MtnGoat50

If you're worried about touching a cache container that someone else has previously touched, this chart may help put things in perspective. After 21 hours the virus will have 1/8th the concentration of the original contamination. After 49 hours it's 1/128th. Carry hand sanitizer and use it after touching anything anyone else might have touched. Of all the things we have to worry about these days touching a geocache is pretty low on my list.

I assume you're talking about the cache in Triangle park. I don't see how the reviewer could have known the park was closed. If (and it's a big if) they made a mistake it was an honest one. I think the same is true of the cache owner. On the other hand it was the FTF that brought it to your attention. The impression I get is they knew the park was closed but ignored it and found the cache anyway. That's not cool and neither are the 7 other found it logs during the time the park was, apparently, closed.

Looks like these have reopened too. (or were never closed ) Here's a link...and a quote: Or you didn't. Wouldn't it have been better to get your facts straight before coming here and criticizing your reviewer and Geocaching.com?

Link? It's been a couple of weeks so maybe the parks have reopened. When I looked just now I don't see an mention of them being closed. They have canceled in person events but that's it. Here's my link.

It was mostly luck. I guessed that it might be on a trackable. I knew the date so I checked the gallery on a few and spotted it.

It's from a trackable log. Here is the link: https://coord.info/TLRJF83 Not sure why it doesn't show a link to the log. Seems like it should...

Whatever the motivation, it doesn't seem to be working well for them. I got a log on one of my long missing TBs this morning. When I looked at the players profile he was showing over 1300 TBs logged. A little later when I went to delete the log it was already gone and when I checked the profile it was showing 0 TBs and the account was "locked". (there is some justice in the world )

Sounds like a good question to ask FB. Geocaching.com is doing what they can to mitigate the problem but as long as FB allows it, it's going to continue. The other option, I suppose, would be to remove the ability to log trackables via the API. That would stop this in it's tracks but it would also mean you could no long log TBs using an app (even the official one). I'm old school and log everything directly from the site but I suspect a lot of newer cachers that only use the app, and may not even understand the site exists, might be unhappy.

Bump. Nothing has changed and I was just reminded that this is still a big problem.

Thanks for the GC#. Like arisoft I looked and couldn't find. Are you sure it's really solvable with the info you've provided? Looking at the logs the FTF team says this, "Last night we got a hint from the CO at the geocaching event on the “blue question mark “ Then he gave us a nudge and then finally a big push." The next cacher to find it says, "After getting a few nudges from the CO,..." The next, finder is you. And the last, most recent, and only other finder says, "I got a big hint from the cache owner and everything became simple." After the FTF the information is out there. Maybe some of the other solvers shown in the checker solved it without help or maybe not. You'll never know for sure. As far as the nastygram, I've seen far worse. I think he's expressing the same frustration I would be feeling if I cached here. It's discouraging to look at an apparently difficult puzzle and see that every finder solved it with the help of a private hint. My rule of thumb is to never give private hints before the FTF. It's the only way to really know if the puzzle can be solved with the information I've provided. If an additional hint appears to be necessary it goes on the cache page for everyone. After the FTF I give any help or hints necessary. I want people to find my caches.

I don't have any hard data to back it up but my sense is that the same thing is happening in my local area. What's interesting is if you'd posted this 7 years ago I would have agreed then too (it's just worse now). I've always enjoyed puzzles and I enjoy solving puzzle caches although I generally skip the "guess what I'm thinking this morning" variety that seem to be the most popular these days. The few puzzle caches I've placed have all been based on puzzle ideas that I enjoyed and thought others would enjoy solving. My most recent puzzle cache simply requires understanding the different coordinate formats (DD.ddddd, DD MM.mmm, DD MM SS.ss) and converting between them. It's located in a city park, on level ground and I explain exactly what needs to be done, and how to do it. The first and only find was over a month ago, since then crickets... [:(]

That's probably a good choice but it appears that, when trying to get the nut off, tapping on a hard surface (such as glass) will work better than tapping on plastic (even heavy duty plastic). Why not? Showing the video up front accomplishes a couple of things. Seekers know what to expect and are far (far) less likely to cause damage. Seekers also know to bring a tool to reset the cache. I have several caches that require a log removal tool. For a while I tried providing one but it always vanished after a find or two. I think the same thing will happen here making it impossible to reset. Not showing the video upfront doesn't really accomplish anything, IMHO. Again, maybe it's just me but if I came across this puzzle the first thing I'd do is go online and look for a solution. If I had cell coverage I'd do it on site, otherwise I'd go home maybe even build or buy one to practice on before coming back. I think everyone that does the cache will get some online help, whether you provide it or not. I like my caches to be fun, interesting and a little challenging, rather than frustrating and tedious, so I usually give a bit more help than average. So far people seem to appreciate this. Good! I think that will greatly reduce the problems others have experienced such as hal-an-tow's example where the CO's patience wore out. As Keystone points out you'll still need bogus coords so if you don't want to do the video you can do the coordinates in "white text". The goto puzzle for a lot of geoarts . Regardless I think "mystery" is the best cache type for these. Rust is another issue. You might consider using stainless steel fasteners and I'd lubricate them with dry graphite. Any sort of liquid oil or grease will gum things up and cause a problem. In any case let us know how it works out. Part of me wants to build one locally but another part of me thinks it's a little too complicated to make a good field puzzle (especially the resetting part).

If I was considering something like this I'd make it a mystery cache. I'd create a short video showing how to retrieve and replace the container and at the end provide the coordinates to the cache location, along with a personal plea not to break things. That way you're guaranteed seekers know exactly what they're getting into, how much time they need to allow and what tool to bring. Of course everyone will use the tool needed to set the puzzle also to open it but so what... I'm probably the only one that feels this way but I think cache owners make a huge mistake by listing these as trads (with the field puzzle attribute). Sooner or later someone who's, short of time, angry, already having a bad day, maybe trying to keep their streak going (and this is their only chance) will show up expecting to be able to open the container and sign the log in a minute or two. Even if they try to be responsible, anger and frustration, make accidents more likely. I'm also concerned about the glass container. Most of the one's I've found are already broken and the ones that aren't, usually soon are. I'd definitely have a backup or two already made and ready to go.

I agree. Why people think a gallon sized baggie is a good idea in a pint sized container always surprises me. Part of the baggie always ends up caught in the seal and lets water in. Even worse are containers placed inside a baggie. My experience at least has been that baggies do a poor job of keeping water out but a great job of keeping it in. Once a container inside a baggie gets wet it will stay wet forever.

Thanks everyone that took the time to respond to my question! I've been getting the plastic ammo cans from Harbor Freight. They appear to be identical to the "Plano" ones I've seen other places, but I haven't looked closely. The normal sale price is $3.99 but last fall they were $2.99 (normal price $6.99). They have a gasket but looking closely it doesn't look like it's being compressed when closed. Not a good thing. The one I submerged in a sink of water leaked badly. Yikes, around here you can get the real deal, metal ones for that. I always assume when I hide a cache that I'll be replacing the container sooner or later. It will get stolen, damaged, or just fail, so I try to keep the cost down and have lots of spares in reserve. At $2.99 the plastic ammo cans seemed ideal but now I'm not so sure. I still think they'll work okay as long as the spot isn't too wet and they're hidden upright. Time will tell.

There you go, I can probably find more... The thing is if you are using the, "new logging experience" the default log type is, "Owner Maintenance". It's easy for experienced cachers to forget to change it and new cachers assume (quite reasonably) that any log they post on one of their own caches should be OM. I think the default should either be "Write Note" or (like the old logging experience) no default. As long as it stays the way it is I find it hard to be very upset with people making this mistake.

Sadly, as someone who's put a lot of these in the field over the years (and have quite a few ready to go), I have to agree. I don't even think it's limited to UV exposure, just flexing the hinge over time wears it out. I wouldn't call them totally unacceptable but you'd better plan on replacing them regularly. ^^I just thought the above was worth repeating.^^ I've been using EDPM sulfur cured o-rings and so far they seem to hold up MUCH better than what comes with the typical Bison. Search online, I got several hundred in different sizes for only a few dollars. LOL, I don't use them but they're one of the most popular containers where I live. Some cachers take a lot of pills... (and yes, I agree, a very poor container) Has anyone had experience with plastic "ammo" cans? The one's I've found seem to hold up well and they're very cheap at that well know discount tool place (as low as $2.99) but my overnight leak test in a tub of water was disappointing.

This used to happen to me all the time so I got one of these. It's brutally expensive but there are cheaper alternatives. It's with my car keys and I don't leave home without it.

Seems reasonable to me that "Update Coordinates" should be part of the Admin Tools menu and not hidden in the Log Geocache drop down menu. I've seen a few cases where CO's have been using the "Corrected Coordinates" (hidden from others) feature to update their cache coordinates, believeing everyone can see what they're seeing. This can cause a lot of confusion.

Thank you!!!! I remember trying this last time when I was on the phone with the (very helpful, and knowledgeable) Garmin rep but it didn't work that time. This time success!!! Looks like I'm back in business . FWIW, I've owned more than a dozen Garmins going back to the 45 (circa 1992) and the Oregon 750 has been the most troublesome. While this may, "happen on all Garmin units and is usually caused by some bad HTML in a GPX file", I've only seen it on the 750. I loaded the same GPX using the same computer and program (GSAK) into my Oregon 650 with no issues. Again thanks for the help!

Unfortunately it won't boot in mass storage mode, just stops at the splash screen. I loaded the exact same file (to the same directory) in my Oregon 650 and it's working fine. Edited to add that a Garmin rep once told me to always load geocaches to the main memory and not the the card. I'm now wondering if that was good advice...

I've had this problem twice now and I'm curious if anyone else is seeing it. After loading geocaching into my Oregon 750 it locks up on the splash screen and won't start. None of the "hard" resets work and when this happened last summer the unit had to be replaced (under warranty). I'm now having the problem again with the replacement unit (now our of warranty since Oct 5 ). The only thing I can think of that might have happened is that the batteries died during startup and somehow corrupted the memory, but that's only a guess.

I noticed that the background wallpaper images seem to be missing from the 700 series. I kind of liked those. Am I missing something obvious or is there a workaround?

^^I agree with the above.^^ I headed out today to do maintenance on one of my caches that I'd disabled. I don't normally have my owned caches loaded in the GPS so I was planning on using the app... Bad plan. I've been trying to use, and get used to, the free app since apparently that's our choice going forward but so far the experience has been tedious and frustrating, especially when compared to the excellent, but no longer supported, paid app.

Now that you already figured out, don't forget to place your images on a photo sharing page first, so you can create an URL. That's it. Thanks for the quick reply. So how do I do that? Is there a page or tutorial for the less than technically inclined? I just upload them to my geocaching logs. Looking at your profile I see you have several images in your gallery so you already know how (but may not have realized it). Try this: Go to your public profile (here is a link). Across the top are a series of tabs. Select "Gallery". Click on the image you want to post and it will open in a window. Right click anywhere on the image and copy the URL. (In Chrome select "Copy image URL", in Firefox select "Copy image location") Finally in the forum select the, "Insert Image" button and paste the image URL into to box and click "insert image". It seems like a lot of steps but it goes quickly once you get the hang of it.