JL_HSTRE

EDIT: ARGH. Sorry mods, I meant to post this in the "GPS & Technology" forum and didn't realize I'd accidently clicked in the wrong forum until too late. Please move. Thanks & Sorry. I've heard good things about Geocaching Swiss Army Knife (GSAK). Unfortunately, I find the program a bit overwhelming. I've started using PQs and found GSAK useful to combine them and remove caches that are probably gone (i.e. all recent logs are DNFs). However, I get them impression with all the menu options that there is far more I could be doing with GSAK but I'm not really sure what. So what what's the coolest or most useful thing you use GSAK for?

I've seen the term muggler used in logs occasionally. I was never sure if it was intentional for "muggle burglar" or was a misspelling of "muggle" by the logger. FWIW, Urban Dictionary has a rather disgusting entry for "muggler". (Read at your own risk.) Muggle always seemed like a reasonable term, even if it is semi-borrowed: non-cachers don't see/understand/believe in the magic and wonder of the geocaching world, even though cachers and cache containers are all around them. CLAMS is an amusing alternative.

Technically, a micro only holds a log and maybe a pen/pencil. A small is big enough to hold some trade items. However, not all cachers closely read or follow the guidelines. I'm not sure if the Reviewers check the description vs the size to check for errors? (ex: description says "you are looking for a film canister" but the size is set to small). I think some cachers find things like bison tubes then incorrectly assume anything wider than a bison tube is small. Or they intentionally list a micro as a small because they known some people will avoid looking for micros and they want people to look for their cache anyway.

GZ = Ground Zero. Where your GPS device tells you your location matches the published location of the cache. Stealth = not being obvious that you are retrieving a hidden container, which may require retrieving the cache when nobody is looking. People who do not know what caching is may be suspicious of or malicous toward cache containers, leading to the loss of the cache. Don't recall beacon being used as a term before. I suspect it's a hint toward it being on/in a light pole. You will soon learn to be suspicious of the undersides of park benches and metal picnic tables.

Some geocachers do, some geocachers don't. The local 10th anniversay of geocaching event took place at a park that was also a battlefield during the Seminole Wars. The ranger at the park is also a geocacher and placed several caches for the event. Many talked about historic aspects of the battlefield, of the events and leaders involved. I'm a history buff so I enjoyed reading all of those cache pages for the history lesson. At the same time, many people who download information to GPS units will never see the information. Or they simply wont care even if they do see it. Personally, I hope people will continue to make caches with interesting stories and/or trivia. The example you gave seems neat but possibly a little overkill. Some might find it difficult to read with the fonts & backgrounds.

It seems to be that they publish the Virtuals simply by making a post in the forum with coordinates and description.

I received the following email today: Amusingly, they misspell it "geocashing". Here's a link to the forum in question. It's part of a larger site dedicated to camping in National Forests. http://forestcamping.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=55 Figured I'd share, especially with the perpetual desire here for the return of Virtuals.

I would think the most famous is Alamogul who has over 42,000 finds. TeamSnook is a distant second with "only" 28,000 or so. Alamogul is like the Jerry Rice of geocaching. But without Dancing With The Stars. Hmmmm...someone needs to pitch a reality TV show about geocaching.

I think most of the problem with short logs is an issue with the logger and not the method of logging. I usually write a short paragraph in my online logs and at least try to give a couple sentences - something more than just "TFTC". My friend who I often cache with has an iPhone and logs in the field and writes short logs (although usually at least a sentence.) He has commented that he is amazed at my longer logs because he usually cannot think of anything to say. I think that his experience is probably typical.

I went with a friend to place a cache on a Sunday. The next day, the FTF noted that the cache had a bunch of poison ivy right by it, which neither me nor my friend had noticed. The day after that I went to a large local park to attempt to place a cache but was thwarted in three different spots by saturation limits. The next day I noticed a rash just below my knee and soon deduced it was poison ivy. I assume it was from the unsuccessful cache placing rather than the successful cache placement several days earlier. Having not been aware I bumped into any poison ivy on that adventure combined with the missed poison ivy on the earlier trip, I apparently am not very good at spotting poison ivy. The rash started in an area the size of a quarter and ended up an area about the size of my hand. It also spread to two spots on my right, probably due to leg-to-leg contact while sleeping. It barely itched at all but was very clearly poison ivy (I had a really bad case of it 15 years ago). I tried several anti-itch anti-rash creams I had in house including Cortizone but it didn't get rid of the rash itself just prevented itching. Part of the large rash ended up developing a blister the size of a grape and started oozing orange pus for about a day. After 4 days of it not getting any better, I finally picked up some Ivarest which is a creme that's mostly calamine lotion and alcohol, with the color of Outback Steakhouse's remolaude sauce and the smell of Vick's Vaporub. I put that on every day and after about a week the rash is about 90-95% cleared up.

I got stung in the shin by a wasp while searching for a cache. For the second time that day. With 2 other people. That had been found by several other people that day. A sad DNF indeed. Last week I also got slashed in the thigh by a razor palm. Very shallow cut with barely any bleeding, but the gash was about 6".

Usually. I was shocked to find an ammo can near the beach recently of which the bottom had rusted out completely! But every other ammo can I've found has been in very good condition and I definitely love them as containers as a result. As for the subject of "trash": if you think all geocaches classify as litter then this hobby is not for you. A responsible cacher should remove (or get another user to adopt) their caches when they retire from geocaching. Many don't which is unfortunate. In some cases this is not a real issue because the cache remains in good shape on its own and/or gets maintained by the community. In other situations the cache becomes trash. There is a Needs Archived feature available to all users for a reason. If I find a cache that is in wretched condition and the owner is clearly no longer active I will dispose of the container and log a NA in addition to my Found It. Out of 199 finds I have done this twice: a rusted waterlogged magnetic key case in a lamp post skirt at a KFC and a rusted altoids tin in a park where the description no longer was accurate due to landscaping at said park. In both cases the cache owner had not logged on to the website in many months if not years, Needs Maintenance had been logged by previous cachers, and most/all of their other caches had been similiarly archived. The previously mentioned rusted ammo can remains only because I know the CO is still active (both in terms of logging onto the site and maintaining other caches). If I plan to pass by that cache in the future with spare time and it has not been taken care of by the CO I will message them for permission to send it to a trash can and log NA.

I second this suggestion.

I have 197 finds and just placed my 2nd hide yesterday. I have 10 more containers waiting to be placed. I would have placed 3-4 more caches already but saturation issues prevented me from placing them. Had several very good spots but they were about 400 feet from other caches as the crow flies, although farther if you walked it. A couple cacher friends who are not on the forums: one has about 235 finds & 18 hides, one has 99 finds & 3 hides, and the other two have around 25 finds each with 0 hides.

I have a Motorola Droid and use GeoBeagle and now GeoHunter. I often get 7 ft accuracy and VERY rarely worse than 13ft. Still weak with tree cover though, but if I get a good bearing & distance to GZ from outside the trees and can approach in a roughly straight line it'll do the job.

Make sure your Droid's GPS is turned on and receiving a signal.

I have been on Waymarking.com for about 2 months and was unaware of Best Kept Secrets. I'll have to take a look at that. My biggest turnoff to Waymarking was not the less likeable interface, McDonalds locations having a category, the lack of GPX, the lack of apps, or even the cross-listing of the same thing in multiple categories (that last one got demoted to 2nd biggest gripe). It was when I went to veterans memorial park on Memorial Day, photographed the monuments, and waymarked the ones that had not yet been waymarked. Several were rejected because my photos were not clear enough to read all the text on the monument and I had not reproduced all the text on the monument in my description. So basically the memorial category mods want to encourage virtual Waymarking (virtual visits, even if not virtual logging)? WTF??? I thought we were encouraging people to get out and see neat things in person, not from the comfort of their house. /rant

I prefer rural caching. It's like an organized nature hike! Urban caching does provide neat stuff, from creative hides to small parks that I wouldn't otherwise know they exist. Some are certainly less special than others. (If LPCs were banned I wouldn't shed a tear - though I'll grab 'em if they're there.)

SE Florida. The non-urban areas are flat and swampy. Caching during the summer is brutal due to the heat and humidity, not to mention occasional heavy rain and issues with standing water limiting access to some rural caches. Lets not forget the mosquitoes. Local state parks seem to have controlled burns every year and that of course burns up some caches every year. Dangers: gators, rattlesnakes, water moccasins, wild pigs, spiders (dadgum webs are everywhere), poison ivy, ants, heat stroke.

I am trying to design a litrerature-themed puzzle cache that has a single physical container, but to get the coordinates for that container you must visit several local public libraries and obtain information there. I became concerned when I realized one of the libraries has a micro cache on a bench outside and another has a cache across the street in a small park. Then I noticed this in the Guidelines: Am I understanding this correctly that since the library branches will not contain a physical cache container but merely are the location of information for solving the puzzle then they are exempt from the saturation rules? Thanks!

I live in SE Florida. Next month I will be traveling to Jacksonville (NE Florida) and Tallahassee (FL panhandle) and will do some geocaching during my trip. I have been caching since January but not yet moved any travel bugs. I want to grab some travel bugs that I feel I can help by moving along by moving them far across the state near other states. But at the same time I don't want to be a 'hog' by grabbing too many bugs for my journey and cutting into my area's not especially large travel bug population, especially since I have no travel bugs of my own to leave behind. Is it perfectly acceptable to grab all the bugs I feel I can help? Thanks!

There are many people who like Virtual Caches but dislike Waymarking. It would be if someone set up an alternative (virtualcaching.com?) and strikes for the inbetween: a site dedicated solely to Virtual Caches with a site design similiar to geocaching.com where you don't know exactly what you're going to see unless you go there (or cheat by looking at the photos in the logs). Categories might be good but with the extreme detail Waymarking wants. It would need to be moderated to ensure quality caches are being submitted. That would surely cause some controversy, but I think you want to cut out the junk Virtuals like shoes in woods and the underside of a random overpass. Beyond my knowhow to create, but if someone set up such a site I would join. A post to this effect needs to be stickied in this forum methinks.

Greetinngs, fellow Treasure Coast cachers! I live in Stuart. 1) Thanks For The Cache. You will also see a similiar TFTH: Thanks For The Hike. 2) I got started caching with the iPhone app that my friend has. I think it's a very good app. The limitation of the iPhone is battery life (about 4 hours of caching without recharing) and signal inaccuracy. Sometimes the iPhone will lead you to a cache as good as any GPS but other times the signal isn't so strong. Bad weather, power lines, tree cover, and distance from cell towers will hinder your accuracy far more than a good GPS would. Since you are caching as a group that makes things easier: the iPhone may not be as accurate but with several people searching the area you will still usually be able to come up with the cache reasonably quickly. If anbody has a Droid, try that. GeoHunter is probably the best free app for that. It's not as snazy as the official app on the iPhone but the Droid usually has better GPS accuracy (my Motorola Droid often has 7 foot accuracy, compared to around 15-20 for my friend's iPhone 3G). 3) There are two loops cache trail loops in the PSL area you should try: the Strange series (9 caches off Selvitz Rd north of Midway) and the Peacock series (17 caches in SW PSL near I-95), both by cacher BillyPilot. The Strange series has a nice selection of different caches and I suspect Peacock is similiar (haven't looked for them yet). Probably a good way to get a bunch of finds while seeing a variety of cache types, sizes, and hiding locations. Oak Hammock Park (home to the infamous Devil Tree) has 4 caches. There are also about 8 or so recently placed caches in Tradition, but most/all are micros so they may prove difficult for you as new cachers. 4) Have fun and be patient! You wont find every cache - especially when you first get started - but the more caches you find the easier it becomes. Don't worry if you don't find one and if you get tired of looking for a particular cache then just move on to the next one - no shame in that. I would also advise that you cache for awhile before placing any of your own. There are not rules for when you can place your first cache, but try to find a variety of cache types, see what works and what doesn't, and make sure you're going to stick with the geocaching hobby for awhile before you place one. Also, please get someone to verify the location with a more accurate GPS device. While the iPhone's limited accuracy isn't so difficult of making finds, it can be very troublesome getting an accurate location of where you've placed the cache. In fact, another PSLer has started placing caches around town and there has been difficultly with the accuracy of some of his caches' coordinates; an iPhone is strongly suspected as the culprit.

I often write a short paragraph about my find. I would rather do that in the online log. The physical log I just put date, username, and if I took/left anything.

I've been to one event: the nearest 10th anniversary celebration. I enjoyed putting names to faces and there were some fun games and giveaways for fully-stocked ammo cans (sadly I did not win any). All the people were pleasant and friendly, though I wish more were my age (I'm 28). It was a positive experience and I'll attend more in the future, including the local Cachepalooza.