GreyingJay

Yep, them magnetic trees are a lot easier to find 'Specially if the fruit falls on your head!

Hi all, Without going into too much detail, I broke a button my GPSMAP 60csx. I emailed Garmin tech support who is ready to give me an RMA for warranty work. However, she also commented that Canadians can contact their third-party support company in Quebec. For those of you Canadians who have had to get warranty work for your Garmin units, did you go to the place in Quebec, did you send it to Garmin in the States, ... ? What's best?

I say survival of the fittest. If it's a good cache, it will get lots of visits and last a long time. If it's not, it will get muggled or destroyed by elements or something. (Briefly entertains the thought of hiring muggle "hit men" to "accidentally" dispose of an undesirable cache.. but that wouldn't be nice... ) The worst cache I ever tried to find was in an open area with tall grass, lots of trash, and dog poop everywhere. I never did find it. The cache was called Tree Hole and was hidden by a cacher with about 3 finds. There was neither a tree nor a hole involved, and from what I can tell the container was a cardboard box. You could tell from previous logs that finders weren't impressed. The cache was archived an hour after I posted my DNF, with the reviewer saying "It looks like this one's gone, judging from the DNF's and the container". Even he knew this cache wouldn't be long for this world. There are others in my area who've just recently started and have saturated the city with 30, 40, 50 caches. Some of them are beginning to get tiresome, and what's more, they are taking up all of the spots where I was going to put out some really cool caches!

You can't just go to your local sporting goods store or WalMart... ?

Yes, we do this all the time with events. As others said, submit the listing plenty early (a week or two) and make it clear in your reviewer notes.

Travel Bugs (and geocoins) are rather luck-of-the-draw. I sent a TB from a cache in my home town (Ottawa) with the intent of having it work its way to Edmonton, Alberta, to meet my friend. So far it's been almost 2 years and it hasn't even left Ontario. It may never get there, but it's fun to watch.. and hope. I saw a set of TB's that were released by a vacationing family in Florida. Their 9-year-old son and his sister both sent TB's from caches in Florida and were trying to race them home to Sarnia, Ontario. The sister's TB is still in the southern US somewhere. The boy's TB made its way to a rest stop along the 401 in Ontario where I, and a number of others, could have easily brought it to Sarnia, but that's where the bug disappeared. I might set out another TB and see if it has better luck getting to Edmonton (or elsewhere) but at this point I'm not sure I want to spend more money on TB tags.

1. If you're caching at night, do NOT turn off your only flashlight and put it down in the middle of the thistle patch. You will regret this move seconds later. 2. You will always find the easy trail AFTER the 5/5 bushwhack. 3. WEAR LONG PANTS! 4. The homeless person sitting on top of the park bench micro may be sitting perfectly still, but he's wondering what you're up to sneaking around behind him. 5. There's no shame in DNF. 6. Bring gloves. 7. And a first aid kit. 8. Between the time that you print the cache listing with no finds yet (even if it was JUST published) and the time you find the cache, someone will have been FTF already. 9. There's no shame in 2TF. 10. Your cool creative cache hide idea? It's been done.

Is that such a bad thing?

I agree about timing it to the exact hour, though. I too noticed the "date creep" problem. I started using LogicWeave's CacheStats program, which I would update with a new My Finds PQ on Monday mornings when I arrived at work. I saw myself having to wait from 8:30 to 9:30 to 10:00 because of this restriction. And last weekend was labour day and I forgot -- so now I have to wait until Tuesday. If I ordered a My Finds query on Monday, why not let me do it again anytime after midnight the following Monday? I mean, we're talking about waiting 7 days anyway.. a couple of hours earlier isn't going to make that much of a difference, is it?

At best I'd be happy that someone was interested in something I did, at worst indifferent. I don't think I'd be creeped out. After all, I'm posting in a public forum and giving out details about my life... if I don't like that people respond to that, I shouldn't be hanging out here in the first place... Besides, I could always choose not to reply if I didn't want to. When I have questions for people, though, I'll usually post it in the thread (if it's not too off-topic) so everyone can benefit.

So if you drop your cell phone somewhere in the woods and we all go help you find it, am I supposed to not say anything if I find it first before you do? When you do a jigsaw puzzle with your family, and they all help you put the puzzle together, do you later claim that the puzzle is incomplete because you, personally, did not put all 1,000 pieces into place? Of course not. In the first example the fact that the cell phone (cache) was found is the important thing. WHO found it, in a team, is secondary -- you all helped look for it, you all get to share in the find. This isn't like the Olympics where 10 people go out and only 1 comes back with the gold because he was 0.01 seconds faster than the rest. In the second, the physical act of solving the puzzle is a secondary goal to having fun and spending time with your family. Who solved the puzzle? Everyone helped. You all did. Otherwise, what is the point of team caching? It reduces to x number of people each independently searching for the cache. Why even bother all coming at once? Why not have 4 people wait in the car while you go hunt, then the next guy, and so on? When I cache in a team part of the fun is the comraderie along the journey, and another part is how each person brings their own unique vantage points and experience to the hunt. We can split up and cover more area. There's the one guy who's better at math, who helps solve the puzzles, while the guy with the sharper eyesight sees the micros better, and the guy who's good at "thinking outside the box" sees the ironic twist, etc, etc. I wouldn't mind the idea of each person saying "found it" and waiting till everyone else finds it, but then what do you do if you're just having a bad day and you can't see it? Everyone else has found it long ago and are either laughing at you or are getting impatient because they want to sign the log and get going. Meanwhile you feel stupid, embarrassed and humiliated. If someone gives you a nudge, do you consider that cheating because you didn't find it yourself? Do you post a DNF while everyone else on your team posts a find? Do you turn your back while everyone else signs the log and puts the cache back? You are certainly entitled to play your own way, and if this is fun for people, then go for it. But don't invite me along on that kind of a team hunt, I wouldn't enjoy it (because I'm usually the dumb one )

Well, I can only speak for myself, but... I play this game to have fun and discover cool stuff. I don't play this game so my online profile will "look nice". I think "discovering" a TB or coin without ever having touched it is as bad as logging a find on a cache that you've never been to.

Sorry, I should have specified. We used slingshots. We fired the paintballs at wooden targets propped up onto a tree. Each team had to hit the target 5 times before they could move on to find the next waypoint. The slingshot, clue envelope and a box of paintballs were hidden in an ammo box at the waypoint site. But definitely arrange your waypoint challenges (if any) based on the regulations, available equipment and guidelines of your organization! Other stuff we did or considered (not everything got in to the race): - peel a bucket of potatoes before continuing. 4 peelers provided. One of our staff collected the potatoes after all the teams were done, and brought them to the campsite to make pocket stews. - eat an entire box of Oreos before continuing. (With a team of 5-6 people, this doesn't take long...) - human pyramid - archery - hit target 5 times - kayak relay race - float your boat: teams were given two large plastic barrels and some strapping, and had to lash together a boat and get out into the middle of the lake where the waypoint was Have fun with this one!

Wow... I look at that big block of text and I immediately don't feel like reading it. I think a good, interesting log has to have a sense of humour (or just be interesting) and also a good sense of timing. Timing, you say? Yes. Just like that. Not saying my logs would be a gold standard or anything (tin standard maybe? cardboard?) but this or this is typical of my attempts at being funny (which generally revolves around my bumbling attempts to find caches). I generally only write my diatribes when there was some real adventure to be had finding the cache, or conversely, when there was NOT, and the only thing worth writing about was getting there.

I think what she's saying is that there is a cache somewhere in her area that's listed twice -- once as a puzzle, and once as a traditional. So the smart (or just lucky) ones find it under the traditional listing, rather than expend energy solving a puzzle to get to the same point. I suppose you could technically claim two smileys, one for each listing. As for the second bit, I think she meant waypoint when she said 'virtual clue'.

I've seen this. It was made clear on the cache description that the tree had died in the big ice storm (1998), so I see it as fair game. I am planning a cache which will involve a metal box screwed to a pole-like object. I'm hoping to find a large dead tree somewhere in the middle of the woods somewhere.

Also, I'm not entirely certain how and when the unit decides to switch automatically from Follow Road to Off Road. I'm pretty sure it does, or at least it can, but it doesn't seem to do it consistently (at least not for me) which has resulted in confusion for me a few times. Confused? What I mean is this: I used "Follow Road" and it took me turn by turn to the road closest to the cache. In the one case I struck it lucky, and parked on the side of a residential road where the was a path leading into the park. I started walking toward the rough location of the cache, but I was getting bewildered by the distance and bearing the GPS was giving me. Turns out, it was still trying to point me to the mythical spot in the middle of the road where I was supposed go, before it would switch automatically into the off road "OK, now follow the arrow" mode. Once I recalculated Off Road, it took me there just fine. I think there is an exact spot that you need to hit while doing Follow Road before it switches into Off Road. If you do not hit that spot EXACTLY, it will keep trying to lead you there.

Aren't there motion-activated Hallowe'en decorations at Wal-Mart and the like? Where you pass by or wave your hand or push a button and the character moans or cackles or screams or sings as required. The sudden light from opening the ammox box might well be enough motion to trigger the device. You could probably also rig a reed switch or contact switch (Radio Shack) to act as the on/off switch for something like this, or an alarm, or whatever. With a reed switch, a magnet fastened to the lid keeps the contacts open (you would need to buy a normally-open switch) until it is taken away (i.e. when the lid swings open). With a contact switch, there's actually a little lever (possibly with a roller attached to the end of it to protect it) which is kept physically closed by the lid, but springs open when the lid does. Another option might be to have the "alarm" externalized in your environment (hidden box nearby, hidden wires). You could use a magnet hidden in the cache box, or the weight of the cache box itself, as a trigger -- when the cache is removed from its hiding spot, the alarm goes off.

I'm too chicken to go deep into any kind of woods alone at night, though I would probably go with a friend. I don't WANT to meet LEO's or weirdos That said I have done some urban caches at night where it's much easier to be stealthy... I learned some useful tips too, like: if you're stepping around in thistles and you found the cache, do NOT set down your only flashlight onto the ground to free your hands to find the cache. Now, where did I put my light... pat, pat.. ouch!!

Wise words. The key is "upbeat" and "celebrating".. without being disrespectful or insensitive, geocaching is still supposed to be a lighthearted and fun activity. There's a thread going on in the Canada forums right now about a cacher who recently died in a car accident. I'm amazed at all of the positive words and fun stories that SO many people are leaving. I can only hope to have that kind of an impact on people before my time is through. I never even met the guy, but by the time I got to page 3 of the thread I was crying (I think the post that did it was the goodbye letter from his son, who joked that his dad was probably already up to 300 caches in heaven). You don't want people to cry for the person in a memorial cache. You want them to smile for having the opportunity to get to know that person a little bit.

Geography? Could fit it into a science module...

Well, sure.. but Studebaker? (Edit: did some research. The Studebaker company themselves did this in the 1960's or so. I guess this was where their head office was at or something. At the time it was considered the world's largest living sign.) In this age of satellite photography and Google Earth, I am wondering how long it will be before businesses paint logos or ads on their rooftops. When you look at your local Wal Mart or Home Depot from space, all you see is a big white rectangle. But a bit of orange or blue paint, and ...

I posted these links in another thread: My post from a few weeks ago detailing what we did at my summer camp for "The Amazing Race: Explorers Edition". It's basically a giant puzzle multi with the final being the coordinates for a "hidden" sleepout location. Picture this: Your Scouts show up at the staging area. Each brings their pack with all of their sleepout gear. You load all their sleepout stuff onto a truck, which drives away. Your Scouts organize into teams, with nothing left but the supplies you give them: GPS unit, their first Amazing Race clue envelope, and perhaps a small backpack with a compass, first aid kit, and some water. "What you do from here", you tell them, "is entirely up to you." You say "Go!" and each team rips open their clue envelope... Two, three hours later, your Scouts complete the final stage of the multi, which gives them coordinates that lead them to the sleepout area. Some of them are covered in blue paint from the paintball challenge stage. Some of them are still a bit damp from the kayak challenge. They're hungry, but not too hungry, because of all the Oreos they ate at one of the other challenge stages. They run up to the campsite, where their leaders are waiting for them, smiling, clapping, tents having been pitched, their stuff is waiting for them, a fire is on the go, dinner is cooking, etc, etc. When we did this at our camp we also ordered red and blue "Amazing Race" team T-shirts for everyone to wear, so they really felt like they were part of something big. I even wanted to have staff with video cameras following teams around, and I was going to take their footage and edit it into a quick reality-TV segment to show the rest of camp, but we ran out of time. This thread from a few years back is what started me thinking on all of this.

I'm not sure what you mean by that, I'm replying right now just fine

Common sense is always a good thing It's probably a good idea to give anything you pick up in a cache a cursory examination. I've picked up stuffed toys in caches, but generally I move them on to other caches. I wouldn't personally keep them, just because they've been sitting out in damp environments, etc. As for smuggling drugs in a stuffed TB, I suppose that's possible, but it would sure be an impractical way to move a valuable (to some) payload... TB's might never make it to their intended destination, might go very slowly, get stolen, and get handled by so many people in the process that it would just be impractical. The only reason your scenario might play out would be if someone had malicious intent with the specific purpose of getting someone in trouble.