SGT red jeep

Geocaching around the country this year, I keep encountering the pesky critters. First in Texas, and again in the Delaware/Maryland area. I've never encountered them in Montana, maybe the cold is too much for them. Just one more good reason to live here. We may have ticks but you can spot them and remove them before the fever sets in.

It depends on the cache and the likelyhood of future attempts at the cache. As my count goes up, the time searching goes down. Past DNFs posted from other cachers greatly reduce the amount of time spent searching. The amount and size of rocks in the area also greatly reduces the amount of time. Caches placed for no other reason but to place a cache (nothing remarkable about the cache site) get very little time. The size of the cache in relation to the possible hiding spots also reduces the search time. I would say that when reaching the cache site that I spend about 15 minutes searching for the cache. In that time, I will consult my PDA searching for any clue from the owner or the past 5 loggers. If I've exausted all likely hiding spots, I will move on. That being said, I've searched more than an hour for cleverly hidden caches. I've significantly reduced my searching time in respect to hiders who have so little skill that they resort to hiding tiny caches (micros and nanos) in areas that could hold a 50 cal ammo can only because they want to increase the difficulty. I only post DNFs on caches when I have a story to tell.

NO!! I strongly object to giving anyone an advantage in finding a cache. Also, I've only found a couple of premium members only caches. They weren't any better than other caches but since my daughter isn't a premium member, she couldn't log them. I would just rather all caches were open to everyone. If it is a matter of money, a few extra bucks tacked on the $30 dollar premium membership would be less painfull and raise alot more money instead of creating another caste of cachers.

I will admit about #3 though....... If I find a coin with a unique and cool icon, or if I find an official 'JEEP' tb, I will hang on to it until I find a special cache, usually a particularly exceptional cache. A little more difficult but worth the trip and worth leaving a special 'prize' for the next to find, sometimes just a little encentive to make someone else go the extra mile just to find the tb. That way I feel the tbs won't quickly disappear in an easily muggled cache.

It took me over two years to find 50 caches. I found my first seven at a gold prospecting exposition in Zortman Montana. That was before I even knew about geocaching. Finally in 2004 I jumped online and found a few caches around home (in a hundred mile radius of 59270 there were 19 caches). I found a few of them and then I went on a 700 mile geocaching trip through SE Montana stopping just short of Billings to get 17 caches. But then, after the summer of 2004, I had the opportunity to do a little traveling and the amount of finds quickly skyrocketed. Congrats on your first 50. I hope the next 50 are just as exciting.

#1. I've got caches I haven't maintained but at least I temporarily disable them until I head back in that direction. #2. Newcomers to the sport don't always know how to handle a travel bug and sometimes keep them. As for the coins and jeeps, I think some folks actually collect them. I've heard of one cacher that had multiple yellow, white, and green jeep tbs and probably now has a number of red jeep tbs too. #3. TBs travel. That is their purpose. While I may not trade anything in a cache, I will take a TB and drop it usually as soon as I find another good cache, sometimes in the same day. I used to discover quite a few but now feel the TBs want to travel, not just be seen. So I move them any chance I can. My goal is to not have any in my possession except the ones I've purchased or special coins I've been awarded for certain achievements.

Worked fine. Can't believe all the caches he's hidden though. 901 caches...... Wow! I've had a very hard time just finding enough places to hide 20 caches. Lots of countries and states to maintain all those caches in..... But who am I to second guess the reviewers? #2 for caches hidden. Who is number 1? And who is number 1 for most archived?

My $.02 I agree electrical boxes, conduit ends and electrical covers located on actual electrical equipment can create an environment where a cacher may search the wrong area on another cache thereby endangering him. I am very cautious when it comes to anything electrical. Although I search the electrical equipment and find the cache, I often wonder about seekers with no electrical knowledge. I would sure hate to read in the local paper, "Man electrocuted while geocaching" especially if it was me. But the very first electrical box cover magnet cache I found was on a retaining handrail structure. I overlooked the cache a few times before finally realizing that there shouldn't be anything electrical there.. Painted the same color, looked like it was meant to be there. Way Cool! I've found a few of these fake nuts. Magnetically attached, no problem. Hand tight, no problem. Never had to use a wrench on one yet though. And while we are at it, I'll throw a couple more cents into the pot. Underground sprinklers, in an area where there should be no sprinklers, such as in the middle of a forest, OK. In a groomed park, aaaaarrrggg. Lets just say I've opened more actual underground sprinklers than 'cache' underground sprinklers. When I see the sprinkler head at ground zero, it is the last thing I will search before finally giving up. Usually I'm wrong. Do you know how many caches are hidden near underground sprinklers? OK, charge me about 7 cents there. I'll send it through PayPal. Edited for spelling and punctuation

I can't believe someone would go through all the trouble of finding a cache just to replace the ammo can with a rubber made container. What is the world coming to? Ammo cans are rising in price, probably due to some sort of new game being distributed on line. I think it is called Geocaching........ Maybe if we stopped using ammo cans for caches then they wouldn't be so valuable, the price would go down and ammo can caches wouldn't be stolen. Then we could buy more ammo cans to put out as geocaches........... A vicious cycle. Hide them further out in the boonies. The more gas it takes to get to the geocache or the more walking, the longer the cache will remain. Otherwise, if all of us start stealing all the rubbermade containers, then the price of rubber will go up. The effect would be that all of the rubbermade caches would start disappearing to be replaced by ammo cans.

OMG

I especially enjoy going to old cemeteries around Montana. Many times there isn't even a town anymore but the cemetery is there as testament to the people who once lived there. Walking amongst the headstones and reading the names gives a hint to at least the nationality of the locals. Dates and ages on the headstones give clues to when the community was occupied, can tell of particularly bad years and also the mortality of the young. Sometimes I find myself trying to guess what the lives were like in the little mining towns dotted throughout the mountains. Or I will be picturing the life in one of the many farming communities that are quickly disappearing from the countryside as the farms become larger and equipment more efficient. Also, by following along the routes of the fur trade or the military, you can come across well known events such as The Battle of the Little Big Horn. I use the Garmin topographic mapping software on my GPSr. Sometimes I criticize it for not being up to date on roads and streets but mostly I like the fact that it does show a lot of old mining trails, old farm roads, old highways. Sometimes all you can see is the raised strip of land covered in grass to prove that once there used to be a road there. Also the maps show forgotten towns, school houses, churches, and cemeteries. The little communities thrived throughout the state but now there maybe just a husk of a one-room school house or a little rundown church. I don't think it is disrespectful at all to place a geocache in a cemetery. Maybe it’s to bring someone to a historic spot or to bring someone to a place of special memory for the original hider. Maybe it’s to show something unique or maybe just to bring someone to an out-of-the-way, forgotten place. As for those who cache in cemeteries, try not to be disrespectful and take in the moment. Peace be with you.

Here in Montana we don't have a big problem with animals that smoke. Must be a British thing.

Usually the pens in caches are the cheap kind. Maybe that was the pen left by the hider or maybe some cacher traded their own crappy pen for the good one in the cache. Pencils.... busted lead, cheap sharpeners (What do you do with the shavings? Put them in you pocket? In the cache? or leave them laying on the ground so other cachers can find the cache?) Moisture quickly causes pens to become unusable and prevents pencils from writing on the wet log books. Although I have good dexterity, writing with those teeny-tiny little pencil stubs, especially when it is cold out, can be very challenging, not to mention illegible. Even if there is a pen or pencil in the cache, I still use my own to sign the log. The pen I use is a Pilot G-2 Mini, a smooth writing gel pen that fits easily in my pocket. It writes easily on damp logs without ripping the pages and I get to choose from some cool colors to make my logs stand out. Rule for having pencils in caches...... NO Rule for bringing a writing stick to a cache...... YES Rule for reading and complying with the instructions of a cache page...... YES I've hiked back and forth to my vehicle a number of times because I forgot a pencil. I seem to have the same problem with bringing spare batteries. My fault though, not the cache owner's.

I've found shotgun shells, beer, bullets, knives, matches, food, garbage, a log book that was filled with profanity by a deranged muggle who smashed the ammo can and did something nasty to the space blanket. One cache I found was clearly found by some muggles who found it while partying in a cave. They made some good comments, signed the logbook, cleaned out the contents and "left some smokes". More to the point, they left the ammo can and log book. I think the cigs, beer, ammo and other inappropriate swag are mostly left by newbees or accidental finders but don't think finding any of these items in a cache is going to immediately turn a teen or younger cacher towards a life of crime. Haven't found any steroids yet so we aren't as bad as MLB. "He's got 2000 finds." "Yeah but he did it on steroids" I don't know how you can prevent the inappropriate stuff and other geotrash from landing in a cache. Just clean it out when you find it and cache on.

And driving by a playground with children playing there, not wanting to alarm anyone I chose not to search for the cache but should I log a find? Part of the challenge of high traffic/high muggle areas is finding a way not to look conspicuous. Pretended cell phone conversations, fake hard hats and orange vests, or coming back at a more friendly caching time would allow a secure find. Getting back to the OP's issue though.... the hider giving you advice on what type of equipment to use i.e. a spoon.... you bring a plastic spoon..... kinda like saying, bring a rope.... and you bring a 10' length of clothes line.... brought the equipment as requested, didn't know it would be a 100' repel, can I score the cache? You brought the wrong type of equipment and didn't retrieve the cache. Not necessarily a DNF but a DNL. Leave a note.

Currently with 19 hides, two official adoptions, and two unofficial adoptions I try to hit all the caches at least once during the summer, just to check out the log books and make sure everything is alright with the cache. I don't normally make a special trip to a cache just for maintenance but wait until I have other business along the same route. If I get a notification of a problem with a cache I will temporarily archive it until I get a chance to check it out. I've replaced 3 caches this year and 1 stage of a multi but had to replace logbooks and fix other issues with the caches too. If you are looking for an actual time/cache/year I would estimate approximately 1-2 hours averaged per cache. Not necessarily because they needed it but also to check on and replenish contents and to clean out garbage. I don't think of this as a chore but as an adventure. Reading the log books and checking out the new contents is as exciting as finding a new cache. Sometimes even replacing a cache can be a rewarding challenge to find a way to make it 'muggle proof'.

Either you are a little behind on your logging or you choose not to log on line anymore. Anyway, congrats. I remember my 100th find. A good milestone to achieve.

I think it is all in how you want to play the game. Of corse the owner could delete your log but the real question is how do YOU feel about the find. I've walked a half mile back to the car to get a pen blaming myself all the way to the car and back to the cache. I could've done something else to prove I'd been there but I don't play that way anymore and deleted a few previous logs of caches where I almost signed the log book. It is between you and the owner on what is allowed.

The only thing a hide requirement would achieve would be more lame caches. Or probably caches once hidden that the hider turns his back on, never to return to, having completed his obligation resulting in another orphaned cache.

There are sooo many things to consider in a rating system, how do you please everyone. In saying favorite caches, someone's fav maybe someone elses lame. I know of an LP cache that I would list in my top 10% of caches. A general rating across the board of everyones favorite would still yield caches that others wouldn't like. They would more than likely be the most difficult with the longest hikes and elevation changes. What is it that the OP is trying to achieve? The very best caches to find...... or the ones to avoid. Having a rating system that singles out caches as being 'lame' would only hurt the hider. This may be a hider's first attempt and consequently, with a rating scheme, his last attempt. Even having a rating system where cachers could designate 10% of their finds as favorites would show high numbers around urban areas with lots of cachers but would miss rural areas and some of the most spectacular caches. The caches in the most remote reaches or requiring overcoming the most challenging obsticles would be listed as duds because of so few cachers being able to find and then to rate them. If a cacher does a little research and puts a little more effort into looking at the cache pages before seeking a cache, he can find out if that cache is right for him. Doing a querry according to attributes or difficulty rating can narrow the field down considerably for higher quality caches. Without making a blanket statement about all difficult 1 + terrain 1 = lame, more to the point is they require the least amount of effort and unless the location is great, the least amount of excitement in the find. The tools are already available on the cache pages. Anything else would only hurt and offend. SRJ

Being from the same caching community as kurtisweltikol, I've been waiting for 10 days now for one to be published. But nothing new has shown up for Montana since August 31st. The reviewer must be on vacation. These folks are volunteers and have other lives (gasp ) besides reviewing geocaches. I keep changing my hidden date so it will show up as a new cache whenever it is finally posted though. Keep checking your e-mail, eventually you should be notified.

Somewhere around D, E, and F. I'm totally paperless with a laptop running GSAK and a PDA. Having cleared most caches in a 100 mile radius of my home, I have to travel a distance to find a cache. I head to cache dense areas (25 caches in a 20 mile radius of a city). As I near a cache, I pull out my PDA to determine if I will try for the cache and how long I will spend looking. I almost always look at the logs, not necessarily for clues to the hide but more for DNFs or for difficulty. Lots of DNFs, or frequent dates of finds followed by a long stretch of nothing or maybe a DNF thrown in there, especially during peak caching seasons, can indicate a missing cache. I myself probably only log 1/4 of my DNFs and only after a good search. For an indication of difficulty I'm looking for phrases like easy find, walked right up to it, looked for 15 minutes, very tricky, good coords, coords were off, long hike, muggle activity in the area, finally found it after my third time searching, etc. to give me an idea of how hard I'll have to search. After searching for a while, I will scour the cache page and the last five logs trying to find something to help bring the cache out of hiding. Also, time being the limiting factor, as I am driving to these cache rich areas, and searching in the areas, I'm limited on how many caches I will be able to do. The logs can be a very good tool to weed out the lame caches and find the jewels to make the most of my caching experience.

The first four caches I ever done were FTFs before I even knew what FTF was all about. Recently I spent a year working in a very populated city where the compitition for FTFs was very fierce but I was still able to slip in ahead of the compitition by checking my computer very early in the morning or late at night. If a cache was posted during the day, by the time I got off work it would already be logged. But one thing about all those FTF hounds, they mostly competed in the city. I FTFed one cache that had been available for 10 months (took an adventurous 25 ATV ride to get to it). Other cache listings involving a hike, long drive, puzzle, multi, etc. may give you a better chance to be FTF. I've noticed a difference in notification times between my e-mail and a fellow cacher's e-mail. I asked him if he saw the new cache posting I received a couple hours earlier. We checked his e-mail on his computer but no notification... then I logged into my e-mail on his computer and showed him the new cache notification. We have the same internet provider and same e-mail service. Both have cable modems and we live about a block apart. It just doesn't figure but at least I am receiving the e-mails first (right now he is my worst compitition).

I believe it comes down to what the cache owner requires. Setting out a multi only to be spotted hiding the final cache by another cacher who immediately claims a FTF..... that's harsh. You might as well go to events and ask other cachers what the final coords were for any multi they found to bypass all that nonsense about going through the adventure the hider intended. Say, let's go on a nighttime cache but just give me the coords to the final so I don't have to do all the darkness stuff. Hey, how about borrowing you friend's gps after he completed a couple of puzzle caches and use the breadcrumb trail to backtrack to the cache sites. Let's do a virtual cache but get the requirements for the cache from someone else without going to the site. To log the cache, follow the rules set out by the owner. I was caching the other day and stumbled on a family getting out of their vehicle with their gps at the same time I was getting out of mine. The cache was within a hundred feet and when their little boy asked me if I wanted to work with them on finding the cache, how could I say no? As they were looking around nearby I helped in them search and one of the kids found the cache. While they were going through the contents I was talking to the dad and looking at my gps thinking wow it was off by about 150 feet. I finally asked the dad what cache it was they were searching for. Not the same on I was. They were on the final stage of a multi that started a little was away and was next on my list after doing the cache I was looking for. When they asked me if I was going to sign in I told them not until I found the other waypoints first. I went and found the stages as intended and then went back to the final. At least I went through what the hider intended. The reward is the experience received from undertaking the journey following the path intended, not the smilie from a stolen FTF