrain of 3 or more. 4 is better--5 is the best.

Try turning off the compass. Just press and hold down the "page" button. Worked for me.

If you are coming to So. Utah, try "A Place Where National Treasures Are Stored" (GCJAXK) It's a great 3-step multi on Smithsonian Butte. You can see forever!

I just won't do them. If the coords are off just a little bit, you end up on the wrong side of the fence and in another person's private space. I usually pass them by. Just as a matter of course, I dislike city caches and micros even more. Exercise and scenery are the two things that brought me to caching. Getting out of the car to hunt anither lamp-skirt micro is a waste of time. Give me some open space!

No problem with few finders. With fewer finders, you have less maintenance. Sooner or later they will get discovered. You ought to make them exceptional--great locatons or imaginative containers. The word will get around!

1. How did you hear . . . I was surfing the net and came across GC.com 2. First cache? I had the cache page and wandered around until the coords linked up. Lucky I found it at all. I was hooked! 3. Bad or scary experience? I was doing a cache in front of the Excalibur Hotel in Vegas. My old GPS took me out in the landscaping, so being the dedicated cacher that I was, I stepped out there and started going through the bushes and stuff. I heard someone clear his throat and turned around to see two secruity guards--you know the kind--guys with no neck. The kind that dream about being security guards, or go to bars after work and talk about being security guards. Anyway, they asked them to come with them and they took me in a back room at the hotel. I had pictures in my head of broken legs, smashed fingers, etc. They weren't smiling, but accepted my explanation and let me keep my GPS, but kept the cache page. Pretty scary for awhile. There are also several encounters with snakes, Black Widows, a Gila Monster, and an apparently rabid coyote. But those are other stories. 4. #1 reason for caching? I am like a dog that needs to mark territory. If it is there, I want to find it! 5. Hunt or hide? I enjoy the hunt more than the hide because I am a man who lacks imagination. 6. Favorite Cache? "It was a Dynamite Place" (now archived). The cache was in the dynamite cache of an old mining operation, but what made it great was the remoteness (70 miles from the nearest highway) and the FTF prize. When I saw what it was, I left my house, drove to the cache at night and retrieved the prize--a brand new Orvis fly rod, worth at least $150! 7. The worst cache? Any silly lamppost micro! 8. Any cache events? Have been to several and hosted several. 9. Best cache story? I don't know if it's the best, but it's the funniest. I was driving up a pretty deserted, but not very remote, dirt road. I came around a bend to see a guy standing outside his car stark naked looking at the ground. When he saw me, he hustled and put on his shorts and then picked up his camera from the ground. The only thing I could figure out is that he had the camera between his legs and was taking nude pictures of himself. As I drove by him and on to the cache, I started to laugh and couldn't concentrate on finding the cache because I was laughing so much. I still think it's funny.

I agree 100%! I compare myself to other cachers the same way Chevy Chase did in "Caddy Shack". Judge Smails asked him what he shot on the course that day, to which Chevy replied: "Ah, Judge, I don't keep score" Then the Judge asked him: "But how do you compare yourself to other golfers?" Chevy makes the great reply "By height" So that's how I compare myself--by height. Any other way just doesn't matter much.

I just got back from the Czech Republic, Vienna, Budapest, and all over Romania (not a cache rich country) and had no trouble at all. The only thing you have to do when you get there is let your GPS catch up to where you are. Sometimes takes a minute or two. The only place that restricts the use of GPS is Russia--I guess they are still paranoid. By the way--best place I went was Ceske Krumlov in Southern Czech Rep.

Best thing I found was a brand new Orvis fly rod, with case. I had to drive 70 miles on dirt roads to get this FTF.

sure you can - I wouldn't, but you can Also, you can't eat your friends!

My dog and I always mark where our truck is. That way, he can find his way back if my batteries fail. I can't smell my mark very well, but he can!

Reminds me of Chevy Chase's line in Caddy Shack When asked by the judge what he had shot on the golf course that day, he replied: "Oh, I never keep score" To which the judge asked, "Then how do you measure yourself against other men?" His reply--"By height". Being 6'5, I guess that gives me the right to think I am better than the next man. Makes about as much sense as keeping cache stats . . .

The activation number did not come 'in the sleeve' and I cannot find anywhere to activate this coin. HELP!

This is the solution for us here in Southern Utah. If there was a picture under rural in the dictionary under rural, it would show our area. To get people to my outermost caches, I give them a reason to go that far--I put them in a series leading farther and farther out. People will find them if they have a reason to go there

Here is an aritcle in a local magazine. Fairly good one, but leaves a bit to be desired. http://southernutahmagazines.com/article.p...he_21st_Century