Team Dennis

A local cacher (well, local to me) has a challenge cache that in order to log the find you first must find a "lonely cache" that has been unfound for over a year. The challenge cache is GC1DQ8R. It was placed in July of 2008 and thus far has 64 finds, meaning 64 lonely caches have been found. There is another cache about 20 miles from my house that has not been found for well over 2 years. It is on an island in the Mississippi River. I'm pretty sure this one would require the use of a boat all year as it is near the main channel and I don't think it ever freezes enough to walk on. At least not enough for me. Thus far I've only bagged a few lonely caches. Every one was not by design but rather I just happeded to be caching in the area and they were there.

I was once in a beautiful park hunting a cache. Literally 30 feet from GZ was a tree with a large hole in it about 6 feet up big enough to hold a medium sized cache. I searched the heck out of that tree to no avail. The cache? It was a plastic film can with no camo sitting next to a basketball sized rock. Not that I don't appreciate the work that COs do but...seriously. This cache had little or no description and no hint either. Bleh. I like to write a little something in the logs but this one got the dreaded six letter log: SL TFTC.

Ummm..... If you are not being considerate, you are being inconsiderate. But I dont need you to explain yourself anymore.....because its clear that you are incapable of doing so. Again, spot on. If you are hell bent on getting an FTF here is the formula: Pony up the money to become a premium member, get instant notifications to your cell phone (via email or text message) and wait. Soon enough a new one will pop up at a time that you are available to hunt it down. Bing bang boom you've got an FTF and you will be the envy of everyone in the neighborhood! There is another surefire way to bag an FTF but is against etiquette and if I told you how to do it I'd have to...well let's say I'd better not tell.

To Cedar Grove Seekers: Spot on. To everyone else: What that guy said.

Maybe that analogy was a little extreme but for the purposes of this thread I'd say it was apt. APT!!! (shakes fist in the air) Am I inconsiderate for hiding an ammo can in a sweet hollow tree out in the woods thereby denying someone else the opportunity of putting a micro there?

I have a 16 month old black lab. I take her out to caches where dogs are permitted to run free whenever possible, which is mostly DNR hunting land. It helps a lot that she is pretty well behaved. Knock on wood. My wife says she's going to be taking her to some obedience classes later this year though. I guess a little schooling couldn't hurt.

So I was checking on one of my caches I noticed a lot of glass on the path back to it. It is along the a river that is very popular with boaters and campers to it is not surprising that there is a lot out there from years gone by. So I grabbed a doggie cleanup bag and proceeded to fill it. I've now done this 4 times along this stretch of beach and it amazes me how much I find each time. Today I had an idea: How about a CITO mystery cache? Here is how I imagine it to work: I post a mystery cache at some random local place. I put up the usual "CACHE IS NOT AT POSTED COORDINATES" message at the top of the page. I then request potential finders to cache out (at a minimum) a small bag of garbage from wherever they are out and about...not necessarily while caching but just from wherever. I will then have them email me a picture of said garbage and then I'll give them the coords for the location of the actual physical cache for them to find and log. I would also encourage the finders to post the picture of their trash along with their log online. The negatives: Obviously this is an ALR and might not allowable under the rules as I understand them. I would hope for some leniency from the local reviewer on that matter. Also there is the other obvious fact that it would be very easy to fake a bag of garbage just to get the coords and the smiley, but I figure anyone willing to cheat themselves is beyond hope and not to worry about it. Also some jerk could send something nasty in the email instead of a picture of garbage cached out. I'd have to create a sock puppet email account specifically for this cache. Something like citocache@gmail.com should work. The positives: This would be a great way to clean up the area. I figure that if I get only one person to pick up a bag of trash then it will be worth it. And it might encourage more folks practice the CITO philosophy. I'd greatly appreciate comments, thoughts and suggestions both pro and con. I'm just throwing this against the wall to see if it sticks. Thanks, Team Dennis

Thanks! Your pocket query has been saved and currently results in 567 caches. All 9 of my hides are in there. I would have guessed right around 600. Not too bad!

Wow. I was going to write almost the exact same 3 paragraph reply. So to the OP...um...what he said.

Of course you realize that people in "our area" are spoiled rotten with a very good reviewer who is quick to respond and very easy to work with. Not everyone has a Surfer Joe...

I love posts like this! It's nice to have well-informed experts to tell us how things work. I almost felt the need to reply to that one but then I realized I would have to create an account to do it...so I figured I'd just post here instead. That poster should have written "...most folks (including me!) have no clue how it works, (but here is my misguided interpretation)..." I've done a few caches out in the middle of the north woods of WI. Once I turned my GPSr off and tried to get back to my vehicle (about .5 miles away) without the use of fancy technology just to see if I could do it. My .5 mile hike turned into a 1 mile hike in a hurry. Needless to say I always mark a waypoint whenever I plan to go any fair distance from the car.