Sol seaker

Still my favorite armchair cachers are those in Germany I found who do virtuals all over the world, in different states, in different countries in the same day. I thought for sure they must be aliens flying around with their space ships to get the caches. who cares? Maybe they're wheelchair bound. they're having fun their own way I guess. It would be hard for her to check if you signed the logbook if it's missing. If you cached in three states in one day they had better be in a straight line! LOL

My boyfriend is really afraid of "being noticed" so at this point, on the urban caches he sits in the car and tells me where he thinks it is, and I go get it. I don't mind looking weird or like a fool. The truth is most people don't care what you're up to. If they think you're doing something weird, they will just think you're wierd and leave. Big deal. Lots of people do wierd things. I set up my tents in a park yesterday to get pictures of them to sell on line. So lots of people looked at me like i was weird. So what? Twice in one day I found a cache where there was a woman sitting right on it. once at a picnic bench. She was reading a book. I was in a hurry, so just went up to her and said, "have you ever heard of geocaching? The one woman's mother was heavy into it. the other had never heard of it, but helped me look for it nonetheless. If there's someone in the way, I don't think there's any harm in telling about the game. People act like it's some big secret, but it's in all the papers now. It's no secret. Telling about the game keeps the game pieces safe. You just need to be careful of someone wondering what your looking for and coming back later to look themselves. One example of this was one person told an onlooker they had lost a ring. the next day there were people out there with metal detectors. If you have to say something, say you lost something like sunglasses and then "oh but they were cheap anyway"

Great...Now I am stuck reading this long story. I am now hooked and it is going to take up all my extra time for a while... Yeah, me too, but it's a really good story. Glad you mentioned it. A real "page turner" Hard to "put it down" I heard of a story of someone rapelling down to a cache by a bridge and finding a body there. The person said you've never seen anyone go back up a rope faster. It was a girl who had been missing two weeks. Don't know if it was foul play or sucide. either way, pretty grisly. There's a place with a cache near here that a body was found at a few years ago. I don't know if a geocacher found it or not. I've found a bicycle, an extension ladder, and a few other various items while caching. I've left them all there, figuring they belonged to someone. Some of the places I've been I wouldn't be surprised to find more, really. I want to find the bank robbers stash, that's what I want to find. Minus the ink packs. LOL Oh, I once found a car with keys while caching. Just the car I've wanted. I gave it back though. There's that guy who jumped out of an airplane many years ago, here in WA state, DB Cooper, that disappeared with thousands or millions or something. A lot of cash anyway. No one ever found him or the cash. It's a standing joke that one of us cachers will run across him, his body and or his money. He's probably long out of the country by now, or happily living in the mountains off the money. Lots of things to find in the woods.

There is a backdoor for non PM to log PMOC. I've seen this mentioned before. What is it again?

I think ANY cache out there is going to have someone writing, "quick find" I think the definition of "quick" can be subject to interpretation. same with "too easy" what is too easy? I've got a cache that has a spoiler for a hint. says exactly where the cache is. It's in a forested area and I don't want the area trashed. Is it too easy? What I've gotten on the logs are a lot of people writing about their excitement of this being their first find. I've gotten a number of people writing that this is the first find of a child and writing about the joy on the child's face when they have found my cache. Too easy? Easy enough to bring joy to a child. That is a great cache to me.

I've actually seen this happen too. i've seen many discussions on this first to find thing. It seems there are those who would do anything short of kill to get a first to find. They don't care about fair, they don't even register "fair" on their radar. The only thing that matters is that FTF. Many in my area are now getting coordinates pre-publication from their friends. They find nothing wrong with this and still think it is a fair first to find. I do not agree with them, but it really doesn't matter what I think. I've chosen to just stay out of it at this point. Not worth the angst. So as I've repeated in past threads, synopsis of past threads on this subject included the highlights of: 1. There is a good reason why Groundspeak chooses not to recognise FTF's (because they cause so much controversy and angst). 2. someone suggested FTFP (after published) as a title for those who find it after published. 3. another said that the main problem with FTF's is that they are causing so much upheaval, unrest and upset people in the forums. And that concludes my involvement in this regularly scheduled discussion of the unfairness of first to find's. Now back to my regularly scheduled micro bashing.

I think whatever the details are, it's good that this keeps coming up so people who actually DO read the forums will realize what people like to find in a good cache, and that they're not so interested in a million micros on guard rails. Keeping the subject on what you want in a find is good, in addition to what you don't want. Keeping these threads going does inform, which is a very good thing. I want caches that have hints; that are not in sensitive plant areas, and if they are, I'd like them to be really good hints so the place doesn't get trashed. I like historical caches I like great views. Someone wrote about "date" caches near places you'd take a date. I like to learn something worth learning. I like new parks. I hate "evil" caches. Especially because they always seem to get muggled right before I look for them so they aren't even really there when I look.

Okay---I wasn't able to find anyway to switch the "Datum setting" on my nuvi 255W. My coordinates were correct and the GPS was in 'Pedestrian' mode.....any other suggestions? Some GPS's are not very accurate. Mine, which is supposed to be good, and is a garmin, often is off by 80 ft I'm afraid. Things that make them go off are: low batteries (usually the culprit) Cloud cover trees valleys or rock walls around me or sometimes the area may have a large amount of iron or other minerals causing problems in the rock below. I know of one very large park where no one can get a good signal. Most GPS's have to be moving to get an accurate reading I've had my garmin put me 50 ft out into water when it was not a water cache. Last weekend it said 100 ft. when in fact I was about 15 away. To help accuracy, I pay attention to what it says on the first pass. That is usually the most accurate, but not always. I keep moving as i walk up to the cache site and try to get as close to ground zero before i have to turn around. Then I pass it by about 30-50 ft or more and then turn around and make a second pass (if I did not get a good ground zero or one that made sense on the first pass) I think they call it the drunken bee dance, walking back adn forth to get the best reading. I make large passes though so the GPS has time to get the message that I've turned around and am going in the opposite direction. Takes a minute so I give it a lot of space to do this. Sometimes it takes multiple passes before I can zero in on what is really the true ground zero. I sometimes have to average out the readings, but I will get an idea of the search area even if I don't get an accurate reading. Also, you can check online for software updates on your GPS, even if it is brand new. Go to the manufacturer website. These are usually free, and will often help with accuracy. And remember, when you turn your GPS on it should tell you how accurate it is that day. Sometimes mine will tell me 14 feet off, sometimes it has given me an error rate of 80 feet. depends on the satellite configuration that day and other things. Take that into consideration when you plan your search radius. If it tells you it's accurate within 22 feet, that means you have a 22 foot search radius if the thing is right on that day. This is why when you plant your first caches, remember that GPS's are not right on, and hints are good, especially if it is in sensitive plant area, or a dangerous area. Remember you may have people looking within a 22-80 ft radius of your cache.

9353: Remove Google Network KML Link from My Account Details Discontinued support for Google Earth KML to improve site performance* I am very disapointed that you removed Google Earth KML!!!! This is a feature that is Not duplicated elsewhere. The regular google maps do not have the same features. I am sure there is another answer to the problems you were having with speed that would not include removing this feature. The fact is it is a complicated application that takes a while to learn. Not many people had gotten the hang of it yet. It was not available for long enough for people to really realize the full depths of it's benefits. I was just figuring it out myself and wanted to use it more. I hope in time you see the error of your ways. This was a great feature many cachers had not discovered yet. It is one that was slow to catch on, and did not get the chance it deserved. With all the money going into Groundspeak through memberships, don't tell me you don't have enough to solve the slow problem in another way without losing an important feature at Groundspeak. Please respond

You don't say anything at first. You just give the sign. Geocachers have adopted the "secret sign" from American Sign Language and changed the meaning to suit ourselves. In ASL it means "Lesbian." Here is Jeremy teaching the "secret sign" to a noob cacher: Actually, I think I'd rather just say, "are you a geocacher?" Not like I'm asking them if they're a drug dealer or something. I think if I went around giving the lesbian symbol my boyfriend would start worrying.

You don't say anything at first. You just give the sign. Geocachers have adopted the "secret sign" from American Sign Language and changed the meaning to suit ourselves. In ASL it means "Lesbian." Here is Jeremy teaching the "secret sign" to a noob cacher: Funny, these guys don't look like Lesbians....

The cache owner actually owns the container, according to Groundspeak. That's the part of the cache they own. It is their job, and something they've agreed to do as cache owners, is upkeep their caches. I agree with all said before: the detoriating caches are often abandoned caches. These need to be cleaned out and replaced with new caches with active owners. Groundspeak put out a notice at the end of winter, that it was time for everyone to do cache maintaince on their own caches. Sometimes, with the caches I find, I think few people read it.

I stated it in the log and I'll repeat it again - I would have never, ever, ever gone to that exact spot on this earth had it not been for Geocaching. Friends, enjoy this game however you choose to play it. My motivations are many and varied and seem to change every day I play but that's what I like about it the most. I have to agree with this one a lot. i've never heard of the term, "radius slave" and I guess it might apply to me. I've been known to e-mail people to find a new clue for one I just could not get for anything. I couldn't stand having that one sit out there too long after searching for it for more than three times. And sure, I've put a boat on a lake "just to get a cache" but the real truth is I needed the time on the lake more than I needed the cache. But It's not just the radius around my house. I am working on the radius around my partner's house. When I go places regularly, I like to hit those areas. the upside of this has been when I've gone to new areas, I've learned them more than I've ever known them in the past. Suddenly I actually know the streets (oh that's by the cache: Right Guard), and I learn more of the history of these areas. I go to parks Ive never been to. Will I ever get a radius around anything? I doubt it. There's over 700 within ten miles of my house. More new pop up every week within that radius. Then there's my partner's radius. Well I better run. So much caching to do, so little time.

I don't remember what my first cache was. how embarrassing is that. I had to re-log my caches when I changed accounts and so I can't even look it up. I do remember the first cache I ever SAW found. But then it turns out not to be a real cache afterall. We had hiked to a nice overlook and my friend goes off in the bushes to....... find a tree....., and comes back with a big plastic box. I said, what is that? and he explained the game to me. He didn't know it was there either. Just found it. turns out he found a letterbox, not the actual cache in that area afterall. We've got to go back one day and find the real cache. so many caches, so little time......

within a ten mile radius of my house is 707. that explains why there are so few smilies around my house. I've only gotten 200 so far and most of those I've gotten are not around my house. There are areas not far away that are much more cache dense areas too. North of my house there are actually not that many. My area has new caches popping up every week at this point. I'd like to place some more but they are coming up so quickly the areas I'm interested in get taken fast. Wow. And I was worried at one point of running out of caches to find. HAH!! OH, PS. I'm just South of Seattle WA, home of Groundspeak

I'm a team member. that would be good . how would i go about doing this? I'm not good at all at graphic sorts of things. thanks,

MY GARMIN'S BIGGER THAN YOUR GARMIN!! and my father's is even bigger than that!!

Strange, I thought that would be a definition of a geocacher who likes hiking. But that's just me, what do I know? I tried to look up "geocacher" in Merriam-Webster and it says the word doesn't exist, and suggests "dogcatcher". "Real geocacher"? what a funny concept. What can possibly be real about searching for tupperware? Although I would think "real geocachers", if there is such a term, would log their finds on the website as that is part of what the geocaching game is. Looking at your profile you have found none. So how are you claiming to be more real than anyone else? Wow, now even heirarchy in geocaching. Just gets in everywhere doesn't it? Like a bad fungus.

yeah, how about oar weasr? either that or sposs poiuvre. I only use muggle when with geopals. One may be watching for muggles (sposs poiuvres) and shout out to the other, "muggles" when someone rounds the bend. I enjoy thinking if they're kids they may think we're some harry potter witches doing magic in the forest. Gives it more of an edge than just searching for tupperware.

If this all happened 75+ years ago it would probably be fine. 50 years ago would be a bit iffy. Six years ago is like yesterday for anyone who was around when the murders happened. I agree with mrbort's comments. Given the time frame I would not consider creating a cache like this and I doubt that I would hunt a cache like this if it was placed in my area. Ditto: if it was a 100 year old murder then I'd love to find it. It would be fun. If the family and loved ones are still in the area and it was within even twenty years, it's just too soon. I'd call that morbid. wouldn't be interestd. Would be grossed out. and would worry about offending people.

PS a cache like this should have a maintaince request on it first, before archiving is considered. The cache owner was probably unaware their cache had a problem. Some owners don't read the regular logs but will read maintaince requests. Many people have written on the forums that they have appreciated it when others help maintain their caches. many people said they regularly carry extra log paper etc. Groundspeak says the owner of a cache owns the container. If no one is maintaining it and you want to replace it for the enjoyment of all, many will appreciate it. If the owner is not maintaining anyway, you can request maintaince, and then talk to the reviewer. if the cache is just missing, and the owner is not responding, then the cache should be archived. The owner will not maintain and they owned the container. after the winter snows here, I've done many maintaince requests for many wet caches. Most people have taken care of their caches. Groundspeak did send out a general notice for everyone to do cache maintaince now that it's spring, but obviously everyone has not been reading the newsletters. we all do the best we can to keep the game fun for others.

I've dealt with this a number of times in my area. First you try to contact the previous owner. If they reply, you ask them if they would like to adopt out the cache to you. I've sent the link to the page on Groundspeak and copied the info into an email for them to tell them how to do it. It's very easy. If they fill out the form, you log on and say YES when you get the adoption request. If there is no reply you cannot adopt the cache because you MUST get permission from the owner. If the cache owner does not reply and the cache is in seriously bad shape (like missing, or needing a new box etc.) You can mark it "needs archiving" and list the reasons why. Usually a reviewer will respond and give the cache owner a month to respond. After that the cache is archived. You can put a new cache in that same area after the previous cache was shut down. If you have any questions pertaining to that cache in particular, or no one responds to your request for archiving after a while, or after the prescribed time the cache has not been archived, then you need to contact the reviewer for that area. To see who the reviewer is in that area find new caches in that area and see who reviewed them. e-mail the reviewer and discuss the problem with them. The reviewers I've dealt with have always been prompt curteous and fair.

I've only got one cache and have been plotting out several more, so this has been a subject on my mind. How hard do I make the other ones? who do I want to serve? I've been reading the logs from my one cache which is very easy. I've repeatedly gotten "First find for a child" and in general other people have had it be the first cache they find. People have written about the joy of the child when finding their very first cache. How can I top that? I would not be getting those logs from an evil micro. What is it I want to do here? Bring joy or frustration into the world? My caches are decided.

HEY!! I'm up to 19 caches in one day!!! LOL!! seems like a lot to me. Wipes me out big time!!! If you have questions about the cache numbers, you can always check WHERE those people are finding those caches. You can also check the logs and see how many people are caching together. It's faster to cache in teams. There's a number of people in Germany (maybe other places) who are logging (mostly virtual) caches that they've never been to. You can read the logs and they have logged caches in 3 different states and two countries in one day. Makes it really obvious what's going on. Some people will do the 24 hour thing. i could never hold up that long, but those who do get a lot that way.

Just saw a great one yesterday!! It was an ammo can under a tree in an industrial park. He might have had the same problem. the ammo can was CHAINED to the tree with a HUGE steel chain!!!! HAH!! that one won't be stolen, although you can steal the stuff inside, for what that's worth (not much)