Aptly.Matched

Your desire to look out for geocaching as a hobby is commendable, however think of the implications when you contact the authorities and notify them of a cache that you believe to be illegally placed. If it's been there for 6 years, another day or two to email the CO and reviewer to get clarification will not hurt, and does not make it seem as if geocachers are doing something wrong on the park's land. As others have noted, if a cache has been around for that long, it's worth looking through the old logs as the question of this cache's placement had been raised and answered within 3 months of the cache's initial placement. Edited to remove a typo.

I'm going to steal a bit from what others are saying here. Hunter275, these are both very good ideas that can be combined or used separately to get more people interested in geocaching. In case you were unaware, Geocaching.com does make brochures available in color or black and white, as well as various languages.

Not sure where you get that its not a Harry Potter thing.. "Rowling has said she created the word "Muggle" from "mug", an English term for someone who is easily fooled. She added the "-gle" to make it sound less demeaning and more "cuddly".[2]" Sorry off topic I know From history, as it's a word that has been around since the 1920's. It meant someone who had no actual skills, which she just used in her books to mean no magical skill. It also has another meaning that I don't think she bothered to consider either. On topic, it's never a bad thing to want to spread the good word about geocaching, I think what Gitchee was going for is that instead of a shotgun approach to interest people, perhaps for an activity like this it might be better to try to interest people on a personal basis. Not only will you be able to identify those people who would actually be interested, you can share your knowledge with them and save them fumbling around, trying to figure it out on their own. Do both if you want. I'd test out a small number first and then check to see how many tears you get off of them.

I'm not accusing anyone of cheating, just noting a possibility. It wasn't directed at anyone, and, if you took it as such given your subsequent explanation, that was not my intention. But there will always be posters in the forums who accuse others of making accusations, and posters who point out that it was only a point of discussion.

When someone wondered just how some of these people go years without breaking their streak, I am surprised that no one pointed out that just because someone finds 10 caches in a day and signs all of the logs, who says they have to post it online on that day? If you just sign the log without the date, how can someone prove just when you were there if you added one find a day to stretch those out over 10 days? There's a few extra for when they are sick, busy, or for whatever reason cannot get out to cache. Food for thought. Honestly though, I doubt few people actually do that, as that's quite a bit of work for something most of these people are doing for themselves. My hat's off to their dedication.

Perhaps not the most helpful as it's a lifestyle change, but my wife and I got a dog a few months back, which basically lets you get away with anything. Need to stand near something? It was the dog that took you over there to smell. Need to bend down, or look under a bench? You're getting down to pet the dog, all while looking around, or investigating something that she found. Before that, we often made use of my wife's camera. She'd have me "pose" near the cache, or she'd be standing near it to get a picture of something else, so I could pretend to be bored and search while she was taking pictures. Even if you're doing it solo, you can still stand in odd places or be looking in random places with it and people just assume you've found something interesting to take a picture of in that spot. That's just a few that we use. Another that springs to mind is buying a cheap ring, and claiming that it just slipped off and you're looking for it. This is more if someone asks than for the people who might be watching you. Keep the ring in your pocket, and just slide it into your hand so in case they offer to help, you can quickly "pick up" and find your ring nearby.

As many have noted, there are plenty of adults who act like kids and vice versa, so a ban based on a user's age presumes a great deal about the individual. Are those under 18 less mature than those over 18? On average, sure, but there are plenty of exceptions, and this forum is full of them. One valid point brought up earlier was that if it is generally felt that the rule is unnecessary, change it. It sets a bad precedent to claim well, follow all of these, but not so much that one. Some people already feel other aspects of the TOU are abused anyway. Instead of taking a stance that claims since it's already abused, why deal with it, why not work to fix it by identifying what could be changed to reflect actual practice?

While the combination is obviously more expensive, if you are already using an app on a smart phone and want to get a GPS, I would suggest using both. I do the above, I use my phone to find caches wherever I am, and then input the coords into my GPS unit. It's not as easy as having the caches preloaded into the GPS, but I can also travel wherever I like without having to preload the area. If need be, I also have access to the description, hint and logs. Best of both worlds for me anyway.

I would just reemphasize this as well. Nothing builds confidence like being able to find the first few you go out looking for, particularly if you are out in the woods for geocaching. As you start to get an idea of how to search around for caches and likely hiding places, you will find it easier when you move on to harder caches. Though some people are just naturally skilled at finding things, and this might not be necessary for you. Best of luck in your hunt, welcome to the hobby/obsession.

My inbox full of notifications of newly published caches would argue that there is a third group, machines, one to which I am fairly certain you belong. While the local dog reviewer BrindleDog has published about 6 in the past 24 hours, you have easily quintupled that, if not more. It makes me wish I was back stateside to be able to go hunting for them. Back on topic, system is flexible, people are still going to complain about it, ultimately it is reviewers' decision at the end of the day, there is an appeals process in place for people who want to use it, people still will feel that it is flawed, does that cover it? Let the circle continue.

Nope. The lives and occupations of geocachers vary so much that the greater proliferation of caches allows those of us who might not always have time for a trek in the woods to enjoy the thrill of finding something. I know that I myself fluctuate between grabbing LPCs and going on longer hikes to enjoy the scenery based on time. While it can be frustrating to some to see the saturation of geocaches in some areas, this has always been a growing hobby, but one thing that has not changed is that the choice remains with the geocacher. They can choose to go for a P&G or they can choose to travel to caches they feel are truly worth the effort. I know that there are some parts of Cincinnati that at first glance would seem saturated to me, but I have learned that sometimes there can indeed be two notable points of interest in a small area. Why judge all of them based on what I can see from a satellite map? To the OP, for what it's worth, most of the time a geocacher can tell the amount of effort someone has put into placing their cache by the cache description. Personally, I also look for ones that have been around the longest, as they sometimes do tend to have the best locations. Edited to ficks my speeling eror.

At this point, if geocaching died right now, there are 1,347,255 active caches left in the world for me to find. I do believe that I'll manage to occupy my time somehow. It's not as if the imposition of restrictions with the requirement of permits or laws is going to get rid of that many. Parks are a great place to hide caches, but at the risk of generalizing, it is the state forests, state parks, and other large entities that are starting to have set guidelines, strict or not. There are plenty of parks that are more relaxed about the whole process. In Cincinnati, the Hamilton County Parks has guidelines for placing geocaches in their parks, but require no money to be spent, only that the individual register the cache (done online at that), and renew the registration every year by January 31st so they can track if the caches are still there. This is one small example in the grand scheme of things, but too many people focus on the negative reactions to everything.

Not quite as elaborate, but my wife and I find ourselves in this situation frequently. It's almost become a routine. We get ready to head out the door, I do a search near the address we are going to, and we usually pick one or two to grab. We will be on our way to meet up with people somewhere, and are running a bit early so we figure we can stop and grab a quick cache that's nearby. Usually it's not a problem, but there's been a few times that it ends up taking longer than anticipated and we end up going from early to on time to running late. A cache in a park that ends up being further down a trail than we thought or a cache that's a bit muddier than anticipated (people don't always appreciate when you show up to their house caked in mud). Not to mention that the explanation of why we are late often draws that quizzical look of "I don't really understand why you stopped, but okay..."

Sometimes when first starting the app, depending on the weather/location, I've gotten accuracy as poor as 1.5 miles. However, I've noticed that if you let the app run for a minute or so, it will creep down to something more normal.

I'm sort of the opposite. I'm not so big a slave to signing the log that I think because I was unable to sign the log that I cannot log a find. I followed the coordinates in my GPS to the location, and, well-hidden or not, I found the cache, got it out and poked around inside. That fulfills a find to me as I put in the time and effort to successfully locate a cache. Would some people argue that there's no proof that I've been there? Absolutely. But I can describe exactly where the cache was hidden and how it was hidden? Absolutely. I'm more than capable of defending any claims of arm-chair caching because that's just silly. If someone wants to log on to a site and click found it repeatedly just to drive numbers up, more power to them. I'd like to think that there's some degree of responsibility in the players to play fairly, so a picture or a description should more than satisfy as proof of having found a cache if the owner if ever in doubt of the finder. Besides, I'm horrible with any sort of retention of pens. I'm terribly close to the point of just tying one on a string around my wrist at all times.

My wife and I are located right at the line between Hamilton and Clermont. She's on her on for the time being as I'm overseas until the fall, but that just leaves me plenty of caching up to do. (Ba-dum-tish) Still, I'm always willing to help any new cachers in the area with advice, so feel free to ask!