root1657

I have one of these. Contrary to many of the things in this thread, that logo is like a cloaking device, not a beacon, and just a little local dirt rubbed on and brushed off makes it look a whole lot like the local variety. Even with an 'obvious' name and hint, people are just so trained to those darn film canisters that they refuse to see it. Read the logs on gc1adpy and see how many people picked it up before they knew it was there... talk about hiding in plain sight! it's just sitting there, right in the open. I do my check up visits at full speed on a mountian bike! still invisible to people looking for it...

Another of the 200. May not have used it 'frequently', but when I did it was more valuable than I have words for.

I travel a lot, and like everyone said, GPS is no problem... I thought I'd throw this out there for fun tough... the guys who do have a problem are the skydivers. TSA regs allow them to take thier VERY expensive equipment with them, and believe it or not, many have rigs that fit in the carry on bins. Here is where it gets fun... many of them also have an AAD (Automatic activation device) that is packed inside the 'special' part of thier rig that should only be opened by an FAA certified rigger, and is pretty expensive to have done. This handy little AAD is designed to detect a specific situation where the person is still falling too fast when they pass a certain altitude... this is the tiny computers cue that something is seriously wrong, so it opens thier reserve chute for them, since obviously, there is no one 'drivin the bus'. To do this, the final closing loop of the reserve passed through the AADs cutter before it goes out the flap and has the pin up through it to hold the chute shut. When the AAD is triggered, the cutter fires a very tiny charge that uses a mechanism similar to a cigar cutter to cut the cord, and a spring loaded pilot chute then makes a hasty exit to pull out the reserve chute and save the guys life.... Long ramble short, a parachute will set off the explosived detectors, but they are sill allowed if they look as they should in Xray. the end question is, is the device safe for the plane, and in the case of the parachute, and the GPS, the answer it yes.

I've also participated in 'rescue mission' caching, asked by the owner of a coin to go to a cahce where it's been for a while and check on it. Happy ending to that one was that all three of the seemingly forgotten items in that cache were there, and we got em moving again... The cache it's self can also make a difference... I personally released one of my Racing Slug coins into the final container of a cache that has double digit number of stages, and took me 2 hole caching days to complete. I was the first to complete it in a long time, and suspect that it will be a while before the next cacher comes along... but it was a darn good cache (The Hunt for Red October, in case anyone wants to try it)

So after everything that everyone else said, I'd suggest too that you check your coordinate format settings in your unit. There are a lot of different ways to measure the eath, and if you measure it different than the rest of us, you will be standning in a different part of the field than we are. You should be set to wgs84 hdd mm.mmm Try that out on a couple of 1/1 caches, and see how it goes. It does get easier as you train your eye to see the things that others dont, and in time you will get a feel for your local hides. I have a local in San Diego that is fond of using fake plant pieces appropriate to the spot as attached cammo on her caches. At first they would totally kick my butt, but now that I'm used to them, I can get em quick. Stick to it and teach them boys the value of persistance.

Sweet it worked! makes starting the rumors worth it!

oops, double posted somehow... darn interwebs

On the whole, most of them do ok. Strange things do happen though.... I recently found a TB in a cache it wasnt logged in to, in fact a cache that had been recently replaced, and that bug had been MIA for three years...

I have a piece of golden advice that I think is going to change the whole sport for you. Yuo say you are 'brand new' to caching, so I'd suggest you check to make sure your GPSr is set to use the same coordinate system the site uses. Being on a different system might cause exactly what you say with the bridge issue, and if it's consistantly putting you way off like that, it's worth checking. you want it set to WGS84 and hddd mm.mmm to be correct. there are lots of other ays to measure the earth, but if you want to use the coords from the geocahing site, that's the one you want. Further, the nem might be related to the bridge cause they wanted you to come see the bridge. Dont get target fixation on a name... If you GPS gets you to within 20 feet of the cache, consider it dead on. This is minor variance that ould be the difference in your gps being a fet feet off one day and the hider off the other way the other day. Add in a little distortion or echo, and it's amazing the darn things work at all sometimes! Check your settings, and go try a couple of 1/1 difficulty caches to check it out.

Long story short, they choose you. Quickest way you can become a reviewer: get out there, cache your tail off, find caches and learn every aspect of the sport. When you are ready, place some caches, and make em real darn good ones. Go to events, meet cachers, and maybe have a few events of your own. Keep on doing that, and when they decide they need another reviewer in your area for what ever reason, they find you...

I'm also one of the mid-west minded people that gets a little old school on this whole 'kids' topic... I dont think it's anyones job to raise a child, but rather to train an adult. Teach them the hows and whys of decisions like this, and when things are ok or not, and talk to them about how they'd be doing things. Do this before they figure out that they already know everything and hate you. On the stranger danger topic, I want to give a big loud shout out to Izzy, the kid from Penn and Tellers show BS that had an episode on stranger danger. One day he told his mom he wanted to ride the subway home alone... it's a center piece of the whole episode... also from the same episode, the fact that they are statistically more likely to be hit by lightening than to be in danger from a stranger, which raises the question, what are we teaching them about lightening? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpvlHjFICd0

Been there done that. There are enough cachers in San Diego that it is not rare or suprising to be at a cache at the same time as someone else, especially for a cache that is still new-ish. Since you asked about calling out to them, I guess that covers the advice of staying close. Depending one who it is, if I know them or not, I ask if they'd like to sign the log with me, or if they'd like to take a walk aorund the block so I can put it back for them to find. I dont think there are too many people that would have a problem with leting them sign, since they did 'find it' in your hands, and the social good of the interaction is good for the caching community. I do know a couple people who still like the opportunity to find it themselves, and might like me to re-hide it for them so they can find it, others ok with signing and seeing the hide when I put it back. On a related note might be the way groups handle the find when out together. Again, with some cachers it's a group search and when you find it you call out the cacher victory call (Got It...) and with some other groups the understanding is that if you see it, you calmly search away from it, then announce that you saw it and let others continue to search. So yeah, long babble short, it's really up to the cachers that are there on scene. Have fun, make a friend, and maybe next time instead of meeting at a cache, you can meet then go caching!

I'm a huge fan of GSAK, as mentioned by the previous poster (and so many cachers). If you become a premium member and can then get the gpx files, you might also like easygps. I use GSAK to do lots of cool stuff, then when I'm ready to go out, I export my to-do list to a gpx, open it in easygps, and use it to put them in my gpsr. I also do it with gsak, or just from the web interface, depending on the cache, but I have easyGP set to put the decoded hint in the details of the waypoint in the GPS, so I have it handy, but it doesnt handle long hints very well. Seems there is no one tool for everything, yet...

I would absolutely LOVE to have that check box! As meager as my vote is, it's a yes.

TB22AB2 is hanging on the collar of Eddie! He's a darn good geocache dog, and I'd reccomend the Jack Russel to anyone for geocaching. They were a designed breed intended to keep up with horses when people went hunting (people on horses, not hunting horses). He does a good job on the hunt, and I think he's actually more familiar with some cachers than I am, because at a couple of caches he has picked up a trail and taken me right to the cache, as if he knows to go where they went. You could also probably do well with a Brittany Spaniel, or just about any kind of hunting breeds. My bigger question would be, if you get a dog that can keep up with you, will you be able to keep up with him?

You didn't manage to get an hour off, even once, during 3 tours? sounds like someone draws the short straw a lot... I do have a military caching confession to make.... I was doing some training with some FN military, showing them how to work a UAV mission, and for lack of a predetermined training mission, I just went ahead and planned the whole mission to check out the area around the one cache that was so close yet so far away for days and days... They got good practice, and I got an early look at GZ. It was a super busy trip, but when I did get that precious little time off, I already knew how to get there. Have another extended stay comming up somewhere else, and it doesnt look like there are any caches there, so the many cachers in the unit have decided that we'll just have to have an event! or possibly place caches for eachother since our trip is long enough to meet the permenance guidline, and still have time to remove them before we leave so as to not leave geo-litter.

One would think so, but sadly, no matter how energetically I click on ignore, they continue to show on the map...

I've got an accidental discovery that worked real darn well for me recently! Tinactin foot powder spray. I was itching and suffering and loosing my mind trying anything at all I could think of. Cortizone cream was like a flash in the pan, but the foot spray powder was amazing!

It worked...

please please please let us ignore a users caches on the site! the GSAK work arounds dont do a lick of good for those of us who work the maps on the site! It's so sad, the TOS forbids us an offline database, but the only way to ever solve a problem is with GSAK, the mandated offline tool for doing anything useful?

On several of the pages, such as a search, or when looking at someone elses finds, I get the handy little check mark or arrow telling me if I've found of own a cache on that list. One place I dont get this handy indicator, and would seriously like to, is on a bookmark list. Since one of the popular uses of a bookmark list is as a to-do list, it would be very nice to see which ones are done and could then of course clean up the lists after a big caching weekend or to clear out caches done here or there without thinking about it being on a list. How bout it? Seems like if it is on other lists, the code might already be back there somewhere and could be worked into the bookmark lists.

As "The Leprechauns" pointed out, premium members already have the ability to filter out these icons from the map, even though they are useful. However, like so many other things on the site, navigation there isn't necessarily the simplest. Premium members can click on "Build Pocket Queries" from the "My Account" page, and then in any one of the pocket queries you have defined or you build (like "Near Home" or whatever), just select the "Is Active" option under the "That (and)" heading, below "Container Size" and click save. Return to the list and click on the second icon on the line in-question -- it should say "Preview in Google Maps" when you mouse-over the thing. Your map will now only include active caches. Yeah, it's a little cumbersome, but like others have said I think it's more to better-enable the community to self-police. As we also know, many folks also don't log DNFs and some cache owners may not be the most responsive when their cache seems to turn-up missing. I think having those icons on-map helps light a fire under some folks butts... and, conversly, think that maybe we need to add archived caches back to the map/query page. I am a premium member, and exactly as you said, doing that other process sucks. I'm trying to use the map to even build my bookmark lists (breaking the city into 'zones') and in some areas, all I have are clouds of disabled caches. Since I am a premium member, I have the ability, on the map, to check or uncheck boxes that make the map only show certain kinds of caches, or hide all the ones I've found or hidden. On this map, the disabled caches are already colored, so the map is aware that they are disabled, and all we are asking for is a checkbox. If it is about self policing, then it isnt working. I'm finding caches that have been disabled for a year and are still there. Maybe the reviewers need a private list where they can see disabled caches in order of how long they have been disabled. That might help with one problem I've had in that when I request archive on a long disabled cache, the owner deletes my log!

I'd have to disagree with at least part of that. All too often when people ask for features on this site, they are told that they dont need it on the site because they can already do it in GSAK. In your post you claim that they have no interest in helping us maintain our GSAK, but then it comes down to a catch 22 of sorts. May of the requested features should be integrated into the website, else make consessions for people doing that work on thier own...

I'm all for the feature and have posted requesting it in the past. Just like anything else you ever ask for around here, there will always be someone that trys to tell you why you dont really need it, but hey, I thought this was the forum to make requests! So yeah, I'm making enough progress here in San Diego that I now have areas that are nothing but 'disabled clouds'. Sure I can put pressure on the owners and all of that, but that doesnt really take care of the 'right now' issue with now being able to see past them because they are cluttering up the map. The map already knows what they are, what is the harm in adding one more filter check box so I can see what I want to see, just like I can for other categories of caches?

I wouldnt do this for caches, because I wouldnt want to niadvertantly say something about the cache that may not be totally correct. I do have a new habit of making a note on the page of a trackable item when either I or someone else has verified that the trackable item is not in the cahce it claims to be. With that note in place on the item logs, if it doesnt surface within some period of time (say a couple of weeks or a month) then I dont think its unreasonable to write an email to the itme owner and to the cache owner asking if one of them could please move it to 'location unknown' so it doesnt show on the cache pages. doing this do not negatively impact the trackable item, as the next time someone logs it, it's right back in play as normal with all miles intact. I've seen some trackables that have clearly been missing for months or YEARS that are still listed as being in some certain cache.