Curioddity

I like caching in that season between Breakfast and Nap. Pete

And duct tape. Great for snatching out the little stuff before it gets too buried. 'Course it takes the hair too, but that's the price you pay for dancing with cacti. Pete

It smacked of a slap to me. Perhaps it would help if you long-timers and those of you with access to the behind the scenes forums would remember that the in humor doesn't always translate very well for those of us who aren't in. Pete

"No way!" will always be "Way!"

You'll never drive less than 5 miles before you remember that you left your GPSr connected to your desktop computer at home.

When you're looking for a big cache it will be small, and when you're looking for a small cache it will be big; and because you're looking with a false idea of what you're looking for, it won't even register when you look right at it.

Yeah, I often wonder what the world will be like when these kids grow up and take our place at the helm. But then I remember what I was like when I was their age and realize that I grew up in spite of myself and so did the punks I hung around with back then. We can only hope that the trend continues. Pete

Your TOTT will be 6-inches too short.

And perhaps the most important thing a newcomer to geocaching needs to understand is that no GPSr has ever found a cache. A GPSr can only show you where to start searching and once you know that, the GPSr will only distract you from the real task at hand. Pete

In my previous posting in this thread, I only mentioned the TOTT I carry on my bicycle or on my person when I'm afoot, but I also carry some caching gear in the trunk of my car for those NO WAY! moments we all come across on occasion. Among them are one of those 40" grabbers that are commonly used for picking up trash. I also carry a 24-foot telescoping windsock/banner pole with an assortment of attachments for the pointy end (and yeah, I've had to use it several times so far). While not used specifically for caching, I also carry some lawn-&-garden grade trash bags for CITO, a couple of ICOM 5-watt GMRS walkie-talkies for those occasional "find the missing cacher" events, and a macho flashlight which will double as a baseball bat or flamethrower in a pinch. In the works is a 10-foot version of the grabber tool which will telescope down to around 40" for storage and portage. I also have a Extech cordless flexible video inspection camera (boroscope) which I've used to find a couple of lost caches, but it actually lives in my toolbox at work. One thing I failed to mention that I always carry in my regular TOTT kit is a 6-foot piece of #12 solid copper electrical wire for hooking things which are out of reach. Why copper? Because it's stiff enough to do the job but soft enough to bend with my hands. Copper also tolerates repeated bending much better than most other metals. This piece of wire ranks right up there (in frequency of use) with my little flashlight and my inspection mirror. Pete

Lamp post hides baffled me at first. Everyone said they were simple but I couldn't find them. Then I discovered that the skirt at the bottom of most lamp posts was loose and could be lifted up and all of a sudden lamp post skirt hides were easy for me too. Except for a couple of them. People were saying they were easy too, but I couldn't find 'em. Then I discovered that some people stick magnetic caches to the underside of lamp post skirts instead of just laying them on or under the post flange and all of a sudden, magnetic lamp post skirt hides were easy for me too. I could go on and on about the hide types that were once impossible for me that are now simple. It's all about building a personal knowledge base (which is frequently referred to as a geosense) and that takes time. Eventually you'll start to think like a geocacher and spot new types of hides which you haven't run across before simply because you know what kinds of evidence to look for. And that brings up another point: As often as not, you'll never spot a cleverly-hidden cache so if that's all you're looking for, you've set yourself up for a DNF. In those cases you also need to look for evidence of a hide like a piece of wire hooked to something or some monofilament fishing line or even string tied to something. As I already said, it's called a geosense and a geosense takes time and hands-on experience to develop. The trick is to not get frustrated by your DNFs. Just put them on your "I'll be back" list and move on. Soon enough you'll find another cache that's similar and add that type of hide to your personal knowkedgebase and then you'll start wondering how many of your DNFs might be the same.... I've lost track of the times that I've made cleanup runs through areas I've already cached through to give the DNFs another try and pick up the stragglers I missed and new caches which have popped up. What typically happens is those DNFs are simple to find and I end up wondering how I missed them the first time I looked for them. And the answer is almost always the same: I missed them because I didn't know what to look for yet. Pete

I keep my bag on the back of my trusty caching steed. I do just about all my caching on it so it's a good place for my TOTT, but on the rare occasions I leave trusty steed at home I keep the bag in the trunk of my car. Pete

Amen on that. My old GPS-12 is almost bullet proof. I've dropped it countless times, typically off of a moving motorcycle or bicycle and it always kept working. I even dropped it from a hang glider once while ridge soaring. I finally found it the following weekend and it worked perfectly after I replaced the batteries. I bought it new in 2000 and only retired it about 5 months ago when I bought my Oregon 400t. Now it pretty much loiters in a drawer, but I've been out nostalgia caching with it a couple of times and it leads me right to caches just like my Oregon does. Pete

Define "many". Cache containers down pipes and other hidey-holes you can't get an arm down may not be common, but they're certainly not unheard of. Of the 1038 caches I've found so far, I'd guess that 25-30 of them were like that. Of those, most could be retrieved with a magnet but I can recall 7-10 which were plastic containers with velcro on the lid. Pete

I waited for a little over 4 months and found over 1000 caches between when I first started caching and when I hid my first cache. I suppose I should add that I've only hidden one so far, but I have a few more in the works. Nobody told me I had to do it that way, but I wanted to understand the art of creating and hiding interesting, clever, and funny caches before I started salting the area with my own, and what better way to do that than find interesting, clever, and funny caches? Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of the caches around here aren't very interesting, clever, or funny and it took awhile to find the ones that were. I don't mean to suggest that 4 months is a long time, but I started to feel guilty over the last month or so about not giving back to the geocaching community by hiding some caches. But that guilt wasn't enough to cause me to rush into some lame hides. My first cache (GC1Z6NX Pugsley Ate A Bug) isn't exactly unique or particularly clever, but it's challenging enough and has a humorous twist which isn't completely apparent until you find it. It's my goal to maintain at least the same level of quality in my future hides, and I have some ideas for a couple of hides which will be off the chart. 'nuff outta me. Pete

I recently added a tool to my travelling inventory which I'm quite proud of despite it's simplicity. I covered a couple of steel washers on one side with sticky-backed Velcro (hook on one and loop on the other) and trimmed off all the velcro that stuck out past the edge of the washer. Then I stuck the two together and tossed them in my caching kit. Now when I need a velcro retrieval tool, I separate the two washers and put the appropriate side for the job at hand on the end of my telescoping magnet and voila! My magnetic TOTT becomes a velcro TOTT. My travelling TOTT also include a telescoping inspection mirror, a small (2-AAA) flashlight, tweezers, a long bent-jawed hemostat, and a Leatherman Skeletool. Of course I always have my trusty telescoping Fisher Space Pen and a small notepad in my pockets and my HTC Touch Pro on my belt for accessing the Internet, taking pictures, and even using as a telephone once in awhile. I don't really consider those last three items TOTT, though, 'cause they're always with me whether I'm caching or not. Pete

It's good to see something like this. I'm thinking about getting a Pre to replace my Touch Pro when my current contract expires in November and I can take advantage of an upgrade discount. The jury is still out, though. Palm has a nice device with the Pre, but they've made some horrible business decisions when it comes to introducing it, Things like dragging their heels on releasing the SDK and a paid app library. Then there are the rumors that Verizon either has or soon will tell Palm to pound sand... There are days when I wonder how long Palm can survive, and I'm not real keen on the idea that I could be buying into another one of their white elephants. Pete

You'll hear people in these forums refer to a "geosense" which is basically a result of experience. I think of it as a mental reference library and each style of hide is a book and every page in the books is a variation of the hide technique. The shelves in that library are pretty much empty when you first start geocaching and the only way you can populate the shelves is by finding caches. It's hard at first, but it gets easier as your library grows. The trick is to consider your early days of geocaching as a learning experience and NOT get frustrated. Just put the DNFs on your "I'll be back" list and move on. Soon enough, you'll be able to return to the caches you couldn't find and grab them right away because you know where to look. Just remember that it's OK to not be good at something new, and geocaching is no different. It's really not much different than riding a bicycle or rollerskating: You're going to suck at it in the beginning, but if you stick with it, it will become second-nature soon enough. The trick is to dwell on your successes instead of your failures. And just remember: No GPSr has ever found a cache. A GPSr can only lead you to where you should start searching, and it becomes a distraction after that. Pete

That stupid "accuracy" reading almost never reflects the real-time accuracy of a GPS unit, and it doesn't much matter whether it's a cell phone running a GPS application or a dedicated GPSr. What matters is the ground truth of the real-time location coordinates and they're almost always far more accurate than that stupid "accuracy" reading. I cache with a Garmin Oregon 400t and I've lost track of the times that it's led me to GZ and the cache was within arm's reach despite the fact that the stupid "accuracy" reading was reporting 30-40 feet or more. That's actually the rule instead of the exception. I also always save waypoints with my Oregon held right over every USGS geodetic survey benchmark I come across and the waypoint coordinates are almost always within 0.05 seconds longitude and 0.03 seconds latitude (less than 5 feet of linear distance) of the published coordinates for the benchmark. This is the typical ground truth accuracy I get from my Oregon even when that stupid "accuracy" reading says 30-40 feet or more when I save the waypoint. I also have an old Garmin GPS12 handheld and a nuvi 500 and I get similar performance out of them, despite what that stupid "accuracy" reading says. The bottom line is: that stupid "accuracy" reading reading should be ignored, and if you can't force yourself to do that then treat the reading as an absolute worse-case guestimate. There's one more thing which is important to understand about GPS accuracy: No GPSr has ever found a cache. A GPSr is only capable of leading a human to where he or she should start searching. My find to DNF ratio improved dramatically once I started putting my GPSr away once I was reasonably confident I was at GZ and using my eyes and brain (read: geosenses) to find the cache. The truth of the matter is a GPSr is little more than a distraction once you arrive at GZ. Pete

Good for you! I did the same thing for my 100th cache: Found my first multi which also happened to be one of the first non-urban caches I looked for (Newport Back Bay). I celebrated by going back with a couple of trash bags and "trashing out" one of the waypoints, so I got my first exposure to a multi and CITO at the same time. And it really made me feel as if I had accomplished something. It sounds like you had a similar experience and I'm happy for you. Pete

I personally feel that there's no value in not searching for micros (and nanos) simply because you're new to geocaching. How are you supposed to learn how to spot them if they don't try? That said, there's also no value in getting discouraged if you don't find most of 'em the first few times you try. Just add them to your "later" list and come back when you have more experience. Pete

I've had bad code in a cache listing (GPX file) cause my nuvi to shut down. It only happened when I tried to call up the cache. It drove me nuts until I figured it out, and that wasn't easy because the same GPX file worked fine in my Oregon. I found the cache so it no longer shows up in my PQ results, but I've tried to load it a couple of times since then just to see if a firmware update fixed the problem, but it still shuts down my nuvi every time I try to call it up. I've also heard of nuvis shutting down if they get too hot.

Sounds like my standard drill when I'm searching for a cache. Pete

Excellent piece of equipment. Almost mil spec. I got mine in 1999 or 2000 and used the heck out of it. I lost track of the times I dropped it, often from a moving motorcycle, and I even dropped it from a hang glider flying at about 3000' AGL. Last I saw of it was as it was bouncing from limb-to-limb through a big sugarpine snag far below me. The following weekend I rode up there on a dirt bike and actually found the thing, and it was none the worse for wear after I put some new batteries in it. I used it until I discovered geocaching in May of this year. I found my first 3 caches with it, but decided I wanted something with maps and paperless capability so I bought an Oregon. But I've been out 'nostalga' caching with it a few times since then and it still works like a charm. Pete

It's not. You either are or you aren't. Ok, let me rephrase that: If FTF recognition is at stake and it's important to you, .... They've never been important to me. I have 2, but I was shocked both times because I didn't even start looking until quite awhile after the listing was published. Around here they have FTF parties which are also known as Feeding Frenzies for the cache piranhas, and I'm a lot more interested in participating in the party than actually being FTF. Pete