Midnight Rider

Great info here everyone, thanks! Its kind of funny because Im thinking about how to do my first hide and the first thing that came to mind was how to maintain it. I dont want it be a burden to me or cachers that might go to find it. If they want to help me maintain it, like I did day one with caches I found, then thats great too, but its certainly not expected although its appreciated. :-)

Wow... seems like it would be very time consuming to maintain them given the amount of issues that can occur. The reason I ask is that I went to a cache the other day and DNF. I simply want to know if its still an active cache. Ive watched the cache page and the log..nobody has posted since me. I realize this might not mean much, but Im just curious as to whether or not I failed to find it or if it simply wasnt there to find.

Oh, so they HAVE to be in their original wrapper or you're not happy? I think I said "in their original wrapper, or at least in good condition". I think wrote that. I'll have to go back and look. A partial list would include expired Sanaka coupons, toy soldiers with the head chewed by the family dog, candy wrappers, rusty key rings, metrocards with no rides left on them, dirty used golf balls, stones or other detritus obviously picked up from the ground next to the cache, pens with no ink, broken crayons, bent bottle caps, broken floppy disks, cheap sunglasses with one lens missing, dead batteres, empty butane lighters, dirty diaper covers and generally anything that ordnarily would or should have been thrown in the trash. I guess I'm a real zealot when it comes to this issue. Yeah, I know that there might be people out there who collect empty Bic lighters and one-eyed people who might appreciate the sunglasses with the missing lens, so who am I to say that people shouldn't leave this kind of stuff. I really think I like you, Briansnat!

Ok, I have to admit that Im a bit in the dark on this issue. If you are going to hide a cache, it becomes your responsibility to maintain it as I understand it. This means periodical visits to ensure it's still there, is clean, etc. Additionally, this website is really, really good about informing you of when you might need to take a look at your caches to determine if attention is needed (DNF). How can anyone effectively maintain over a hundred caches and have time for other things like breathing, eating and general survival? When is too much, too much?

No, but if I found a cache with political crap in it, depending on POV, it might end up on fire. :-)

Cut and paste the important parts into Word and then print at your leisure.

Deputy Sheriff here.

Grimstuff, I think thats the reason. Seems logical to me when I think about it. Living in San Antonio, we are the Texas capital for stupid people. I think Im come to the agreement with myself that I will take the knives whenever I find them, lest they fall into the wrong hands and someone gets hurt. Im still new to all this and Im still learning too, so Im trying to give a lot of thought to what I think is a good idea for cache contents.

Medication? That doesn't seem appropriate for a cache. Im sorry, I should have elaborated... Tylenol Gelcaps

Magellan Meridian Gold can be had for about $200 give or take. Its a fantastic little unit and its never let me down yet. Has a map, fully expandable for downloads by using SD cards, so its virtually unlimited storage. Quad helix antenna so it gets good signal under trees etc.

And some folks, like us, enjoy the hunt and the find. Out of the 5 caches we have found so far, I think we have left items in 3, and took an item from the very first cache. Thats it. We always sign the log. I explained to the wife that part of the "rules" is that you trade equal or better. In the first cache we found, someone had placed a very nice perfume sample that Karen wanted and so I told her that since it seemed to be a 'nice' perfume, she should leave something at least as nice. She left some nice stationery and medication. I think that was more than fair considering the cost of the free perfume sample.

Yeah, first thing I bought was the cable, then the mount. Ive always been really critical of product designs and I love the way they did the mount. You dont have to have the cable screwed into the back of the unit and can just pop it in and out as needed. Im used to seeing such crappy designs on things and this was a nice surprise.

A while back I had made mention that I was going to go and get some kind of cell phone holder for my GPSr and several folks advised against that idea and stated that I should just pay the money and get the right holder for the unit. Boy, am I glad I ever did that. Not only does it work great, but its well made, very well designed and allows me to not worry about the device popping out and flying across the interior when I take a curve Thanks again for the advice..I wish I could remember who you were!

The best advice is to learn how to use your GPSr and how your particular model behaves. Go to an open field, mark a known object as a waypoint, move a couple hundred yards away, then let your GPSr take you to it. Do this several times. Watching how your GPS acts when you KNOW where the target is, and seeing how it gets you there, will be invaluable experience when you hunt a cache... This is fantastic advice.

Unfortunately in this day and age, I would stay as far away from using PVC in this fashion. You described the classic "pipe bomb".

I have a Meridian Gold and I absolutely ****LOVE**** it. The nice UPS man brought me my vehicle mount for it today so Im really tweaked. You should give the Meridian Gold a look. You can get them at the Wal Mart for about $170 give or take. Lots of nice features and the helix antenna you mentioned. I used it the other day under very heavy tree cover and as long as you were holding it straight up, it got a very strong sat signal.

Thank you for shopping Pottery Barn.

Ill say again: Its simply 'good manners'. A cemetery is not a playground nor should it be used as such simply because we dont want to ask permission. Every cemetery has a board of directors/regents etc. You should *always* ask permission if it is not on public or private property that you own.

Personally, I dont think cemeteries should be used for anything but a virtual cache. The people traffic and their intent are not something that the cemetery or the families of those buried there would likely find appealing. All it would take is one sick person to do something and it could make the entire activity of geocaching look bad. Of course, this is all just my HO and your mileage may vary.

Ensure you are on COM 1 and that your baud rates match.

Short answer: Yes I would see if the cemetery has a board of directors or some other governing body and I would get their permission. Additionally, depending on where you are placing the cache, you may or may not need the approval of others. Keep in mind also that while this is a "game" or whatever to us, tramping through a cemetery may not be considered very respectful with regard to the reasons for being there.

Doh! thats what I get for not knowing "the rest of the story"

Caches within X amount of feet of a railroad are a no-no anyway. The problem as I see it is that everyone isnt playing by the same rules. Until everyone that does geocaching gets on the same sheet of music, this is just going to be an issue.

The Whooping Cranes are doing better than ever. Lots of Federal Protection and lots of birdwatchers.

Thanks! Me and the wife are totally sold on it... she is the one thats tough to get interested in things, but she loves puzzles and mysteries and the getting out and finding of the caches. She was saying today that she doesnt care if we ever take anything or leave anything that she gets the kick out of just seeing all the stuff in the box or container. I have to agree with her :-)