Team Dromomania

My PQ's are doing exactly the same thing. All settings are for .GPX but they are being delivered as .zip. I hope the new upgrade this week will return things to normal.

How many "teams" are on the log sheet? I've always figured that those with me (mostly family) when I signed "Team Dromomania" were part of the crew which found the hide. I see no reason for them not to claim an individual find on-line.

I think the methods and "rules" will change a lot but that the basic rule - sign the log sheet and claim a find - will remain the same. I also think the numbers of cachers will reach a peak but that muggles will know what caching is about. A little like baseball - you have the players - a very small number of the population, the spectators - a large number of the population and those who knows what it is but just don't care about it - also a large number.

It's never been really cold when I cached - perhaps down in the high 20's. Last year it was a 110 degrees on one of my hikes while caching. If I'm on a trail I really don't care too much about what the weather is about. But if I'm in a city then I tend to more of a fair weather cacher.

Not everybody's taste is the same. At the very least it would have been nice for him to hint what he thought was stupid. You have 1/3 of the finders claiming a favorite on this hide. Just ignore this guy's log and continue to place good hides which others might enjoy.

I've posted over 900 photos in my logs. But I still haven't learned to have my camera with me always. Once, while caching near Sacramento, I saw a rare California tornado. I could have had some outstanding photos of it but as it were I could only see what the TV news channels showed. Another time a tree "fell" onto the county road and remained standing! It's limbs got caught on other trees and the steep hill on the other side of the road. When my wife and I came upon it we both just sat there with our jaws open. It was exactly as if the tree had grown in the middle of the pavement. Of course - no camera. Don't post spoilers but otherwise post as many photos as you like. Photos are always welcomed on my hides.

I've had this happen as well. Cache posted at 5:40 am. It was directly on my route to work and I hit it at 5:50. No access to a computer until I got home nine hours later. Went to log and saw that someone had posted a FTF claiming 9 am. Since it was only a half mile away, I ran back out and saw that he had signed the back side of the log, obviously never seeing my DJ on the front. Friendly private email got it sorted out, as it usually does in this area. This happened to me once. The second finder signed the back of the logbook and even took a TB I left and noted it wasn't listed so he 'took' it from me. No worries. I don't keep track of FTF's and this cacher was new at the game. I said nothing. A new cacher got their first FTF. I got to find what turned out to be a nice cache and hide. We both got what we wanted.

I really enjoy the trails and climbs and bush whacking for hides. A hiking buddy and I have a saying, "If I didn't bleed I didn't have fun!" And you know - there's a lot of truth to that.

My dream cache hunts: North and South poles. Bottom of the ocean and the space station. But the odds of me doing any of those are about zero to none.

Personally, I don't do many state parks because I can't justify paying 6 bucks or more for an hours worth of park time. Here in northern California I know of one nearby state park that welcomes hides and of another that closed the park to all hides a couple of years ago. I was thinking the rules are made by each park rather than by some sort of state regulations. If those are the rules then I have to agree about the violation of those rules. Where can those California State Park rules be found?

I knew the side game but didn't know it was called a Fizzy challenge. I don't usually pay much attention to these 'challenge' hides. I have several dozen active hides and I try to reflex the ratings true to the hide. I am VERY LIKELY to change the rating of my hides if after a few finds others suggest the ratings are too low/high. I don't do FTF although I do grab them once in a while after they've been out for a few days or weeks (think mountains and wilderness). So don't get upset if I don't jot down the "time" I made a find. If my name is there first I figure I must have found it first. This is the way I play my game and I'm sure you have your way to play the game. That's just one of the things that make geocaching such a great activity.

I enjoy my hikes to caches in the woods or up in the mountains. But I still go for park and grab, parking lot, or such hides. And, when I do, I tend to ignore the muggles and they tend to ignore me. When they don't ignore me then I have a chance to introduce new people to caching. I've had adults, kids and cops help me try and locate hides after asking what I'm up to. I know that one and perhaps two of those became cachers. Example of cache I passed up: How about a shopping center parking lot with the dividers between parking lanes filled with river stones? One of those hundreds of stones have a nano. Should I hunt during the day with all the muggles or should I hunt after hours and stick out like a sore thumb for security or security cameras? It's not my cup of tea to remove a ton of rocks to find one so I went on my way. Others, I'm sure, had lots of fun with this hunt. Give me that 8 miles hike though bear and mountain lion county to a cliff to dig into rattlesnake infested rocks for a hide and then I'll be having lots of fun with my hunt!

I freely give hints to all my caches and I don't mind that others give hints. Everybody plays differently. What is the difference if somebody should go to a spoiler site for the info or just tag along with another cacher who has done all the work to make a FIND claim? This should be a fun activity and who am I to tell others how to play the game? If they get their name on my log sheet then it is a find - no questions asked (or even necessary).

There's a lot of reasons (as noted above) for a cache to be left in view without blaming a cacher. I also look at the ratings. A level 1 difficulty cache hide may suppose to be left in view.

Never lies. "I'm geocaching." And depending on the response I'll go into it deeper.

I've met several officers over the years while I was caching. I've always been up front about what I was doing and I've never had a bad experience with an officer. In one case the two officers in the car got out and help me search for an ammo can on the side of a road! There's nothing like having an armed escort while searching. I also cache with off duty officers from time to time. They're all great guys and gals.

To those that think the log page should be read before attempt a hide I must assume they've never took a long trip with 1000 caches in their GPSr not knowing exactly when or where they may be able to search for one of them. I got stung by ALR's in the past when I went to log the find when I returned home. I logged these as notes but after the rules changed I went back and changed my notes to finds. One other observation: It seems that this whole argument revolves around "Guilty until proven innocent" thinking. Why not just enjoy the game and trust the other players? I don't think there were any cheaters on any of my hinds over the past 7 years and if there were then the guilt rides with the cheater - not me. I'm trying to make my hides fun and interesting. I'm not going to worry over what other players may or may not be doing with logging my hides. I truely trust the cachers.

Dont think this TB will disappear like the cool ones tend to do because this one is handed to a specific cacher and that cacher, upon reprogramming, will hand it on to another specific cacher - therefore the cacher who has possesion will not just hang on to it and it wont just be a random cacher, worst case scenario - the current possessor will just hang on to it for a few months Im more curious on what the odds are with this TB making it to the states with security and all I wont be holding my breath Racettes Last year a couple of miles down the road a medicine bottle in a bore hole of a road sign brought out the bomb squad resulting in a large bill being sent to the CO. Still, that's a very cool device.

That's a LPC which I'd like to find. When I get large Ammo cans I like to hike on trails as far as I can and hide it in an interesting location. Don't waste it on a park and grab.

I have a lot of hiking caches. Some of them are found once a year or less. Here's a sampling: Twisted Pine 8+ miles with 2400ft + elevation gain. Swiss Cheese 9+ miles with 3000ft + elevation gain. Big Yawn 9+ miles with 3000ft + elevation gain. 1906 Landslide 12+miles with 2000ft + elevation gain. Near Lawery Peak Part of 17 + mile loop with several caches (7 of them my hides). 3000+ elevation gain. East Peak 16+ miles with 5800ft + elevation gain. Lonely Pine part of possible 17+ miles loop with several caches (2 of them my hides). 2500 + elevation gain.

BC I fail to see the point when users log a 5/5 cache from the comfort of their vehicle, they never made the find. I've never seen a 5/5 cache within a couple of hours where a vehicle could approach. But I get the point.

I don't go out of my way for a FTF. Around here it might be a while before somebody attempts a FTF on an easy hide. One of my newer hides just had a FTF - 4 months after I placed it! (I admit that this one wasn't easy to reach) There's a couple of nearby 12 day old hides that still need FTF's on the shoulder of a major highway in this area. I DNF'd one of them a couple of days ago but may try again in a few days. I'm the only attempt on this hide and the other has no logged attempts. Still, I think I might have a few hundred FTF's but good luck seeing that in my logs. I almost never state that I had the FTF. I'm in this game for the hunt and for the hikes and vistas. My logs will tell the story. I once traveled over 400 miles to do ONE cache hidden in the mountains. It was a great adventure with the last 3 hrs of night hiking done with a penlight bushwhacking all the way. I was home by 3am and went to work the next morning at 6am. I have very fond memories of this hunt. The cache? - I logged a DNF. My logging is usually done within a day or two including any FTF's. I could never understand the reasoning behind a time stamp on the FTF. The first name on the log sheet is the FTF. Simple, isn't it.

I ran into something strange this weekend when I checked on a hide of mine near a witches circle. In the circle was a penny with an upside down cross cut out of it. I have no idea if it means anything or not. Usually there are just trinkets and (whole) coins lying inside the circle.

Nope. I'd keep things as they are. If you enjoy the hunt PEI should provide a lot of hunting. If you enjoy hiding then PEI divided into .1 miles would allow about 219,000 caches (impossible in this real world) to be hidden (and found).

I would think that just a warning would do fine. If the cache is moved another Black Widow may be waiting to make their new home there. I personally ignore Black Widows. My work exposes me to them (and thier bites) almost daily. The first time I got bit I thought I had come down with a bad flu. The next day I saw a doctor who spotted the bite. It took a long time for that bite to heal. Slowly over the years the effects of the bite (excpet for the healing) has improved until now I will feel a little quezzy for 5 or 10 minutes. That beats the 2 days of my first bite! Black Widows are all over my yard, in the garage, workshop and toolsheds. This was one of them: