worldtraveler

Thanks for the response BlueDeuce. I plan to do some geocaching in the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids areas later this fall. Perhaps we'll meet on the trail somewhere. And yeah, you're welcome to rub it if you think it will help.

Personal travel bugs usually benefit only the owner and can't be "discovered" by other geocachers. I want mine to be different. It already has the distinction of having traveled the greatest distance, but now you can "discover" it and be rewarded for finding it! Check out the bug's page and tell me what you think: Fun , yawn , or ? Thanks.

I'm one. The tag is attached to my GPSr, but it is tracking my geocaching mileage and experiences. And if I happen to lose the GPSr, the tag can help a finder track me down if s/he wants to.

25 US states AK, AL, AR, CO, CT, FL, HI, IL, IN, KS, MO, MS, NH, NJ, NM, OK, OR, PA, RI, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI (though CO, KS, and NM were included in border caches with OK) 1 US possession Puerto Rico 5 Canadian provinces Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario 17 countries Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, USA And I hope to find a cache in Switzerland in a few days.

My personal travel bug is my Garmin V. If I ever lose it, anyone who finds it can track me down by simply entering the tag's number on the website. And FWIW, I think this tb has traveled farther than any other.

"the-iman" appears to have geocached primarily in the Bloomington, Indiana area. He found more than 100 caches and one of my travel bugs before dropping off the radar last August. Attempts to email him through Groundspeak have gone unanswered. If anyone knows this person and can give me contact information or just get him to put my travel bug back in circulation, I'd sure appreciate it.

Did you appreciate the way the "supposed level 5" cache was rated? The problem with subjective, relative rating as you've described here is that it is, well... subjective and relative. Consider: The owner of the cache you've described above may well have used the same rationale to rate his cache as you're now considering for rating yours. Do you want your new cache to be an excuse for someone else to overrate a future cache simply because he judges it to be relatively more challenging than yours? Many of us don't limit our caching activity to a single geographical area. Should we be expected to know that a "3" here is equivalent to a "5" there and a "4" somewhere else? Clayjar's rating system provides a means for consistent, objective cache rating worldwide, but each cache owner must employ it honestly in order for it to have any value to the caching community. Please rate your caches accurately. Future finders will thank you.

Since Keystone is reading with interest, I'll add my vote for allowing links. I think the mods and forum participants have been pretty effective in distinguishing between helpful links and blatant commercialism, so I don't even care if the poster is an employee of the link target as long as he doesn't cross that line. But I'd also be in favor of permanently banning any account that engages in the activity to which Mopar refers.

Here is a link to rest stop caches in Tennessee. Other regional websites may have similar lists.

Wow! That didn't take long at all! Thanks, Jeremy!

Here's a little quiz the media may like to publish: "What activity can be legally engaged in without restriction at Tiananmen Square within The Forbidden City along the Great Wall among the Ming Tombs all in Communist China, but will require written permission at similar locations in South Carolina if a certain pending House bill becomes law?" Sometimes, people just need a different frame of reference in order to see things more clearly. (Ref: GCA209, GCBFF1, GCKB03, GCC04B)

I've had the same Silva Ranger for 30+ years, and it still works fine. It's great for orienteering, but the feature I use more than any other while geocaching is the sighting mirror. Not for navigation though; when coupled with a flashlight, it is most useful for inspecting the interior of hollow trees and other dark and difficult-to-see places.

Well, I won't even pretend to be objective, non-partisan, or representative. My highly biased opinion is that it is just one more in a long list of inflationary practices that serve to devalue the worth of smilies. Used to be, if you got one smiley, it meant you had found one cache. No questions. Straight forward. Common sense. Then someone decided to bend the unwritten rules. Some cried "foul", but others hailed the changes as "inovations" or "creative alternatives". With the acquiescence of TPTB, the will of the relativists prevailed over the absolutists', and a host of imitators flooded the landscape with their own "inovations". Soon, the slippery slope got so steep that the entire system was in freefall. Eventually, TPTB decided to take action. No more locationless caches. No more virtual caches. Virtual travel bugs locked down. Their scythe has cut a wide swath, causing not only relativists, but some who would be more closely aligned to the absolutists, to cry out. Yet, there still remains at least a few pockets of pus, festering, spreading their poison. Will Jeremy's all-seeing gaze finally land upon them? One can only wait... and hope... Perhaps if someone gives his wife a free, worthless smiley...

I think my personal travel bug may hold the record for most miles actually traveled (currently 435,165 miles.) My highest mileage "free range" travel bug is this one with 28,112 miles, but I know there are others out there with more.

If you find a real (not virtual) travel bug with more actual mileage than this one, please let me know. I'll let you count the countries and ocean crossings.

OT: n.n - looks like you've got a really bad case of piles there, man. Back on topic: Yeah, most of my caching is alone. I like it that way, and so do the people who don't go with me.

I agree totally! The cache owner rules. And I never questioned that. But that doesn't change my negative opinion of the practice of allowing folks to claim a find when they didn't. (And my steadily declining opinion of cache owners that allow -- even promote -- said practice.)... Wow, you must be filled with self-loathing about now. Did you miss the hypocrisy SDT was pointing out, or did you just choose to ignore it? Your clearly-sarcastic initial invitation was taken at face value by (apparently) a sock puppet. But instead of calling an end to it, you've gone on to invite others to help themselves as well. Looks like you've become one of those Oh, and I share your negative opinion of those that do.

Unfortunately, some will go so far as to delete your "found it" log because you didn't follow their rules. Sadder still, you're not likely to get any help from TPTB when this happens. So just be aware: liberating travel bugs to help them on their way may cost you a .

That's right. I consider cache rules that are inconsistant with TB goals to be null and void. A TB is someone else's property and anyone who tries to impose their will upon someone else's property is missing the point. I agree. The rule is often counterproductive to the intent of the travel bug owners; and unless the cache owner has purchased at least as many travel bugs as are in the cache, he is keeping it stocked at others' expense.

Thanks. That's good to know. Assuming the couple of years ago was post-9/11?

I've had my carry-on luggage stopped and given an extra swab, sniff check, and search just for (apparently) having been in the proximity of other luggage that contained explosives or drugs on a previously flight. I'm guessing the residue from the spent propellant in a shotgun shell may trigger the screening equipment at airports; so if you decide to launch one as a travel bug, you might want to consider attaching a tag warning finders of possible complications if they try to transport it by air.

This was for a 2 / 1.5 rated cache. GPS accuracy continuously jumping between 15 and 40+ feet due to tree cover. There were two large fallen trees within the EPE radius, and the forest floor was covered with several inches of fallen leaves. I finally consulted the hint after searching for the cache for at least 45 minutes, hoping it would lessen my search radius somewhat. I was, of course, well past the pavillion and the trail, and pretty confident I was within a 100 ft. radius of the cache by this time, so the hint was totally useless.

I agree. Mine has a 1976 copyright (it was new when I bought it ), but it's still an excellent reference and instruction manual. I haven't seen the 1994 version, so I don't know what may have been added.

Yeah, I'm waiting for the fireworks to start the next time he logs on. Your last "found it" log is definitely generic, but he sure won't appreciate the three notes posted on his cache page late last night and this morning. My only concern is that your name is mentioned, so your latest log could easily be at risk.

One of the best camo jobs I've seen was birch bark glued around a cylindrical quart-size plastic container with a screw-on lid. It was laying between a couple of fallen birch trees and looked just like a birch log.