Sharknose Bunnies

I've only been geocaching a month but I remember it taking me a few minutes of searching the site, quite a few clicks, and more reading than it should have before I figured out exactly what I was supposed to do with trackables. I think the current trackables page has too much information at once, and the process for logging trackables is not intuitive. I would argue that it should blindingly obvious what to do with trackables when you come to the Geocaching site, and currently that isn't the case. I've been following a dozen or so trackables that I've come across and I've seen a number of cases already where the cache log will say something like "grabbed such and such a coin", but the coin doesn't get removed from the inventory. A friend who recently started geocaching is trying to do all the right things but had no idea that he was supposed to record the pickup of a coin. He thought he was only supposed to do that when he dropped off the trackable. So back to the original idea—yes, I think anything that makes it simpler and more obvious what you're supposed to do with the things would be a help. I think it's a great idea, providing that you have a field for adding log notes to the coin as well.

Here's a few ideas to get started. All four of them take your original avatar and add the Geocaching colors in some way... This one simply takes the four geocaching colors and sets them as a backdrop for your avatar. This one takes the four geocaching colors and sets them as a backdrop for your avatar, but adds a white background to letter R. This one makes the R out of the geocaching colors, then outlines it in black for clarity. This one cuts the R into the Geocaching pattern with a bit of 3D relief. I added purple to give it some pop. If I have some time, I might play around a bit more with some of these.

Thanks, glad you like it. I was thinking that it could represent "humankind overcoming fire as it advances". Or something like that. I'm working on a second one with more of a firestarter theme, but it needs something more to work right. I'm not quite happy with it yet. I'll mess around with it more this week.

I'd just like to say a big thank you Rockin Roddy! When he saw that my kids and I had no trackables to our name yet, he wrote and gave us a coin to enter into this effort. It was a very generous gesture, especially considering we were complete strangers to him. Thank you very much! And I'm proud to say that the coin is all set to go: TB2YA0R - Todie's Wild Ride: Bicycle Safety Roddy will be releasing this coin into a cache at some point in the near future. My kids and I are excited to watch it travel, and thanks again! We're glad to be a small part of this. Helmets on!

I agree that beat-up golf balls are kind of lame, but my kids like the shiny clean ones. Not sure if it's a Minnesota thing or not, though, but lately I've been running into lots of golf tees. What's with that? But this thread has been helpful to me. I'm pretty new to geocaching, and although I know to not put food/liquid into caches, I hadn't thought through PlayDoh. I got a copule of six packs of the stuff and have dropped a few containers into recent caches. I'll stop doing that. I have learned to carry some nicer items on me so that I can still trade up if my kids stumble onto something that is particularly nice. And lastly, I've learned that it's important to consider that things inside a cache can get quite a bit of wear in there. My son likes to leave nice Pokemon cards in caches, and I went back to one to drop off a geocoin and found the card still in there, but bent and smushed by the other stuff in the cache. Whoops. Didn't think through that one either.

Grove Press won permission to publish D.H. Lawrence's novel "Lady Chatterley's Lover? Drive with care!

Little different approach to the design, but what about something like these? Both of these are 32x32 pixels. Only difference is that the first one has a round background, while the second one is square. They are simple enough to be recognizable at 16x16 as well. I have license to use both of the original images used in creating the icons, so there are no copyright worries.

I think the distinction on golf balls comes with their newness. I'm always entertained by what my kids want to take from a cache. They tend to like the golfballs, if they're relatively clean/new. The ones with a half-inch cut in them and scuff marks are pretty lame, IMHO. Even my five-year-old daughter wants nothing to do with them. But even lamer: golf tees. I've seen a lot of them in my month of geocaching. I'm new to geocaching (about one month) and have been trying to trade up, but to some degree it's a learning process. Although I know not to leave food/liquid, I didn't think about PlayDoh being a bad swag item. I got a six pack of the stuff at a store and have been dropping that in some caches. Whoops. My son has been leaving some nice Pokemon cards in some caches, but on one that I went back to a couple of weeks later (to drop off a geocoin), I found the card crushed from swag getting stuffed on top of it. So it's an ongoing learning process for us. One thing that I have learned, however, is to carry a few nice items around with me so we can still trade up if we find something nice that we'd like in a cache.

Along the lines to what Arrow42 said... When I just started geocaching (about three weeks ago), I had found a couple of micros that were the size of film canisters. One evening I went looking for yet another micro. I assumed that the cache would be the size of a film canister and so I looked for places where a film canister would fit. Must have looked for an hour over two attempts without finding the thing. And this was a 1.5 difficulty cache that no one had yet failed to find! It was driving me nuts! As soon as I learned that the cache was actually much smaller than a film canister, I went back and found the thing in less than five minutes. To make it simple: Micros can be really tiny, so look in tiny places.

lee - Thanks. I thought for sure that the iPhone would last more than two or three hours on a full charge, so I didn't bother to turn off the Geocaching app when I stuck the phone in my pocket. You make a great point, and I'll be sure to turn off the app before tucking it away from now on. You know, I hadn't even considered a backup battery charger for the iPhone. D'oh! That's a fantastic idea, and very cheap as well. Thanks! I'm going to pick one of those things up. geojibby - Thanks. I'll check out that igeocacher app. It looks fairly handy, but I generally get frustrated with the speed of web-based apps. grimlaf - Thanks for the info. I was wondering about the differences in the accuracy of the 60CSX and the Oregon. That is helpful. I won't be using the GPS for driving. I bought a Nuvi a few months ago and have been reasonably happy with that. I have to confess that shortly after I posted this I stumbled onto a post here that mentioned that Dell has the Oregon 300 on sale for $250. It's currently backordered and should arrive in a week or so. It might be a bit of overkill, but I figure at that price I can probably try the unit for a month or so to see how I like it, then sell it for little loss if I'm not happy with how things are working. We're really enjoying the hobby though, so I can justify the price. I think we'll get out money's worth. I take my two kids out with me when we geocache, so if I've got two units they can each hold one. Thanks for the advice and tips, everyone. I'll update this once the Oregon arrives and we give the iPhone/Oregon combination a test.

My kids and I have just started geocaching, and have been using the iPhone with the Geocaching app. We love the Geocaching app for all its many functions. However, today was the first day we went out for an extended geocaching hike. We started with a fully charged iPhone battery. After two hours, the iPhone battery was dead. The Geocaching app drains the battery something fierce. So I'm looking for a Garmin unit now but am confused as to whether to get an Oregon 300 or the 60CSX. I'm wondering, is anyone out there using an iPhone/60CSX combination for geocaching? In other words, using the iPhone Geocaching app in short bursts for the paperless/informational aspects on caches, and the 60CSX for the GPS accuracy/long battery life/better maps/more extensive satellite coverage? I was initially leaning towards getting the Oregon 300 for an all-in-one solution but I've been reading that the screen is both tough to see in bright light and doesn't work well in very cold temps (which would be a factor here in Minnesota). Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Golden Valley. Father, just started with son (7) and daughter (5). Having a blast!