Team Bear-Cat

I recently got one of these coins and successfully decrypted it – after a pleasing amount of head-scratching – using an online simulator at https://cryptii.com/pipes/enigma-machine. "Of course I won't spoil the fun," but here are a few tips on exactly how to use this software which were not initially clear to me. The "Enigma M3" default setting corresponds to the Naval M2114 used on this coin. This simulator has three groups of settings: "rotor," "position," and "ring." As expected, "rotor" is the rotor selection for each of the three slots in the machine. What this simulator calls "position" is what the coin calls "outer ring" and corresponds to what letters the operator would see. What this simulator calls "ring" is what the coin calls "inner ring" and corresponds to the position of the plastic disc inside, known only to the officer. (Not all available simulators have all eight rotors which were used with this machine – this one does.) Even twelve years later – "thanks for the geo-challenge!"

Updated! So happy to see that both of ours have been received! Adding pictures of the wonderful gift received from Socks and Amanda! Mission 1: Mike (BEAR of Team Bear-Cat) Sent my info to Laval K-9: March 10, 2020Name received from Laval K-9: March 16, 2020Sent my gift: March 20, 2020My gift arrived at destination: March 23, 2020I received a gift: April 6, 2020 Mission 2: Nancy (CAT of Team Bear-Cat) Sent my info to Laval K-9: March 10, 2020Name received from Laval K-9: March 16, 2020Sent my gift: March 19, 2020My gift arrived at destination: April 10, 2020I received a gift:

Updated ! We received a most interesting package from Socks and Amanda yesterday !! Will open it this coming weekend ! Mission 1: Mike (BEAR of Team Bear-Cat) Sent my info to Laval K-9: March 10, 2020Name received from Laval K-9: March 16, 2020Sent my gift: March 20, 2020My gift arrived at destination: March 23, 2020I received a gift: April 6, 2020 Mission 2: Nancy (CAT of Team Bear-Cat) Sent my info to Laval K-9: March 10, 2020Name received from Laval K-9: March 16, 2020Sent my gift: March 19, 2020My gift arrived at destination:I received a gift:

Mission 1: Mike (BEAR of Team Bear-Cat) Sent my info to Laval K-9: March 10, 2020Name received from Laval K-9: March 16, 2020Sent my gift: March 20, 2020My gift arrived at destination: March 23, 2020I received a gift: Mission 2: Nancy (CAT of Team Bear-Cat) Sent my info to Laval K-9: March 10, 2020Name received from Laval K-9: March 16, 2020Sent my gift: March 19, 2020My gift arrived at destination:I received a gift:

Just shipped out one of ours to Europe from Atlanta GA PO. They are accepting and shipping 'large letters' (6x9 or less envelope, less than 2 pounds) but cannot guarantee or track it once it leaves US... Fingers and paws crossed that it arrives safely -- eventually ! Everyone stay safe and sane ! These are difficult times. But maybe we will finally get all our geocoins organized and sorted !

Mission 1: Mike (BEAR of Team Bear-Cat) Sent my info to Laval K-9: March 10, 2020Name received from Laval K-9: March 16, 2020Sent my gift:My gift arrived at destination:I received a gift: Mission 2: Nancy (CAT of Team Bear-Cat) Sent my info to Laval K-9: March 10, 2020Name received from Laval K-9: March 16, 2020Sent my gift: March 19, 2020My gift arrived at destination:I received a gift:

Woo Hoo ! Another coin mission ! We are both in ! Mission 1: Mike (BEAR of Team Bear-Cat) Sent my info to Laval K-9: March 10, 2020Name received from Laval K-9:Sent my gift:My gift arrived at destination:I received a gift: Mission 2: Nancy (CAT of Team Bear-Cat) Sent my info to Laval K-9: March 10, 2020Name received from Laval K-9:Sent my gift:My gift arrived at destination:I received a gift:

COMPLETE ! COMPLETE ! Mission One: Mike (the Bear of the team!) Mission Two: Nancy (the Cat of the team!) Sent my info to Laval K-9: 11-18-2019 Sent my info to Laval K-9: 11-18-2019 Name received from Laval K-9: 11-26-2019 Name received from Laval K-9: 11-26-2019 Sent my gift: 12-12-2019 Sent my gift: 12-09-2019 My gift arrived at destination: 12-18-2019 My gift arrived at destination: 12/23/2019 I received a gift: 12/21/2019 I received a gift: 12/24/2019 Such FUN ! Looking forward to the next Mission or Exchange !

Christmas Eve and our missions are COMPLETE ! We got a private message through Geocaching.com that our package had reached Denmark. And today a package arrived to us with TWO coins, wooden ornaments and other thoughtful items. Thank you, Getzie Family, thank you! Merry Christmas!

COMPLETE ! Mission One: Mike (the Bear of the team!) Mission Two: Nancy (the Cat of the team!) Sent my info to Laval K-9: 11-18-2019 Sent my info to Laval K-9: 11-18-2019 Name received from Laval K-9: 11-26-2019 Name received from Laval K-9: 11-26-2019 Sent my gift: 12-12-2019 Sent my gift: 12-09-2019 My gift arrived at destination: 12-18-2019 My gift arrived at destination: 12/23/2019 I received a gift: 12/21/2019 I received a gift:

COMPLETE ! Mission One: Mike (the Bear of the team!) Mission Two: Nancy (the Cat of the team!) Sent my info to Laval K-9: 11-18-2019 Sent my info to Laval K-9: 11-18-2019 Name received from Laval K-9: 11-26-2019 Name received from Laval K-9: 11-26-2019 Sent my gift: 12-12-2019 Sent my gift: 12-09-2019 My gift arrived at destination: 12-18-2019 My gift arrived at destination: I received a gift: 12/21/2019 I received a gift: Received a lovely package from the Semmels ! Awesome moving-parts coin from MOGA in Kansas, personal pathtag, chocolate, cool survival geo-tool, hilarious card. Will add photos. THANK YOU !!

Just got a nice note from the recipient of Mission One, and see that he is logging the 'extras' we sent along !! Mission One: Mike (the Bear of the team!) Mission Two: Nancy (the Cat of the team!) Sent my info to Laval K-9: 11-18-2019 Sent my info to Laval K-9: 11-18-2019 Name received from Laval K-9: 11-26-2019 Name received from Laval K-9: 11-26-2019 Sent my gift: 12-12-2019 Sent my gift: 12-09-2019 My gift arrived at destination: 12-18-2019 My gift arrived at destination: I received a gift: I received a gift:

Mission One: Mike (the Bear of the team!) Mission Two: Nancy (the Cat of the team!) Sent my info to Laval K-9: 11-18-2019 Sent my info to Laval K-9: 11-18-2019 Name received from Laval K-9: 11-26-2019 Name received from Laval K-9: 11-26-2019 Sent my gift: 12-12-2019 Sent my gift: 12-09-2019 My gift arrived at destination: My gift arrived at destination: I received a gift: I received a gift:

Names received. Planning begins...

Oh Yes! We are both in! Nothing like the jingle of new geocoins! Mission One: Mike (the Bear of the team!) Sent my info to Laval K-9: 11-18-2019 Name received from Laval K-9: 11-26-2019 Sent my gift: My gift arrived at destination: I received a gift: Mission two: Nancy (the Cat of the team!) Sent my info to Laval K-9: 11-18-2019 Name received from Laval K-9: 11-26-2019 Sent my gift: My gift arrived at destination: I received a gift: We are Team Bear-Cat and we love travel, cooking, gardening, antique navigational gadgets, unflavored coffee...

EMAIL SENT: 9/27 NAME RECEIVED BY US: 10/6 MISSION SENT BY US: 10/11 MISSION ARRIVED AT DESTINATION: 10/29 MISSION RECEIVED BY US: 10/31 Our mission package arrived a few days ago, and we impatiently waited until today to open it. All the way from Germany! Beautiful card with poem, gravestone lolly-pops, a DGS trackable and a very cool and new-to-us gecko coin! Thank you Michael Wilke for all the spooky good stuff!

EMAIL SENT: 9/27 NAME RECEIVED BY US: 10/6 MISSION SENT BY US: 10/11 MISSION ARRIVED AT DESTINATION: MISSION RECEIVED BY ME:

EMAIL SENT: 9/27 NAME RECEIVED BY ME: MISSION SENT BY ME: MISSION ARRIVED AT DESTINATION: MISSION RECEIVED BY ME:

From our point of view as cache owners, both "DNF" and "needs maintenance" are equally important, but they convey entirely different pieces of equally-useful information: DNF is a basic cue that there might be something that requires attention. If the cache is "evil," we'll privately decide whether "we fooled you" or "you were close." If it's "easy," we'll react right away – or we'll "temporarily disable" the cache until we can. Either way, "the log attracts attention." Needs Maintenance has a very specific meaning: it means that you found the cache, but somehow found it to be broken. Please be very specific. (Our responses will be the same as above.) So – if you simply think that "you are flummoxed," maybe you resolve to come back some other time without logging anything today, because the situation probably doesn't require attention. (Sure, we all do it. No harm, no foul.) But, if you decide to log it, please be sure to choose the appropriate type of log, because, by doing so, you are asking to "trigger attention." Please be sure that you select the most-appropriate type of cache owner response: "you are there right now, and we are not." Thanks in advance.

One way to do it is to use old-fashioned Orienteering techniques. From a place which has clear view of the sky, note the magnetic compass-bearing to the cache. (Note: your equipment might present a "True" bearing, obliging you to know the magnetic declination offset in your area and how to use it to obtain a "Magnetic" bearing.) Break out your trusty magnetic compass – surely you remembered to bring one – and pace the distance along the bearing line. (Or, use your 100' measuring tape.) We once used this technique to quickly locate a "very difficult" cache 500' away in a dense evergreen thicket. When the CO's (who had noticed us) arrived to "help us," we were standing beneath the correct tree. Puzzled, they asked us where our GPS was. I casually replied, "oh, we left it in the car." (And we had.) (I'm never quite sure how they managed to arrive at those coordinates in the first place ...) P.S.: If you love Geocaching as a source of challenges, be sure to check out Orienteering! "Map & Compass, no GPS." Serious fun.

Just completed our first Adventure Lab, 100 Years of Olympic Games, in Atlanta. It did not trigger a Find count, nor does it show up in the list of Recent Activity. Are we missing something? The app shows this Adventure Lab Completed...

Reviewers have an un-enviable quality control mission that we might not appreciate until we encounter a situation where it doesn't exist. I briefly dabbled with (competing_online game_name omitted ... and it doesn't really matter which one ...), which was supposed to be "policed by the community" until I quite-literally observed that multiple targets had been placed on "not only each, but every light-pole in a nearby Home Depot parking lot." (On a "map display," I literally could not see the geography.) I gave-up on the game and haven't looked at it since. (To the owners of that game, "you just lost a customer.") So, these volunteers(!) really do perform a quality-control function that we can too-easily take for granted in our game. As you propose new caches, work with them to give cachers the very best possible experience that both of you, together, can manage. ("After all, we're all in the Entertainment business now ...")

It didn't used to be this way –but, "a now planet-wide operation, such as Geocaching.Com has now become, does require a revenue stream." (The cost-equation throughout the Internet is very different from what it was in earlier, more-innocent days ...) We have been Premium members for many years and consider the business proposition to be very fair. We feel that we get what we paid for and then some. Your Mileage May Vary.™

I think of it more-or-less this way: If the cache container "leaked a little," and you happen to have brought a replacement log (especially, waterproof paper) in Ye Olde Bag O' Tricks, that's always a nice thing to do. Just note in your log that you did replace it. ("Save the CO a trip." Keep the old log with you.) If something about the cache container has, say, cracked, then you have two choices: a "needs maintenance" log (which will trigger reviewer attention), or a "private message to the cache owner." Is the necessary maintenance "easy," as in, "hey, heads-up ..."? Or might this be something that a Reviewer should put on their radar? If you think that the cache is gone, or if something serious has happened to the setting where the cache is, "Needs Maintenance" is appropriate. I almost never do "Needs Archived." (That would be: "Whoa! IMHO, this cache never should have been approved!")

I've observed a few things: The phone needs to be out of your pocket for several minutes before you seriously start to rely on it. It needs to lock-in on several satellites. Sometimes the compass-display of an iPhone app is "just plain wrong." (Sometimes it seems to be "180º off.") Switching to the Compass app for re-calibration might help, but ... ... there's really no substitute for a quality magnetic compass in your "geocaching bag-of-tricks," accompanied by knowledge of what is the magnetic declination in your particular location. (Easily found on-line, or a GPSr cam tell you, as can any topo map.) If your app supports it (e.g. "Cachly does ..."), offline maps can be extremely useful, and every bit as detailed as what Apple Maps supplies (minus the satellite pictures o'course). FYI: "Map and compass skills," such as the ability to determine a bearing-line and then to accurately follow it for some distance, "pacing" that distance, have led us straight to many caches that were "under dense tree-cover" in the summertime ... to the consternation of cache-owners who supposed that they had created an intractable conundrum. Notice the exact ("true ...") bearing that the app gives you, and the distance, then put your phone away and use your magnetic compass to follow the ("magnetic ...") bearing specified for the distance prescribed. Easy-peasy.