Kit Fox

Thanks Dave for keeping me entertained for six years. I've probably used 500 gallons of gas while out geocaching alone. In all honesty, environmentalist who fly in in private jets to "global warming summits," and live in mega mansions, have greater carbon footprints than geocachers ever will.

Awesome idea MissJenn! I hate the compression of the Groundspeak uploaded images, so I hosted my 10 yr event image on Flickr also.

Always? Really? Between 315 and 6th century thousands of pagan believers were slain. Examples of destroyed Temples include the Sanctuary of Aesculap in Aegaea, the Temple of Aphrodite in Golgatha, Aphaka in Lebanon and the Heliopolis. Pagan services became punishable by death in 356. Christian Emperor Theodosius (408-450) even had children executed because they had been playing with remains of pagan statues. The world famous female philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria was torn to pieces with glass fragments by a hysterical Christian mob led by a Christian minister named Peter, in a church, in 415. Emperor Karl (Charlemagne) in 782 had 4500 Saxons beheaded because they were unwilling to convert to Christianity. The Battle of Belgrad in 1456 saw 80,000 Turks slaughtered by Christians because of their religious differences. The first Crusade, in 1095, was launched on command of pope Urban II. Semlin/Hungary, Wieselburg/Hungary, Nikaia, Xerigordon (then turkish), each saw thousands of their peoples slain by Christians because of their belief. According to Christian chronicler Fulcher of Chartres, the Christians "did no other harm to the women found in [the enemy's] tents - save that they ran their lances through their bellies,". When Jerusalem was conquered in 7/15/1099 more than 60,000 victims (Jewish, muslim, men, women, children) were killed by Christians. The Battle of Askalon, 8/12/1099 saw 200,000 heathens slaughtered "in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ". It is estimated that the rest of Crusades, up to the fall of Akkon in 1291 saw 20 million people slain in the Holy land and Arab/Turkish areas because they held different beliefs. In the era of witch hunting, (1484-1750), according to modern scholars several hundred thousand people(about 80% female) were burned at the stake or hanged for the merest suggestion that they might not be devout Christians. Onward to America... Reverend Solomon Stoddard, one of New England's most esteemed religious leaders, in 1703 formally proposed to the Massachusetts Governor that the colonists be given the financial wherewithal to purchase and train large packs of dogs "to hunt Indians as they do bears". Stoddard did not consider Indians to be human, because they were not Christians. In the 1860s, in Hawaii, the Reverend Rufus Anderson surveyed the carnage that by then had reduced those islands' native population by 90 percent or more, and he declined to see it as tragedy; "The expected total die-off of the Hawaiian population was only natural", this missionary said, "somewhat equivalent to the amputation of diseased members of the body". Back to Europe? Between 1942 and 1943, in Croatia, there existed numerous extermination camps, run by Catholic Ustasha under their dictator Ante Paveliç, a practising Catholic and regular visitor to the then pope. In these camps - the most notorious being Jasenovac, headed by a Franciscan friar - Serbians, including a substantial number of Jews, were murdered. The number of deaths at the hands of these Christians have been estimated at between 300,000 and 600,000 souls. The list goes on and on. BTW, this is not a knock on Christians. It is merely pointing out the silliness of beliefs such as yours. People of evil come in all shapes, sizes, colors and religious preferences, including Christianity. C. R. Nearly all of your examples are of the Roman Catholic version of Christianity. Most of us Non-Catholic Christians (Protestants) despised what the Catholics did in the name of organized religion. Before you paint all Christians with a broad brush, realize their are plenty of peaceful, and very happy Christians that love to geocache, and never advocate violence in the name of religion. I can't wait for the day when members of militant Islam start leaving pamphlets warning infidels of certain death in geocaches.

This is about as scary as naegleria fowleria in hot springs. Neither are a worry to me. I have three items I avoid when i'm outdoors, Rattlesnakes, Poison Oak, and Dehydration /Hyperthermia here in the desert.

As a geocacher who has hidden 123 physical caches over six years, I can say without a doubt that my premium caches last longer, the swag almost never degrades, and I have less maintenance checks to perform. Many of my caches disappeared after being converted back to regular caches. Your results may vary. If I want to make my caches virtually muggle proof, I make them difficult puzzles, with insane hikes. My best hides (swag, location, history lessons, hikes, etc) are all premium member caches.

That was the key to my geocaching happiness. I derive zero pleasure in "acting like a covert spy."

I almost always carry my D90 with me. I normal carry lens is a Tokina 100mm f/2.8 AT-X M100 AF Pro D Macro. I can shoot all the current wildflowers and take landscape shots at the same time. My biggest gripe is the quality reduction needed to upload images with a cache log. Lower quality images uploaded to a cache page: Better quality image hosted on Flickr

Pepper spray is a good idea. It's not lethal to most people. If it gets used against you, you will probably survive Pepper smells nice when your opponent is trying to see and is coughing so bad they are frothing Kids think it's cool to see an assailant cry It's reasonably inexpensive. It's easy to carry with you It works on wild animals as well to stop an attack or just as a warning (you can spray pepper spray towards a wild animal and they will back off) You don't need any permit to carry it (in most places) If you want to spice up your chili, you can I think it can make ticks dislodge (check before trying Responsible children are safe with carrying pepper spray Having said that, most kids I grew up with would have said "COOL!!!" of they saw someone being lit up with a taser or stun gun. Stun guns have a LOT of bad potential. Pepper spray gets my vote for a deterrent and protective utility. Having suggested the pepper spray, i'll explain my ramped escalation of force. I carry bear spray because I hike in Mtn Lion / Black Bear Territory. When legal, I also carry a .357 and a Gerber LMF II knife. If I ever encountered a hungry Mtn Lion, or an irate Marijuana grower in the middle of the forest, I have multiple options. Having been sprayed by pepper spray( in the academy) I can vouch for the incapacitating ability of pepper spray. It is a great tool to use for disengagement, and retreat. An irate drunk looking for a fistfight isn't grounds for deadly force unless the fight escalates to the point where the drunk incapacitates you, and attempts great bodily harm on you.

Pepper Spray or an effective taser could have stopped the encounter rather quickly.

The greatest puzzle I've ever solved and found the dragonfly scroll, was a pill bottle devoid of swag (except for a Yellow Jeep TB). I was not disappointed in the least at the amount of swag, or the size of the cache. The prize for me was the sense of accomplishment, a fantastic hike with two friends, and the scenery at the geocache.

Whenever I visit truly remote caches, I leave my itinerary with my wife, and my dad. This includes topo maps, and geocache information. I also carry full survival gear, and multiple means of personal protection (Bear spray, knives, and when legal a revolver. Many geocachers get so focused on "following their GPS arrow," they fail in situational awareness. Always be aware of your surroundings, make note of suspicious people and cars. If you feel uncomfortable in a situation, it is always better to "trust your gut," and leave. A good book to read is 98.6 Degrees by Cody Lundin.

I've been a geocacher 2 months shy of 6 years. I own 141 caches, 107 of them are still active. I have 3122 posts. I think I'm qualified to discuss geocaching related topics.

35 pages of people logging finds on caches they didn't actually find. Found it = Didn't find it

Well it takes time and effort too to hide it correctly in the ground: digging a hole that just large enough, create a wooden support box with lid to put the ammo box or container in, making it flush with the forest floor and covering it up so it doesn't stick out against the surroundings. To hide it above ground you would have to conceal it as a big rock or tree stump I guess which would indeed take at least as much effort. I'd be interested to know a few above ground alternatives. Alternative to burying an ammo can.

you are very wrong about that a micro will go where no ammocan ever will there are very few people that put the effort into making a creative/difficult hide out of anything bigger than a micro, mostly is in a stump, under a pile of wood...i.e. predictable sure there's micros that just hang on a tree etc... overall i believe a micro allows for more creativity than a bigger container again, what people choose to do and how much effort put into a hide is a different story Apparently you haven't met a geocacher who actuallys put a bit of effort into a regular sized cache. 30 cal ammo can: Regarding the original poster, it isn't the size of the cache that determines the percentage of missing trackables / swag, it is the proximity to parking. Easy access caches have a greater number of trackables disappearing, and a higher degridation of swag. I also attribute missing trackables to thoughtless cachers who create "hotels" in piss poor areas (visible to the general public, houses, ease of access.)

My loneliest cache is Eisen-Faust. One find in three and a half years.

> Anybody think it would be funny..., to break the rules a little for an FTF prize... Hoax A great prank was done to a FTF hound back in 2004: West of the Pecos (The Real Thing), now archived, started out as a prank on Team Wyle E, they of the infamous yellow Jeep (and the even more infamous Yellow Jeep Locationless Cache). After the truth came out and the victims invited the perpetrators over for drinks (part of the gag was that the cache was supposedly placed right around the corner from Team Wyle E's house), a physical cache was placed in the vicinity. The hoax is now almost two years old, so you really need to read the log entries up to about 12 February 2002 which is when Wyle E was let in on the gag. But many of the cachers who were in on it (including our team) deleted our fake find logs after the real one was placed and logged (I think at the time we didn't realize we could have converted them to notes and preserved them for posterity). You can find out more about how the hoax was executed by starting at this page on the Arizona Geocaching website. Steve

I prefer small to large caches however, LOCATION of the cache is more important to me than the size of the cache.

Being a huge fan of survival gear when I hike, I really like your idea of Survival containers as swag. Those of us who spend our time in remote areas searching for geocaches, wouldn't have issues with survival gear. I realize Groundspeak policy prohibits items like multi-tools, and matches, I've been to many remote caches that were filled with items like this, and nobody complained. The electrolyte depletion is a way overrated in a survival situation. Dehydration, hyperthermia, and hypothermia are far more common. A word of advice, don't put your survival kits in park & grab caches. They will disappear "quicker than a pizza at a weight watchers convention." Someone will trade your survival kit for a used lottery ticket.

After 19 finds, I hid my first cache. MLDC Micro Still going strong after 5 1/2 years also.

I turned in this site to my local Marijuana Enforcement Team, when I encountered evidence of a grow near Roger's Camp. Tuesday 11/17/09, My team leader flew over the coordinates today to scope out the grow. It has been harvested by the crooks already. He has marked it to check next season. The eradication team has removed plants from that canyon in past years. I would still be very cautious in that area, especially nearing spring. That goes for anytime you are in the forest and come across irrigation lines and clandestine camps. We find evidence of weapons in nearly every marijuana camp we encounter.

When they did away with ALRs, owner's of extreme caches (on top of towers, trees, cliffs) were prevented from determining what constitutes a real find. No longer can we require proof that someone actually reached the cache. With the new rules, someone can scale a cliff, and sign for a group. Those standing at ground level let the climber sign their name for them. In my opinion, Geocaching is devolving.

I avoid this problem by avoiding caches I deem to be beneath my "fun standards." No Redeeming Value caches don't deserve glowing found it logs. The lost art of logging Laziness or "monkey see, monkey do"? Write a story or you're being disrespectful? When I used to find crappy caches where I couldn't think of anything nice to say, I simply entered my find number. The owner of the cache was deeply offended when I left this honest log below: March 17, 2006 by Kit Fox (1499 found) #788 I straddled the blackwater cesspool, and sifted through the trash until I found the cache. I used my back to block the curious eyes of Denny's patrons. The location leaves much to be desired.

I would much rather rent a Sat phone, or continue doing what I normally do: I Carry full survival gear. I leave a detailed itinerary and map of the area I'm going to visit with my wife and dad. Those two items alone have saved far more people than a "Spot."

Sorry about your strange rash, but why do you need to curse God when you post about skin ailments?