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Is there a way to search by attributes at all?

Ok, less socioeconomic then... Don't feel like a jerk if you observe and then discover the group you watched were completely innocent. You haven't hurt them, and it's good that all is well. We've been intently observed while geocaching by parents of children playing nearby. Didn't hurt us. They were just being careful. I agree with being observant and trusting your instincts. We opted out of a geocache recently. As we drove down the road leading to the trail it was on, we started noticing shattered windshield glass along the roadside. Then we passed a parked car with shattered windows that had been stripped. Opted not to park and search. I've seen several snakes while geocaching already. They are always slithering away from me as quickly as they can go!

Hey all- A travelbug was dropped in a cache I own. About 5 weeks ago a finder took the travelbug, logged it in the paper cache log, but has never logged it on-line. This finder has picked up travelbugs from another cache I own the same way. E-mails to the finder have elicited no response. Others now visit the cache and keep logging that the travelbug isn't there. I thought I saw somewhere on the geocaching site that a cache owner could move a travelbug listed in their cache to a location "unknown" if it is missing or in limbo like this so seekers would not be misled. However, I can't find how to do this. I don't have the travelbug's tag number. Does anyone know?

"Bad idea. Before you let a bear eat any food loud noises should be made in an attempt to drive the bear away. By letting the bear freely get to your food, food and humans are not associated. That's the very last thing that should happen. That bear will probably evevntually have to be killed because he pestered too many people" NO NO NO. They did exactly right. When a bear has learned to do what that one did, it's already too late to keep them from associating food with humans. NEVER get in between bears and food they are going to get. If you want to stand away and yell, or bang pots, you can try that. But NEVER NEVER interfere in any other way. If they keep coming, YOU BACK AWAY and let them have the food. Otherwise you can get really hurt. That bear was likely moved, he was living in a National Park.

Dogs are fine. They are very social, love to do things with their owners and provide great companionship. Dogs have not been my pet choice. Personally, I prefer cats. It's just a preference. (I don't allow my cats to roam and inflict themselves on other people.) I play with other people's dogs, whom I know. Sometimes I'll ask a dogowner I encounter if I can pet their dog (I don't approach without asking.) I do not, however, enjoy dog poop left on the sidewalk, trail or beach. I do not want to be barked and growled at by an unleashed dog. I don't really want a super friendly and harmless beastie leaping upon me on the trail either. I do not appreciate people walking their dogs in my yard and allowing them to urinate and burn my ornamental plants. Those inconsiderate dog owners out there sometimes give everybody a bad rep. So bring your dogs if it's an area that allows dogs. They'll have fun, you'll have fun. Just be courteous to those perhaps less dog oriented than you.

I've encountered many black bear hiking in VA and NY. They have always been interested in food. I saw one wander over to a waterfall on a popular trail where people (including us) were sitting on rocks eating lunches. All the people (at least 2 dozen) got up and backed away to the other side of the waterfall. The black bear casually looked over the lunches, picked one, and ambled off. All the people came back, got their stuff, and offered extra food to the robbed party. Nobody confronted the bear and the bear showed no interest in the people themselves. The other black bears encountered have either A) Been seen ahead of me on the trail and have beat a rapid retreat once they took note of me or Were heard attempting to get at the bear-bagged food near our campsite at night. (this is why you always bag it a distance from where you sleep!) Hollering always ran them off. I've always heard advice that if a black bear does show too much interest in you for comfort, do not run (triggers an instinct to chase), make loud noises, move away calmly, and maybe drop your bag as a last resort because he might be smelling food in there and that's all he's interested in. I don't think the 9mm is a reasonable idea here.

I hated French in high school and I hate beating around the bush- say what you mean PLEASE! LOL! If you don't like my cache, write "I think this cache is lame". (I will decide if I care or not! LOL! If I get a whole bunch of such entries, maybe you're right.) If there is a specific problem, write what it is. If I see lines about mournful singing clams in French in my log, I'm just gonna think some communication-challenged cacher found it. PS: Just 'cause a cache is "not your thing" doesn't mean it's lame. It's just not your preference, right?

It sounds like geocaching is going the way of about every other human activity. There are the hobbyists who do it for occassional, self-fulfilling entertainment. They like the walk, or the hunt, or both. There are the goal-oriented who aspire to reach cache #XX , to have one from every state, to have all the ones with "Orange" in the title (whatever), for their own personal sense of accomplishment. There are the competitive who want to have more finds than others. There are the record breaker cachers who want to have most finds in a day, most found while hopping on one foot, most found during a full moon...whatever. There are the gadget cachers who derive as much enjoyment from the gear as they do from the activity. Now take say, rock climbing, or skiing, or biking...you'll see the same divisions. Hey, whatever is fun for each cacher, right?

If problems with a cache aren't logged, how will the owner know maintenance is required? I also think cache containers are the owner's property and shouldn't be removed, modified, moved, or changed by seekers at will. Without feedback, owners won't know if their caches are enjoyed or not. Just keep it polite.

What a hoot, thanks for the laugh.

We like the hard searches. Even if it's a long walk, and scenic, even if the terrain to get there is hard, (I like bushwacking)- heck, I like to search a little bit to find the thing at the end. The GPS are so accurate, they pretty much take you right to the spot. I like a clever hide. I enjoy the easy ones too, but the harder ones are my preference. Goes to show you that there are people out there geocaching who like all sorts of different things. Some want to take grandma and the kids on an easy stroll and want their 4 or 5 year old to have the pleasure of finding the treasure. Some want to work for the find. Everybody is right. I guess you just have to keep in mind that not every hide is going to be for everyone. The rating system is pretty subjective so one does what one can to prepare hunters. We've not been able to find one so far out of 16 (ok, we're relatively new). That one had been moved by the previous finder and we hadn't seen that info in the log. It was still a nice hike even though it is of course more entertaining to find the cache.

Most cats HATE to drive. Maybe Toonces goes geocaching.

Well, I know whenever somebody's travelbug is in your cache, the owner will watch the cache to see if it's picked up. I think some people watch mine to see if the goody they left gets taken. I'm watching a few in other states to see how well frequented they are in case I want to drop a travel bug in them when I go there on vacation.

I'm still pretty new to this, and maybe have chosen to err on the side of caution. One cache I've placed is in a little local "conservancy area". A place with trails but not well maintained or well known and not defined as a "park". My search for permission led through several people at Town Hall which led me to someone called the town conservancy chairman. I'm sure the number I got for him led me to his home, so he doesn't even have an office. I got a "Huh?" then "Sure, sounds like fun." response. So I do wonder if getting permission in this case was overkill. The other cache was placed on the grounds of an historic home/mini museum. There I got permission from the live-in caretakers to place the cache on the grounds and definitely felt permission was a necessary courtesy, even though there are several letterboxes already in the area. So I guess my opinion now is- it depends greatly on the site you've chosen.

If you love the hunt, TNLNSL, and GPS coordinates get too accurate to suit- try letterboxing.

1) It adds an extra purpose to a walk outside 2) You find new interesting places that you didn't know were so close to your home. 3) The thrill of the treasure hunt. 4) The payoff. I like the geocaching payoff better than that for letterboxing. a)There's stuff! We all love free stuff, no matter how silly. b)You get to think up neat items to leave for other geocachers to find. c)There is also an interactive payoff in logging your comments about the caches you find, and reading comments from those who have found yours. d)You're getting fun by hunting caches and providing fun to others by hiding caches. 5) Now when we go to frequently visited vacation locations, there's something new to do there.

Hi folks! Just FYI-I didn't use the contact paper for the logbook- that's in a ziplock. I used the vinyl contact paper notes to write and place the next set of coordinates in the microcaches that were part of my multicache. I also used it for the explanation note telling what a geocache is in case of an accidental find.

Hi- here's hoping this isn't an old idea here in the forum since this is my first post. In my vast (ahem) experience of finding 4 whole caches, I've noted soggy or crumpled paper notes in each one. Being new, I of course had to run right out and make my own first cache. I found that plain contact paper (such as used for lining shelves or drawers) can be folded in half, sticky side in, and written on with a permanent marker such as a Sharpie quite nicely. It makes a nice, flexible, waterproof note.