Polarbz

I've been caching for about 6 years and have found a fair number of caches. Until until last week, I had never been stopped or questioned by law enforcement, even on those midnight FTF runs in my slippers and robe. A couple months ago I deployed to Afghanistan and am currently on Kandahar Air Field where there are about 13 active caches. Last week, I was wandering around the FOB, looking for a cache when the Security Police rolled up. They got out and walked over to us and asked if we were looking for something. Well, on a military base in a combat zone, you don't play games with the security guys so we told them the story of geocaching and even showed them the cache and what was inside in order to allay their suspicions. They were nice about it, thanked us for the info and let us carry on. On a side note, I was surprised by their comment that our ACU pattern uniforms actually provided us some camoflage. They said they didn't see us until they were 50 feet away even though they were looking for us. The nearby Dutch watchtower had alerted them that some people were near the fence.

I'm having the same issues - sometimes no load of the map, sometimes the map and no caches, and once it actually gave me what I wanted - until I tried to move it.

I just got my K2 a few days ago and have been playing with the web functions. The wap.geocaching.com works fine to ID caches, but I've bookmarked " rtr.ca/geo/find_caches.html " as it seems a bit faster and gives more cache finding options. It doesn't allow a log-in for posting notes or any of that, but I think the majority of my KindleCaching would be "just in case" I was in an area that wasn't already loaded into the GPS. For logging, I'll just wait til I get to a hotspot.

Still waiting on a reply.

I'm not an ubernoob to Caching (400+ finds, 13 hides, 13 bugs), but I'm not expert, so I know that there are many things I DON'T know. However, I recently got an email through the GC system as follows: "INATN - Montana 2008 Geocoin Ready for you to send me an adoption request using XXXXX www.geocaching.com/adopt I am XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Thanks Dianne User's Profile: http://www.geocaching.com/profile/XXXXXXXXXXXXX" Obviously, I took out her identifying info. The first XXXXX were her GC name. The "INATN - Montana 2008 Geocoin" is MY coin that I put out with the intent of moving around, obviously. Why would someone think that I wanted them to adopt my coin? When I went to check her GC profile, its mostly blank, she's found ONE cache (an event cache back in May 2008), but OWNS 400+ trackables. Do some people just find coins and ask to adopt them? Why? Also, my coin is currently listed as being in an Event Cache for an event that ended on the 21st (yesterday). I understand that whoever grabbed my coin from the event may not have had the time to claim it yet, and I have no issue with that - I'm just curious as to why someone would think I wanted them to adopt my bug? Insights?

Left: Girlfriend Took: Fiancee TFTC!

The good thing for us is that we move every few years, giving us a whole new set of caches to find. Another reason to join the Army!

With the Kindle 2 coming out, I wonder if anyone has been able to get to view cache pages on the Kindle yet. I'll be getting it as a reader, but it can't hurt to have all "always on" EVDO available for when I'm out reading in the woods and a new cache is published.

The bigger the better!

We always try to have a "cover" for our caching - taking pictures and touristy stuff in order to stay under muggle radar.

Two comments: 1. I think a 5 star rating system with half stars would be worth a try - after a number of finds, the rating would level out and give people an idea of whether it was worth it or not. Would there be issues? Sure, there always will be - but I would find it useful. 2. I find it entertaining that topics are brought up in new posts over and over again and people complain - and then I find it even more entertaining when people complain about how someone brought to life and old, ancient thread. Would we rather people start a new topic about star-ratings or bring up the oldest of the previous ones.

After a particularly clever or hard find, we say something along the lines of, "Well, son of a b***ch." But not the kids, they just say they found it.

I have a plan to place a cache on a tree on a mountain side at least 4 miles away that is visible from my front deck - with a telescope.

And what about all the caches that actually take people INTO graveyards and cemeteries?

Short answer - wait patiently. A reviewer will check it out and either publish it or tell you what you should fix. My first one took 4 days, but I've had others done in less than a day. Patience is your watchword. I wondered the same thing about how long it would take, and even waited up, like a kid a Christmas, the first time I placed a cache, so I could watch the first cachers come to me. Three days later, I was very tired and still hadn't been published. I'm better now.

Near our newest cache...

My wife has the honor of the worst injuries in our geocaching lives. First, she caught a branch into the side of her left calf that sliced her open for about 8-10 inches. Then, soon after that, she was walking down a trail and rolled her ankle (so we thought). She rested it during the week, but we always go out on Monday, and, being the trooper she is, she always goes with us. We try try to keep it on the trails, but its just not always possible. After a month, she finally went to the doctor and find out she has a fractured ankle. Does that stop her? No, she just puts on her air cast and Soldiers on. This is her near the end of our 4+ mile hike for a cache in the mountains, showing off her air cast. Nothing keeps her down. There was another time when we almost had a MUCH worse experience. We were climbing with the kids up some loose rock when a boulder the size of an old CRT monitor broke loose and tried to crush my wife and one of the kids climbing up the slope. It was a steep slope and the rock picked up speed on the way down. I watched in horror as it bounced by me and headed straight towards my wife and daughter. It bounced back and forth, seeming to match their efforts to get out of the way. I thought for sure someone was going to die. At the last moment, my wife grabbed our daughter and managed to dive out of the way as the boulder hurtled past. No harm except a few scratches as the boulder scraped her arm flying by. THAT was scary. But, we did get to the top and found the cache.

I think the PMOC is especially useful in areas where Cache Gobblers are loose and sign up just to go steal the caches and screw with others. I personally haven't placed any PMOC caches, but if I do, I'll have a reason.

Just go in the morning when its cold, the wasps will all be sleepy little slugs. Grab, sign and be on your merry way! Also, I agree with the guy above - no need to kill them, not like they did anything to you. This summer we had had some wasps make a home in my wife's car mirrors, gas cap area and trunk - we just moved their nests when it was chilly out (early morning, late night) and they didn't come back.

We wait until the GPS is Satellite accuracy is as good as its going to get (say sub 20' or 10') and take a reading. Then we check that reading against the Google-Earth maps and coords and, if they are too far off (5 points), we try to figure out why and maybe take another reading.

If getting a 4x4 Jeep to get those really out of the way caches counts, I guess it is! For me anyway.

If bugs are nearby, just up the difficulty rating!

We have a guy in our area who is a FTF champion! I like to see if we can get them before he does - and I time our FTFs to try and beat our own time. Our quickest so far is 21 minutes from Published to Found.

I recommend Glock.

I had some great service from Garmin. I had an old Etrex Vista (original) that was well out of warranty and I broke it in Iraq. On a whim, I sent it to them with a note and two weeks later I received a brand new one in the mail. Great service all around.