RandLD

I'm a relative newbie (haven't logged our finds from our vacation last/this week, so our numbers are wrong, but we still only have about a dozen finds) but wanted to comment anyway ... The "hardest" one we found so far was a 2/1.5 Micro that was extremely well camoflaged. We spent a little while hunting for it, stopped for a picnic, and went back to it. (L really enjoyed it -- she found it while I was poking around in the wrong spot!) We've also done some 2/1.5 "Regular" caches. Somewhat of a challenge, but we liked those as well. Have not attempted any 3's, 4's, or 5's yet. (Want to get a few more under our belt before we try that ...) I can't speak for those in your area, but I personally enjoy the hunt, and don't mind scratching my head a bit, retracing my steps, and spending some time looking for it, but I do eventually like to be rewarded with actually finding the cache (even if it takes a second try.) I prefer the, "DOH! That's where it was! How could I have missed that?!" reaction to the "If the hider was here I would absolutely strangle him/her!" Of course, I would almost expect the latter reaction from a difficulty 5 cache (which is why I haven't tried one ...) The point, ultimately, is to both find the cache and to enjoy the hunt. I personally would not enjoy spending an hour hunting for a micro cache in a pile of rocks or hunting for an insanely difficult stash somewhere. (I just get frustrated too easily!) However, I know several that thrive on that sort of thing. As long as your cache is appropriately marked (difficulty/terrain, and maybe some comments in the description), I say "go for it!" By the way -- we only have 2 DNF's so far, and both of those were 1/1 caches! Talk about frustrating! Both were out of town, and we haven't had a chance to go re-visit them and try them a second time, but we will. And we are determined to find them this time! (That's about as tenacious as I get, though ... )

This one is also a virtual multi. Each "stage" has a sign or something with numbers on it that leads you to the next stage, and at the end the final stage is a virtual. The route it takes you is part of the fun. I really liked the way this one was done. EDIT: Then there's this one we just did this past week. Very interesting and nicely done as well, I thought. All this to say -- others have made it work, and made it work well. So check out some of the examples that have been listed, give it a shot, and see what comes of it.

Thanks for the info. Makes sense to me. Good luck with this project, Jeremy. Edit: Since my question has been answered, I don't see any need for keeping this toping going. Closing the thread.

Forgive me if this has been asked before -- I searched and couldn't find what I was after ... I posted some photos in some of my cache logs recently. There are one or two of these pictures that also show the TB we picked up, and I wanted to re-post those pictures in the TB's logs/gallery. My question is this -- since I already posted these pictures on the site once, can I re-use them without having to re-upload them? I don't mind uploading them again, but it seems silly to have 2 copies of the same picture posted on the site just so I could use them in 2 different locations. Please educate me. Thanks!

There are two book-only caches on my alma mater's campus. Great caches, and not all of the books were brand new. As several have said before, use Zip-Loc bags. I've also found books in other caches. I personally like them, even if they are "used". (Besides, how many McToys, trinkets, and other things people leave as swag are used?)

Been there, done that. Started a similar post about it. I was very frustrated trying to match numbers until I found out I could actually manually enter the coordinates. (With me it was ignorance, not choice ...) I've personally found it so much easier to use the arrow than matching the coordinates. Of course, the true test will be when we head back to Greenville and re-attempt our only DNF using the new method, to see if we have any better luck. (Of course, by the time we make it up there, we'll have quite a few more caches under our belt, so that may not be a true test ...) Give it a shot and see what you think. Of course, as others have said, if you're having fun the other way, then keep it up. It's up to you.

Here's our Cache-mobile. My little car. It's currently in the shop, having about $700 worth of work done on it (No, it wasn't in a wreck. Just some things under the hood broke -- all at the same time.) BTW -- photo was taken when we lived in Texas. I don't have a photo of it at our current location (nor do I have a photo of my wife's car, which we've taken caching once or twice.)

Some people are trying to start a Wal-Mart series in my area. So far, there are only these two: Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart II According to the notes on the second one, we should be expecting a Wal-Mart III, IV, etc. in the near future. (There are several other Wal-Marts on the other side of Columbia. I'm guessing those will be the next tagets, if they continue with this series.) I haven't tried to find either of these yet, so I don't know how they're hidden, but I do know that they're both micros. I'll have to check it out sometime and let you know what I think.

In a way, I understand the need for TB Hotels. If you want to help a TB along on its journey, then there's a nice central place for you to find one. The ones closest to me are right along major highways, which makes them easy spots for people to pick one up and carry it along somewhere else. There's one we're going to be passing on our way to the beach in a few weeks. When we find it, if it contains a TB that wants to visit the coast (it currently has TWO with that goal!) then I plan on taking one down to the coast with us. Some of the caches along the coast have TB's, and if there's one that would like to move inland (or that I think would be better-served by being closer to the interstate where this Hotel is) we'll pick it up and bring it back to the TB Hotel. I think that's the true spirit behind the "Don't take one unless you have one" rule. Help one along, and drop off something so someone else can help it reach its goal, too.

We've found several micros so far (haven't logged our latest batch of finds yet -- will probably be doing that tonight), and they were all well-done. However, we've ignored the "Wal-Mart" series of micros (there are, I believe 4 or 5 of those in my area.) Not planning on visiting them any time soon. Back to the topic at hand -- as far as ratios, I'll stick with the 200 closest. That's right at a 30-mile radius for me. (We live in the Columbia, SC area.) 500 caches for me extends nearly 80 miles into parts of Georgia and North Carolina! The ratios are: Micro-Caches: 29% Multi-Caches: 16% Unlisted Size: 5% Virtuals: 2% "Lame" Caches We've Found So Far: 0%

I'm sort of bi-polar. I'll lurk for a little while, reading but not responding. Then I'll post to half a dozen or more threads, just because, all within the span of a few minutes (usually on my morning break or at lunch) then "lurk" for a few more days. (That being said, I've only posted to this one thread today ... so far, at least ...)

I think the number of Travel Bugs a person can handle at a time is a personal thing, and each player should know his/her own limits. For example -- we have one TB that we picked up recently. We're going to try to put him in a local cache this weekend, but most likely none of the ones nearby are going to be big enough for him to fit in. (He's a big TB.) We're going to the beach in early July, and I know of some caches down there that can hold him. (Besides, he seems to like beach locations.) On the way there, we'll hit another cache. There's currently a TB in there that wants to go visit the beach. If it's still there when we get there, we may pick it up and carry it to the beach with us. But I wouldn't feel comfortable having more than just those two at one time. Any more, and I would get confused. (I probably wouldn't even pick up the second one if we weren't heading in that direction, but that's because we're still relatively new and only go caching about once a month or so, so I wouldn't want to take on that responsibility.) Some who have been in the game much longer than me can probably handle multiple TB's and keep track of where each one is going. (See Aim High!'s post, as an example.) Others collect or even order TBs to distribute at events. I think that's fine, too. As others have said, I don't think more regulations would be necessary or effective. Those who are responsible will police themselves, those who aren't probably wouldn't pay attention to a new regulation anyway (unless there was some way and ample manpower to enforce it, which I seriously doubt.) Maybe this thread should just be a reminder for everyone to reevaluate his/her own TB inventory, and evaluate for yourself whether you think you're handling them adequately.

I think logging visits to virtuals (and even micros) is a good way to keep tabs on where a bug actually travels, provided you remember to immediately pick it up so the players after you don't think there's really a TB hanging around there somewhere. We're currently travelling with Squidward. We picked him up in Goose Creek, SC and visited a virtual cache on the way back home. Since he was with us at the time, we logged a "Virtual Visit" for him. (Unfortunately, we didn't have a camera to take a picture of him there. Of course, a photo might spoil the answers of the virtual cache for anyone industrious enough to look for it.) His tag says "He wishes to travel to exotic locales." That one was pretty exotic! We're planning on dropping him off on our vacation in July, unless we can find a local cache he'll fit into. (He's a pretty big TB, and many of the caches around are either micros or "small".) We're planning on logging his visits to these smaller caches even if we can't leave him there. Since we can't log him as being at our house (no cache there ... yet ) it's a way of saying, "He was in Lexington". "Actual mileage" is rather subjective anyway. If you want actual mileage, check the odometer on the car from the cache where we picked him up to our family's house where we spent the night to the gas station to Wendy's to our house to the next cache we visit to the cache where we actually drop him off. And have everybody do that for every trip he takes. Not to mention, he doesn't get credit for mileage if we take him with us and DNF a cache, though my car certainly gets mileage added to it for that trip! That being said, I think logging virtuals and micros is actually a better representation of the "actual mileage" a TB travels, assuming the TB really does go with you to those locations.

Couldn't find anything similar posted anywhere yet (Markwell it if it is ...) but I thought I might share my experiences with some of the other newbies, to save them the same headache we went through: Finding a cache is much easier if you enter a waypoint and navigate to it, rather tha run around trying to simply match the latitude and longitude coordinates. And, yes, on the GPSr's I've seen, even if you can't download a waypoint, you can manually enter it. Duh, right? Well, that was news to me. Let me tell you how our first few expeditions went: We printed out the sheet for the cache, looked at the map to get us close to the right area, and then started wandering around the area with our GPS, trying to match the coordinates. "Let's see, we're a little low on the north but right on the west, so let's go north. DOH. Now we're a little off on the longitude, too. Let's see, that means we need to go, ... south east, maybe? Let's try it. There's the sun, so that's west-ish. I think that way is southeast. (You have to start walking before the compass shows the direction of travel.) ... OK. Finally. We're at the spot." Then we start looking around for the cache. Now let me share how our later expeditions have gone: We printed out the sheet for the cache and entered the waypoint into our GPSr (had to do it manually, but still entered the waypoint.) Then we looked at the map to get us close to the right area. "OK. It says it's off this direction ... OK, good. Now it's just back to the left a bit. OK. Here we are!" And then we start looking around. Much, much simpler, and a good bit quicker, too. (Even including the time it took to manually enter the coords.) Had I known about this, our first DNF might not have been a DNF. Reading on the forums, I heard about navigating to a waypoint, but I didn't think my unit was capable of doing that since I couldn't download the waypoints. (In our defense, we got the GPS unit from a friend and he didn't have the instruction manual for it, but after 2 minutes on-line, I was able to find a copy of it and download it. Guess what was listed prominently on the Table of Contents? "Manually Entering Waypoints". DOH!) So ... if there's anybody else out there like me, maybe this will help you. If I'm the only one, at least I've figured this out now. Happy caching!

I think we might be up for 2 different awards: Longest Time between Signing Up and Actually Finding a Cache Joined -- March 31, 2004, about a week after joining CarolinaCachers and some others on some hunts. First cache found -- April 23, 2005! So, what did I do in those 13 months? We both changed jobs, moved across town, and got busy with some other stuff. Most Diversity for Someone with <10 Finds None of this was done on purpose, just worked out this way. So far, we've logged 5 finds, and they include: 1 Multi-cache 1 Virtual Cache 1 Virtual Multi-cache 1 Micro Cache 1 Literary Cache / Book Exchange These 5 caches have been in 4 different cities, none of which are closer than 10 miles from where we live (all are still in SC, though.): Gilbert (10 miles), Bowman (50 miles), Goose Creek (95 miles), and 2 in Greenville (98 miles). In fact, the one in Gilbert doesn't officially count, since technically it was "RD" that found it (on my lunch hour), not "RandLD". But we'll rectify that soon. Next on our agenda are some more micros and traditionals, but those are 115 miles away in and around Beaufort (and those will push us over the 10 limit, so we won't qualify for the award any longer ...) Maybe sometime we'll hit one of the 40 that are less than 10 miles from here ... Or maybe I could win a forum award for highest number or percentage of edits within 5 minutes of posting ... (Proofread it before I posted, and still found something wrong after I submitted it! DOH!)

We love walking and have done some hiking (on "easy" trails). Geocaching ties in well with that. We do the "vacationing" thing also (in fact, all but one of the caches we've found are over 50 miles from our house!) We also enjoy having picnics, if you consider that a "hobby". Geocaching has led us to quite a few new parks to picnic in. One thing I use a GPSr for (that doesn't exactly tie into geocaching) is astronomy. I use the GPSr to mark where we are going to be observing from so I can get an accurate view of what the sky is going to look like from that location before we go out. I have yet to find a cache while stargazing, though ...

I'm aware of a few series near where we've cached in the past and where we're going on our next trip: Free Parking -- a series of 4 micro caches hidden in parks around Beaufort, SC. Clues in each of them lead to a fifth park with a larger-sized cache in it. Survivor: Hunting Island -- a series of 5 caches of varying difficulty hidden in Hunting Island State Park. Peek-a-boo! -- a series of urban micros throughout the Greenville, SC area. I believe there are a few series "across the river" from where we live (near Downtown Columbia), but I haven't cached over there just yet (or even looked up details on any Columbia caches, really), so I'm not sure.

We had three "firsts" in the same day -- First find WITHOUT using a GPSr First find WITH a GPSr First DNF We went up to Greenville (Furman University) for L's birthday, and she wanted to do some caching while we were there. (We were actually introduced to the sport by our Sunday School teachers a while back, but this was our first outing alone ...) The first cache, I almost instinctively knew where it would be, and it turned out to be correct. No need for the GPS on that one. The second was near a new section of campus (a "Meditation Garden"). Very nice to visit, and the cache itself was a nice find. The third, supposedly "extremely easy", gave us a fit. We did discover some new trails on campus while hunting this one, but after wandering around for about an hour (right where the GPS said it should be), we gave up on it. (Wasn't missing, though, according to plenty of other logs from other people since then ...) Haven't been back to find it yet.

We usually wear shorts and t-shirts (and I usually have on a baseball cap), but we haven't tried to track down any (yet!) that had a high terrain rating. (If/when we do, we'll reconsider ...) We do wear tennis shoes instead of sandals, to protect our feet, and so far that's been sufficient. Bug spray is also beneficial, when you don't want to wear long pants/sleeves ...

I've found two multi-caches recently. One had coordinates written in permanent marker on a sign and in other places throughout a park. That bothered me a little bit. Granted, there was plenty of other graffiti on those places (made it harder to figure out what the coordinates were ), but that doesn't mean a cacher should've added his own. There are other ways this could've been handled. The other one I did involved some math, but anybody with a cheap calculator should've been able to do it with very little trouble. (Well, you needed a square-root button, but many calculators have that now.) The owner managed to find numbers at each of the 4 stages you visit. We'll be attempting two multi-caches the next vacation we go on. One involves microcaches hidden in various locations that will lead you to the final destination. The other is a variation on the numbers idea --Something along the lines of "What year was this founded? A B C D. North coordinate is 33 5A.BCD." So there are plenty of alternatives to permanent markers and other sorts of vandalism.

This may be slightly off-topic, but it is about logging an archived cache. Just a different kind ... I was searching for some locationless caches to do, and came across one that looked interesting. Come to find out, it was archived with no explanation given (owner may have been tired of all of the duplicate entries, thought it had run its course, etc. Either way, he/she didn't say why, only that it was archived), but quite a few people have logged it since it was archived anyway -- these are new entries, would've been OK had the "cache" not been archived, etc. I personally don't see a problem with logging this type of archived cache (and apparently neither did about a dozen other people.) Nor do I see an issue with logging an archived physical cache, but I would attempt to contact the owner before I took the cache with me. Just my thoughts ...

We've only found one micro so far, and it was extremely well done. My wife (though she liked that one) prefers to find the larger ones (with swag in it). I'm not 100% sure where I stand on micros myself. Here's what gets me. We're going on vacation in a couple of weeks, and I decided to check out the caches near where we're staying. (I know of plenty in a nearby state park, but I decided to check around the B&B we're staying at, too.) There are 15 relatively close by, 8 of which are micros, 4 are virtuals, and only 3 are larger. Of those larger ones, 1 is a level 4 (8-stage) multi-cache, one can only be found if you locate 4 of the micros, and one has a note stating it might be missing. I find that frustrating. Doesn't help matters any that we've picked up a travel bug that's a large stuffed animal that won't fit in anything smaller than an ammo can, and we'd like to find a place to drop him off. We'll hit one or two of the Virtuals, because they sound like interesting places to visit. Then what we'll probably do (something we've done before) is have a picnic in one or two of the parks that contain a micro, and if we have time and feel like it, we'll see if we can track down the micro-cache there. I really don't care about numbers, so actually finding the micro really doesn't matter to me. We found the neat little park we wouldn't have known about had it not been for the cache there, so what's it matter if I can add a point to my total? I would like to tell you about an experience a friend of mine shared with me, though. (He rarely, if ever, visits the forums, or else he'd post this himself.) He was hunting for a micro cache one day with his wife, and they spent 30-45 minutes hunting through a wall of rocks to track it down. They finally found one little film canister. When they opened it, there was a note that said, "You're getting warm!" They put it back and left. He hasn't hunted for a micro since.

Another comment to add -- So far, we've done very little caching near where we live. (Closest one we've found was about 10 miles away, and that was found on my lunch hour one day when I had nothing better to do. Next closest find was over 50 miles away.) We tend to cache while we're out of town or on our way home from a trip, so we go ahead and decode the hint and bring the hint with us, because we don't know when we'll be back to make another attempt. As I said earlier, though, we only use it if we get stuck or have been going at it unsuccessfully for a while.

"Cache is located in a wooded area between the Amphi-Theater and the Soccer Field." Guess what? That's where my GPS led me, too. I didn't need a hint on where to start, but where to find the cache itself. There were several trails running in various directions and the tree cover was causing problems with reception, and knowing where to begin looking would 've helped tremendously. When I got back home, I read some of the older logs and found this entry: ... the clue does not help at all. Below is a clue (decrypt it before you pull out your hair) Inside or under a fallen tree, about 40' from the "hump" of dirt. Now, that's the kind of information I was hoping to find in the hint, not something that would totally give it away, but something that would get me close enough to give me the confidence that I was looking in the right place.

We will usually print out the hint, and possibly print out the previous logs, and use them only if necessary. Some of the hints have been absolutely no help ("Between the soccer field and the ampitheater" -- I knew that much by following my GPS to the coordinates! But that's a topic for another thread ...) but most have been helpful when we used them. So far, we haven't stated in our logs whether we used the hint or not, but that's an interesting thought. I may consider that in the future: "Easy find. No need for the hint." "Got frustrated, but once we read the hint, it really helped." "Wish we would've read the hint first. Would've saved us 20 minutes." "Misinterpreted the hint, spent 30 minutes on a wild-goose chase, and eventually found the cache right where it was supposed to be." "Got frustrated, but the hint wasn't worth a dime. Quit after an hour. Logging a DNF." Those notes may be beneficial to future finders as well ...