dnfu

After a full year of cacheing, we feel like we owe it to the community to add some caches to the mix. And, after a year, we know what we value in a cache (creativity + location +maintenence) and hope that we can make our caches worth others time. I don’t yet know if we’ll pull that off, but we’ll try. Like lots of areas, In Illinois there is a big difference between the seasons - the bushwhaking and mosquitoes get fierce in the summer, the leaves are tough in the fall, ice/snow is a constant threat in the winter, and we get floods in the winter/spring. We have put prospective cache containers under water in the sink for days to see which will maintain log integrity, and also put them in the freezer to see what will happen. I’m glad that we know that before placing our first hide. I’m encouraged that lots of folks have posted great successes on their early hides, and I look forward to hunting theirs if I can. A good cache is a good cache, regardless of who placed it. -dnfu P.S. We also want to learn the perspective of a C.O. so we can post better logs and better help with maintenance on caches we find. We started the hobby in late fall, and after our 100th find around Christmas we felt that we were ready to place our first hide. But we didn't do it - and I'm glad that we didn't. But that doesn't disparage other folks who did - it all comes down to talent. We needed to do more research, that's all.

We ran into an issue with the iPhone app today that assigned our post from the previous find to our NEXT find, double posting on that next find (and not posting at all on the previous one). And I have no animosity towards that glitch - it's AMAZING that this technology works as well as it usually does. Fortunatley the CO of the second find caught our double-post right-away and alerted us via-email so we could fix the double-posting situation. We still felt like goofs, but this part of the thread makes me feel like less of a goof. Getting back on the topic of the thread... sure, we wrote terse logs, but we worked to make them relevant. All of our logs today were personalized with an ear towards the 'golden rule' of what the CO wants to hear and the next cacher ought to hear. I think that a simple "TFTC" is reserved for only the least inspired caches, and, going forward, even in those situations we are going to try really hard to eliminate that short a log from our geo-vocabulary.

We only log a DNF if we gave the cache it's due respect - if we only had five minutes or so we don't log it because we didn't really try. But if we hunt that cache HARD we always log the DNF, with the tag that 'we hope we just missed something'. A lot of times we did 'just miss something', and those gnaw on us and we go-back-and-go-back until we get the sucker. But a lot of times our DNF leads the CO towards disabling the cache because our DNF alerted them that it was missing. Posting a DNF is a pure *Golden Rule* situation for us. What would you have liked the previous visitors to log if their experience is the same as yours? There are times that our schedule doesn't allow us to attempt a cache with a recent string of DNF's, so we have to trust that those DNF's indicate honest tries. That is why we only DNF honest tries. And if that means we are on public record for missing the 'trick', oh well... we are forever acknowledging that we are just as human as everyone else. At least we don't contribute to situations like when we worked a cache hard only to find out later that a lot of other cachers had been there, came up just as empty as us, but out of pride or whatever didn't log their DNF. I am comfortable with our judging our DNF posts via the *Golden Rule*.

I always thought it nice to put a little effort into the post to respect the effort the CO puts into placing and maintaining the cache. But on those days when you pick up 20+ it is hard to write a personalized story for every cache. We carry a notebook and pen with us to jot down our finds so we can write at least a few words to personalize the logs. (http://www.quiverglobal.com/news/2/Geocaching-with-my-Pocket-Quiver.html) A few words don’t take very long and it means a lot When we went to our first geocaching event, the GONIL meeting last May, we asked CO's what they wanted to hear. Yes, they like to hear a little more than "TFTC". But the CO's we talked to were most interested in hearing about the cache condition! Since then, my default is 'cache is in great shape, TFTC!' unless of course it isn't. If the log is wet or full, I let them know if I was able to replace it (or not). And if there was something special about the find, I refer to the notes in my notebook and try to write a few words to let them know that I appreciate their creativity or effort. I have to admit that I have posted a few "TFTC" and that was it. I also have to admit that I have posted some too-long-narratives because they were entertaining to me. As I have matured as a cacher I tend to think about the audience for the logs as I write them, and try to answer their basic questions as I write the log: 1. Is the cache there? 2. Is it in great shape, or does it need maintenance? 3. What was especially fun about the find? 4. And if we post that we didn’t find it, we try to communicate exactly how we really tried. Then we always end those logs with “We hope we missed something” instead of assuming “the cache must be gone”. Right now we are about 50-50 on caches that we dnf’d that have gone missing vs. caches that we just needed to work smarter

Wow! That's a pretty thorough kit... but you will probably find that you are bringing too much (like I do when camping) For instance, if you bring pens you won't need a pencil and sharpener. A notebook is essential, but a spiral notebook will probably be left with your bag when you go into a thicket or up a tree because of its size and chances of snagging. We prefer a sleek moleskine or similar pocket notebook in our back pocket with a quiver on it (www.quiverglobal.com) because it is compact and we can always crawl into/up any Ground Zero and know we have our notebook AND pen with us to sign the log and jot down notes. We don't cache without that combo. I have yet to cache in PA, but in the states I have cached (and you can view my profile for that) I have never needed envelopes nor have I seen a cache that would even accept notecards. If the log is full we just tear off some pages from our notebook (or if you are proactive,as I can tell you are, you can have some replacement logs in the Moleskine's back pocket) Extra garbage bags and ziplock bags are thoughtful, and TP is a must. I've only done 320 or so caches so I am not an extreme authority here, but a screwdriver has never been necessary for any of them. A simple multi-tool with a knife, screwdrivers, and needle-nosed pliers has served us for everything we've run into. You might never need the knife or the screwdriver, but you WILL need the needle nosed pliers (or tweezers) The plant ID book is inspired - wish I had one in our kit! I'll leave the mace/candles/flint to your discretion -those have never been an issue for us, even in Alaska. You forgot one of the most important things - A CAMERA! Geocaching is good, often silly, usually physical fun, and it can take you places in your area that you never knew existed. A great geocache will take you somewhere interesting that you will want to remember, and the best will expose you to a physical challenge that you want to have a record of. We have multiple variations on our kit depending on where we are going and how long we will be out, but our kit always includes: 1) Garmin 2)iPhone 3)Notebook with Quiver (www.quiverglobal.com) and pens 4)Camera Hope this helps. Have a blast! dnfu:)

At a bare minimum, whenever we cache we carry a small notebook ( http://www.moleskineus.com/plainpocket.html ) with a two-pen Quiver pen-holder on it ( http://quiverglobal.com/ ) The most important thing about this pen/notebook combo is we always know for sure that we have a pen in our pocket when we go through the brush or up a tree to sign the log! We like the two-pen quiver so we can color-code our notes in the field regarding cache condition, solving puzzles and multis, etc. It fits great into our pocket even with the two pens attached. Note: That pen-holder also fits a lot of similar notebooks that don't cost as much as the Moleskine brand. Check out the Quiver website for size ranges that it fits. When we are on the longer hunts we carry a more complete kit in our backpack- extra batteries for our Garmin Colorado, hand sanitizer, napkins (for TP), and a multi-tool with needle-nosed pliers for removing caches from tight spots (and more often removing logs from tight containers). As a courtesy to the owners of the caches we carry extra plastic bags to replace ones fouled by use or weather. We always carry a few key SWAG items in case we find something we want to trade for. We keep these items in a spare lock-and-lock, in case we need to replace a defective cache container. Make room for waters and geosnacks for the trail. Finally - we always carry gloves and hydrocortisone for those evil caches in evergreen trees.