Sol seaker

I always thought this was against the guidelines, but there was a cache recently that got an N/A on it for that, and the reviewer said it was okay to do it. GC4HPJ2 So it is okay now? I always thought it wasn't okay to put things into trees. I'm one of those tree huggers who loves trees and doesn't want to harm them, but maybe this doesn't really harm them. Does anyone know? I'm not a botanist. If screwing into trees is okay, then posts must certainly be okay. That would make a lot of caches possible that weren't before. I don't think personally I'd actually screw into a tree, but I certainly would love to put some caches on some posts. That would open up some great possibilities. Can anyone answer these questions for me? Thanks

Yes she's right. A new thread should be started about cache violations. I haven't checked, has anyone done that yet? This would be a good one to start with. I really hate it when caches are screwed into living trees.

As addictive, but much better for your liver.

Congratulations on 3500!! Did you realize I was following behind you caching on the trails near Bellingham? It took me a while to decipher your name but it was you. No one else signed those caches that day. Are you going to have an event to celebrate your caches? As far as it being ten years, it's not about the numbers, it's about the good times. I hope you had many, many of them.

Hi MJS! There are a ton of virtuals and earth caches in San Francisco. I'd love to join you guys to hunt some of them. I've always wanted to find them, but it just doesn't appeal to me bumming around San Francisco by myself. Email me and let's see if can meet up there to find some of them. I've been looking for someone to find them with. That would be great. Sol

It was very windy and felt quite cold, but we did not get any rain at all. We had two brave cyclists and a dozen or so who came in cars/trrucks Everyone found all .the caches and we met some really cool people. It must be seasonal--not a single seastar or jelly fish on the beach, though. Guemes is a nice place for a day of caching with a nice variety of caches--no LPCs, though! Wish you'd been able to come! --Kathy. Sorry I missed this!! It sounds like a lot of fun! Perhaps another time. Seastars disappearing is a problem. The problem started down in CA I've heard, where they said they were melting. I went to Coupeville on Whidbey Island last winter where there were TONS of starfish/ seastars. This year I went in the same month and was only able to find about 4. Coupeville is in an area that is really rich in nutrients (according to the local cache pages) so it has more sea life than most places. I was really shocked to find the star fish all gone this year.

You are right though, all obsessive duct taping is certainly not healthy. I mean, what if she has to "go"??

It may be hard to believe but other people besides cachers use duct tape.

Okay, group hug everyone I did some ALR's before they were outlawed and they were getting pretty stupid. "Dress up in the dress-up clothes in the cache box and take a picture with the camera in the box. The photo will be posted on the cache page." Yeah, I don't think so. There were weird hats, wigs, glasses, fake noses and beards in the box. There were really starting to be some really bad ones. People seemed to be taking joy in making people into fools. It was time to stop. Challenge caches are different. They are a caching goal, not a challenge in seeing how stupid you can make people act at your beckoning. I did an amazing challenge cache that took me to something like 23 islands in WA state. I went some incredibly amazing places I never would have gone to. I am so grateful for that challenge. It increased my life experience and the quality of my life. and THAT is what caching should be about. Do we outlaw certain types of caches just because some people don't like them? I vote YES for challenge cache icons.

I know that sometimes when the first person logs the cache, the log will show up below the "published" log, even when created after published. That being said, yes caches are often logged before being published. Yeah, people play a lot of different ways. If I don't like it I ignore it. This is a game. Where I used to live there were a lot of FTF hounds. I was scornful before one day I decided to see what the draw was. I found a big party of cachers. What fun!! So I went out for FTF's often just for the party. Now where I live a cache can be active for days before it's logged. It takes the excitement out of FTF so I rarely bother. I tell you, I had one great one!!! (I had to go back to put more exclamation marks in) I was FTF on the Ape Cache replacement. THAT was exciting! It was a hike in, after an hour and a half drive. The whole way I had no idea if anyone had beat me to it. Someone logged it one hour after me. My hands were literally shaking as I opened the log book. THAT was a fun FTF.

I'm thinking you must really like exclamation marks... That being said, I believe your analogy falls well short of the mark. You may not be aware of this, but geocaching is a hobby, not a rigidly controlled sporting event. Whilst there are numeric values saved to your profile, with the possible exception of a few folks who are numbers oriented, these numbers are not a 'score', as they are not utilized in any officially sanctioned competition. Oh. More exclamation marks... I'm assuming you can cite a source for this? I've read the guidelines several times, and I can't seem to find it. Help a brother out? More exclamation marks? Sigh... You may be confusing a couple things. First, an unpublished cache is loggable, but only on a limited scale. The cache owner can post logs on their unpublished caches, as can Reviewers and Lackeys. Second, there is a distinct difference betwixt loggable and findable. Just because a geocache is not active on this website, does not mean it magically becomes invisible, or slips into some alternate dimension. Quite often, unpublished caches are actually out there, in the wild. If a person locates one of these, and signs the log, which log type should they utilize once the listing becomes active? I'm thinking they should use the "Found It" log type, since, well, they 'found it', but I'm open to other interpretations, so long as you can express them logically. And without excess exclamation marks... I like exclamation marks too!!!! (are you the exclamation mark police?)

I have an etrex H, but not a venture. I used that thing for years and a whole lot of caches. The main problem was that it isn't paperless. I found I was spending 4 hours a week writing up the cache trips every week. I never knew how many I was going to want to find, so I would write up a whole lot more than I would get, so I ended up with this huge file of cache write-ups to search through when I'd go caching in that area again. UGH. I finally broke down and bought a Oregon 400T. I am so happy to be paperless. I went out caching with a friend last weekend, with the intention of finding a particular piece of geo-art. I just dropped a query of the area in my machine, just in case, and we were able to grab a few extra. One we planned on turned into a hike, and we were able to grab the caches on the way to it. Really nice. It only took a few extra minutes and I'll delete the query with no stack of paper leftover. I can get it again anytime I want. So the funny thing was, I found out that the old etrex is actually more accurate than my 400T. It gets a signal in the forest better too. Funny. So sometimes I carried them both if I had one particular tough to find. So then I got a new one. It seems to be a good combination of the two. It's a Garmin GPSMap 62S. It's a great unit. I'm pretty happy with it. It seems to be more accurate than the 400T and the screen is easier to see, and it's paperless. Once you go paperless there's no going back. I'd say if you plan on caching a lot find a paperless unit. If you're just doing it now and then then you can use anything. I found over a thousand with a non-paperless unit. I am really sorry for all that wasted time. It just got to a point I couldn't stand it anymore. It was either get a new GPS or quit caching, and I certainly wasn't going to quit. So I'd recommend something paperless.

I've had this happen a few times for me. On some occasions it turned out my GPS was full. I didn't think it should be; it used to hold more caches I was sure, but it was full. I used to put a whole lot more caches in it and even though I clear out the tracks and waypoints regularly, it doesn't seem to hold as many as it used to. Perhaps it's just my imagination and I thought it used to hold more. Anyway, I would make sure you delete other pocket queries before loading your GPS, even if you think there's a lot of room on it. The other problem I had was simply not waiting long enough for the pocket query to load. It would look like it was done, and my other GPS's only take a few seconds to load, but once again my oldest GPS seems to need an extra few seconds at least, to load all of the query. I'm using Easy GPS to load mine, I don't know how you're doing it. But now I hit "send to GPS" and then after it appears done I count slowly to ten, or walk away and get a drink or something. Then I check it on the computer to see how big the query was that loaded. If all my queries are 500 caches then all of them on my machine should be about the same size. If the one I just loaded is significantly smaller, then something is wrong. Go back, delete it and others not needed and start again. Since I've been watching those two things I haven't been having that problem. Since then I also bought a new one. Now I can hold 2 GPS's worth of queries. But the new one has a screen I can safely use in the car too. On my old GPS it was so hard to see the screen, I figured it was worth the money for a new GPS to not wreck my car by trying to see that dang screen while I was driving.

I just heard about this event through some alternate geocaching forums I'm on. I'm really glad they were talking about it, because I already am a slave to favorite points and souvenirs, so this is a natch for me. I didn't get notification and I've been a premium member for years. I'm near GS headquarters so I looked it up and found they have an event happening. Not many have signed up considering how many normally go to their events, so I would venture to guess that a whole lot of people didn't get notice of this. This is a fantastic idea to try to improve geocaching as a game. I prefer to find the clever cache any day. I have one cache that is gathering favorite points and every additional point brings a big smile to my face, so I'd love to learn how to make more caches that people love. I think this is a great event targeted at improving the game as a whole. I think it's a great idea and I'm glad they're doing it. I wish the information had of gotten out to everyone though. More people need to go to these.

So there's your fifteen minutes of fame, pig. Don't waste it.

Nothing in life is free. Those ideas are the ones that breed laziness into people... Agreed with what you had to say about Caching, just don't agree with your view on life. Read over the whole thing, then look up the definition of subtle. Guess I missed the part where he showed that he was a Liberal Communist, sorry about that. Okay then, try looking up hyperbole and irony as someone else suggested. And that's socialist BTW. But try looking those two up, then you'll get it. Perhaps. Or if not, then just go out and get some caching done. There's a lot of beauty to be found outdoors.

Nothing in life is free. Those ideas are the ones that breed laziness into people... Agreed with what you had to say about Caching, just don't agree with your view on life. Read over the whole thing, then look up the definition of subtle.

You are right!!! This service should be free!!!! It does tend to serve those with money, it is true. I mean, to really get into caching you've got to have a smart-phone or a GPS. Those are not cheap, so geocaching is really a game for people who are above the poverty level. Yes there are many free services in the world, and I think there should be more too!! Geocaching is just a game, just a hobby. People who can't afford a geocaching device really aren't missing out on what they need to survive by not playing (although some may argue that). I think the things in life people need to survive should be free. I think we should not pay for water. Of all things, for the utilities to charge people for water when we need that to survive!!! That's pretty ridiculous you've got to agree. And garbage pick up. I mean I'm really talking about the basics of life here. What if all your neighbors stopped getting their garbage picked up??? Gross, really. What about food, housing, basic internet service? Electricity. Now who lives in the US without electricity? We need it. What about cable TV? Do you have cable? How much do you pay for that? Maybe $120. a month? That is definitely not a necessity. I do not think we should get that free. In fact I really believe it is detrimental to everyone's mental health. Do you have Cable TV? Okay, then just drop that and buy a premium membership. It's much cheaper and much better for you. That's what I did. I like geocaching much more than watching TV. So who would pay for all that stuff if we got it free? Who would pay for geocaching.com if we got it for free? So if they paid for the website that would be like paying us to geocache. Well wouldn't we all like that. Well wait!!! You know you don't actually have to pay for it?!?!?! You CAN geocache for free. How about that? Well that was just right-nice of them to do that. I think that is a great way to have a business. People who want to pay for the website can do that, and those who don't want to don't have to. It's nice that they give us some extra benefits if we choose to support the website. As far as your beefs with the members who "cheated" on your caches: This world is full of wars, extreme poverty, nuclear radiation killing our fish and oceans, children dying of lack of food or medicine, people sick and in pain... if this is your worst complaint in your life, that people are not logging your caches correctly, or not finding them and logging them, or eating them when they find them, or whatever, then you, brother, are very blessed. I would suggest to take the time and energy you're spending on this forum and go volunteer at a children's hospital: hold the hand of a dying child. Or maybe take some cub scouts geocaching. Volunteer at a food kitchen for the homeless. Go do some good in the world. There is a whole lot out there to be done. A whole lot more than free premium member caches for the masses. You will see there are a lot of important causes out there. And perhaps whether someone signs your cache or not will have a little less significance. I mean, REALLY, how much does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? And for those who REALLY want that premium membership, it's not that hard to come up with $30 bucks a year. You don't have to be earning 50K a year to do it. Just turn off your cable and you can buy us all premium memberships.

I bought a tablet to use to geocache and it's not working. The main thing I wanted it for was to view the maps and when I press a cache icon it does not bring up the cache. I have a nook (no its not just a book reader) that's about 6 x9 inches. I don't want an app if its like my phone app. It drives me nuts only being able to view a handful of caches at a time. I bought a bigger screen to see more caches. Solutions?

Those look like fun. I'll have to keep those in mind. power trail There's a link to one of them so people can find them. They're done by someone who made an account just for those trails. I wonder who made them.

Thank you Tricia. I don't know why I expect this forum to be any different than others. I've got to learn to just ignore the negative. Again, I didn't make the video. I talked for an hour straight about every aspect of caching that came to mind. They only used what they wanted to. Don't take those remarks so personal. It's a great video, and a lot of people have told you so. Other people are just offering other feedback too. Just because some mention some things that might be improved doesn't mean there's anything wrong with your video. Every single thing on the planet can be improved; in the universe even! It's good that people are writing about things that can be improved because there are many people reading this who may make videos themselves sometimes. Don't discount feedback just because you consider it "negative." No, you didn't make this video, but others will benefit from seeing how it can be improved. You did a great job, you know that. Everyone is saying that. Take the other feedback as it was meant to be: constructive to those who will be making videos in the future. You've only been geocaching a year. Some of these people giving feedback have been caching for many years and have additional input. In another year you'll have things to add to your own video too. That is the nature of life. It doesn't mean there's something wrong with this. Don't take it that way. It's important that we share information on these forums, not only pats on the back. You got those, now hear the info, or at least realize others reading this may need it.

This is great! thanks for keeping this up for us!!! You're probably working on it now, but just wanted to mention that this event just got published: Geocaching goes to Space event I didn't see this one on your calendar. It's okay if this one stays small because it's not a huge venue, but I wanted to put this out there for those who can't get to Groundspeaks evening event and want the souvenir. I didn't see any events close by besides Groundspeak's event, so I wanted to have another local option. I hope everyone who wants to is able to make it to an event.

I like this idea. This would solve the problem of event caches that have been some controversy in the past. People could then create and log event caches. This is a great idea!

Yes, and we've learned our lesson...never ask for Virtuals again. Never. I learned to never ask for them again at a different point. Since there aren't going to be any more, yet they still get archived, I thought I'd run out and find some. That has been an enlightening process. while the first few I found years ago, were at amazing places that were very worthy of a cache, but it was at a place that was too environmentally sensitive for a container- what we all want a virtual to be- I recently have found some that are in places that make me realize why these aren't a good thing. I can see that people were starting to just place them anywhere, and that's really not a good thing. I've seen a few bad ones now and I can see how they had started to go downhill and I can also see how things could continue to really get out-of-hand. I no longer mind them leaving. It was a good thought that didn't work out in practice.

I did the lab caches today and had a lot of fun doing it. The coords were way off, but they were easy enough to find today that that wasn't a problem. It would have been a problem if I hadn't known the coords were off, but there were enough cachers around to say, "No, it's over there, the coords are off". I passed on the favor to many other cachers who were surprised at how far off the coords were. No worries. All were found. At least all that I attempted. I wasn't able to get to them all, but still had a lot of fun. Thanks!