Team Dennis

I suppose I'd have to go after 4.5lb Walleye up in Canada. Of course I'd need to make sure I had a ride outta there. 50 miles from the nearest inhabited area. YIKES!

I live on the border between MN and WI. I don't know why but it seems like NO ONE caches behind the cheddar curtain. I went over there a few weeks ago and found 5 relatively easy caches that had not been found in 10 months to a year and there are still a few on my radar that are OVER a year without being found. The area is not necessarily "cache dense" but there are quite a few cool areas that (for whatever reason) don't get hit very often. Back on topic: I really enjoy finding lonely caches and will usually give them a little extra attention when looking for them.

I was just thinking the same thing until I read your post. Now I don't know what to think. Except that I'm scared for my sanity if I'm thinking along the same lines as you.

1. Do you maintain your caches regularly? Please state approximately how often. Only if someone reports that they need a checkup. 2. Do you expect Cachers to sign your log? If so, do you verify the “found it” logs? Yes and rarely but I have on a questionable find. 3. Do you practice, replace taken sway with an item of greater value? I don't trade. If I have stuff to put in caches I usually save it up as "starter swag" for one of my own caches. 4. If one of your caches are particularly difficult to find, do you give clues to its location not publically visible on the cache page? Example: by email I will provide additional clues if asked. I tend to provide detailed clues on the page because I want my caches to be found. 5. Do you clean out caches of the worthless, filthy, broken items, etc.? Is this an accepted practice and do you encourage it? I have cleaned out caches when necessary but I don't make a habit out of it. 6. Have you ever removed a cache completely? Yes. I found one in really bad shape and happened to have a replacement in my backpack so I swapped them and CITO'd the old one out. 7. What happens to the disabled/archived caches, can you replace them with one of your own and how do you go about doing this? Will it get approved? What is the timeline for replacement of a disabled/archived cache? What Briansnat said. 8. Do you often practice the philosophy “Cache in Trash out”? Yes, and as often as possible. 9. Do you attend “Events” and if so, would you encourage others to do so? Yes, and yes. Great way to meet other cachers. Rarely do you meet them on the trail. 10. Do you really believe some of the “find” stats that are being professed? Probably but it doesn't affect the way I cache so no worries. 11. How do you find locations that do not exceed the guidelines? (saturation criteria) I go someplace that is not already saturated. 12. When a TB is found, why are so many not logged? Is it because, it is a two-step process and there is not a link to the TB on the cache page that you are logging a “found it’? Would this be a good idea? Good question. They get lost. Or dropped in the woods. Or under the car seat. Or in a river. 13. On an average, do lost TBs ever show up? I am sure it happens but I wouldn't hold your breath if you are the owner of a missing a TB. 14. Do you photocopy your TBs and send these along? Is this an accepted practice? I have not released my first one yet...but I will soon. 15. Do you find some of the codes on the TBs difficult to decipher? (Especially the photocopies or 0O, 1I, 8B etc.) Nah, I always get it right on the first try. 16. Do you find the selection options (Found it, Grab it, Discovered it, etc.) unclear? Nope. Pretty straight forward from day one. 17. Which company provided the best TBs? Is cost a factor or quality? Groundspeak. 18. Do most often seek out new, and/ or TB caches exclusively? No. Moving TBs is a sidegame that I enjoy but I don't go out of my way just to find a cache because it might have a TB in it. Unless it is a very special TB but I can only think of 4 caches (in 2300+ finds) that I've targeted because they had a TB in them. And both cases it was because they had a specific TB in them. 19. Should placement of all future caches be placed by premium members only? I have noticed that some caches are placed by individuals who appear have not found one cache themselves. No. Even though (in my experience) it is PMs putting out most of the caches I've found it should not be a right reserved for just them. Everyone should be able to experience the joy of cache ownership. 20. Would placement of caches by premium members only, reduce the number of unmaintained or abandoned caches? Maybe a little, but sooner or later everyone gets away from the game or gets out entirely.

Boy, that is bad but I'm sad to say I'm not surprised. I was out on the trails on Saturday and had the exact opposite experience. We were caching with a guy and his 6 year old daughter. At every regular sized cache he asked her if she wanted anything but she declined saying she already had enough toys. Then she took something out of his backpack (usually a new McToy or something roughly the same) and placed it in the cache.

Have you been reading my journal? Let's assume the unlimited funds for travel, support staff and equipment as well as ZERO life outside of caching. I like the idea of one of the staff taking the day "off" from the trail to do planning and prep work for the following day. You would need an RV as hotels are too much work. Also, the "cacher" could sleep while a team member drove through the night to get to the next cache dense area. I would also employ a 4 door Jeep Wrangler (doors off of course) for easier parking and grabbing and mountain bikes for getting around the trails faster. I think 8 finds per hour would be a very healthy average over the course of a year. Let's say 300 caching days, too. That is about 38,400 finds. So is 40,000 finds possible? Yeah, I suppose it is possible. However I really don't think I could do it. Or would want to do it.

Between checking out the forums, thinking of fun twists on caches, working in the lab on physical caches that I plan to place, looking at maps of areas I would like to hit, trying to solve puzzles and actually getting out in the field I am sure I spend somewhere in the area of 20 hours per week on Geocaching or Geocaching related projects.

Denial is not a useful step in the healing process. I am not in denial. About being addicted or being in denial?

Hey me too! I do want to do a "numbers run" someday so I can qualify for part of a challenge cache.

I am the owner of an LPC. But in my defense it is the final for a fun 2 stage multi. That has to count for something, right?

+1 I love my Mechanix gloves.

As I browsed through this thread one question came to mind: Have you gone to the very bottom of your cache page listing and checked the "Logged visits" section to see if there are any notes from your reviewer there? If the reviewer has an issue with your cache he/she would have disabled it and there would be a note there explaining why. As a cache owner you should have received an email with this information as well but it may very well have ended up in your junk folder.

Ski-O-Caching? Heck yeah!!! I've found a bunch of caches while skiing in Colorado the past 2 years and I look forward to finding more. As people have noted things can get tough with a lot of snow. I remember one at Loveland we did last year. It was probably 6' off the "ground" but when you get 500" of snow like they did last year the cache soon becomes buried. My brother-in-law just happened to poke his ski pole in the right spot in the snow and we found the cache. I also found an ammo can that was buried under 6' of snow. It took forever but signing the log made it totally worth it.

Phone A Friend. When you are out in the field and can't find a cache you call a friend who has previously found the cache. Your PAF network will expand more and more as you go along. Events are a great way to expand your network.

I thought I'd posted this up years ago. I guess I didn't...at least not in this thread. I didn't actually see it while caching but it makes me laugh.

For long hikes where I'll be away from the vehicle for more than an hour I pack a small medical kit, extra socks, batteries and pens. Maybe a granola bar or two. Water for me and the dog. My Leatherman and my big knife. Toilet paper makes great kleenix in addition to its intended purpose. If I'm in bear country I pack my bear pepper spray.

A little back on topic: I thought this thread was going to be a list of cachers that are rude. I wonder how fast that sucker would get locked down...

Actually (and I had forgotten this), that used to be fairly common when I first started caching. It was very common to see logs like: T: Brand-new Leatherman L: Gum wrapper Almost never see that sort of log anymore, though. **AHEM** You saw that in a log last week. This much I know for sure. Oh, wait...you did say "Almost" so I guess you are off the hook.

I did 101 days straight this past winter to qualify for part of a challenge cache. After that I just tried to find caches on days of the year when I had not found one yet. I'm hoping by the end of next year I will have every day blacked out.

PS: It is spelled, 'asterisk'. Its the same symbol that is on the multiplication key on a calculator, or on the numeric pad on any keyboard, between the divide key (/) and subtration key(-) and kitty-corner from the addition key (+) My calculators all have X for multiplication. My keyboard and calculator emulators that run on my PC use a '*' for multiplication. Yeah but in algebra you use X as a varible a lot of the time so a different symbol is needed for multiplication to avoid confusion.

That's the spot where the litter box is placed, isn't it? Hey Tamwood! Good to see another familiar name in the forums. STILLY CACHERS UNITE! Oh, and I alwasy thought it was Catty-Corner.

PLEASE do NOT do this unless you first visit the cache YOURSELF. Busybody cachers posting 'Needs Archived' notes on caches they have never even been close to cause more trouble than they alleviate. I'd suggest taking this a step further: Verify that it is indeed missing. Just because 5 or 6 people (experienced or otherwise) can't find it does not mean it is missing. Check with someone who has found it before and have them verify whether or not it is missing before posting a "Needs Archived" log.

I'm at 7.9%. About a year ago I was up near 10% so I guess I'm doing a little better these days.

I think I remember hearing about someone who used a 20' (30'? 40'???) shipping container as a cache. Maybe down in Phoenix, AZ? Somebody help me out on this one.

I know of a pretty well respected CO (at least well respected by me) who has tons of great hides out on public hunting land & in the woods of southern Wisconsin. His hides vary in size and type but there are quite a few ammo cans. All of the sudden a few ammo cans vanished without a trace. The CO replaced them and a few weeks later the ammo cans vanished again. At $14.00 each (and I know as I just bought two (.50 cal) ammo cans today) he figured he had a case of an ammo can cache maggot on his hands. So he archived them and then rehid new caches in slightly different locations and made them PMO caches. Thus far he's not had any issues.