BBWolf+3Pigs

Have you posted on the SEMAG Facebook page? https://www.facebook.com/groups/424582484297536/

The local geocaching.com forums are not visited as frequently as they have been in the past. You might be better off looking for Facebook Groups for the various areas you plan on visiting (e.g. Northern Illinois - https://www.facebook.com/groups/NIAGC/.

Once again things that no one is asking for to be changed get changed. I don't like the fact that my caches show up as dull green circles with a white star in them. They get a little lost with the green unfound icon and the coloring of Google maps. I prefer the old bright yellow star icons.

Howdy all! I will have a very short stay in the MSP area in early November, and was thinking of driving up to Fargo (or Wahpeton or Fairmount) in order to grab a cache or two in MN and ND (I already have SD). I am looking for a pretty direct route, with short diversions OK, and some "must do" caches along the way and in North Dakota. My plan is I would land at MSP late morning, drive up to North Dakota, caching along the way, and then head back to M-SP area for dinner, with a departure the next morning. Any suggestions for caches (and a good place for lunch and dinner) are greatly appreciated.

Your picture reminded me of my favorite night cache experience. We were approaching the final stage of the cache, which was marked with two red fire tacks. We round a bend in the trail and I tell the others with me "I see the two red tacks!". And then they moved into the woods! "Nevermind...just an animal!"

I've seen caches where more than reflective tacks were used, but still required darkness to find/complete.

There are caches built specifically to be done at night. Others may do night caching, finding "normal" caches after hours. <edit for typo>

Yes, done at night. These need to be set up in locations with permission, or where one would be expected to be at night. There were a couple in a local state management/campground area, where you were allowed to be out at night. I placed one in the same area, on the lake, where you are allowed to be kayaking/canoeing at night.

If that annoys you, just do 1/8th or 1/16th or 1/32nd or whatever doesn't annoy you. And that's why I stated in an earlier post that if/when I do the trail in VT/NH, I'll stop every couple of miles.

There's a rails to trails run from Brattleboro VT to Keene NH that I want to peddle. There's a cache basically every 0.10 miles. I figure if I every get out to ride it, I will stop every couple of miles or so, and grab whatever cache is closest. I am certainly not stopping every 528'. I guess another way to do it would be to do every third or fourth cache, and complete the trail in multiple trips. It would certainly make a nicer ride. I have also heard of people skipping every other cache one direction, and grabbing the others on the way back. I've done the 1/2 on the way out, 1/2 on the way back on some of the shorter bike trails in my area. It's still annoying having to stop every ~1000'.

There's a rails to trails run from Brattleboro VT to Keene NH that I want to peddle. There's a cache basically every 0.10 miles. I figure if I every get out to ride it, I will stop every couple of miles or so, and grab whatever cache is closest. I am certainly not stopping every 528'.

Re-linking to the URI Tick Resource Center: http://www.tickencounter.org/

On the other hand, I do do a lot of puzzles, and the approaches you're talking about are routine. But, anyway, yes, what you suggest was, in fact, my conclusion: the puzzles were unsolvable because the CO wants people to have to come to him for a hint. Reviewers don't blindly publish every bit of nonsense that comes their way. The cache has to be solvable from the page. But sometimes the puzzle involves throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. "Take each number, multiply it by the day the cache was published, square it, then divide by the number of columns on the Acropolis". Yes, there is a solution, but unless there are clues in the listing, it would be *extremely* difficult to solve (if not impossible).

I think the key is to inform the person as to why the log is being deleted. A "Your log has been deleted" message with no explanation will only annoy the recipient.

A proposal for Geowoodstock was submitted by a group from RI a few years ago. We had support from the State (Convention and Visitor's Bureau up to the Governor's Office). The Convention Bureau was behind us 100% and will to do what ever it took to help us make this a reality. We had a venue large enough to support a Giga-Event. We had inexpensive housing and food arrangements (beyond camping) to support a Giga. There were other activities and side trips that would have spanned a long weekend. RI is close to Boston and NYC airports (providing direct flight access from Europe and much of the USA) as well as Providence Airport, and an easy train ride from Philly, Baltimore and DC. There is plenty of hotel space outside of Newport available (outside of Newport the summer is the off season). It would have provided a jumping off point for caching adventures around New England. We didn't get selected.

I used to hide new caches for release during my summer time event. But it got to the point where everyone was darting off to find them in hopes of FTF. Not much socializing for those folks. I eventually stopped doing it.

There's the New England Geocaching Community group on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/401127463248952/

Or the ever popular "I was driving by this parking lot/guardrail/dead end/etc. and it just had to have a cache!".

You seem to be assuming that if they didn't hide this cache, they'd hide a better cache, as well as the opposite: that because they hid this cache, they won't hide a better cache. I don't buy it: I don't think that the existence of such caches has in any way diminished the number of hiking caches hidden. If anything, I'd guess that such caches have increased the popularity of caching, thereby increasing the number of people hiding hiking caches. On the one hand, my experience is largely limited to my area, so YMMV. But, on the other hand, if hiking caches are, in fact, becoming extinct in your area, I'd be tempted to say that it's a luck of the draw in what kind of COs are hiding and what the culture is encouraging them to hide, not because of a systematic abandonment of hiking caches for parking lot caches in the hobby as a whole. Latest example: "One thing I often hear about this particular type of hide is that they're great for keeping streaks going. If the weather's bad, you're not up for a hike, or life just gets in the way, these can be perfect to keep those streaks going." In my area the ratio of hiking to non-hiking caches is definitely shrinking. The fact that the majority of new cachers are in it for quick finds and/or numbers, people are not hide the "old school" caches anymore. Nobody wants to find them.

Agreed. But does every strip mall need an LPC or guardrail at the end of a cul-de-sac need a pill bottle? Can't people find interesting locations (view, history, etc.) that warrants a visit beyond getting a GC.com smiley? It's come down to creating listings like "I was out with the missus, and hid this in the parking lot while she was shopping. Now you have another cache to extend your caching streak." Why not "From this overlook, you get a view of where the Battle of Rhode Island took place. Here, The RI First (aka the Black Regiment) withheld several advances by the better trained and equipped Hessians." Placement is just as simple, will let people extend their streak, and doesn't require a long walk. And I know which one I'd rather visit.

"The cache has been replaced by placing it (being an oversized tennis ball) in a dead tree stump in a pipe so it's not as likely to go missing (it's a camo)." Was the pipe already there, or did you place the tennis ball in the pipe in the dead tree? I hope it doesn't look like an IED!

Several of us found paddle caches on either side of midnight 2 winters ago (I live in New England which makes it an adventure). We launched at 11:30pm on the 31st, found a cache, attended an event at midnight (complete with fireworks and champagne) and then found another cache on the 1st. A great night of caching.

How is that "..completely against the way I enjoy challenges."? The only difference I see is that you don't get a smiley, but instead a badge or souvenir.

You just described that other game that starts with an "M".

(I hope I properly detected sarcasm there!)