J the Goat

As I've been at this for less than a year, I don't think I'm the right person to ask about a change over time. I have however noticed that a lot of the newer cachers in my area write very short logs on whichever cache they find, be it a micro or a nice packed ammo can at the top of the valley. I try to keep my logs long enough to reflect my hunt. If it was a park and grab kind of day, it's hard to scribe a paragraph for every LPC I found. It would make sense that the increase in micros would lead to this situation, but I can't say I've seen it first hand. Ask me again in 3 years.

DANGER! DANGER! Dangerous topic, and here's why. Plenty of people not only have 20, 30, 45 or more minutes to look for caches, but there is a large number of people who enjoy the long hunts and dangerous hides. Here's what you'll be told in a nutshell: We all play the game our own way. Filter out those you don't want to find (ie high terrain or diff. levels) Micros are bad If you don't like it, turn around and go the other way. Now all those who post after me can give you some sort of variation of one of those. There's more, but I can't remember them all now.

This may be an old topic, but as I don't have the patience to sift through hundreds of old pages, here it goes. How often are new caches posted in your area? I know everyone's "area" is a different size, so use your own area for the answer. I'm just curious if locally we're more stagnant than most other places of vice-versa. We get maybe 2 or 3 new caches a month on average, depending on who gets a wild hair and drops a few at a time.

Something like that should be turned over to the police. Yup. Were they hidden at all, or just out in the open? That's actually really strange the more I think about it.

Way to keep a low profile... Are you trying to tell me I cant cache, dressed as I wish? That I have to conform to the physical drollness of society to be treated like the human I obviously am? That because of how I look, I somehow deserve to be treated poorly when I'm minding my own business doing absolutely nothing wrong? You are very clearly one who looks for conflict. Nobody said anything about the way you dress, I was originally referring to your interaction with said officer. In my experience, those who are very touchy have reason to be. A couple more things: Most cops base their dealings with the public on the attitude of who they're dealing with. Most, not all. Based on how you reacted to all of the posts before this one, I'm willing to bet you started with an F-off attitude. That'll get you nowhere with anyone. #2: You have your lawyer on speed dial? I don't even have a lawyer. That would lead me to believe that you've had similar problems in the past. One cop gives you a hard time; might be a jerk of a cop. Enough cops give you a hard time that you have your attorney on speed dial; you might want to step back and examine your own actions a bit. #3: While I may not be quite as ummm.... off the cuff (?) as you are when it comes to appearance, I do sport a few tattoos and piercings, am quite large and regularly let my beard/goatee get at least out of control. Never once have I been harassed beyond what I deserve. It's not about how you look, it's about how you act. I'm very sorry you took my comments personally, they weren't meant that way. I'm also sorry this thread went so far off topic. And please don't get me wrong, I fully understand that my observations are from a computer screen thousands of miles away. I've been wrong before, I'll be wrong again. Nothing personal, really

Got off work at 2 am, and instead of heading home to get some sleep before a decent travel day, I decided to go after a new cache that had just popped up a couple hours before hand. After an hour and a half of repositioning my car for the headlights (sans flashlight) and poking around in blackberry bushes, I just went home. No FTF for me. Still haven't mastered the art of explaining to the wife why I'm home at 3:45 instead of 10 after 2 in the morning.

Way to keep a low profile...

You're in LA, nobody notices. Not true, just ask OJ...

I'm all about the truth. Usually. Friend of mine and I were caching out of town. We had just started looking around a telephone pole in a vacant parking lot when we were approached by an interesting gentleman who seemingly just finished a conversation with his feet. He asked if we worked with the telephone company. After looking at my buddy, then looking back to the car with my kids inside, I just said "yup." Been approached a couple other times, but I usually avoid busy places if I can.

There's one we have locally that I've not found yet, but in the logs it's stated that the cache was found by.... A Cal Fire Convict crew that was clearing some roadside foliage. Apparently several logs were noted, and the cache was replace, although not very well. I picked up a log book with some pretty graphic language scrawled on the pages, very obviously muggle "logs", but the cache was in the right spot.

Let me also suggest that you try to get ahold of a more experienced local cacher and see if they'll head out on a run with you. Caching with people who know the ins and outs can really help you figure out what you're looking for, and give you some insight on where to look. Welcome to the game, hope you continue to enjoy...

My opinion? Stupid idea.

I'm totally going to do a power trail now. It's all the rage. I just have to scrounge up a few hundred gray film containers and I'm good to go. Come on, be creative. Make it puzzles. Each cache has the coords for the next one. It could be a large multi, but a puzzle trail would be better with a logsheet in each one. You could arrange the question marks any way you want. Make a giant happy face. Later, change all the coords so it is a frowny (depending on your mood) No, I was thinking of doing a power trail where there is no trail. Bushwhack 10 miles placing a cache every 1/10 of a mile until the trail ends at the edge of a cliff so the only option is to bushwhack all the way back. Or just follow the powerline road that I used to ride on... Or both... Yeah, that's the ticket... It wouldn't be true mockery unless you made several of them 2 part multis with the first part being the normal crappy film can that had soft coords for a nano buried under a pile of leaves somewhere for the final. Put one in a bear den. Another in a pile of pig poo. hang a few 15 feet in the air from a pine tree branch. That's a real power trail spoof. Ya, that's the ticket SPOOOOOOOOOOON!

Sorry, thought that was Briansnat. Thanks starbrand.

Even if all the stages are virtual? That's cool, I can make it my first multi and then figure out a different puzzle for the next one. Thanks Brian.

So here's the deal. I'm not into doing puzzle caches. For the most part, they just don't get me going and I'm not wired that way. Wish I was, they would make me feel smarter if I could solve them. I have noticed though that there is a shortage of them in my area and I am well aware that there are plenty of cachers who really enjoy them. My idea is to make a puzzle cache that incorporates plaques and inscriptions around town. Something along the lines of using letters in the plaques to fill in the numbers in the coords with their corresponding numbers (A=1, B=2 and soforth.) Would some of you puzzle officionados give me some feedback or advice on this idea? Is this something you'd chase? Or is it a waste of your time as it's not difficult enough? I'm aware that it would be pretty easy, and that there's not really anything to solve, however being that there won't be physical caches to find at each location it's not a multi, and like I said, I'm horrible at solving puzzles. I don't think I have the right state of mind to create one that's more advanced. Not yet at least...

I really like the cache supply idea. The book exchange and CD exchange are awesome too. That's why I love these forums, all the great ideas...

It seems that it's a matter of where you'll be caching. If you plan on staying inside the city where your cell coverage is good, then for finding caches your iphone should be adaquate. If you plan on going for hikes, canoe trips and the likes and finding caches along the way, an inexpensive GPSr used in conjunction with your phone may be necessary. In my experience, if you plan on hiding caches then a handheld unit is much more accurate with marking it's location than the iphone. Others have a different opinion. We're all entitiled to our wrong opinions...

Years ago there was some bozo who was stealing the contents of caches and hiding them elsewhere. In some instances he would provide coordinates or instructions as to where the contents were hidden. Sometimes he didn't. I had a cache looted and replaced the contents. Then about 4 or 5 years later someone e-mailed me that they found the contents of one of my caches while looking for another one in the park. He told me where I could find them and sure enough there was a Ziploc bag filled with the original logbook and contents. I'm not sure what to say about this. I don't understand why some people have to be intentionally difficult. Unless it was a muggle who thought he was playing the game the right way, which I highly doubt. Luckily, we haven't had the cache raider problem to an extreme in our area. Some coins disappear, but most of them stay where they're at, and nobody's trashing caches. Hopefully it stays that way...

I forget what people were calling them, but you can print a paper copy of the geocoin and laminate it and then send it out so the real coin stays safe and sound at home. I just found one of these the other day, and while they're nowhere near as cool to find and pick up, the process is the same and I fully understand not wanting to spend some scrilla on a coin just to have some a-hole decide they want to keep it for themselves. There's that idea. As far as the caches being raided, I don't think there's anything to do about it. Just because somebody throws down the massive amount of $30 for a yearly membership doesn't mean they're more likely to be a good cacher. It just means they payed the 30 bucks.

I just DNF'd one where there were 3 SPORs. Talked the the owner and guess what? DECOYS! What a dirty trick...

I have to start out by saying that I'm not a micro in the woods fan. That being said, I have also just recently started hiding caches and am unsure about difficulty ratings. I'd go without the hint and put in the description that using the hint drops the diff from a 4 to a 2. That way, those who want a 2 star cache can have it, those who want the challenge can ignore the hint and look on their own.

It's called dipping, and people do it to add milage to their travel bugs.

Geocachers do it with government satellites. I fell down a hill and got rocks in my pants, what's your excuse? High Tech Treasure Hunter Geocaching: My junk for yours since the year 2000 GPS: $200 Backpack: $45 Tank of Gas: $60 Climbing back down a mountain in the dark using nothing but a pen light with 4 people you met online last week: Priceless!

Pretty cool all around. Might be cool of you to make some sort of tribute cache. Maybe email Lisa and see what her favorite animal is, or ask her to name it for you, something like that, then acknowledge her thoughtful actions on the description page? You probably already had similar ideas, sorry I'm just putting on "paper" what was already going to happen. Or don't. Either way, congrats on the preform!