Mike_NJ

I've noticed this sort of thing happening more often in the recent site and map updates. While I've searched explicit address locations before (like my own home) the map system now searches slightly differently in that, since my town is a boro of a larger township, it no longer recognizes the town name. I figured out how to bypass that completely by accident, and put in the township name. It also won't recognize my office's physical address, even though it's not a boro. Team Tsiri's suggestion will likely help quite a bit.

Welcome to the game! Rule #1. Bring a pen. Rule #2. Bring water. Rule #3. Don't give up. Other than that: Bring handiwipes and bug spray. If your geo-app has the capability, and you're going to be doing a lot of woodsy walking, consider setting a "return to parking" waypoint.

It's flirted close to 100F in southern New Jersey for the last week or more. The heat I don't mind; it's the humidity! If I didn't get out of the car and instantly feel like I were breathing pea soup, and start sweating buckets, it wouldn't be so bad. We did the ET Highway in April, and it was in the low 90s with very little humidity and it was fantastic. Wish it were like that here and now.

I first heard/read about it years ago on Slashdot. I didn't have a GPS at the time, so mostly forgot about it until about 5 years ago when I lurked every few months. Until 2009, when I finally got a smartphone, which had GPS built in, and found a Geocaching app, and then finally signed up. I voyeuristically searched here and there but never actually got the urge to go out until a buddy who hosts a yearly 4th party took a bunch of us out to geocache on 7/3/2010.

While I have heard third/fourth/fifteenth-hand tales about trackables going into someone's pocket, never to see the light of day again, there are other possibilities: - The person who picked it up isn't aware of the process by which trackables should be logged (I've seen this one a lot recently) - The person who last found it may not have correctly opened the cache, thereby causing the item to be lost - The person may have intended to put it back, but neglected to do so There are other scenarios to imagine something less malevolent, of course, but who really knows what goes on when that lid is popped. In my own experiences, with approximately a hundred trackable-capable finds, I'm about 50/50 on present versus not-present. This was especially disappointing prior to my trip to Vegas, as I'd been hoping to find some West-Coast-bound items. And even moreso when it's a trackable of a type I've never seen, and I just want to see something new.

Most reviewers give 30 days for a "needs maintenance/needs archive" log to be attended to by the CO. Keep it in your watchlist and if it gets archived...

If you're not a premium member, you can also go to your State page (Main Geocaching page, Community - Forums - scroll down to your region - click on your State) and it will show a sampling of the last few caches posted in your state. Note that it doesn't discriminate location, so it could be clear across the state. Also, it's not a list that is updated immediately; sometimes it can take a day or two for whatever process it uses to scan newly published caches to catch up. Until I became PM, I used that page as well as my "search from Home, filter out finds" page and clicked on the "Placed" column to sort by placement date.

Troop and Pack 28, NJ. Started at 6 or 7, until I was 19 (Assistant Scout Master) Life Scout - missed Eagle by one required merit badge and the service project. Patrol Leader at every level (Assistant, PL, ASPL, Senior Patrol Leader) I was the Den Chief for my brother's Webelos den for over a year Merit Badge Councilor for Computers Merit Badge for almost 2 years Things that have helped me in Geocaching so far: -Leave No Trace -Identifying Plants -Using a Compass -First Aid I'm sure there's more, but those are all I can think of at the moment.

I personally do not like the idea of using my cellphone (smartphone, Sprint Epic 4G Touch) for email unless it's a dire emergency. So instead, I use the email address associated with my cell number to send myself an email-like text message. If you wanted to do the same, use the information in this blog-like article to find the correct format to send text messages via email and your cell provider. As an aside, I also use this for sending myself reminders or GC notes

There are more bug repellents than just plain old "bug spray." In Boy Scouts, some of the younger guys who were allergic to DEET-based products prior to alternate releases (late 80s, early 90s) used Avon's Skin-So-Soft product to good effect. In addition to working well for most bugs, it smelled better.

There's a couple parks not far from Waldorf that have a bunch of caches. Sadly, I don't remember the names of the parks as I don't live in the area and only visit a few times a year. I do remember that http://coord.info/GC1YV6D is in one of them, and there's another park near that one also.

Interesting find in Texas: semi-fossilized deer vertebrae Odd item in cache in NJ: 4-month old basketball game ticket Bad idea item in cache in NJ: Stick of gum Keeping a list

In my opinion, as a cache-finder, but not yet as a cache-hider... The sport is called GeoCaching, not Geo-SemiAccuratePositioning-ofLocatingSomewhereThatMightHideSomething-ThatYouareLookingFor. The rules state: 1. If you take something from the geocache (or "cache"), leave something of equal or greater value. 2. Write about your find in the cache logbook. 3. Log your experience at www.geocaching.com. If it were as simple as Geo-Drive-by-PointingatSomethingThatMightBeHidden I'd have a lot more than my probably-paltry-to-some 46 finds. I know where a good 20-30 more are in my area, but haven't yet gone out to find them. Just because I know where the cache is for GC2P33E or GC2CVQF for example, doesn't mean I'm going to hop onto the website until it's found. Even though I know where a good dozen or more caches are, that have been placed by my co-Zombies, I'm not going to log them. As I've stated in another post of mine, I won't log it as found until I put pen to log paper.

My bag is currently an old Gap-branded backpack that I bought for 75% off back in 1998. Most of the internal waterproofing has disintegrated (mostly due to a sunblock dumping accident) but it's still in good shape, cleans up easily, and several pockets that I can also use for it to double as my bicycling bag Now that I think of it though, neither need is taken care of exceptionally, but it just works. *shrug*

While on a daily walk around the lake at my office complex, I go by a nearby geocache once a week or so just to check on it, as the woods where it is placed is a popular "hidden hangout" spot. It was muggled a few weeks ago and replaced shortly thereafter. This particular time, though, I ended up finding a TB item that had been missing for almost 2 years! just a few yards from where GZ for that cache is. Whether it was supposed to be in the cache or not, I couldn't find any info, so I emailed the TB's owner and shipped it to them.

Years ago, I started leaving $20 in seasonal jackets that I wouldn't wear for a while. I promptly forgot about it, then got all happy and surprised when I found $20 bucks in a jacket I hadn't worn since last summer! YAY! Until I remembered specifically doing it. I still do it, though, cause finding $20 is finding $20 even if I did "spend it" before I "found it"... In this case though, couldn't they log a note that, as the original CO, pre-adoption, they located the cache still in place?

There is an app for it, however it's not sponsored/created by Groundspeak, so mentioning it might be bad juju. It's in the App catalog. (it's also available via homebrew.)

I'm a relative newbie to this game, but my opinion and in-practice-choice is that if I can't sign the log, I won't log it as found. There's a LPC hide 1 mile from my office. The cache page warns of hornets. 3 of the last four finds explicitly state "didn't want to get stung so didn't sign the log"... but are listed as "Found." I know exactly where it is - have for a couple months now - it's the only LP with a skirt/cap within a few hundred feet - and I too have almost gotten stung there - but I'm waiting until I can actually put pen-to-paper before I log it as found.

Does dreaming about finding a geocache 2 weeks before it's first posted after having been in the area where it would have gone, count?

I know, trite as it sounds, that saying "I use billion dollar satellites to find tupperware in the woods" makes a lot a people laugh, even if they're not directly interested

I also add caches that I log DNF to my Watchlist, so that I can see if someone found it before I get to go back.

When I first started spying around for geocaches - long before I actually went to FIND them, of course, probably two years ago - I remember seeing a few in certain places near home, near my girlfriend's house, near work, and thinking "hey that's right over there" ... but not being "ready" to go look. The three or four I remember seeing would have been cool finds.

This is an interesting thread, because it highlights a problem with a cache I was interested in finding when I was in the Austin area last week. A cache that had a seemingly easy rating (1.5/1.5) has gone DNF for over 18 months (Dec 28 2008 to present). Sadly, that fact completely turned me and my co-cachers off from even putting it on our list to seek. "Hey we're close to this Sniff cache," says someone else "It's had DNF for a year and a half" says I "Oh, pass" says they Would I be remiss in not contacting the original reviewer at the very least, or should I post NA even though I didn't go to look for it?

"Muggles" (as has been mentioned rhymes with juggles) is spoken within the very first few minutes of The Sorcerer's Stone by Professor McGonagall. It means, in HP Universe context, "Non magic-capable folk". In Geocaching, it means "non-geocaching folk." "Moogles" are fantasy creatures featured in the Final Fantasy series video games (And other related titles) by Square Enix. You can see some decent pictures/concept art/game art on the wiki page here (wikia.com). Basically it's a furry teddybear/cat creature with leathery wings, big ears, and a penchant for dancing and magic.

The Head Zombie told me that, if you put in an honest effort to finding the cache, and you're relatively sure you have been thorough, log a single DNF. (And that it might be best if you try to find it more than once, just on the off chance you're having an off day.) If you can't find it even with hints from the logs of the cache's page or even a note to the cache owner, and someone has successfully found it within the last 30-60 days, you're probably doing it wrong. If it has been more than six months since the last find (especially if you're conscious of the area's weather - ie in NJ we had a pretty rough winter, and a few caches have gone missing/needed maintenance) contact the CO and give them a few days to try to rectify/verify. I have only 5 finds under my belt. (So Far! ) The first two in MD were "this looks like a good place to hide... - HEY I FOUND IT" sort of thing. My next three in NJ... One was a quick'n'easy find in my hometown, but the other two (very close to my office) were multiple-trips-without-a-find. One DNF and 3-4 trips later, the Find Me Lightbulb went off and the rest is Log History