HunterandSamuel

>>>Has Anyone Considered Disabling Caches Until the Virus Threat is Past I might have answered this already but will again. We didn't disable our caches because of Covid-19 and am so glad we didn't because they were a lifesaver for people who were stuck at home because of covid closing down entire cities and many regulations in place. Our cache hides were very busy during this time, more so than ever before. It was the only thing that help keeping many people sane, in my opinion, during this difficult time, allowing us to get out in the fresh air and geocache. So easy to keep social distancing and wearing masks. So a huge thank you to the Geocaching Headquarters for not closing down our cache hides although new caches were not published until it was safe and some regulations were lifted. We are close to having another wave of covid, cases are increasing, but keep geocaching for your mental and physical health! Wear a mask, keep your distance, and bring hand sanitizer.

Keystone answered already but in my area I see a lot of TFTH. Which means thank you for the hide!

I was always told it was to reduce over crowding of cache hides in the environment. Too many hides is not good. Space them out so there is less "littering".

I'm anal about getting exact coordinates. I usually do about 4 or 5 coord readings at the site, walk away and then slowly walk to the cache hide, wait a few minutes for the coords to register and then take a photo of them. At home on the computer I'll type in the coords on google map and see which ones point to the exact location. It's a bit time consuming but fun! I love logs that say the coords are perfect!

I just want to add...I hate caches that are purposely buried under leaves! Almost impossible to find, all that digging can't be good for the environment either. Took us close to an hour one time to find a buried cache under leaves, in the Fall of all seasons, just for a FTF. lol

Welcome to geocaching, Satyakama! The world of geocaching is so wonderful in so many ways, so healthy for everyone, gets us outdoors discovering many neat places, exercising, hiking in forests, meeting new people, and the excitement of hearing "found it"! It can also be challenging. My husband and I love increasing our smileys, setting goals, and love getting some first to finds! I know someone who has a goal of finding a cache each day for a year and logging the days in their logs. When you start hiding your own creative caches, you'll love the positive comments when people find them. Again, welcome!

Sometimes cachers do not place the cache containers back where they belong. Also some new to the game of geocaching, their coords can be off. The more experienced cachers will update the correct coords. But, I know of one hide whose coords were purposely placed 50 ft from the location of the hide. Where it was placed would never have been approved by a reviewer. Directly in a pretty community garden in a park. Plants were being trampled on. A few of us complained to the reviewer so the owner disabled it. It is still disabled so they knew what they were doing.

Very water-tight. Especially the film containers bought on geocache.com. I love them. Great test you have there. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! Cachers love it.

"Oh, how things do change. Back in the early days of geocaching, film canisters could be found under rocks and up in trees throughout the world. They were all the rage with their combination of water tight closure and the fact that they came with the 35mm film we were all buying anyway. There were stickers designed to fit them, and micro geocoins were designed to bring them trackables. There may have even been glorious banquets held in their honor.But, of course things do change. Now geocachers ride their hover crafts to finds, and 35mm film is about as common as a Commodore 64. One thing that hasn't changed, though, is that they do make pretty good geocaches. With that in mind, we have decided to bring them back to the main stream"! https://shop.geocaching.com/default/geocaching-supplies/cache-containers/micro/film-canister-geocache.html

We call this one "grass head".

Pill bottles are nice when camouflaged with tape! We camo a few large vitamin bottles. I'll post one of ours.

You are welcome!

I reluctantly bought clear film canisters on Amazon that came with logs (a great deal). Why? To replace when/if light post caches are muggled or when larger caches that have a cache inside with a log to sign. I also bought official geocache stickers to place on them.

Great advice! Geocaching is meant to be a fun activity for everyone. I know someone who kept accusing cachers fake logging in their logs. A geocacher put him in his place. Told him to stop ruining the enjoyment of geocaching.

I hear you. I think new cachers feel it's part of the game. Maybe Geocache headquarters can add a few suggestions before logging a DNF or NM, like contacting the CO and/or going back again to find it. We had a newbie say she couldn't find a cache of ours and thinks it was stolen. Went immediately down to check on it and it was still there. Caused a few stressful moments for us. lol

Yes! It gets us to take seriously the placements of geocaches, to think about why we are placing them at the location we are.

I had a new geocache published notice pop up today in email. The date it was submitted was back in May! I think maybe the pandemic has a lot to do with the delay, depending on the area and if it's a hot spot?

Thanks, Max! We were very happy to find it although it was across the parking lot from it's original location. A sigh of relief. They are not cheap to purchase and cachers in our area seem to love it. We do have a back up, the same type of bolt. Bought it from a guy in California who makes them himself. The first one didn't arrive due to wild fires there a few years ago so he sent us another one. Then the first one was delivered weeks after but he told us to keep it at no cost. Was very nice of him.

Ah, that makes perfect sense. Thanks.

We noticed an increase of geocachers finding our caches during this pandemic. Being out of the house and in fresh air, exercising, is so important for mental health during these trying times. Geocaching is a Godsent!

We use a hot glue gun. Works great! We also check up on the caches to make sure they hold up.

I agree. Getting back on topic. A recent irk my husband and I experienced recently. We check up on our caches after several finds. Not to check the log signatures to compare them to the online logs (never ever do we do this) but to make sure the cache was placed in its original spot and to refill swag. One cache was left in the open, exposed. Some things were scattered about. This was a premium member too. But he/she was a newbie. Do we message them or let it go. We decided to let it go. Who knows, if they do not like being reprimanded, what they will do to other caches.

We had a few geocache newbies starting out who are premium members and wondered why they became premiums members so quickly. Just wondering. We were happy with our basic membership until our son made us premium members and we learned of the extra benefits.

A picture of our feet next to a dinosaur footprint fossil.