AuntieWeasel

I *love* finding knives in caches. Because I'm obligated to trade for them, and I really like knives. When we die, my husband is totally going to get the blame for my knife stash.

Or just split into teams and see who can do the most in a day. Be warned -- if these are eight people who've never cached before -- some people "get" geocaching right away, love it and are hooked. Some people never get the point and don't hugely enjoy it. Sounds like you're in Group A. Don't be shocked if some of your friends are in Group B.

I did a multi with a stage on the top level of a parking garage. My luck, it was closed for repairs and covered in snow and my hiking companion was on crutches and we got shoo'd out by mall security. Not much fun.

Another one? Has there been a rash of sockpuppetry lately? Oh, well. I'm always willing to play along until the gag is revealed.

Try to make it fun for yourself. Read the description and other people's logs and photos and see if you can pull up everything you remember about the day. Then write it down as your log. Or not. I realize not everybody finds writing stuff down fun. But I know I vividly remembered every single cache I did until I hit 500 or so. I still remember nearly all.

Mmmmmm...bacon!

Don't worry about it. It opens up a whole lot of territory for new caches. Familiar locations, new smilies! We are many; they are few. Just be careful where you put TB's for a while.

Bolding mine. I don't see how that answers the original question at all. If dude is selling caching t-shirts, how does that not reasonably relate to caching? OP: put a link in your sig. Lot of it about. Ahem. Just saying. <koff>

Hm. Is that a cherry tree?

...a weasel, a stoat and a nearsighted dog walk into a bar...

This is easily one of the tamest and politest forums I've participated in. One thing is certain: no matter the tone of a forum, from time to time someone is ALWAYS going to pop up and ask "why is everyone so negative here?" I consider the question extraordinarily hostile. The question itself is negative. It puts regulars on the defensive -- especially if it's not true. It's likely to start trouble -- especially if it's true. It's like walking into a neighborhood pub or a cafe full of locals and saying, "why is the wallpaper so horribly ugly in here?" Why would you do it? No good can come of it.

I've tried a variety of sticks over time. My favorite is still a cheap, collapsible Wal*Mart springy trekking pole. Cost me $10. Was. I left it in the passenger side of the car I sold when I moved.

Yes. It totally matters.

...when my heart skipped a beat in the Tupperware aisle of the supermarket...

If the GPS is pointing more than 500' off the trail you're on, you're probably on the wrong trail. Lost count of the number of times I bushwhacked .10 only to find a lovely trail leading right to the cache. The hider almost certainly didn't mean you to ditch your car as soon as the cache looked close enough to bushwhack for. I bet there's obvious parking and a trail somewhere. If you've been looking in one area a long time with no luck, try walking in a totally different direction, way past where your GPS is sending you, then turn and walk back again from the new angle. There is always more than one of the hint item. And you will always go to the wrong one first. You're most likely to see wildlife when you've been quiet and still for five minutes. Rest a lot. Spend time looking over the log book.

My first caching in the UK, I was using a Garmin little yellow -- manual input of coords. Man, I hated that flipping meridian! I was forever forgetting to check which side of it we were caching on, and screwing up the waypoints.

Huh. You probably left before the paedophile craze hit the UK. England is the only place I've ever been chased out of a public park by a pack of jeering, hooting feral children. Wasn't even a school; just a small bit of public land with a duck pond. We're a harmless, gray-haired couple in late middle age. But I had a camera around my neck, so they decided we were there to take pervy pictures of their scabby selves. My least favorite caching experience ever.

I'm a chatty logger -- though the length of my logs will be vaguely in proportion to the degree I enjoyed the cache. I'm not going to write a novel for a lampskirt hide-a-key. Unless something interesting happened while I was finding it. Also, pictures. Pictures are excellent in logs.

I think the California quarter is a great idea for a European trip. Coins make really good swag, provided they are old or from far away. I used to leave European coins, buffalo nickels, mercury dimes. I left mine in little coin envelopes with a rubberstamp of my avatar. It pleased me when the next finder logged that he'd taken it.

Sure. Not visible to others is the default. It only becomes visible to the reviewer when you click the box to...make public, I think it is. It's been a long time and I'm not a prolific hider.

I'm really awful at hides involving rocks. In a pile of rocks, no rock ever looks out of place. My least favorite hint is "under a rock" on a beach strewn with 100,000 rocks.

It's surprising how often this one comes up. It must be pretty invisible when you don't know where to look.

Heh. I made a bunch of stuff like that. Personally, though, I rely on having a decent-looking camera and making a big fuss of taking pictures.

Dude! Go out and find a cache RIGHT NOW. Time's a-wasting...

Yes. Yes, it is.