JL_HSTRE

The OP does raise a good question: what is the best way to find caches starting with a specific letter? If I use the GC search festure it will give me every cache with X in the title not just at the beginning.

Don't leave anything dangerous, edible, or that can melt. Other than that leave something you might enjoy finding.

Is there any way to combine the 'search by state' or 'search by distance from home location' with search by keyword? If it can't be done via the search options on geocaching.com is there a good workaround with GSAK or something similiar? For example, I'm trying to find sudoku puzzles in Florida so I did a search for caches with "sudoku" in the title but I get 902 results and I suspect the vast majority of them are far from me.

Normal multicaches involving finding different stages that contain coordinates, which may or may not be in a container. But the key is that while the stages may be different kinds of difficulty to find you are looking for coordinates - not finding a puzzle you must solve or information to solve a larger puzzle. You can have a 4-5 star difficulty multicache that involves no puzzle solving because there are lots of stages, the stages are very spaced out, or the stages are simply very hard to find.

"It's a GPS scavenger hunt." Essentially everyone knows what GPS is and what a scavenger hunt is so it is not too hard to understand combining the two. Sometimes I follow it up with the job about using billion dollar government satellites to find tupperware in the woods but only if I think I have a receptive audience.

There are 2 fairy door caches at Riverbend Park in Jupiter, FL. They were placed for the 10th anniversary event there. I only had a chance to find 1 of the 2 that day but I suspect they are both the same: the "door frame" is created by the roots of a tree, the door is a single piece of wood with no hinges attaching it, and the cache container is a watertight container in the open space behind the door. It's not hard to find if you're looking for it, but you have to go several hundred feet across a field out of your normal travel way to reach it so nobody is likely to find it by accident and since it's not attached there's no risk of damage (and hopefully no children will walk off with the door).

I've lived in the same area for 22 years but geocaching has taken me to all sorts of neat little parks around town I never knew existed. As I got to ones out of town, I've seen a couple neat places and hope to see many more.

ashnikes questions and ideas were not without merit, but he REALLY needed to learn to improve his delivery. You can't go anywhere and be confrontation in your delivery and have a calm, reasonable discussion. (See most modern cable TV "news") That said, some members of the forums need to be way less snappy at new members. Every new poster is not a sock puppet - probably very very few are. EDIT: Stumbled across the forum thread in question. Geez, people - stop seeing trolls and sock puppets everywhere. And making a reply consisting of nothing but the word "Ni!" seems completely pointless. And yes I get the reference.

One trip vs multiple trips and solving one puzzle vs several puzzles. Interesting I had only come across a few and they were listed as Mystery. Guessed the Reviewer missed it...

Much thanks to the TPTB for implementing the dipping feature on TBs!

First off, thanks very much to the Groundspeak folks for implimenting Dipping Trackables (Visiting) which was high on my personal wishlist. And also props for removing the Facebook Like option: it didn't personally bother me but I also didn't use it and I know many people were displeased by it. Always good to see TPTB listening to the people. Now to the purpose of this post: Mystery seems to be too much of a catch-all type and I feel like some of the more noteable subcategories should be split off into their own cache type (and thus receive a separate icon). There seem to me like three types of cache that should be split off from the general Mystery cache type. Challenge Caches Any cache that has requires you to meet a certain goal which is not to be able to find the cache but to be able to log the cache. Reasons: 1) Unlike most other Mystery Caches, Challenges are usually at the location list. 2) By being their own category, it makes it clear that the ALR on the cache has been approved by Reviewers. This is similar to making Earthcaches stand apart from Virtuals. 3) It would make it much easier to find Challenge Caches. As it is, you must stumble across or be recommended a Bookmark list and there is likely a certain lag in new Challenge Caches being added to those lists. Mystery Cache / Multi-Cache Hybrids Any cache that has more than one stage but also requires puzzle solving and/or information retrieve at the stages. Reasons: 1) Most Mystery Caches require solving some kind of puzzle - usually done at home - then going to the real location you have found from the puzzle. There is usually little or no puzzle solving to be done before going to the cache location (though admitted some require puzzle solving just to find the first stage too). 2) Because of the puzzle solving required at each stage, these caches often require most of a day to find (most Multicaches can be done in an hour or less) or are broken up into multiple trips by cachers as they retrieve information, solve for the next stage at home, then proceed to that stage on their next trip. 3) These caches are usually "epic" requiring a significant investment of time, energy, and skill on the part of the CO who created it and the cachers who hunt for it, above and beyond most other caches. In my area, "Combat!" (GCHX5H) and "Red Scorpion" (GC3DCE) are the kinds of things I'm thinking of. A separate category & icon would make it clearer the extent of the hunt required and make it easier to find such caches for those seeking a major challenge beyond simply searching for Mystery caches with D/T of 4/4 or higher and hoping for the best. Offset Caches A cache that requires no puzzle solving in advance. Instead, you go the coordinates listed and use information at the location to direct you to the physical cache container. Reasons: 1) As with the Mystery/Multi hybrids, this requires no puzzle solving at home. Instead, all your puzzle solving needs to be done at the location itself. If I do a search for nearby caches when I am driving around, I would normally skip a Mystery cache assuming I need to solve a crossword puzzle, solve sudoku, break a code, answer trivia, perform long division, etc. But a Offset cache can be done spur-of-the-moment since the information you need is there in the field. 2) Many people have suggested Offset caches are a way to replace Virtuals. If you want to encourage Offsets in lieu of Virtuals what better way to spotlight that idea than making them stand out as their own category? 3) Because of the different nature of the puzzle solving, I suspect some people who avoid most Mystery caches would still be interested in Offset caches. I doubt I am the first to suggest any of these (especially since I've only been caching since the New Year) but these are some thoughts based on my time caching, looking for potential caches, and seeing comments on the forums. Would love to hear additional reasons why people think these categories are good ideas - or why they think they are unnecessary.

Depends on the container, the location, and the area. The more a cache is found and the smaller the log, the more often you will need to replace the log. Depending on the cache location you may need to replace it often. I found a micro cache earlier this month that has been replaced 7 times in 5 years, presumably due to its high muggle traffic area. An ammo can will rarely ever get wet inside. A film canister, key container, or similar may need the log replaced on a monthly basis because it keeps getting wet inside (depending on where the cache is and how often it rains).

I got started caching locally with a friend. We've been joined by 3 different people on various occasions, 2 of whom have signed up for accounts. One of those we introduced to it went back to college and has been introducing her friends up there to it (including TABjuggler who responded earlier in this thread). I took a trip last weekend to northern Florida and introduced two friends to geocaching. One signed up for an account immediately and has already found a few caches near his home. The other is likely to try some geocaching with a friend later in the year when it's not so warm. Many of my other friends like to hear about my geocaching adventures so they are at least aware of geocaching and what it is. I have at least 4 that are interested in joining me on some future geocaching (especially after the summer is over).

If I find a regular or large cache, as long as the container is dry and in good shape I usually leave my signature item which is: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image...3&type=card On the back of the card, I write my username and the date with a Sharpie. I figure its a good way to spread knowledge of Magic: The Gathering and possibly meet fellow MTGers who also geocache.

I was never in Scouts nor was my geocaching buddy. Our two female friends who we introduced to caching that love it were never in Girl Scouts. The four of us have a mutual friend that was a gold project Girl Scout but she's not really interested in geocaching.

There are lots of geocaches at colleges and universities. I've looked for caches at 3 different universities here in Florida and some of them are quite good. I have noticed that none of them have mentioned being placed with permission (with the exception a few that were placed by a department at the school on an area of the campus they manage). Fortunately, this doesn't seem to have caused much trouble at least that I've noticed. Have there been any problems with universities/colleges(at least in the US) being anti-caching on their campus? If I wanted to ask a college permission to place a cache on their campus, what department/office/posistion at the college should try I contacting?

I was as curious as to what could cause this in theory as I was about what caused it in this particular situation. So reasonable speculation is good too. But thanks for the info on what happened in this specific cache, palmetto.

Caching in Florida I've encountered entirely more spiderwebs than I'd like. I generally look for a stick nearby. I'm particularly fond of grabbing a fallen palmetto and snapping the 'fan' top off as the palmetto branches seem to have a better chance of being solid rather than rotten. I then hold the stick out in front of me and wave it up and down vigorously as I walk. Works pretty good. However, I have only found this effective on regular spiderwebs. This weekend while caching in Jacksonville I found a half dozen very large webs with banana spiders. Banana spider webs seem to usually be pretty thick and the spiders themselves often have bodies the side of your thumb (and that's not including the legs), unlike most spiderwebs that fall apart easily and contain a sider smaller than a penny. I'm sure I could knock those down with a little more effort but someone it feels wrong because of the much greater size. Plus I respect the damage those suckers do to the mosquito population. And admittedly I fear pissing of a big spider much more than I fear pissing off a tiny one...

Saw a local cache that had be disabled. It was last found on May 30th and has no DNFs since then. Looking to see why, this was the Disabled log: "This cache has been disabled by Groundspeak as it is not at the listed location. The cache owner is asked to read and respond to the email sent by Groundspeak." I have seen many Disabled logs but they are usually by the CO. This wasn't even disabled by a local reviewer - it was disabled by a Groundspeak Lackey. Has someone seen something like this before? What causes a GS Lackey to step in over Reviewers? I'm guessing maybe it was found by muggles and turned over to authorities as a suspicious container? FWIW, the cache in question is GC11XN2.

I had a special cache planned for #100 but ended up with another one that was still pretty clever (and quite the stumper for awhile) so I was fine with that as my milestone. For #200, I picked a neat cache. I aim to pick something neat for every 100th cache (currently at 235). We'll see how well that works out.

Using GSAK, I put a bunch of geocaches in a GPX for a trip. I used the "usersort" column to number them in the order I expected to do them on my trip. I put the GPX on my Droid. When I synch the GPX in GeoHunter, it orders the list by distance from my location rather than the order I put them in. Is there anything I can do in GeoHunter or GSAK to make the cache list display in my user-defined order?

Armchair logging of a Virtual Cache would be to log a find without visiting the cache. I would not do that. What if I visited the cache after the cache was published, but before I started geocaching? So I've been there but at the time didn't know it was a cache. I have photographic evidence that I was there. Does the answer change if the logging requirement for the Virtual involves just posting a photo at the location vs requiring additional information be sent to the CO?

[sheepishly raises his hand] Yeah, that's me. I have a couple of bookmarks on this topic. I've tried to maintain a list of 1000-find listings, but that has been really hard lately - the number of 1000-find caches seems to have exploded lately. I last updated it at the end of 1Q 2010; seeing as the 2Q is now behind us I'll try to take another look. I thank you, sir, for all your time and effort spent doing this. Took a look at the list and indeed that is quite the case: 10 of the top 11 (one of which is now archived) are in the Czech Republic - the Original Stash Plaque being the lone exception. Anyone know why this is? Is it sort of a weird cultural fluke, like the way Starcraft is a national sport in South Korea?

If you feel a cache is inaccurately rated in terms of Difficulty and/or Terrain when you log a find on that cache you should politely point out what you think the rating should be and why. The cache owner may be inexperienced and/or unsure about their rating and welcome the feedback. At the very least it may be a good heads up for other cachers reading the logs.

There is a cache at UCF in Orlando, FL called "Just Another Ammo Can?" (ashnikes should try this one if he hasn't already). The description and logs make it clear you are in for some kind of surprise when you open it. It was amusing if a bit annoying. My biggest concern which such caches - especially those rigged to make a loud noise when opened - is that they will draw the attention of muggles.