terrkan78

Interesting observations! If the geocaching trips you speak of usually involve much of a walk, then you're talking about a certain subgroup of geocachers (some cachers hike/walk, some don't). In my experience hikers seem to have a lot in common, whether they geocache or not. But you're saying that the non-geocaching hikers of your acquaintance are more apt to be late than the geocachers. I've never hiked with a non-geocaching group, so I can't compare. The geocachers I've hiked with were punctual, and although I'm frequently late to things I don't particularly want to go to, I won't be late for something I love, like hiking. Maybe that's it. Maybe the geocachers are doing something they want to do, rather than something they feel obliged to do. But I'd expect the non-geocaching hikers to feel the same way. Odd.

If it's a cache out in the middle of nowhere (a several mile hike) with very little traffic, then the odds go up that a listed trackable is really in the cache. If someone just placed the trackable a day or two ago into the cache (you can check that ahead of time) the odds go up that the newly placed trackable hasn't been taken yet. I kind of view trackables as pleasant surprises. If I notice that a trackable is supposed to be in the cache and I get my hopes up, I'll probably be disappointed (I used to do that). If I don't pay any attention to the trackable status, then once in a while I'm happily surprised.

I made a public bookmark list of my absolute most favorites. I did this after doing a great cache one day, noticing that someone else had put that cache on their own "favorites" bookmark list, realizing that we liked the same types of caches, and had a ball going after the caches on their list (all of which were awesome by my standards). Ever since, if I really like a cache, I always take a look and see if someone else has included it on a "favorites" type public bookmark list - it's a great way to find a ready-made list of caches that I will probably really like. It helps to include a blurb (on the bookmark list) about why the cache was great so that others can tell if it meets their own "great" scale.

I've traditionally brought along tuna that comes in a pouch (vs. a can), but I don't particularly like tuna. Recently I found chicken packaged like that - much better. Canned chicken with a pop-off top is ok, but kind of messy and a little heavier in the backpack. I also like Kashi GoLean cereal - I bring a baggie full of that, a pouch of chicken and a lot of water...plenty of protein, low on calories, tastes ok (not as good as a Cliff bar, but better on the calories).

Interesting! So if I'm understanding right, a virtual (information-gathering) stage of a multi is on a big, high-traffic bridge, and you are required to sit on an i-beam (with a zillion cars blowing past you only a couple feet away from where you sit) while you try to find the numbers under the i-beam? If you can access the numbers without actually sitting on the i-beam (in other words, if you can fully stand/sit/kneel on the pedestrian side and read the numbers), then that's one thing, but if you actually have to get halfway into the traffic side of the i-beam (by sitting on it), then that's another. Permission (by the bridge authority) would be an issue for the latter but not for the former.

I thought Eugene, Oregon, was fairly well saturated, but it's only 968, which is a drop in the bucket compared to some of these numbers!

I really like geocoins. They seem to go missing faster than travel bugs, though. This coin was my first trackable, from Feb. 2009. It traveled around Oregon and California for half a year before a TB hotel that it was placed into was muggled (with all the trackables inside lost in the process). It was nice while it lasted.

You never know what the TO (trackable owner) would like...some would like their trackable to move far and wide and they don't mind taking chances with high traffic caches if it means their trackable will move faster. Others would prefer their trackable never visit a high traffic cache since the odds of going missing are so much higher there. All you really can do is move it to a cache where you'd feel comfortable leaving a trackable that belonged to you, and hope the TO is ok with it. Most TOs will just be happy you moved it along, irregardless of where you leave it. I used to place trackables in high traffic caches along the freeway so they'd move, but I've started favoring more remote caches (although I don't place other people's trackables in really difficult puzzle/challenge finals or caches that only get found once every year or two - however, I'll leave my own trackables in caches like that).

The line between multi-caches and puzzle/mystery caches (with multiple stages) is sometimes blurred. If you go to one stage and it gives you coords to the next, etc., it's a multi. If you go to one stage and the cache description tells you to gather info from a sign which you put into a formula and figure out the coords to the next stage, etc., it's a multi (an "off-set" multi). If you go to one stage and the paper inside that stage tells you to go 50 paces east, project a waypoint, or follow a pirate map to the red X, etc., in my opinion it's a puzzle/mystery. However, I've seen some of these examples listed as multi-caches.

There indeed are lots of caches with trackables listed that are missing. I haven't noticed it getting any worse lately - it's always been a problem. My guess is that not too many trackables are flat out stolen; I think most are likely taken with intent to move it on and then lost or forgotten. Geocoins seem to be stolen more often than travel bugs (apparently some turn up for sale on ebay). I have wondered myself why someone would take a trackable, log it, and then hold on to it for months (and years), caching all the while. I have one trackable that's been held hostage for almost two years now. If they are "visiting" your trackable to caches, they may have their smartphone app set to "auto log" the visits - in other words they may have lost the trackable months ago but their phone keeps on automatically logging it as a visit with every cache they find. If they're not "visiting" the trackable to caches, then again they may have lost it. You can write and ask them, but it's rare to get a reply. (Although the guy who's holding on to mine did reply - he said he had cancer...apparently not the kind of cancer that stops him from geocaching, but rather the kind of cancer that stops him from putting my micro geocoin into a cache. I've written that one off and, heck, maybe he's even telling the truth.)

Unfortunately, trackables get held hostage all the time. All you can really do is politely ask them a couple of times to move it on (because if you ask impolitely/repeatedly, they're not apt to comply - but, frankly, they're not apt to comply in any event). One other thing you can do change the name of your TB to ***MISSING***[then add in the rest of the name]. If my understanding is correct, the coin will then appear in their inventory with this new attention-getting name. I had that work once - well, sort of, anyway. The guy holding my geocoin hostage did send me an e-mail after I changed the name of the coin (and I marked it missing as well - I'm not sure which action got his attention), but he never did actually put it in a cache.

You generally can't see what GPS they're using from their profile (they'd have to type that info in there specifically). It shows on your own profile (assuming you told geocaching.com what kind of GPS you use), but it's not part of your public profile. Sometimes you can tell from people's logs what type of GPS they're using. If your question is in response to some of the discussion about smart phone users, I think the assumption is that because travel bugs started going missing more often around the same general time frame that smart phones became popular for geocaching, that new smart phone cachers are to blame (at least in part). I started caching (with a smart phone at first) at the beginning of the smart phone geocaching explosion, so I haven't been around long enough to know if indeed trackables used to fare better before smart phones came on the scene. It does seem like I find less trackables now than I did a few years ago, but I suspect the reasons for that are many. And my own caching habits have changed since then, too - so maybe I'm just not hitting the right type of caches anymore to find trackables. I'm pleasantly surprised when I find one.

Do you mean I did something wrong there ? Oh, and some other question too. I understand that there are lists of TB-numbers, then, so that anybody can log the TB, even if he didn't discover it ? Why would you like to do that ? Isn't that cheating ? You don't have to delete duplicate logs on your trackables, but you can if you like. The "poor data coverage" just means that if you try to log something from your phone when you've only got one bar of cell service, it might tell you that the log failed to go through, so you try again, and again, but in reality the logs were going through so now you have several of the same thing. Or you actually do just submit it once but because you're on the fringes of cell service, three duplicate logs mysteriously appear. With respect to logging trackables that you never actually saw, some people are very much into that. If it's a geocoin, then they get a new icon on their profile page for logging it (so they're collecting icons). Or maybe it's just the appeal of seeing their trackable numbers going up, I'm not sure. I would consider it cheating, but I don't think everyone agrees with that assessment.

It adds a fun element to the hike.

One of my lost geocoins has recently surfaced. It was picked up by a brand new cacher in August 2010 (who never logged any finds). They posted a note to the TB page in September 2013 saying they'd found it in their house. We exchanged a few e-mails (they asked what to do with it) and eventually they put it into a cache. It's very nice to have it back in play. Caching Peeps Geocoin Photo of the coin with its "peeps brethren" from someone last week:

Expensive equipment? Any smartphone with a FREE app can read QR codes and since my smartphone is cheaper than a lot of GPSr's out there not sure why you think there is expensive equipment involved. If you already have the smartphone, then the equipment isn't expensive. If you have a dumbphone (as I do), then the necessary equipment is incredibly expensive - like $130/mo. (as opposed to $15/mo. for my dumbphone) for the kind of data plan needed to geocache with the phone. It's the price of the plan that's the problem, not the price of the phone. To the OP: I would list it as an "unknown" type. That ensures people will read the cache page and not be unpleasantly surprised when they get to the QR stage.

I'm farther north than Grants Pass. There is a local forum for southern Oregon though at this link: SOGEO (just in case you didn't already know about it).

I was thinking I'd logged one or two recently that were at 100%, but I'm not finding them now. Here's one (in Oregon) published in 2003 that's at 80%: GCGJQM

I like inside-the-city-but-feels-like-you're-out-in-the-boonies locations. This is why I check on my caches regularly. I choose locations because I like the experience that getting to those locations brings. I want others to have a similar experience. One of my hides had a massive homeless camp spring up close to GZ. I'm glad I found this out via a maintenance visit before someone else went out there and had a bad experience.

What I find odd is the NA was logged on September 8th. It's now the 12th and the cache hasn't been disabled yet. I'd have thought that an NA log for angry landowner reasons would have gotten a more immediate response. Perhaps contact is taking place privately, but I'd still expect the cache to be disabled while things are being sorted out. Odd.

Although the cache container itself must stay put, there should be way to incorporate finding Waldo into a puzzle cache. Make finding Waldo integral to obtaining the coords for the cache - and I don't see why Waldo can't be a moving target. There are bonus caches for which you have to find a certain TB in order to obtain the coords to the cache - certainly a moving target. Assuming that sort of thing is still allowed (and I haven't heard that it isn't - although but I could be wrong there). If the moving target was findable, yet still challenging (because of its constant movement), it could be a fun puzzle cache.

I have a two-stage cache where you take the "treasure map" out of the first stage, follow it to the final, then return the map to the first stage. I keep three maps in the first stage to forestall issues with them disappearing. I find them crumpled up or torn with some regularity (it's a kid-friendly cache, and I'm assuming that's the kids' handiwork), but the maps don't out-and-out disappear very often - maybe only three or four times since the cache was published in 09. I've slowly been working on making a four-stage multi that will use "tools" a little more similar to what you're describing. I think it's inevitable that some will go missing (and I'm making multiples of the tools), but it's not published yet so I don't have any data. It might be helpful to label each tool as to which stage it goes back into. I could envision a situation where the cacher is holding multiple tools upon reaching the final and can't remember which tool goes where on the return trip. Finally, a local cache that published in April has a very beat-up but usable digital camera inside with a note asking people to take a selfie. I found it shortly after publication and wondered if the camera would last. It's still there.

I was curious so I looked into it. According to this old thread, there's a program for it: Link to forum thread

You may already know this, but the reviewer is apt to give the CO some time to fix his hide before archiving it. In Oregon, 30 days seems to be the norm. Sometimes this is done via a note on the cache page for all to see, and I believe that sometimes it's done via e-mail (so you might not see any action on the cache page, but that doesn't necessarily mean nothing's happening). So, in other words, it might be a while before the cache is archived. Perhaps even into the snow season. I looked Mailbox Peak up - looks like an awesome hike! I'll have to put it on my "someday" list.

Sometimes people leave them as gifts (particularly geocoins), but usually it says so on an attached note. I'd hesitate to assume that's the case here, but if it were me, I'd give it several months (and several e-mails), then activate it if I heard nothing back from them.