terrkan78

Don't see any numbers in any of them. Even after the edits.

I write logs for two audiences: 1. To thank the CO. 2. To tell future cache seekers about my experience, so they can decide if this cache is worth attempting. (I'm usually going after fairly remote caches that take a lot of time/effort to get to.) I consider #2 to be my primary focus, because when I'm searching the map for a good-looking cache to attempt, I use logs in making this determination. If I were to log a cache in a foreign country, I would translate it because my primary target audience isn't likely to bother (I wouldn't bother unless I desperately wanted more info about this particular cache). I would, however, worry that the Google translation will be really messed up.

You know...this had not previously occurred to me. I'm gonna start carrying around an ammo can for personal protection. Great idea! Thanks!

If you're in an urban area, the odds go up of muggles finding the cache, even if it is well camoed and off the beaten path (just because there are more people in a city park - even a big, forested city park). Are there any letterboxes nearby? I've seen instances where letterboxers were greatly displeased when a cache was published near their letterbox (I suspect not too many letterboxers would go around stealing geocaches, though). There have indeed been instances where geocaches have been targeted and stolen repeatedly (by geocachers, by environmentalists), but it's pretty rare. It's hard to say what's going on with your caches, and I'm sorry that's happening to you. It sounds like you put a lot of effort into your caches, and I know I really appreciate that in a cache owner. I tried making a fake rock once and ended up concluding it was completely impossible. Now that your hides have been compromised, I would find a new place, probably in a completely different area. I hope your next hides meet with far better luck. And I hope you don't give up - creative and caring cache owners are worth their weight in gold.

There's no question but that geocaching has changed. I also think there's no question but that I have changed since I started in 08. I found pretty much all geocaches amazing at first. I felt like I was on a big adventure when bushwhacking even a short distance. I hadn't been hiking for a couple of decades, so it was all new and exciting. I still seek out caches that I believe will hold adventure, but now days it takes a lot to impress me. I don't consider that a good change in my attitude. I can't stop my attitude/emotions from doing their thing, but what I have done is to stop and stare at random hills in the forest thinking, "You know, I could just make my way up to the top even though there's no cache up there." Because I wish there was a cache up there. I've also stuffed a .50 ammo can in my backpack (man, those suckers are heavy) just in case I want to deploy it at the top of one of those random hills. I think I can be content for a while searching for just the right spot for a (really heavy) ammo can. I find that I need a goal of some sort or I won't make it all the way to the top. But...why doesn't everybody wanna plunk down ammo cans on hilltops??? What is wrong with people! I hate chocolate ice cream! Vanilla rocks!

I have a dad. But he has no parents. Who would have thought that was genetically possible? Although I've tried everything I can think of, I have no children. Or at least I'm assuming it doesn't count when you drag someone with you once and they roll their eyes a lot, complain a lot, and never go again.

I craved FTFs until I got a couple. That did the trick. Right now I just crave ice cream. With heath bars and oreos and cookie dough all smashed up in there. Maybe hot fudge on top. Oh yeah, that sounds really good right now!!! I do have to admit, a FTF on a cache that's been out in the middle of nowhere, unfound, for years - that would be pretty sweet. I tried for one once - couldn't find it. I don't know if I'd call that a craving...I think I'd say it's more like pizza - quite good but not quite "crave" worthy.

There are so many caches within 100 mi. of me that are on my "I Must Go" list. I try to knock off one or two a year. I never know if I'm going to succeed in getting my vehicle close enough that I can walk in the rest of the way, but I have to at least go see. Out-of-the-way caches that are lucky to get found once every few years. Not another soul for miles. Yeah! My problem is once I go, I love it so much that I want to go back, and I do, which keeps me from finding other caches on my bucket list. What I'd really like is to drag someone back there with me and show them this awesome place, but I can't get people to go. "Hey, you've got to see this awesome rock - all we gotta do is drive three hours on pot-holed gravel roads, then scramble uphill through sticker bushes, poison oak and the like for several miles, steep enough that your cortex starts questioning the rest of your brain's sanity at some point, inevitably experiencing damage to some body part or article of clothing, and for your efforts you get to see this way cool rock! Wanna go???" I don't know why they don't fall for that!

I'm just going to add a little more detail to what BC & MsKitty said because the first time I tried to load a pocket query on to my 60csx, it involved much weeping and gnashing of teeth. 1. Create a pocket query. Download it when available. 2. Delete your old downloaded pocket query (if you have one) on your computer (this will help diminish some of the gnashing of teeth). 3. Open GSAK (I don't know how to do this without GSAK). 4. Click "Database" then "new." Name it whatever you want, then click "create." 5. Click "File" then "load GPX/LOC/ZIP File." Upload the pocket query file you just downloaded (use the browse thing on the top field - click the file folder of the most recent download, then click "open" - after that click "ok" down at the bottom). If you get this right, the files will take a min to extract and download. Click "ok" on the "load summary" page. 6. Plug the GPS in to the computer (after spending 2 hrs trying to find the blasted cable). Turn it on. Delete all the old caches/waypoints. Go to "find geocaches" - it'll be empty - that's ok - if it asks you if you want to set up the geocaches, say no. (I suspect this part might be slightly different on your unit.) 7. On the computer, using GSAK, click "GPS" then "send waypoints" then "send." Note: If you want the GPS to display the cache's difficulty/terrain/size/hint, this is the place where you tell GSAK to do that....on the "Send Waypoints to GPS" screen, under "Waypoint description format" type in: %dif/%ter %con1 %hint. This should result in the "note" screen on your unit giving you the cache's difficulty/terrain, container size (M=micro, S=small, R=reg, V=virt, U=unknown/not stated) and then the first 15 or so characters of the hint.

I haven't used a 60, but I've used a 60csx. First off, your iPhone is waaaaay more user friendly. I went from an iPhone 3G to a 60csx and found that pretty frustrating. If I'm reading the Internet correctly, the 60 doesn't have the ability to load outside maps (if so, that's a pretty big drawback if you're going to use it for hunting road-side caches - I'd probably still use my iPhone to find my way driving to GZ). The 60 (and the 60csx) can tell you the coordinates of a cache, the name of the cache, and you can program it to tell you the size/difficulty/terrain and about the first 15 characters of the hint (or at least I'm assuming the 60 has this capability; the csx does), but that's it. You don't get the whole hint. You don't get other people's logs. You don't get the description. It's tough finding caches this way, but doable. If you're keeping the iPhone, then the 60 can augment the iPhone, but it will never really replace it. I'd try loading one cache on the 60 and give it a whirl just to see if I thought it was more accurate than the iPhone. My iPhone was so old and slow that my 60csx was a marked improvement. But your phone is much newer and more accurate. To load one cache on there (or, actually, you're just putting a waypoint with the coords of a cache on there), hit the "mark" key, use the "arrow" keys to get down to the "location" field on the screen, re-write the coords that are showing up in that screen with the coords from the cache (use the "arrow" keys and the "enter" key), then use the "arrow" keys to go down to the "ok" on the screen, hit "enter" that to save it (you could also give it a name in the "name" field if you want - kind of a pain with the "arrow" and "enter" keys). Now that you've saved a waypoint for the cache, hit the "find" key, highlight "waypoints" using the "arrow" keys and hit "enter," then scroll down to the waypoint you just made and hit "enter" again. (If you don't see it on there, hit the "menu" button..."find nearest" will show you all waypoints close to you; "find by name" lets you search by name if the waypoint in question is too far away to show up under "find nearest"). Now that the GPS is set to find this waypoint, hit the "page" key until the compass screen comes up. Or keep scrolling through via the "page" key until the "map" screen comes up. Depending on the map quality, both the compass and the map pages will be what you use to find the cache. If you like, I can give detailed instructions on how to load a pocket query that includes the size/difficulty/terrain and about the first 15 characters of the hint that works for the 60csx and would hopefully would work on the 60 as well.

So if I'm understanding correctly, the person who found your TB just stuck it in the crook of a random tree rather than in a cache? If the guy's coords are good, he placed it fairly close to a cache ("OBI"). You might consider posting a note on the OBI cache asking finders to go a few clumps of trees to the north and rescue your TB. You might also consider e-mailing the owner of OBI and seeing if they would grab the TB next time they do maintenance on OBI. You could also put out a request on tb-rescue.com I hope it gets rescued!

I had a 1/4. Apparently that combo is a little on the rare side (I didn't know that at the time). I decided subsequently that T4 was a little too high and wanted to lower it to T3.5, but by then someone had mentioned their joy at getting the 1/4 spot filled in on their grid. I left it alone - to do otherwise would have been inconsiderate to that individual. Yes, leaving it inaccurate was arguably inconsiderate to future finders, but being a half-point off in terrain accuracy is not likely to be that big of a deal to future finders (at least not in the mid-range), and it was likely to be a big deal to the past finder. The inaccurate rating bugged me though, and when it got stolen I archived it. I'll eventually place a new one with a better T rating. Problem solved for all.

I like perusing the map, hunting for awesome-looking caches to aim for. I always read the cache page and some of the logs, because that's how I make my subjective "awesome" determination. It's easy and convenient to read the cache page from my desktop. However, on my way to awesome, I will usually hit some others that happen to be on my route. Then I'm looking at my teeny GPS screen (not easy/convenient). These caches are usually right next to the road (which greatly lowers any possible awesome factor in my opinion, although sometimes I'm surprised) and I don't usually read anything on the cache page until I've searched for a little bit and can't find it. One way to entice people to read the description is to put the cache in a location where they're not likely to know how to get there unless they read the description. If you plunk a traditional in some seldom-used, unimproved park land with no roads right there, they're more likely to go to the cache page searching for info.

If it was an ammo can, I'd replace it with something cheaper now that someone's found the spot. I'd consider doing the same if it was a lock & lock (hopefully they'll not bother stealing a re-purposed peanut butter jar...unless, of course, it actually was an animal). I'm not sure I'd move it too much - I'd make the assumption that if they found it once, they can do so again even if they are a muggle. I've always enjoyed hiking off trail, but it never occurred to me to stop and look inside stumps, tree hollows, etc., prior to geocaching. I see some pretty fun notes from muggles in geocaches, some at surprisingly remote locations. One was from mushroom hunters. One was from a parent/child who came back repeatedly and logged their visits (with the parent explaining how much the kid liked coming back to find this thing). Most don't mention why on earth they were searching around this particular tree in the middle of nowhere.

I love caches like that! I've maybe found a grand total of five like that. It must be an environmental difference, but when I get to GZ, there's always a zillion places it could be. I never pick the right place first (or second or third or tenth). If it's a micro, that just upps it from zillion to gadzillion.

I just saw this post. If you haven't found a place to start your TB yet, I can start it out in the Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Maybe a fake bolt? A magnetic metal plate? A magnetic sticker (with a log sheet on back)? And then again maybe it got lost after the last person found it so it's really not there anymore. There's been many times I've DNFd a cache that others have called "easy." *sigh*

I thought about clicking on your siggy link yesterday. I thought about it again a few minutes ago when I came back to this thread. Then I read this post: Now I can't click on your siggy link. Cuz you'll know. (or at least your traffic counter will know) *sigh*

Assuming it even dawned on me to say the hint out loud, I'd pronounce "Ms. Ingston" as "Mizz 'Ing-stun" (emphasis on the Ing). I don't think I'd manage to turn "Mizz 'Ing-stun" into "missing stone" without an "e" at the end of Ingston. I'd treat it as though no hint were provided and hopefully find it without. Certainly it's fine to not provide a hint, and I tell myself I'm out of line if I get irked over cryptic hints, but deep down it feels like I've been left out of an inside joke. Ridiculous, yes, but true. This is where (and why) the irk originates. My head knows that's stupid. My heart, on the other hand, well...it just irks it's way along.

AAUGH! It's only a few blocks from my home. I've lost count of how many times I've looked for it. I'd swear it's not there, but others find it on occasion.

I'd have no clue what your hints mean without a smart phone to Google it (and I don't have one currently). For me, those hints would be the same as no hint.

I don't think geocaches are appropriate locations for religious tracts. If I find anything in a cache that bugs me, I trade for it and pitch it. Doesn't matter why it bugs me. Doesn't matter if I'm the only person in the universe bugged by that item. I've don't think I've ever found a tract in a cache but I've found plenty of paper products, usually slimy moldy messes. Paper and geocaches are a bad mix period, at least in my neck of the woods. If I find something I consider garbage (like slimy paper), I may not bother trading for...depends on the cache (a decent container that simply hasn't been found for a long time I'm more likely to fix up and leave new swag; a crappy container that's just going to leak again right off the bat, no).

How cool! This is my neck of the woods. I put a link on a couple local FB pages to see if anyone who's been around longer than me knows ranjen11 (they're not very active FB pages, so I'm not expecting much of a response). Neat story - thanks for sharing!

Multi's do take more effort per smiley. Sometimes a lot more effort per smiley. If all the stages are lame, then it's a lot of work with very little reward - and I agree, it's not worth it. It's hard to tell if it's going to be a lame multi without simply trying it and finding out (although reading prior logs and checking out fave points might help). Multi's with physical stages have a far greater chance of DNF. I DNF them all the time. And some CO's flat out don't provide solid clues for each stage. That's indeed frustrating. I hate it when I'm a couple stages into a multi, can't find the blasted thing and the hint is something that I just shake my head at and say WTF? But...sometimes a multi will take you on a trail you never knew existed, to amazing rock formations or abandoned structures off trail that you never would have found on your own, and even though you only get one smiley for a whole day's worth of hiking, it's the best day ever. And that smiley - you feel kind of proud of it, because you actually had to work for that smiley. The CO could have put out a bunch of traditionals along the trail and upped the reward for that day's worth of hiking, but somehow that cheapens it (I'm not exactly sure why)

When I started Geocaching, I saw "TFTC" everywhere, so that's what I typed. That seemed to be the custom, so who was I to deviate? However, I'm one of the only people who realized that a log can be edited (hey everyone, why not go fix those 'TFTC' logs right now?), so I went to each of my early logs and typed something better. I like the blurb idea. Did it work? Sorry - I took forever to get back to this thread. It seemed to me that this CO got better logs overall than other CO's with similar caches, so perhaps the blub had at least a little impact. If nothing else, it did make me put more effort into my logs...although I have to admit, I was a little taken aback at reading the blurb the first time. Interesting thread! Moun10bike's stats surprised me. And hermit crabs' unpublished cache is hilarious!