Team Bear-Cat

David, we have family in Maryville and lead hiking/backpacking trips in the Nantahala NF pretty often. We love hike-tos, bridges, waterfalls and really sadistic in-plain-sight caches. We would be glad to adopt several of yours, in this order of preference: Ah...Santeetlah Aquaduct, Cruel & Unusual, Storyteller, Another Greenway Bridge, Fortune Cookie. (Maybe the Riparian Zone ones too, although it looks like some are already requested...) Be safe and well -- hope to be there for the send-off party too! Team Bear-Cat P.S. Anything we can do to help 'rejuvenate' the GSMGC? (We are members...)

The GA and TN approvers have been very fast (sometimes within 1 hour!! ) and courteous. On a couple of occasions they have requested more information or noted a typo, but in a straightforward way -- nothing 'rude'. The 75-mile/100-mile guideline may cause problems in some cases; so far that has been amiably handled with the cooperation/scheming of local cachers. Remember -- the approvers ARE volunteers, generally with full to-do plates and some even have family, jobs, etc beyond the geocaching! It is all a 'work in progress'; changes will be made as necessary down the line... Keep on hunting and having fun meanwhile!

Unfortunately, that is true -- cache-hunting 'wagon-trains' can be fun but there IS such a thing as too much of a 'good thing...' But it is a fun, social hobby/sport/pastime/game all in all -- I vote for 'Quest' or 'Destination'!

I will have an extra Georgia coin and would be interested in a wand -- sounds like a good trade! Feel free to e-mail to work out details so we take it off-forum... Thanks!

We always keep a couple of ammo-cans, a handful of assorted micros and smalls and a couple of plastic containers, plus the usual geo-stuff bag: ziploc baggies, camo-tape, electric tape of various colors, spare log-sheets, etc. Key-finders, magnetic and otherwise are always handy too... you just never know when you will be driving or hiking somewhere and a spot simply begs for a cache! Artificial rocks and the real thing 'altered' to be a cache-container are fun to assemble and have ready for action too! We try to avoid letting too many of ours be released and found using the same kind of container or strategy for the hide. It is supposed to be "Fun" -- not necessarily 'Easy'!!

Fortunately, there are search-criteria and pocket queries and other methods for finding only the caches that appeal to you, or your young children, or your 5000-find+ super-cacher buddy, or whoever! What suits you will not suit everybody else -- thank goodness! Or this would become a dull, over-regulated sport/hobby/game/pastime/etc! If I go find 5 or 10 by the same person and find that I'm bored or disappointed, then I may not look for others by this person, but that does not mean that I would presume to proclaim that those same caches were 'lame' or not enjoyable or suitable to others. "To thine own self be true" and 'one person's trash is another's treasure!' are two quotes that come to mind... Meanwhile, we're heading to a new state next week -- gotta go start searching for the ones we want to hunt...

To us, being an FTF is a nice bonus but (literally!) not worth loosing sleep over! We hunt for the fun of hunting, not the numbers and not the FTF-jolly. Of course, it depends on the prize for the FTF!! If there is a new geo-coin out there in the new cache for the FTF, then we may re-route the day's errands or schedule! On the other side, it is fun to put a nice prize for the FTF in our caches; we have been known to put gift certificates to nearby coffee-shops/restaurants for the FTF, and that does increase competition; a good way to encourage others to compete with a known FTF-hound in the area. For example, when a new high-tech 18-screen movie theater opened, we hustled over, bought several $5 gift certs, put a new cache in the parking lot with a free movie gift cert (partly to compensate for it being a 'light-pole micro' and then went and saw 'Phantom of the Opera' -- altogether a very productive and enjoyable evening! Sure enough, by the next day, 4 people had logged the new cache and the FTF-folks had driven over 50 miles to get it, not just because of the FTF -- they have a lot of those already -- but to check out the fancy new movie optics! So, do what you want and what you can and don't lose any sleep over FTF's -- won or lost, yours or others!

OK, "Pinch-Hitter" (yes, we like puns!) has officially been entered in the 2005 MLB race! Meanwhile, we are looking forward to escorting some entrants in the 2004 MLB and NFL races to Phoenix next week!

That might be overkill; there ARE lots of good reasons and locations for micros, especially in urban areas... But, yes, some limits on how many 1/1 micros there are in a given area is probably a good idea. Also, if it is clearly in a rural or forested area, where typically there are a lot less muggles to worry about, then perhaps the reviewers could/should at least ask the would-be cache owner to place a different kind...

g,Feb 10 2005, 10:21 AM] That WAS maybe the general original idea, but lately, the majority of micros ARE light pole 1/1s

Yep! We just found one in North GA last weekend!

Love those, especially Perfect Cuppa! Reminds me of this one, Caf-Fiend that we launched recently. Yep, photos do add a lot!

Yeah, but how many cachers confess to logging caches they did not actually go to!!!

Fortunately, many things about this sport/hobby/recreation/adventure/social activity/physical-and-mental therapy called 'Geocaching' rely on the honor system! There is really no one out there reading all the cache logs and verifying them against each cacher's list on GC.com. Cache owners can do that of course if they wish, but I doubt most of them would have time or inclination to do so, unless it involves a specific bug-race or other competitive event. How about some other kinds of numbers and rankings? Most miles driven (or hiked!) to log caches? Most states/provinces/countries? (Those 'Visited States' and 'Been There Globes' maps can be fun too!

If they can be shipped to us (Georgia or Arizona), we would like 3! Oh, BTW, how much are they ?!?! As far as tracking goes, it's nice, but at least one of them we will add to our Geo-coin-chain TB that travels with us. The others will be traded or high-value items for a FTF in one of our caches... Thanks very much!

Both excellent ideas! In addition to searching for 'TB' in the titles, look for 'BUG' as well. Our latest Georgia TB Hotel/Exchange Point is called Bugs 'n Peaches Welcome You!

I will be getting the new GA Geocoin soon and would like to trade for other states. WA would be great!

Your willingness to serve your country and your fellow-geocachers is very much appreciated!!! We have three TBs that would love to log Iraq! (One is ours, the others are in our inventory that wants to travel around the world) Are you going to mail them back? (Not sure any should 'stay' there...) Please reply or pm to work out details. BTW, we are in GA and will be in AZ next week, if either help as far as getting them closer to you... Thanks very much!!!

Yeah, but it's not really Southwest, its ATA!! Not Southwest's planes, or high-maintenance standards or timeliness... New Orleans and Nashville are cache-rich, but not all that far (less than a day) from where you are. How about flying to New York or Chicago? Do some big-city stuff AND log lots of caches! (We spent a day caching in Chicago last fall; there are some great ones all around the Navy Pier and surrounds.) In both cases, (NY or CHI), wait a few weeks until its WARMER! Have fun!

Theme caches are fun, if maintained and not taken tooooo seriously! We have one Crawfishing that has a fishing theme. Other theme-caches we have seen and enjoyed were ones that emphasized books, CDs (a CD-only exchange; other trades discouraged but TNLNSL fine), several that feature keychains and coins (US state quarters, foreign coins, etc). Hands-down our favorite though has to be the one that features cartoon art and requests that the cacher either sketch a cartoon in the logbook, or bring a copy of a favorite cartoon! CCC cache VERY creative! So, yeah, theme-caches are fine -- just recall that this IS a family-safe game/sport/hobby! I don't think that there is currently a way to flag them as 'theme-caches' except in the title; same as TB Hotels. (We have fun coming up with double-entendre titles, like our Bugs 'N Peaches Welcome You! which is a bug-hotel/exchange cache at a Georgia Welcome Center!

Where will you be flying from?? (Don't want to recommend a place that is driveable; better to use those tickets for a cross-country hop!) What kinds of caches do you and your bride prefer? Micros? Easy, quick grabs? Challenging? Puzzles? Hike-to? TB-friendly? Congratulations, BTW!

Well, we have found the appropriate device/critter for our racer-bug! We will bring "Pinch-Hitter" to the Feb. GGA meeting! We are planning to attend the April kick-off too, but I believe you said you needed to have the racers before then? Thanks for the fun! Mike and Nancy Team Bear-Cat

That is GREAT idea and a definite service! I know that we have gone to specific caches, even ones that we had already logged as a find, to get a particular bug and it's frustrating to find them gone... <p> Thanks Sparrowhawk! Hope you find one of our bugs soon!

We are very much enjoying the TBs and especially like helping them when they have a specific goal. We have assisted several of the NFL stadium racers; most recently we picked up New Gotham Tigger who had been completely grounded since launching in the race in August! We knew we were heading up to the Washington DC area for work, so we took the Gotham Tigger along and got the photos of him at the GA Dome and the Redskins FedEx field! <p> Another TB recently reached her half-way/turnaround point: Peaceful Peach has made it from CA to GA and is now started back to CA! We picked her up in Atlanta, GA and have placed her in a lovely peaceful cache near the TN state line to get her going west.

Just a quick question here -- we picked up SpiderWebb's Racer-bug in TN a few weeks ago, took him to Wisconsin and photographed him at Lambeau Field, then left him at a cache in Indiana. Those all show up on the bug's log-page. However, when we checked on the racer-bug stats, updated November 7th, it says that SpiderWebb's Racer is in Savannah Georgia and only has the Atlanta stadium to his credit ??!!?? javascript:emoticon('') Was there something wrong with the picture, or the way we logged it??? Fun sport -- we would like to get into the next sports-race! (Hey, how about a NASCAR-track-theme race??) Thanks for your time...