ipodguy

I've upgraded to Ziplock freezer bags recently because I'm scared to cut myself when opening the lid. Yeah, they only last a couple of weeks, but then I archive the cache and hide a new one. Easy smilies for everybody!!!!

Sorry you got burned by a lousy vendor. I've had lots of luck with the Groundspeak store.

There is a "Park and Grab" attribute and you can generate a Pocket Query to pick up only caches with the P&G attribute. The problem with that is hiders may not assign that particular attribute to their caches, even if they are easy P&G's. If you generate a query that way, it will overlook many P&G opportuinties. I once drove from New Jersey to Vermont and got 6 states in a day to complete a challenge. A few days before I left, I used the Caches Along a Route feature to create a Pocket Query of easy traditional caches. I opened the PQ with Google Earth and viewed the results of the PQ. I looked at the map to see which caches looked easiest (close to the interstate, a nearby exit/on ramp, etc). I picked around three that best suited me for each state. Those caches I saved to a Bookmark List and generated a second PQ from it. That's the PQ I loaded up to my GPS. Yeah, it took 45 minutes or so but the result was an incredibly successful trip. I did that one other time for a trip from NJ to Virginia intending to hit 4 states in a day, but I got too buzzed at the Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware and had to take a nap until we were well into Virginia. Oops! Edit: You can actually do that now without needing Google Earth or any other software. View your Caches Along a Route Query on the geocaching map and bookmark the caches you think you can hit easily. Put the bookmarked list on your 650 and you have a list of all the easy caches you think you can hit.

I'm pretty happy with my Garmin Oregon 450

Looks like your questions might have been answered, but I've got the 450 so our devices are somewhat similar. Here's a tip that you may not know yet, but it really helps me alot when navigating through trails. Before I leave, I use Google Earth to draw a path from where I intend to park to the cache. I can find the best route to ground zero and I draw the path. Then I save the path as a .kmz file to my computer and I use gpsvisualizer.com to convert the .kmz file to a .gpx file. I throw the .gpx file into the GPX folder and disconnect the Garmin. On the device, I can enable the path and view it on my map. Then I follow the line on my map until I get close and switch over to the compass. It takes a lot of guesswork out of navigating through unfamiliar trails. Hope that little tip helps. You and I are alike - when I like what I'm doing I jump right in...

The question has been answered already, but if you need any html help for a cache description, you can contact me and I will help you if you run into problems.

If you're the creative type, you can go pretty far. Some of the hardest geocaches are nearly identical and indistinguishable from their surroundings. A few bad ideas would be anything that looks like a bomb (like a pipe), anything that resembles drugs or anything that little kids probably shouldn't see. Anything edible is a bad idea too, like a gingerbread house cache or something.

Awesome. I'm interested to see how other CO's wrote up their pages. Thanks! If you're ever up for it, I'd love to team up with you sometime 4WF. I bet we could think up some really weird caches. That would be great! But it might not necessarily a good thing, as you know I released a slightly radioactive coin which disappeared in Minnesota. I fear that whoever is hoarding it may just be in danger.. That's one way to keep your trackables moving. "This is literally a hot potato, you may want to pass it on." Hahaha, not a bad idea. I have a Travel Bug (a tick hot glued into a bottle cap) that wants to visit radioactive stuff, but I haven't released anything radioactive. How about a puzzle cache based on the true story about the Radioactive Boy Scout? This kid nearly created a breeder reactor in his shed by collecting americium from smoke detectors, thorium from camping lantern mantles, radium from clocks and tritium (as neutron moderator) from gunsights. His "reactor" was a bored-out block of lead, and he used lithium from batteries to purify the thorium ash using a Bunsen burner. You could create a radioactive ammo can with a mini breeder reactor inside of it, that you would have to use a Geiger counter to find. Set it up so that if a muggle finds it and opens it the wrong way, it would cause a meltdown. You know, he got picked up a while back for stealing smoke detectors in the apartment complex he lived in. Find the mugshot. Dude looks baaaaad.

Awesome. I'm interested to see how other CO's wrote up their pages. Thanks! If you're ever up for it, I'd love to team up with you sometime 4WF. I bet we could think up some really weird caches. That would be great! But it might not necessarily a good thing, as you know I released a slightly radioactive coin which disappeared in Minnesota. I fear that whoever is hoarding it may just be in danger.. That's one way to keep your trackables moving. "This is literally a hot potato, you may want to pass it on." Hahaha, not a bad idea. I have a Travel Bug (a tick hot glued into a bottle cap) that wants to visit radioactive stuff, but I haven't released anything radioactive.

Awesome. I'm interested to see how other CO's wrote up their pages. Thanks! If you're ever up for it, I'd love to team up with you sometime 4WF. I bet we could think up some really weird caches.

To answer Clan Riffster's question - Yes, everything would absorb some radiation. However, you'd be able to tell which popsicle stick has the fleck of uranium - for at least the next 4.8 billion years. I understand that many people won't be able to find my cache or will not want to go out and buy a Geiger counter. I'm OK with it not being found often. None of my weird caches really are, but the people who do like them. We have plenty of normal caches around the area also, so it's not like local cachers will be missing out on finding caches. I just like it when my weird hobbies overlap. Maybe I'll skip the geocaching and just brew some radioactive beer! Just kidding, but it would be neat to see if radiation has any effect on brewer's yeast. That could be a side project... Thanks for the ideas and the responses. I have a chunk of uranium ore on the way, so I can definitely chip off a little fleck and make this cache. It might not exactly be the popsicle stick idea, but something along those lines.

Maybe you can find a common material that's slightly radioactive. Pottery, metal, glass, rocks, something like that. You may even be able to seal it up in a small container (Maybe you'd need to, so you could attach it so people don't trade for it). Unless you have a lot of objects you could use, bring the Geiger counter to a thrift store and see what shows up on it. Here's a site that mentions radiation levels considered safe: http://www.imagesco.com/geiger/radiation-safety.html Be sure whatever you use is far below the limits. The person likely to have the most exposure to radioactive ions at that cache is you. Most definitely. I won't be using any plutonium in my cache, haha. I think uranium ore is the best bet. It's easily and legally available and the dose/exposure time wouldn't be a real health hazard.

Thanks for the responses so far! That PUC cache sounds like a blast! Thank you kunarion - I plan to do just that for old fiestaware, uranium glass and radium paint. Don't know if they will show up in a cache or not. I'm just weird. 4wheelin fool wins the prize. I was thinking too hard. I didn't consider measuring items just to see if they were radioactive or not. Way easier than doing lots of math. I am so doing this. Thanks!!!!!

I ordered a Geiger Counter recently for an upcoming trip to Chernobyl, but since I now own it forever I thought it would be fun and weird to make some kind of radiation-based geocache. My first idea was to develop an earthcache because the groundwater here is contaminated with tritium, but that's mostly beta radiation and I can't think of a way for geocachers to test anything. Then I thought about hiding a puzzle cache with a piece of radioactive material like uranium ore because it releases gamma radiation and is easier to measure. But if I based it on something like what the dose of radiation is nobody's readings would be exactly the same. My 2.1 might be your 1.9. On top of that, different sides of the chunk of uranium would give off different readings also. Obviously, if I did create a radiation based cache I would be certain to warn geocachers of the dangers and encourage them to decide for themselves what they are comfortable with doing. It definitely wouldn't be a cache for everybody. So, I'm hoping you forum folks might offer some ideas. How can I incorporate the use of a geiger counter into a geocache?

I try to do door prizes at my events. Sometimes unactivated trackables (if I have any), a bag o' swag or caches ready to hide. Bug spray, AA batteries and Poison Ivy spray are good prizes, too. I participated in a really cool event game once where a cacher made trivia questions about other local cachers. The sheets sat next to the log book, you took one and completed it. First one to hand back the sheet and it was correct got a Travel Bug or something. That was my favorite game at an event. Another thing I've seen is prizes hidden at the published coordinates of an event. Seriously, how many people actually go to the coords? The folks who actually took the time to visit the published coords (which was a tree) found a small container with geocaching pins as prizes. I really like the Bingo game suggested above. You could set it up with pictures like G - ammo can and B - poison ivy. If you really want to make it an ice breaker and try to get people to know one another, use pictures taken from the profiles of people who posted Will Attend logs. N - pinkfloyd74, O - ShooFly19, I - cacheraider1984, etc.... I might actually use that one.

Archive

My first hide was a backwards three part multi. You began at a locked ammo can (which had coords on the bottom) and had to find the three micro containers that had the combination to the lock. It had a good run and people really liked it. It's archived now because the ammo can disappeared.

Heh... I'm ipodguy over there, too. Great website and I actually had the chance to find a PVC Cryptex before. They are definitely cool!

If I found it, I'd move it.

They wanna see how awesome I am? Go for it! Hope they check out my pictures too!

Write a whole book if you want to. That's your box. The other guy can write TFTC in his box. I love long logs and I try my best to write something worth reading. Even a couple of sentences if the cache wasn't all that impressive. There's a cacher in my state that writes paragraph long logs and I love it when she finds my caches! So go ahead - write until your heart's content!

I got chiggers, then sunburn, then poison ivy on my right leg within three days. The skin turned black.

Oh, I'd love to do PUC #13! One of these days...

I like to use Google Earth to draw a path of the route I want to take to a cache. Then I save the file, convert it to gpx and save it on my GPS. Then I just follow the line. Cuts down on a lot of bushwhacking.

Next summer, I'm going to Kiev, Ukraine so I can visit Chernobyl and Pripyat and do the "Bennies Blowout Battle" earthcache where I have to measure radiation leftover from the nuclear meltdown.