EnergySaver

7 months have past now ... still no fix

I'm guessing you've heard this suggestion already, but just in case ... I would be great if the Google Maps had the OPTION of showing only caches "not found / not mine". I say OPTION, because it is still good to be able to see all caches, like you have it now, also.

1 - 1/2 months since I got a reply that said they were checking into it ... but still it doesn't work! This is so frustrating! I know this isn't the end of the world ... but why yank peoples chains by appearing to offer the ability to do something and then not have it work. I like going paperless and using my Palm and GPSr ... but I can't really just rely on the query, IF I bring my dog along ... instead I have to pre-check the query results against the website, to check for no-dog symbols. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Update ... I decide to give the "trouble ticket" route I try too ... I've had better luck Sent the ticket on Wednesday ... today "Annie" replied asking me for some examples ... so maybe something will happen now

I'd like to create a Pocket Query that EXCLUDES caches that have the "No Dogs" Attribute ... what am I doing wrong? On the Pocket Query Building, I'm in the SECOND Grouping of Attribute Symbols, titled "Attributes to Exclude" and I'm clicking TWICE on the Dog symbol ... making that symbol go from the default of grayed-out, to dog, to dog with red line through it. It seems to me that this should be the correct thing to do ... basically: Excluding "No Dogs" caches ... which should leave me with caches with "Yes Dogs" or no mention of dogs either way. But when I run the query, it seems to ignore this limitation, as I get all THREE types: Yes Dogs, No Dogs and unspecified in the resulting query.

I was wondering if there are plans to include Attributes in the DATA WE GET EMAILED from pocket queries. Yes, I understand that when you build a query you can now select Attributes. But that's NOT what I mean, I wish the DATA itself would include the Attributes. This would allow third party software such as CacheMate to include this information so users like myself can see the Attributes on their Palm pilots. As a person that caches with a dog, I'd like to know in the field if the Attributes make reference to dogs (or other attributes). Having it as part of the selection process of the query build is not enough, as sometimes I cache without my dog and don't want to "ignore" the no dog caches, I just want to know when I'm driving in the car with my Palm, what the attributes are.

Any idea on when the GPX file format might be modified to allow Attributes to be part of the Pocket Query files. As a person that geocaches with a dog it would be nice to be able to see "Dogs" / "No Dogs" on my cachemate file on my Palm. CacheMate says they'd love to support Attributes, but of course it's got to make it to the GPX file first. Paperless dog-cachers are at a disadvantage right now. People that use to mention dog status in the description of a cache have moved that information to the Attritutes insteading, leaving me in the dark, unless I pick caches first on the website, then switch to using my Palm.

LOL! White Tail ... White Tailed ... White-Tail ... ahhhhhhh! Actually we had discussion and voting on that. Turns out there is more than one way to word the name of the deer, each would be acceptable, even scientific articles out ther that use multiple choices of wording in one article.

I would like to propose and offer to run a sub-category of "Crime Memorials", which would be under "Places" then "Historical Places". I find it interesting/ironic when we memorialize the scene of a crime and the person that did it. An example, I'm aware of a location where a guy lived in the side of a hill in the 1800's, he worked for a quarry town, he fell in love with the donkey cart driver's wife, so he killed the donkey cart driver. In this case their is a plaque with a picture of the guy in a State Park, at the site where the guy lived when it was a mining town. I don't want to spoil the rest of the story ... which I will reveal if the subcategory is approved for me.

came close the other weekend ... trying to find a cache which is between lake michigan and a power plant ... I'm told there is a public trail between the two from a nearby park, about 1/2 mile hike ... I kept driving back and forth in my van trying to figure out why the GPS kept telling me I had to be by the power plant ... on my last attempt I decided to turn around where the regular road meets the gated drive to the power plant ... just a get your car off the road and backup right away to go the other direction ... as I was doing this the local sherrif came by ... he stopped his squad ... then he looked at my kids in the back seat and drove on ... my heart was going a little faster.

I'm also very happy with the geocaching buttons from this place. Very good customer service too.

Not sure about the rest of you, but the "skeeters" are so bad in Wisconsin, that I'm going to order one of these and wear it over my head ... identifies why I'm there, should keep me from being shot, should scare away geomuggles and keep the bugs out of my teeth.

For the first 3 finders of: Valley of Oz TB Zoo, I left envelopes with coordinates to another cache location ... each of the 3 finders got their own/different coordinates. At those coordinates they got a "prize packet" cache with geocaching.com merchandise --and-- instructions on a "Found It" log entry to make on another cache:Toto's Wish which is a mystery cache, that the "public" (other cachers) can only find once those 3 first finders log in with their pre-scripted (by me) log entry text. This made things fun for those first finders ... they got a physical prize, got a surprise extra cache, and got to participate in deciding the final location of where the "public" cache would be located. It was a lot of fun ... well received by the 3 finders ... but took a lot of explanation to get approval (not their fault, I just was overwhelming them with the theme swimming around in my head).

I agree with not playing a home-burned in a computer ... but what about playing in a plain ol' CD player on a boom box or in a car stereo? ... I don't see how you could get a virus or anything that way, do you?

My parents are in the 80's and they are cheap Germans ... so I have experience in this area. Can't tell you what unit to get them, but can suggest the criteria of what to look for: (1) The less features the better. (2) The bigger buttons the better. (3) The bigger screen the better. (4) The ideal unit would allow YOU to pre-set the few functions that HE needs, so the unit comes on with just what HE needs. ... now is their such a unit, that's another question.

I little off topic ... but spurred on by the "little sneaks" approach ... what do you all think of this: Make a Multi-Cache or series of Micros leading to a Mystery, starting with the "Parking Lot" Coordinates for the Mystery ... bounce them around finding coordinate clues in the Micros, the last Micro tells them "go to the coordinates listed for the parking lot, that's where the Full Size Cache is". So basically, the coordinates LISTED for parking might actually be 20 feet in the woods of the parking area ... no one would worry about being right on target when they park their car, so they're not going to park under a fallen tree ... but NOW you send them back to find the cache under that fallen tree. It's sneaking, but at least the walk back to their car is short!

I like the "key to open a lock" idea (I think someone else said that too) ... I'm wondering if that would ever get approved, since only one cacher could solve the puzzle at a time ... I know when my mystery cache was approved, Finder #1 and Finder #2 passed each other in opposite directions on the final approach (#2 wishes he had not stopped for breakfast first). If it would "pass inspection" I really like it, because then the finder has to make another trip back to the prior micro to hide the key again.

Exactly! "Rainbow's End...Pot-of-Gold" at zip code 53090 placed by "ecorangers" is a cool example of that. He uses six colored plastic eggs, "Rainbow ###### Raindrop" (###### replaced with the color), to hide coordinate "clues" to the pot of gold. Very cool and well received cache series ... check it out if your ever in south-eastern Wisconsin. I've done a similar thing with "Valley of Oz TB Zoo" at zip 53012, but using PVC pipe with sliding sections, that look like part of the tree, but open to reveal clues and a log-sheet. Personally, I really enjoy a series of "clues" that lead to a mystery cache ... especially when the first finders get some kind of rewards at the destination, for their extra effort ... even though scoring multiple cache "finds" on a single hunt is a great reward in itself.

Something I've thought of trying ... wear an orange safety vest, hold the GPS in front of you, pace back and forth ... they'll think you work for the city, to mark out a new road that will be taking the place of the park ... this way they throw stones, instead of calling the cops. On a more serious note (well not bad serious, just not being stupid/funny) ... it's not too tough to pass your GPS off as a camera. A couple weeks ago, my daughter and I were in a park checking my own cache (for fear of loss in a flood, but all was ok), a lady stopped us and asked if we wanted her to take our picture possed by the rushing creek. I almost said, "but we don't have a camera" ... then I caught myself. Should would have been impressed to discover that we had 87 53.096 "pictures" on our "camera".

First thing I would do is spray paint the things to camo them ... or more specifically colors that would blend with the chosen hide location (so I guess this would not be the first thing, or I wouldn't know where I'm hiding it ). As for a hiding location ... I would find some kind of bridge with an area you can get to under the bridge safely from land ... got to be something metal under there with a hole or rod that you can snap the thing on. You could easily convert the A, B, C, D, etc buttons into 1, 2, 3, 4, etc if you want to somehow work coordinates into the game plan. Even better, maybe something I'll try ... make a couple Micros that lead to a Mystery ... hide a film canister micro with a key in it (some obsolete key to your old car or something) (for the ironic factor), on the key write something like: N43 29.FAJ W87 42.GDI 35317 Then in another micro film canister, place a code: A=5 B=2 C=3 D=4 E=7 F=9 G=0 H=1 I=6 J=8 They de-code the cordinates of the lock box to be: N43 29.958 W87 42.046 And de-code the lock box combo to be: CACHE I'll have to go now ... got to find myself some of these lock boxes.

I'm somewhat a "rookie", but 2 cents (x6) any way. #1 ... I agree that sometimes a micro seems to waste a regular size space. But I've seen this happening with choice of hiding locations too. This past weekend I found a piece of tupperware hidden under a pile of bark, 20 feet away was the coolest hollow tree I've ever seen, with about a 1' x 9" natural ledge up inside of it. I plan on watching the cache in that area continously ... if they ever retire it, I'm out to that spot immediately. #2 ... Having said all this, I agree with some others that their are enough rules already. geocaching.com should simply comment/suggest in/near the guidelines. I think true rules should be limited to issues of safety, logic and respect of the area of the cache ... not opinions. #3 ... We should always think about the tasks placed on the approval volunteers! They have enough to look at, without trying to make a judgement call about what would fit inside of a tree that they can not see from their computer. #4 ... I strongly agree that have a different Icon for regular size vs. micros would be excellent. I will still hunt the micros, but it depends on my "mood" that day. #5 ... it would be nice if some official "suggestions" were posted in the GC guidelines as to when something is too big to count as a micro, or too small to be standard size. Example, I've placed a series of PVC pipes with sliding compartments - the hold log pages, pencil and small items - but are they micros when they are 1" in diameter but 12" long? I've been calling them "Other" and describing in the text. #6 ... "Micros" don't have to be boring and require no effort. Again my PVC micro/other caches have taken me much time to perfect, clue together, water-tight test and camo paint. I'm even redesigning to seal better (with O-Rings), with self draining features and I'm making some size specific to a specific hiding spot. I'm enjoying the "engineering" of the containers just as much as the cache hide itself.

This doesn't even begin to compete with some of the listings I see here ... but this is the worst that happened to this rookie cacher ... Yesterday we ignored the endless rain in our area and headed out to find "Zzyxx Lake Home". Now if we had bush wacked it would have been a straight .3 miles, since we didn't know the trails in the area, we gave that I try ... we hit unpassible water . We tried the north trail, which seems to go on and on too far north by about a mile, we hid a point were the trail seem to look like one of those photos of tar pits sucking down a dinasoar . So we bush wacked from that point, which is no where near the coordinates now. It was very wet and we kept pulling our 8 year old free from the muck . We found the cache ... it was totally trashed, filled with water and the log book didn't resemble a logbook any more (which explains the little pieces of paper stuck in trees along the last approach). We didn't want to use the north trail on the way out, so we tried the south trail ... just as we came to the point where small fish were crossing the trail, a large dog started barking at us , but the standing still thing worked, it smelled us and left to chase the fish. At this point deep water seemed less of a problem than being mauled by a dog ... so south it is. Got back to our car, 1 hr. 45 min. later (remember the car was only .3 miles from the cache) ... we all drove home bare foot.