Bhob

I appologize for not answering your question directlyunfortunately, I will not be doing that here, either, because I do not know where the information is I don't doubt that there is such a law but I would be curious to see how it is written if there is a club that appreciates headstones, and they publish the coordinates of one that they think that others should go and see, would that be a violation ? could I get in trouble for e-mailing a description of how to get to the location of a Civil War graveyard ?

as a geocache owner, you have a lot of authority which means that you also have to make some decisions you list the pros and cons of the two options well but it is entirely your choice, really the website allows (and counts) multiple logs of the same geocache by the same player it is up to the geocache owner to decide if this will be allowed on their geocache (meaning, deletion of duplicate logs) I have seen some re-hides (same GC code) where the owner said in the description - "since this is essentially an all-new hide, please feel free to log it again, even if you have already found the original" but there are lots of folks who only look at lists of geocaches that they have not yet found, and they would probably not see such a re-list and there are people who will not log the same GC code twice, no matter what (although some of them may go and make the find again, and post a note) so, if you prefer continuity, use the same GC code if you like to see your geocache get more visits and logs, go with the archive/new your geocache, your choice - enjoy !

be sure to look at the difficulty rating for the geocache if it is low, then straight-forward things (such as the order that the US states joined the union) are more likely but if the rating is high, then you could be in for a rough ride complicated codes, obscure connections, things hidden on the geocache page, etc, etc really, anything that a devious mind might come up with the logs (especially DNF logs) can help you to determine how difficult the puzzle is unfortunately, there is only one difficulty rating per geocache a considerate hider might clarify things in the description eg - "the puzzle is a 3.5 star, but the hide is only a 1.5" also, be advised that some solutions are not in the DDD MM.MMM format there are also DDD.DDDDD, DDD MM SS.S and UTM, just to name a few

at the present time, it appears that Groundspeak is not sending e-mails for "visit" logs ("visit" is the action that you do, "took it to" is what used to show in the e-mail) this has been the case for a few months now so as long as you use "visit" (as opposed to "drop" and "retrieve", one right after the other) you should be able to use your proposed strategy without overly bugging the cache owner but there is no guarantee that Groundspeak will not change what they do about "visit" logs perhaps the best solution would be to place a geocache of your own near your home you could then freely dip your trackable in it and if the owner gets annoyed, then you will know who to bleme ;-) there is no restriction that I am aware of about posting logs that pre-date a geocache publication date, so you could record your history, as long as you dated everything correctly

as long as you are not placing a container at/near the monument, I don't see a problemjust have the seeker get some information from the monument, and use that to direct them to a place nearby where a container is allowed if the monument has numbers, you can go with that, and make it easy if there are only letters, you can use a simple substitution code A=1, B=2, etc you would need to list your hide as an unknown/mystery geocache or a multi geocache but it sounds like you had already planned to do that

I see no reason why a vehicle trackable cannot be dropped into an event geocache, if the owner expects to attend 1. alerts other attendees that the bug will be there 2. allows event-to-event mileage to be shown and accumulated if I am wrong about this, please advise . . .

here is what Groundspeak has to say on this subject http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=250 it appears that the best thing for a trackable owner who turns their item free, and wants it to keep travelling, is to set the attribute to "non collectible"

it is my understanding that this is one of the purposes of the attribute if an owner wants their trackable to travel, then they should set the attribute to "non collectible" but if they wish to allow someone to keep it, then they may set the attribute to "collectible" I cannot think of any good reason that a trackable owner would set the attribute to "collectible" if they did not want to allow it to be collected

it all depends on how you choose to define the concept if your definition includes any of the following - many/most/all have the same name many/most/all were placed by the same hider there was any sort of coordinated effoet or communication - then the ones around DIA are *not* a "power trail" but if your definition includes - a chance to get a lot of fairly easy finds in a relaxed enviroment with some nice views - then it is most assuredly a "power trail" the whole thing started several years ago, when a local prolific geocacher went out to a geocache-barren area, and hid a geocache for each of the US national parks the hides were all placed at least a half-mile apart in part, to encourage more hides between them - it worked many people have contributed numerous hides over the past few years (in fact, it is still ongoing) there are about 800 geocaches that most people would consider part of the grouping

just about any handheld GPS receiver should be capable of having coordinate information entered manually, and all units that I have seen allow you to enter multiple sets of coordinates, see a list of such coordinates, and select from the list I have yet to see a handheld unit that was not reasonable durable and waterproof I would advise that you stay away from automobile navigation units, no matter what they might cost, due to their more fragile nature and limited battery life if your main goal is just to enter coordinates and go to that place, then you should be able to pick up several units on eBay for much less than your hundred-dollar-each maximum make sure that any units that you buy come with the original manual if your desire for a backlight screen is so that the units can be used at night, then that will restrict things somewhat, but if the units will be used during the daytime, then I would think that standard screens would be fine - even then, I have had a non-backlit unit for years, and I get by just fine by using a flashlight the only downside that I can think of to this approach is that you would probably end up getting several different makes/models, and that might lead to squabbles amongst the kids over who got the perceived "best" one there will also be the issue of each unit working differently, so you would have to bone up on each one, if you will be the "go to" person for how to use them

one way to look at this is to see what Groundspeak allows a trackable owner can log their own item, but they do not get credit for it a geocache owner can log their own geocache, and they *do* get credit for it anybody can log a trackable item more than once, but they only get one credit anybody can log a geocache more than once, and they get a credit for each log so, my take on this that if GC.com did not want you to do it, then they would not allow it the conclusion being, that if it is allowed, then it is okay that said, I would defer to the geocache owner if they say something like "this is now a whole new geocache, so feel free to log it again, even if you have found it before", then I would think that is valid permission

one way to keep costs low and make some memorable experiences is to design and then make your own geocoin and trade it many coins are very special to the people who have them because they traded their own personal geocoin for another personal geocoin very often, you get to know the person that you traded with, and learn the story behind the coin that you get in trade (and also get a chance to tell your own story) once made, showing you creation in this forum will probably get you a number of offers to trade you could also list one from time to time on eBay, which would likely raise awarness of your coin another option is to try to strike a deal with one of the online retail shops if you have a good design, you stand a fair chance of having the coin made by them and sold in their shop, and getting a few for free for your trouble

the primary purpose of the "collectible" option is to give trackable owners the ability to remove items that they are keeping from their "inventory" list the idea being that if you have a collection of trackable items, you probably do not want to have to wade through them each time that you want to drop an item off in a geocache so, a trackable owner would mark their own trackable as "collectible", and then move it into their collection, thus hiding it from the usual inventory list in rare instances, someone might activate and release a trackable, and permit a later finder of the item to hang on to it for a while - in that case they could designate it as "collectible", to let the community know that such a thing is permitted (it would not hurt to have an explanation and the permission mentioned in the trackable items description as well) - it also allows the holder of the item to move it into the "collection" column, and thus remove it from the "inventory" column an item that is designated "non-collectible" cannot be moved into the collection column not by its owner, and not by someone who has it in their inventory so, in your instance, it is probable that you would want to mark your trackables as "non-collectible" (note that "non-collectible and "not chosen" both work exactly the same)

here is a web page that may be of interest to the people reading this thread http://members.cox.net/pkpublic

personally, I have some serious reservations about many of these auctions 1. many seem to run for a long time - sometimes 30 days 2. many are "buy it now" auctions 3. I keep seeing some of the same ones over and over again 4. often a coin will be offered that is still available from the original online store for a fraction of the asked price I conclude from this that just because a particular number is mentioned, it does not necessarily mean that the coin ever actually sold for that amount I strongly suspect that many of these geocoins rarely (maybe even never) sell at the prices indicated

here is a link that you may find handy - http://webspace.webring.com/people/bf/fisur/geocoins/index.html it is my understanding that it has the coins listed in approximately the order that they were made and/or released the maker of the list put their own coin at the top of the list (and rightly so - they went to the trouble of making the list) and the rest of the coins are listed in the order that they became aware of them but it is supposedly very close to an ordered history of early geocoins most of the coins on this list are not trackable if you are interested in GC.com trackable items, then this is my understanding of the order - travel bugs moun10bike geocoins USA geocoins - a long gap - yellow Jeep Wrangler Germany geocoin Colorado geocoin a big flood of many others

here is my theory on this situation - I believe that it is bad software at Groundspeak they have code that is supposed to keep the number of failed attempts to a minimum as in, keep a persistant person (or robo guesser) from trying codes over and over until they get one right typically, these allow a particular number of wrong codes in a particuler time period (say, 4 wrong codes in an hour) but the software is not working correctly, and is locking some people out forever, not just for an hour I would bet that - A. the ones who are locked out have used the facility several times B. the ones who can still use it will get locked out if they continue to use it it is too bad, really it would have been a handy feature, if it were reliable

a few more observations check the number of stars in the difficulty rating typically, this will tell you how hard the puzzle is (a nice hider will have a line in the description that says something like "the puzzle is three stars, but the physical hide is a 1.5") fewer stars, and you should not have to go too far afield to solve it lots of stars, and you may be in for a headache be aware that hiders know most of the rules, too for example, "look for 15 digits" and "the high-order digits should be the same as in the given coordinates" just to be tricky some hiders will use UTM or DDD MM SS.S others will stick to the usual DDD MM.MMM, but only provide the last five digits of each coordinate don't forget to look for a website link (near the top of the geocache page, on the left) and sometimes valuable information is provided in a gallery picture much of the fun of puzzles is that some of them are unique never seen before, and probably not to be seen ever again you can often get a nudge from a prior finder and sometimes reading all of the prior logs a time or three will get you going in the right direction and it never hurts to team up with other players different points of view are often quite valuable have fun !

the following assumes that the trackable(s) belong to you, and that there has been no other activity on it/them 1. if the item(s) are not currently in your inventory, grab it/them from wherever they are 2. delete any and all logs from the trackable item(s) 3. drop the trackable(s) into your new geocache with a "post note" log (optionally, delete the "post note" logs from the geocache page) that should reset everything back to square one

it sometimes seems that the geocoin community has taken on the mission of giving coin-makers fits this one appears to be in that category I will be very interested to see if anyone is up to the challenge . . .

here are the details on this (as best that I can remember) there were two sets the first was released in early 2007 it was called "Geocaching Zone USA" it consisted of four coins, each with its own tracking code each coin depicted a time zone of the continental 48 US states the individual states were outlined on each coin the coins fit together into a complete map of the states the second set was released later in 2007 this release consisted of five coins four depicted Canada, also by time zone (the eastern and atlantic zones were combined on a single coin) these four were called "Canada Geocaching Zone" a fifth coin featured Alaska and Hawaii on the same coin this was called "Alaska/Hawaii Geocaching Zone" all nine coins were to the same scale, and could be fit together to form the upper portion of north america

this is an improvementthe limit used to be once every seven days

if there is a glitch somewhere, then all bets are off but if the system is working as it is supposed to, then I am aware of only one way that this could happen some people use an un-published geocache to store trackables until a geocache is submitted for review, it sits in an un-published "limbo" condition (another method used to store trackables is to use an archived geocache) if this is the case, only the geocache owner can drop trackables in the geocache in question so the only person who could have put the trackable there is "Pwilliams83" I'd suggest waiting a day or few, and see if you get a reply from them as mentioned above, a reviewer should have the ability to look at the geocache said reviewer should then be able to determine if there is a problem or see if it is indeed an un-published geocache, owned by the person who dropped the trackable there

this idea got kicked around a few years agobut it was quickly realized that if the Rhode Island coin were big enough for a tracking code, then the Texas coin would be enormous, and that if the Texas coin were of a reasonable size, then the Rhode Island one would be almost microscopic

I propose that you hide containers that are large enough to contain logs that will accomodate stamps and/or stickers