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grimpil

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Everything posted by grimpil

  1. I have just completed my first full year of Geocaching & can only report that it is a great value for money hobby! Having laid out the princely sum of £24.99 I found 411 caches - that is just 6p per cache. I already had a GPS for hiking so there was little further expense. Most of my finds were along routes that I was walking anyway so cannot even count the petrol to get to a start point as an expense. Hunting for caches has added value to tried & tested walks & also led me to new trails & areas, even very close to home. I enjoy the hunt & even when I get a DNF there has often been something positive in that it was an interesting location, or a great local view. There seem to have been fewer topics recently asking if Premium is worth it. In my view it most definitely is! But of course it is up to you to make the most of it. Certainly proved better value than the gym membership I once paid for - that worked out at around £60 per visit!!! And yes - I have renewed! Here's to another busy year.
  2. >>>When I play Ludo with others, and I roll the dice, and predent to have a six each and every time I roll the dice, no matter what I really rolled. Would it be fun for the others, for the co-players to play with me? No? Hey why, c´mon, it´s just a game. I as a owner put efforts in setting up and maintaining a cache. I´d like to see this effort respected. Respected by logging it propperly. No over expectations, just sign that dang thing mannerly<<< If some people think it is not essential to have a pen & sign the log or to provide some proof of finding a cache then what is the incentive to actually find it? If I go off on a walk & along that walk there are a dozen caches which I shall pass close by then why not just log them as "did not have a pen" simply because I know I was within yards of them but cannot be bothered actually locating them. Will this give me satisfaction? No. Will it give the CO satisfaction? Possibly, possibly not, judging by comments made here. But it is a very odd way to play the game, as illustrated by the Ludo scenario from DerDiedler. There is someone in my area logging lots of local caches as "sorry - no pen to sign". I strongly suspect they are an armchair cacher & I just find it bizarre as I cannot understand what satisfaction they get? Many COs have expressed a view that they really don't mind unsigned logs but I wish just one person who is caching this way would explain what they feel they achieve. Getting my name on that bit of paper is the main point of the game for me. Perhaps I am not seeing the real nature of the game? Or perhaps I should be logging as found all the caches that belong to those COs that say they really don't feel a necessity for the log to be signed. I could up my count very quickly just sitting in the comfort of home & perhaps even bag a few country badges along the way!!
  3. You have to say where does it come from rather than who to qualify for the ding! ?
  4. Thank you! Staying on the literature theme here is a quote from a favourite book. I often used to keep these words on my desk or as a screen saver, but where does it come from? "I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours"
  5. Jane Eyre Written by Jean Rhys as a story of the early years of Mrs Rochester before she became the mad woman in the attic.
  6. It is laughable to read how many people are fooling nobody & in reality just cheating themselves! But it seems to depend why you are a cacher in the first place. If it is just to get numbers to boost your virtual ego then cheat away. It is like people boasting how many "friends" the have on FB when in fact most are complete strangers & many might not even be who they say they are! When I get DNFs I regard it as an opportunity to revisit a location at a later date to try again. Sometimes on reading my DNF log a kind CO has apologised for a missing cache (rather than my own failure to find) & said for me to log it as a find. But with two exceptions I turn down the offer. The only ones I logged as found, although not signed, were firstly one that I could clearly see but is far too high up an object I cannot possible climb at my age. As it was part of a series for which I wrote some interesting logs the CO gave me that one as a bonus! However I am still intending one day to find a way to sign the log. Then I found one that I could only just reach but was impossible for my stretched fingertips to extract the log - I photographed it, messaged the CO, got no reply, saw they had not been on the site for a very long time, so claimed it as a find, but am prepared to lose it should the CO ever reappear & not approve. I keep seeing logs from someone recording caches that I have found who supposedly hardly ever has a pen - even when out for a day's caching. I suspect they are an armchair cacher who is simply cheating themself. Sad.
  7. I recently found a cache which appeared to be a film canister taped to a tree branch some 6 feet above my head. I don't climb trees & anyway it did not appear to be easily reachable if I did. Hmm? Circled below it like a prowling lion waiting for a monkey to fall out of the tree. Then I spotted a 2cm diameter rusty looking metal ring seemingly attached to the cache. Found a fallen branch with a side twig, reached to hook into the ring & pulled gently, but wondering how, if I pulled the cache down, I would get it back up. Could be embarrassing? Then it suddenly "gave" & the cache descended attached to a metal tape measure from which the metal ring had been hung. LOL!! I almost fell over with surprise. My favourite find to date. Thankfully the tape did retract again quite easily once I had signed the log. Clever but so simple!
  8. I started geocaching to learn how to use my GPS, essentially bought for security on solo hiking trips, using it to challenge me to find places unknown to me or off the beaten track & find my way out again! Once I realised that hunting for caches could lead me to some intriguing places down those interesting side tracks from my ususal walking routes I was hooked. I plan walks then check for & download all caches along & close to the route & it makes for some extra fun along familiar tracks. It has also lead me to hidden places that are not marked on any map (like a remote cave in Greece) that I had previously failed to locate. Now with cache coordinates I can confidently hunt out these places. It has also led me to re-visit some locations with happy childhood memories.
  9. As a relative newbie to this game, not necessarily conversant with all the official rules nitty gritty, I don't see a problem until a cacher has an issue with one of your hides. After all how many of us, COs or not, can actually guarantee we will not die suddenly by falling under the next bus or in some random accident? Any cache could be orphaned overnight. Surely all caches are hidden on the basis that unless muggled or damaged by weather or terrain problems they are out there to be found. At least you are keeping watch for any reported issues so cross the problem bridge when you come to it.
  10. What sad people! Perhaps the type that claim to have a zillion friends because they have them listed on Facebook, but in reality are "Billy No Mates" living a solitary virtual existence. Cannot get my head round cheating on (not) finding caches - you are only cheating yourself! The souvenirs are fun, but strictly speaking pointless, & the only statistics that interest me are my own. Does anyone really care what anyone else achieved here other than they had fun finding just one cache or a thousand?
  11. I posted an earthcache at 01.00am on 13th & got my souvenir immediately. I also sent off my answers to the CO within the following 10 minutes. I am awaiting confirmation that I answered correctly & my log will stand. But what if I fouled up & the CO deletes my log? Will my souvenir disappear? And if it did could I submit another attempt & log it again by retro dating my post? And would the souvenir reappear? This is hypothetical as I was confident of my answers, but this thread got me curious.
  12. I started with an etrex10, but was fortunate to be able to unexpectedly upgrade to a 30x thanks to a monetary windfall. If you are caching with kids I would stick with the phone until you know how committed they are but start saving for the 20x or 30x as kids will probably find the colour screens with mapping more user appealing. And sadly a lot of caches in UK are wet, damp, mouldy, contain trash etc. Out of the 300+ I found to date only around 10 contained any swag worth taking suitable for kids & many are too small to hold anything other than the log. As you are a Premium Member concentrate on those caches as they are overall better quality IMHO. And make getting to interesting places a main aim.
  13. When posting my finds I will mention issues such as very damp logs, rubbish in the container, caches that have not been hidden properly by previous finders, broken locks etc. I often read the 2 or 3 logs posted before mine which may only be a day or two old but make no mention of such issues which must have existed when they found the cache. I have had "thank yous" from COs for drawing their attention to such issues. None of us should complain publicly about the state or quality of caches if we don't help with the maintenance in this way. It is not my responsibility to physically maintain them but as part of the caching community I support COs who cannot be expected to check umpteen caches every few days by posting reports. I recently found 3 in a row which had the same name signed from just the previous day & found them easily because they had not been fully concealed as requested in the cache description. When you spot a blue or orange plastic box lid from 5 paces just sitting at the base of a tree with a couple of twigs or a rock on top it is fairly certain you have the cache. Seems to me that for some people it is simply grab the cache, chuck it back down at GZ & move on quickly. If it is all about numbers then no wonder that in 300+ finds I have not found a single item of swag worth my taking & perhaps less than 10 items that might be fun finds for kids.
  14. And presumably the next finder of the cache, unable to see where you have signed, will simply write on the blank space it appears to be. What is the point of doing this for yourself, for the CO & for other cachers?
  15. A ding for Optimist on the run. Mines Rescue is correctly Cave & Mines Rescue. It is surprising how many people don't know the six services - but as said it depends where you live. No point calling Coastguard in Wolverhampton, or Mountain Rescue on the Norfolk coast!
  16. Thanks for the ding. It does seem this topic has gone sluggish over the summer. How many services are available when you dial 999 in UK? Name them. Not all are available in every area.
  17. So just how many people have found those & said nothing? Just recorded a find & moved on? The best thing to make those nice for the next finder would be to bin them & report them as AWOL!! I would not dream of tidying up anything like that but I would give a graphic description in my log. I don't replace logs or baggies. There's is a difference between mopping out a damp cache, which is otherwise serviceable & clearing up utter cr@p!
  18. Both fair comments & I agree. So why am I always the first to report on my logs about the state of these bags? And I notice that those who log finds after me do not report the torn bags, damaged containers etc that I found the day before or even same day when it is unlikely the CO has been to repair them. If people gave feedback the CO might get the message more quickl;y that their bags were not good enough. Majority of unsealed bags I find can be resealed satisfactorily. The torn ones should be reported by the finder who found this was the only way to get into the log. Seems to me, having come late to this hobby, I have missed much of the the past community spirit that I read about. If I had to damage a container or bag to access a log I would report back in my log. I have received PM thanks from COs for doing minor maintenance on caches. I appreciate their placing the caches, they appreciate that I will try to help them in small ways to save them making a journey just to reseal a bag or dry a soggy log.
  19. Many of the caches I have found to date have the log in a click seal plastic bag inside whatever container constitutes the cache. However it seems finders are in the main incapable of either opening these without ripping them below the seal, or if they open them correctly then fail to zip them up again. I would say that a third to a half of the bags I have found to date were either not fully re-sealed or were torn resulting in damp logs in most cases. It is not rocket science to do this properly. But after reading a thread here about how many caches people have found in a day I wonder if this speed caching is partly to blame. If you are aiming to find for example 50 caches (a seemingly modest number by some claims!) in a day do you have time to open a container, open a plastic bag, sign, reseal carefully & return everything as found, or is it a "find, sign & move on fast" attitude that leads to sloppiness? I have dried out the contents of several caches on my shirt or trousers, tried to make the log better able to be signed by the next finder by carrying a cloth to blot it with, & generally note on my log the state of anything I found that was less than satisfactory. Often they do not need major maintenance by the CO, just a bit of care & respect from finders. Sadly we live in a "me me me" society today when no-one else matters.
  20. With all those extraordinary numbers I wonder what people recorded here on the cache logs & how long it took them to write up! Must be honest & say i am seriously unimpressed with quantity number chasing & from my armchair enjoy reading cache descriptions & logs by people who have found maybe only a very few caches but have written some really interesting accounts of their finds & their experiences. I had not thought about how many I ever found in one day but have just surprised myself by looking at my statistics & realising I found a record 24 just 10 days ago. But I go out on hikes, adjusting my chosen routes to pick up nearby caches, rather than specifically seeking lots of caches per se & would not dream of doing drive by routes apart from maybe picking up an odd one whilst passing by on another mission. But this is an activity that fits all participants, no matter which way you enjoy it. Each to his own. I am having fun also!!
  21. I think taking the time to write interesting logs is payback for the time & effort a CO has put into creating the challenges. Sometimes there is not a lot I want to say, but at least can mention the condition of the cache, maybe it was a place with a nice view, maybe a place I can add local/personal information about. Or maybe just a "woo! hoo!" of excitement at solving a puzzle. It is good especially to start children off in the habit of saying more than TFTC that appears as the only entry so much of the time.
  22. I found a cache recently & regretted not having an extension ladder in my backpack as part of a cachers toolkit! I could see the cache - 12 feet up in the air attached to a telegraph pole! No way to sign it but reading previous logs I can see people have gone with steps/ladders/ piggy backs/leg ups & even climbed on a car roof or two. So equipment for all finds has to be diverse & inventive. A while back had to also admit defeat when I knew my tree climbing days were 5 decades ago!
  23. I found lots of useful guides & advice just by googling - several short youtube videos were very helpful & when you find one it leads to others. I think some guides are more use to one person & some to another depending on your mindset. Garmin manuals are rubbish!! Once you get the hang of it the eTrex 10 is a neat little unit if you don't need mapping.
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