Lostnspace

Saturday, July 5th, 1800 hours EDST, the Statistics tab is now working again for me with Chrome and Windows 8, also with Firefox and Win 8. Hopefully the problem has been resolved.

Congratulations, now you can being working on the all new "Double Platinum" Earthcache Master award. Oh wait, Double Platinum is for the Grammy's. :-) The great thing about the ECM program is that it requires people to not just find earthcaches but to create them as well. Once you've gone to the effort to create one, it certainly gives you an all new appreciation for all of those ECs that you've been finding and enjoying!

I've ordered 24 pathtags for myself, and 10 tags for others, all delivered on time and without any problems at all. I was a member of the Geocoin Club for several years and no problem whatsoever. From the looks of the comments that have been posted here, it looks like your original post has led to resounding support for Pathtags.com and the Geocoin Club.

[Forgive me for quoting and bolding just the pertinent part of your post.] This is the most disturbing part of the entire earthcache debacle, and you are not the only one that has archived their earthcaches. I am one of those folks that absolutely love earthcaches, and I have met the requirements and physically been to each and every location. I have had some of my greatest geocaching experiences at earthcaches. I have gotten sunburns, bug bites & poison ivy, muddy boots and frozen extremities at some of these earthcaches, and I wouldn't want it any other way. That's what makes the achievement worthwhile, and armchair loggers, and those that are just trying to inflate their fradulent count are the real losers. I have only created five earthcaches but I intend to create more. I want to give back to the earthcache community and creating new ECs is the best way to do it. To those who have put in a lot of effort creating an earthcache and are getting frustrated with the few armchair loggers spamming their cache - Just ignore them. The loss is theirs. I will continue to post my ugly ol' face in a photo taken at each earthcache that I find and log. EC photos are one of the most enjoyable parts of each cacher's profile, and I proudly show off the places where I've been. Thanks to each one of you that has created an earthcache, and a extra special thanks to those of you who will continue to keep your ECs active.

I have had a life-long love for rocks, especially geodes. I began geode hunting and collecting 40 years ago, and Tennessee is a great source for those beautiful, crystal-lined hollow rocks. I started geocaching in '04; When I completed my 1,000th find it was also my 100th Earthcache find. I have created five ECs thus far. I've had no formal training other than a few college science courses, but I did read a lot of National Geographic magazines while growing up.

Our reviewer has always stated 0.1 miles (or 528' feet) is the minimum distance between caches. I did get one posted that was a little bit less than that because the two caches were separated by a river, and the minimum distance by land from one cache to another was well over the minimum distance required.

In my case, you wait for Southwest Airlines to offer a great deal on airfare ($99 from Nashville to Seattle), then contact Annie at Groundspeak HQ (awesome lady) to get an appt. to meet the staff, get the tour and find the cache at Groundspeak, make the drive to the original Cache Stash and hike to the Mission 9: Tunnel of Light Project APE cache. GeoTriad Coin: $10, Cost of trip: $1000, Completing the GeoTriad: PRICELESS!!

I don't understand the problem with micro caches. If you don't like micros, don't look for them. If you don't want to find a park and grab cache, just avoid it. I hate poison ivy, so I quit looking for a cache the moment I see the coords are leading me to the three-leaf wonderland. If it's raining or terrible weather, I don't want to make a hike for a find if I'm not dressed for the conditions. If I have a layover and only a few minutes to grab a find to complete another state on my US map of finds, a woodland cache is out of the question. A quick park and grab is perfect for that situation. Micro caches are prolific because a lot of cachers are trying to give back to the community by hiding caches for others to find. I have tried to keep a 10% ratio, for every 100 finds I try to place 10. Yes, I've placed a lot of micros. Some in rather boring locations that serve as nothing but a quick park and grab. But you know what? People are very appreciative of my micros, whether they are guard rail fun caches, light pole cover caches, or micros at the base of a stop sign. Why do I appreciate micros? On a trip during some of the worst weather New England had received in 2009, I was trying to cache my way along the east coast and visit all of the states I had never visited before. I was driving 2100 miles in 5 days, caching along the way. In some towns many of their roads were flooded, coastal areas and the earthcaches I hoped to visit were closed and unavailable, and if it hadn't been for the micros, I would have some blank spots on my map. I even sent some personal key chain-type tokens to the micro cache owners whose caches saved the day for me. I don't care that much for multi's, but do I have to complain about them? No, I just don't bother to hunt for them. With a premium membership it's quite easy to exclude those caches, and anyone can avoid caches that they don't like by not looking for them. You know, I haven't been attacked by a single cache that was lurking in a parking lot or alongside a roadway. Micros sure aren't hurting anyone, so why complain about them?

I have done over 100 ECs and truly enjoyed each one of them. I've done a bunch of BackBrakeBilly's and Better Half's, and they have some of the best ECs in our state. And Yes, his Copper Mine Earthcache is great, very educational, and easy to complete. Yes, I've had to do some actual research on a few earthcaches, and yeah, I've posted my old pudgy photo at these beautiful geological features. Holding your camera at arms length doesn't create a very attractive photo, but it does prove I was there. And BBB has always been quite understanding if my answers were a little bit off. I make an honest effort to answer his questions, and he gives me the benefit of the doubt. For someone that wants to count a find without having met the requirements of the cache, then all there doing is racking up numbers. You know what, numbers don't impress me at all. I don't do earthcaches to boost my numbers. I visit earthcaches to learn, to see some incredible places, and in most situations, I have taken some great photos and had some wonderful experiences. BBB, I sure hope you will continue to maintain your awesome earthcaches. You and Better Half have done a lot for geocaching in general, and for earthcache lovers specifically. It is a discredit to the rest of the geocachers who DO make the effort to log an earthcache honestly if we are forced to allow a cacher to log a bogus find. However, I would rather let a thousand bogus finds be recorded on one of my earthcaches than to have one legitimate cacher miss out on the fun and educational experience of visiting my earthcache. Don't give in to the mental midgets those that can't (or won't) try to complete the earthcache requirements. Delete the bogus logs, and if forced to accept them, then just chalk that up to bureaucratic ambivalence. But for every one of those bogus finds, I bet you get a dozen or more of correct emails and posted photos from geocachers that appreciated your efforts and enjoyed your caches. I know I've enjoyed every one of your caches, and I sure hope I have an opporunity to visit the rest of them soon! Forgive the ignominious reference above, my apologies.

I have done over 100 ECs and truly enjoyed each one of them. I've done a bunch of BackBrakeBilly's and Better Half's, and they have some of the best ECs in our state. And Yes, his Copper Mine Earthcache is great, very educational, and easy to complete. Yes, I've had to do some actual research on a few earthcaches, and yeah, I've posted my old pudgy photo at these beautiful geological features. Holding your camera at arms length doesn't create a very attractive photo, but it does prove I was there. And BBB has always been quite understanding if my answers were a little bit off. I make an honest effort to answer his questions, and he gives me the benefit of the doubt. For someone that wants to count a find without having met the requirements of the cache, then all there doing is racking up numbers. You know what, numbers don't impress me at all. I don't do earthcaches to boost my numbers. I visit earthcaches to learn, to see some incredible places, and in most situations, I have taken some great photos and had some wonderful experiences. BBB, I sure hope you will continue to maintain your awesome earthcaches. You and Better Half have done a lot for geocaching in general, and for earthcache lovers specifically. It is a discredit to the rest of the geocachers who DO make the effort to log an earthcache honestly if we are forced to allow a cacher to log a bogus find. However, I would rather let a thousand bogus finds be recorded on one of my earthcaches than to have one legitimate cacher miss out on the fun and educational experience of visiting my earthcache. Don't give in to the mental midgets that can't (or won't) try to complete the earthcache requirements. Delete the bogus logs, and if forced to accept them, then just chalk that up to bureaucratic ambivalence. But for every one of those bogus finds, I bet you get a dozen or more of correct emails and posted photos from geocachers that appreciated your efforts and enjoyed your caches. I know I've enjoyed every one of your caches, and I sure hope I have an opporunity to visit the rest of them soon!

Is the red cape standard equipment on the 2010 model hampsters? Or is that an upgrade for the "super" model? The improvements will be great! Thanks for the hard work.

I'm attending two on May 1st, which involves a 700 mile round trip, and will then host an event on May 2nd. Maybe we can get a 10 Year! event icon, and a 10 Year! Day Two event icon too!

You could create an email address with a free service (google mail, yahoo mail, etc.) and use that address just for your notifications. You could then go into the acount and either do a "Delete All" or scan through the emails before removing them. In order to know if someone marked a cache as needs maintenance, you could periodically run a query for caches that you own that need maintenance? Just a suggestion. I own 100 active caches, and on nice weekends the email can be burdensome. I usually read the first log entry received from a cacher, and if it's just "TFTC" I'll check the second. If it is also the same, then I just do a bulk delete of all of their emails. Folks that take the time to write a note, something special like "Loved this place" or "Really great hide", then I think it's worth the time and is a bit rewarding for the effort to place the hides. Happy Caching! Lostnspace

Yes, but they were earthcaches! []

It's people like this that make me consider changing my caches to Premium Members Only. I didn't look at your miscreant cachers but I'm betting they aren't Premium Members. I would continue to delete their log entries if it was my cache. The real loss is theirs. I have great memories of every cache I've found, whether it was a cold, wet and rainy trek through the woods to find a micro at night, a park and grab micro, or an earthcache with an awesome view. These folks are nothing but number collectors, and hopefully they will move on to another "hobby" they can pretend to do.

I've been caching since the mid 60's, and let me tell you, it was difficult back then. The GPS didn't work cause there weren't any satellites. Then the Russians put up Sputnik, and we thought the world was coming to an end. Then we got Telstar, an American satellite, and they made a great song about it, but still no GPS signals. Heck, we didn'te even call it geocaching, we called it Snipe Hunting back then. But enough about the days of the dinosaur! Glad to see so many people coming out of the woodwork. I don't think we've been lurking, we've just been real quiet while we were reading everyone else's posts. Hope to hear from more "lurkers" soon!

If this is how we introduce ourselves and terminate our lurking, then let me say Hi. I bought a vehicle-use only GPS 3 weeks ago. Looks like I'll be buying a hand-held unit in the near future to enjoy the non-vehicular uses for a GPS. I also ordered eight travel bugs. What do I do when they get here? Stay tuned for a future post where I offer the travel bugs for sale if I don't figure out what to do with them. I will be taking one to Morristown, TN next weekend for an "event" if that's the right term. Why is all of this like learning a foreign language? I never did well in foreign languages, and only mediocre in the local language. I'm looking forward to figuring out what I'm doing in the near future. Don't hold your breath, it could be a long wait.