KoosKoos

I primarily cache with my phone these days as the majority of my caching is just when I get a moment and the app allows me to geocache without advanced planning. I use my dedicated GPSr when I'm going out for longer periods of time, in remote areas, or in the rain like I did this past weekend. I've also dropped my GPSr from my bicycle and had it run over by a car. You can certainly do a lot of geocaching with your phone and the app. There are pros to a dedicated unit too, however.

Clearly, you haven't visited any of the online freelance sites. You could easily find plenty of people that would complete this research and fill out your online log for pennies on the dollar. They may not speak English as a native language, but there are plenty of folks out there looking for this kind of awesome job!

Could you file the point a little and glue a bead over it? Like they do here. That might prevent some... misunderstandings. And since it's in a case, add your name (Geo Nick), and info about what kind of fly it is. Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of using it for fishing? As long as you take steps to make sure no one accidentally pokes themselves, I say by all means include them. And I do agree with kunarion's point that if you sign it with your nickname, they'd be even cooler.

N 33° 21.283 W 97° 29.739...about 250 miles north of me.

I can see the desire to limit other sites that are using your public profile data/logging information have no problem with a request to limit the sharing. However, in regards to the competition factor, yes, the ranking sites make it easier, but some people will always compare their numbers to others and compete. You're not going to remove that just by not being listed on another site. I've always looked at it as something that some people are REALLY into, but has no interest to me. It doesn't have any impact on my enjoyment of the game if someone is trying to get to the top of any leaderboard or thinks they're a better/worse geocacher than me because we have different numbers. I've never had enough find numbers for someone to compliment me on getting to some point, but if that happened, I'd politely smile and just say that I don't track anything on the board, so don't really care where I sit on a leaderboard somewhere, then change the subject to something more interesting.

CacherXYZ hid cache 04/22/2014 CacherXYZ Found it 04/24/2014 That’s one more find for me! Thanks so much for hiding this geocache. Is thanking yourself in an automated log talking to yourself or just generally weird?

Yes, even for lampost caches, I try not to write short, meaningless logs. Caching Away Again in Margaritaville #3 Found it 3/20/2004 By KoosKoos After hiding the "Rock" here, we've been looking for another excuse to visit and feed the ducks. Great spot...though it took me a while to figure out how to get to it. Our first stop for the day with the family and the ducks were WELL fed. TNLN as we had nothing tropical...and yes, it's very hard to close the container right now. Ok, the quotes a bit long, but you really need it all to make sense: He don't have no tambourine Guitar or slide trombone The music we make here on Earth But the words are His own And when we finally reach His home And walk among the stars He'll join our band then we'll understand Why God don't own a car -- GOD DON'T OWN A CAR Jimmy Buffett, Buzz Cason

I'll skip all the virtues of using pocket queries (a premium member feature) and say that my usual approach for tasks like this is to use the geocaching maps search: http://www.geocaching.com/map/default.aspx I'll pulled up the park via this map: http://coord.info/map?ll=32.279188,-94.575493&z=15 When you click that link, you can see the individual caches on the map and click the links to see the cache pages. Do you need help loading the actual coordinates to your GPS or just help with narrowing down the search location? East Texas is no longer my stomping ground, so I can't speak to any of these specific caches. I hope you and your family have a blast! We're also heading out this weekend for a camping trip with some caching thrown in.

Not sure how much more straight-forward of an answer you need. From the guidelines: http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx "Geocache Contents Geocache containers include a logsheet or logbook. For all physical caches, there must be a logbook, scroll or other type of log for geocachers to record their visit." And meant to add, yes, the way to do it would be as a multi as you proposed.

Here again, communication is a good thing. I've had that happen to me a couple of times (seeing someone coming up as I'm holding the cache). I let them know and ask if they'd like to turn around a few minutes while I rehide it or treat it as a "group find". When did we all get afraid of talking to someone we see outside?

I'll echo others that education is key. My kids have encountered snakes in the woods since early years (some venomous, most not) and it's never been a problem. Yes, with toddlers, you have to be more careful since they don't always mind the "watch where you're walking or putting your hands" rules. The coloring and size doesn't sound quite right, but the "lifting" up immediately made me think of an eastern hog nose snake (non-venomous). I can remember my first encounter with one as a kid and it was fascinating to watch a snake in Texas standing up like a cobra and hissing at me. Looking at the list of venomous snakes in PA, your description doesn't really sound like you encountered a venomous snake. As you saw, the snake just wanted to get away from you as soon as possible when you walked up on its awesome sunbathing spot. (not that it still isn't a bit unnerving to come across a big snake in the wild) Most "dangers" in the outdoors aren't a problem as long as you're aware of your surroundings. That's pretty much the only protection I take out in the woods with me. Whatever you do, don't make the woods a scary place for your kiddo to fear. Help them learn what's out there and the precautions to take, but don't avoid going out with them. One day, my daughter and I were volunteering for an outdoor day for Big Brothers/Big Sisters and she carried around a tarantula we caught at our house that we were releasing at the nature preserve. Most of the adults were too freaked out to come near it, but the kids agreed with her that it was a cool thing to check out (at least inside the container). No reason to instill fear over their curiosity.

Not that dumb as I've heard it come up before...but both the tupperware container and the box of ammo food are both pronounced "cash": cache /kaSH/ Noun A collection of items of the same type stored in a hidden or inaccessible place. Verb Store away in hiding or for future use. Synonyms noun. hiding place - stash verb. hide - conceal - secrete

As someone who's proud to maintain a high average log word count (116) and has run out of log space on a couple of cache logs, I certainly don't see a problem with logs that include lots of information. As long as your log is about the hunt, cache, and experience, go for it. And as a cache owner, your log is the type I love to see the most. A story of all the trials and tribulations you went through are always a fun read.

If they're old enough to go for a walk in the park, they're old enough to geocache. My youngest went to her first cache (a night cache) around 6-8 weeks old. Granted, she slept the whole time in a sling on mom's shoulder, but she was there. The older kids were 11 and 6 when we started out, but the youngest traveled in a backpack before she was old enough to hike on her own. Now, she and I have found a few together by bike as well as hiking. As others have said, with little ones, they tend to like the bigger ones better (finding treasure toys can't be beat) and watch the terrain. Just be ready for caching trips to be cut short when they'd rather hit the swings instead of one more geocache. They may tire of the hunt before you do, so you may find yourself abandoning a planned caching route because they're ready for a break.

I'd put myself into the category of "Anyone out there that never even considered using eye protection while caching and is still not considering it now". I can remember more close calls at home playing with the kids in the yard than I can remember on the trail. I don't feel the need to wear safety glasses everywhere I go. This weekend, I was on a hike (not geocaching) and leaned into a cactus as I was taking a sip of water...won't stop me from hiking in shorts either. There will always be risks out there. I try not to take too many risks and work on awareness over wearing more protective items at the expense of comfort.

How would you measure popular? Density of caches hidden? Most registered cachers? Most logs written? Best locations to visit? Best weather? Most tourists visiting to geocache? Most available space for hiding? Most nature areas for hiding? Largest urban areas for caching?

I haven't read it, but know the author, so have to recommend "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Geocaching" as a book. As far as what to include, general gear would be great - backpack, small first aid kit, nalgene bottle, flashlight, etc. Anything that you could use as tradeable swag in caches you find. And of course, any clothing or general gear from http://shop.geocaching.com Edit to add, I now see the shop has starter kits available for sale too: http://shop.geocaching.com/default/starter-kits/

I believe the OP meant "premium members-only" caches instead of "private". As other have said, it's frustrating when bugs/coins disappear, but I'm not sure restricting them to PMO caches will help. I find the best approach is to look at your travelers like a "message-in-a-bottle". It's neat when they successfully move, but based on the prevailing currents of people touching them, they may just end up tossing around the great seas.

From the pinned topic: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=234227&view=findpost&p=4101514 "8. Do I have to trade when I take a Trackable? No, no, no, a thousand times no. Travel bugs and trackable geocoins, that have been set out to travel, are not trade items, you do not have to put something in the cache to take a Trackable item, and you should not take something from a cache in trade for a Trackable item. If you should take something from a cache, you should make a trade, and you can place/take the Trackable item." There are no special rules to a "hotel". The bugs belong to their owners, not the cache hider. As long as you're helping the bug's mission, move it along however you see fit.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about calling it treasure. Some of my 6 yo daughter's favorite "treasure" to find is little rubber dinosaurs or frogs. They can't cost more than 25 cents, but she gets excited to find them every time! No, you'll probably never find "treasure", but there are lots of fun things for kids to find and yes, you can teach them about trading fairly (and BETTER) for the items they're taking. And I've been known to drop a dollar or two into a cache when a kiddo found something they just couldn't imagine passing up and we didn't have any other trade items.

Texas Challenge 2003 - GCC414

Just going off your found caches, you might find this link helpful: Newest caches in PA

11/13/2011 by cacher 517, found some debree possibly from previous cache, no container, no log -- the cache is missing NOTE 09/25/2011 by cacher After reading previous logs we didn't expect to find a cache here, but cacher b wanted to see this place because his dad worked here many many years ago. will keep a watch on this one and if any one states it is there - we will be back to sign. TFTH

You might try posting here for Texas cachers in the area you need: Houston GeoCaching Society

If I had stuff with me, this would be my approach as well. I don't always carry supplies with me, so in that case, I'd just log the needs maintenance. Either way, I'd send a polite email directly to the cache owner to let them know that containers of that type don't tend to last too long and they might want to keep an eye on the cache and/or replace the container with something a little more sturdy.