The Cache Checkers

I love it when people post pics with the TB's. I'm so glad your son is having a good experience. My son chose a gold slug geocoin because it has a slug imprinted on it, but it's MIA after only being in two caches.

I think when people refer to pill bottles being horrible containers they mean these: This is exactly what I found earlier today. My first pill bottle and I was surprised at the sight. It was along the fence line of a cemetary with woods on the other side, so no one could see the bright orange container with the torn off label in a tree stump unless they were looking for it. The log was wet all the way through, I barely got it out without pulling off pieces.

One I traveled to last summer here in Ohio had a great story to it. I don't remember what it was called, but the word troll was in the name. He tells a story about trolls being rescued or something and that you need to find them and give them a new home. I thought maybe he was being literal and took my son with me who loves trolls and action figures, but when we got there, we were surprised to find it full of the 35 MM film canisters, each with it's own plastic bagged log. The canisters were the trolls that he wanted the cachers to adopt and asked that finders post on his cache page where they gave them a new home, meaning where they became micro caches, so he could visit them in the future. My son was bummed they weren't real trolls, but I thought it was great.

Dipping them doesn't sound like any fun to me. I only have a few TB's that are out there, but love it when I get an email that they've made it somewhere. But, then again, maybe if I had kept my son's slug geocoin, it wouldn't be MIA after only one pick up. Sigh.

Hi all, I've read through the posts about PQ's having trouble and just wanted to make sure it wasn't on my end because here it is Monday afternoon and I'm still not able to see my results. I did the Caches Along a Route for a trip in a couple weeks with specific cache requirements, i.e., type, size, terrain/difficulty, distance to cache from my route, and have TB's in them, so I won't get a ton of results. When I did it this way back in the fall, I got a response in seconds. But now, when I follow the link on the PQ page or the one in the email I have, it doesn't load up and eventually goes to the IE screen where it says the page can't be viewed. I've tried it on my laptop, my hubby's which is much faster than mine, and a small desktop with the same result. This is only the second time I've used a PQ, so I wanted to ask here to make sure I'm doing it right. Edited for typos

When I get together over the holidays in N. Michigan with my sister's, we always go caching together. One morning one sis and I were up first and talking of going up to the ski resort and finding one we read about and believed to be off the ground in a tree next to a snowmobile trail. We were dressed and ready to go when my other sis came out of the room she was staying in during her visit. She had no windows in there and didn't realize the time. She knew what we were about to do, but we were leaving, so she just pulled on her boots and coat and ran out behind us in her flannel PJ's and morning breath! I had to take a picture of my two sister's, one in obvious PJ's, holding a cache in front of a tree, snow up past the shins. Great memories.

Funny, funny. I've looked unde quite a few boardwalks, but always with my rat terrier, who can fit in the smallest of places. I've used her as an excuse a few times, stepping back, holding my end of the leash and saying, Whatcha' got, Kit? What is it? Find it, find it! It gets my dog all worked up and makes my being under a boardwalk not so suspicious.

I was given a TomTom a year ago last October and while researching it online I discovered geocaching. I did use it at first and with practice I was able to find the area of the cache fairly quickly. However, a TomTom is not meant to be held in the palm of your hand. I was always scared of dropping and breaking it. Thankfully, that never happened. You don't always get good signal in the woods, either. It wasn't meant for that. I use it now to get me to the general area, but it is road locked or sometimes doesn't even see the road, so my Magellan Triton handheld comes in hand for that. With it, I enter the coords and simply follow the arrow along the line to the cache. I rarely even look at the numbers anymore. I stop when my arrow icon is on the flag icon, pocket the GPS and use my eyes to find it.

Not only do you not want it there for other people to eat, you don't want it there for animals to sniff out and destroy the cache getting to it. Next time, take it out and throw it away. It's better for everyone if you do and don't worry about having to place something in there for taking it out. Consider it garbage.

I also didn't get any new notifications for a couple w/in the 25 mile radius I selected.

I set mine up to notify me when a traditional cache (this doesn't include multi's) is newly published within 25 miles of me. I've noticed that sometimes it doesn't work though. The one I found today was published end of Feb., but I saw it only because I logged into geocaching.com.

One of the reasons I became a PM is to find caches on a route from my home in NE Ohio to a family get together in VA. You have to really play with it because at first, you'll get a whole lot of results! I didn't want to spend too much time in traveling off the freeway and I had kids with me, so I chose only regular sized ones or larger, within 2 miles of the freeway and to even bring those big resulrt numbers down, I told it to give me results with TB's in them. There are many TB hotels and such near freeways. I think the final tally was 25-30, of which I read the cache pages and all the logs to determine if it was something I had the time to do and was OK for my kids and our dog. I love this feature and will use it again the same way as I travel from Ohio to my hometown in N. Michigan the first week of April.

I like to find caches that have themes: CD's, PEZ Dispensers, Nature themed items, toys for boys, toys for girls (these caches weren't very far apart), but often, especially as the cache gets older, you don't find any themed items anymore. I say go for it, but try not to get too upset when you return to find people aren't following your theme.

Even though my hubby has his own, older version of my TomTom, he asked to take mine for the ride in a rental car out of state on a business trip. Since winter was in full swing, I had no desire to go caching, so I didn't ask for it back. I assumed it was in good hands. The week after his trip, I get a phone call from a stranger saying she had my GPS, only knowing who's it was from the start up screen with my name and phone number. This woman was driving in Cananda, thinking someone was in her trunk because the GPS had been pushed down inbetween the back seat cushions and was too muffled for her to hear what it was saying, but she was indeed hearing a voice! LOL She finally pulled it out and ended up using mine because her unit, which I don't recall the model, wasn't working for her in Canada. I remember my hubby rolling his eyes when he saw my startup screen, asking why I put my phone number in there. If I hadn't, he'd be up a creek without a paddle right now! First name and phone number is all I had in my GPS and I was lucky that an honest person found it.

But I was turned off by this one. I didn't find it, because I don't want to look for hides by any of the grave markers...even in the bushes next to the graves. I just don't like digging right there next to a memorial. So I always look at the solitary trees, fences, woods. I didn't find this one because, apparently, it was at the base of this good sized memorial. What are your opinions of this? I have done many cemetery finds and the majority are in the tree line or at the root/hole of a tree.

Carry a garbage bag around with you and actually pick up trash while you're looking.

Thanks for all your opinions, I'm gonna go for them and am hoping they are more than just hanging from trees. It would be so nice to find a fake bird or something of that nature. I haven't found anything like that yet. In case your curious, here is one of the hides GC1XHMV at the Mosquito Creek State Park. I am no way complaining as I haven't seen one of his hides yet, although I read about one of them, something like Fool Proof, has been really hard to find. So hard that many people have begun pulling the bark off the trees in search of it. If I don't find them, I don't find them. I'll be disappointed, but I'll be back on those trails again.

I haven't seen anyone yet, and in my area, it could be hunters parked where I would park as a geocacher. I have a license plate frame, but can't get the rusted plate off to put it on! I also have a Signal head attached to the top of my van antenna.

I'm fine with thorns. Battle scars. LOL

Hi all, I didn't think micro's were so bad, even in the woods. I'll give them a go, makes me work harder on seeing what's around me. There's a park not too far from me I want to hike the trails on this weekend. I looked for some caches and was just in heaven seeing how many are out there. I was surprised to find the majority of them are micro's, and one series on a trail is almost nothing but micro's. I have a feeling that I'm going to work my butt off, literally, walking around these trails but leave with a small amount of smiley's. Why so many micro's in a series set in the woods? There aren't any hints given, either.

With all due respect, I still think you are confused. I understand that you want to hide a micro to prove to your child and to other cachers that micros can be fun. But the container you prepared isn't big enough for something else you want to do, which is to offer a cache that's big enough for travelers and swag. You're trying to have it both ways. Some micro containers can hold swag, but it must be tiny swag. It's part of the definition of micro. If you want a cache that's big enough for trading and for small travel bugs, you need a small. Right now you have hidden a container that is disappointing to you, and that you suspect would be disappointing for kids, because it's too small for swag or coins. You tried to get around that by putting inside something that would not be a suitable container on its own. So you've got a disappointing container inside a substandard container. Your desire to hide a fun micro is coming into conflict with your wish to offer a cache where kids can trade decent-sized swag and drop off travel bugs. That is why I said you might have ideas for two caches here. Right now the log is on the outside of the container because I filled it full of quarters for the FTF. One someone finds it and claims that prize, then I can put the log in there. Some travel coins like the slug that's in there and path tags will fit. Thanks to Sol Seaker for posting those links. I have every right to put in there what I hope will happen with my cache. I know very well that most people won't give a hoot, and that's OK with me. But there is probably a mom or dad out there that can say, Hey, JR. Let's go find this micro, there should be something in there for you. Doubt it, but possible.

I apologize if this is a repeat, I didn't read all the posts, but I almost always bring up the coords in Google Earth. That way I can get a bird's eye view of where I'll be going and what's in the vicinity, parking and such. You can also send the CO an email and ask them questions.

My boys are I last fall were heading out to our first FTF. I saw another couple behind me, so I let my boys run around in the open field off the paved path because I didn't want the other adults to see me go off trail. The other adults were slowing down...looking at me, looking at the woods. Then I saw her holding something and then I knew what they were doing. I called them out and they laughed. Together we went into the woods and shared the FTF. Luck was with us cuz there were two TB's in there.

I replied to this.... I say it sucks if you found it, made a comment about not liking the hide, and the CO deleted it because he didn't like what you said.

I don't know why you're dead set on hiding a micro, and then trying to convince people that micros can be fun while at the same time admitting that a micro isn't big enough for what you want to do. Maybe you have ideas for two caches here. At any rate, what's done is done. It's hidden. It's a micro. One micro container that will hold a quarter is a "buoy-shaped" floating keychain. They are about as big around as a film can, but have a pointy lid that pops off. Here's a photo, not guaranteed to last, at a promotional products site. You can sometimes find them at your local Wally World, in the boating section. The other way you could make a micro more fun, other than with swag and tiny geocoins, is to make it a fun hide. A micro disguised as something, that's obviously out of place, at least for a cacher. Or making fun of yourself by listing it as a micro, but putting it in a bigger container (and I don't mean a sandwich bag). If you read my info page, you would understand why I'm "dead set" on hiding a micro. If you cached with older kids, you'd understand why I wanted to do this. When I say I want to find a coupel of "mama caches" to my boys, they don't want to come because they aren't fun. I'm still new to this. I will look around for a container that's wider so I can fit more goodies in there. I put a lot of info in my cache page and the hint to help an older kid find it. I don't have two caches in mind for this. I want kids to want to find this micro because there is actually something in it. I will check on it often as it's not far from my house and replace the baggie if need be.