TheLoneWanderer

I went hiking around a nice lake trail with a bunch of caches along the way, and came across what I believed to be my very first nano! Or was it a micro? The cache container said micro, though a nano category hasn't been put in the database, though I've seen some nanos listed as "Other". The pen in the size comparison picture is pretty much standard pen size

The hotels link is a bit hard to find, though so are geocaches! Maybe GC.com made it that way for another thrill of the hunt! Guess I'll give a few spoilers! The GC.com hotels is at http://www.geocaching.com/reviews/hotels, or

I found some of these along my way to a geocache (And some guys with some equipment (probably survey equipment, the yellow thing with the tripod) using them while I was hunting for caches). I photographed them, but then when I went to search for them (Using "nearest benchmarks" from a geocache I found them a couple feet away from), the nearest benchmarks listed were over a mile away! From what I can read, it says "St Lucie County Survey", "Vertical Control", "2004" and a couple others too dirty to make out. (Sounds like a vertical control disk benchmark!) I also noticed the benchmarks nearby were all placed from the 90s and earlier... Could this benchmark be too new for the GC.com database? Maybe I should revisit with a bottle of water to wash it off to read better

While browsing randomly through GC.com, I noticed "Hotels" at the bottom of the page, and was quite surprised to find a page for hotels, along with a star rating, a room-rental pricing range, points of interest near the location, and waymarks and geocaches nearby! Very nice feature for those traveling cachers!

So edit that image and show your avatar sticking out his left thumb already! Edit : Here, don't say I never do anything for you After all my photoshopping on that pic, how did I let that] slip by me???

Just found three caches in my area that were published yesterday night, so in the morning I was off! Drove 18 miles north to one of my favorite parks, found the geocache by the parking lot, excitedly carried it back to my car to grab my pen and sign the log, only to find there were 5 other geocachers that had signed the log before me, 2 days before the cache was published... Undeterred, I knew there were two more geocaches out west that were waiting for their first log. About 25 miles of driving later, I came across a park, and was happy to find an empty log! After logging my first FTF, the next cache was only 5 miles away, with another empty log at the end of a dead-end road!! Two FTFs in one day!! Also as a bonus, I found some caches along the road to the dead-end road, and behind three of the caches, were my first three benchmark finds!

I've marked off 1, 2 (And one actually was a cache!), 3 (Lots of thorns in FL!), 4, 5, 9, and 10 Don't have a premium membership to get 6, my Streetpilot seems to hold quite a lot of geocaches for 7, and my Streetpilot recharges through the cigarette lighter while I'm driving for 8, so no AAs

I could've had something like this happen to me a while back. My Streetpilot was sending me the wrong way to a cache, and the path I was taking was going across a 45 to 60 degree slope. Fortunately, I had a good, sturdy hiking stick to jam down into the roots of the trees along the hill to keep myself from sliding down. If I did, myself and my non-waterproof GPS, as well as my non-waterproof cellphone in my pocket would've tumbled down into a creek at the bottom, hopefully without alligators or snakes! When my Streetpilot finally acted right, it jumped me about 100ft to my correct position, and the geocache was on the other, non-treacherous side of the hill. Also I'm left handed as well, maybe that's why I had the intelligence to use my hiking stick on the roots of the trees growing out the side of the hill

Don't think that'd go over well in too many places here in Florida. A lot of the parks I've been to, I think only bicycles are allowed.

While hiking around other caches, I've come across some items that I've found could also be used as swag. I picked up a few golf balls near a lake, which would be fun if the cacher plays golf, a reflector that clips onto bicycle spokes, and a floater for a fishing line. Instead of tossing the useful items, I've currently added them along to the toys in my swag collection

If it's a park and grab, or a very short walk to the cache, all I take with me is a notepad (To write which geocache I've found) and pen, but in my geocaching bag, I have a first-aid kit (From Dollar Tree), neosporin, anti-itch cream, After-Bite, extra logbooks, pens, pencils, geocaching pamphlets (For those interested), my swag, a Gopher Grabber tool, rope, a Leatherman multi-tool, a knife, compass, fold-up shovel, and hat

After a bit of geocaching, I started picking up random geocaching programs to help me along. I found one that has macros, along with a "BadgeGen" macro, giving you geocaching badges for things like attending events, how many micros you found, CITO events you've attended... And thought it brought a fun addition to geocaching, and another challenge! At the moment I've only gained a bronze "The Busy Cacher" badge, after finding 14 caches in one day (Was one find off from gaining a diamond! Bronze is 10 finds in a day, diamond 15, then emerald, gold, platinum, ruby, silver, and sapphire...), but trying for a "Daily Cacher" badge, which is 5 or more days in a row caching.

Actually, Woodbine is a different species. Sometimes called "False Virginia Creeper". So there's Virginia Creeper, which is mistaken for Poison Ivy, and Woodbine, which is mistaken for Virginia Creeper... Is there any plant that's mistaken for Woodbine?

A parrothead geocacher who's a fan of Princess Bride! Looks like I've found myself on the forums! My name is Inigo Montoya, you muggled my caches, prepare to die.

Now that's very interesting - same here with the mosquitoes. And I've never had poison ivy and know I've had contact with urushiol. There might be something to this, as, since I moved down to Florida, I would get eaten up by mosquitoes, but now they seem to mostly leave me alone, giving me about 2 or 3 bites also. Also, after I'm bitten, if I don't scratch it, it stops itching completely after an hour or two. Same thing with fire ants: after many previous several-week-long-stinging bites, nowadays when they bite me, the pain/itching only lasts about 2-3 hours. Maybe the body builds up an immunity to mosquitoes/fire ants/bees/PI/etc after previous encounters, or maybe there's a direct correlation between immunity to PI to immunity to insect attacks... I'm still staying away from bees, I'm not testing my theory!

Is there a current count of the number of geocaches there are and were? I decided to calculate based on the most recent GC code in my area (Being that 0-9, A-Z is 36, GC10 is up to the 36th cache, which means GC100 the 1296th (36 * 36), GC1000 is the 46,656th (36^3 or 36 * 36 * 36), and GC10000 is the 1,679,616th (36^4). The most recently placed cache in my area (March 3) was GC275JK, so that would be GC20000 (1,679,616 * 2) + GC7000 (326,592 * 7)... Let's just shorten it down to 3,359,232 + 326,592 + 6,480 + 720 + 21, making GC275JK the 3,693,045th cache placed on GC.com. This also brought up another interesting, yet saddening fact, as seeing that with 3,693,045 caches having been placed, only 1,065,520 are active, according to the front page's count (I'm not sure the number includes temporarily unavailable caches). This means that 28.85% (1,065,520 / 3,693,045) of the previously placed caches are still active, while 71.15% have been archived. Though on another note, this number is surely off, seeing as CITO events, mega events, and regular events are also counted in the GC code. Though back to the main question, is there an easier way to find what the number is of the most recent cache, and how many there are currently?

I was watching a Mythbusters episode, where the Kari, Tory, and Grant were trying to test poison ivy treatment myths, comparing things like vodka and other from-the-house methods, to commercial poison ivy solutions. They had to get the cameraman in on the myth, as the three were immune to the leaf! I've run into what I think is poison ivy several times, and have never had any ill effects from brushing against the plant. I've also learned that the Brazilian peppercorn plant(Those pink/red peppercorns in the fancy peppercorns) has the same qualities as poison ivy/oak/sumac, as it's in the same family, but I've handled Brazilian peppercorn several times, and seem to be immune to that as well.

To keep myself updated on which geocaches are in my area (as a basic member), I go through the list of geocaches on the Hide and Seek a Cache, check all the waypoints, and download the checked LOC files, to update my geocaching software accordingly. Recently, while going through the pages I've gone over before, I noticed some unfamiliar names on the list of caches in my area. When adding them to my geocaching software, I found over 200 geocaches that had mysteriously appeared on the list. None of the geocaches were new, most of them a year old at the youngest, one nearby was even 3 years old that I had not seen before... What could cause this disappearance of these caches on my previous LOC download? (I went through each page, clicked "Check all", then "Download Waypoints", so I made sure to get all in the list, then did the same a few moments ago) <Sorry, I just found out my mistake was due to a small typo in the coordinates. Please delete this message >

Yeah, I've been a huge fan of Fallout since playing as the Vault Dweller in the first game. When I got into geocaching, everyone who I offered to cache with me were either too afraid of getting attacked by random people, wildlife, snakes, spiders, or mosquitoes, or couldn't walk long distances. Since I can't find anyone to cache with me, I decided the name of the main Fallout 3 character was perfect. After that, I decided to take the old Vault Boy, and do a little bit of photoshopping, and the Geocaching symbol added a nice touch. Also took the same for the Waymarking site, though I think it looks a bit too much like Santa Clause.

For some reason reminds me of testing the stall warning horn on a Cessna. Uses a vacuum system, so you have to put your lips on the wing (Where all the bugs hit) and suck on it to have the horn go off, so most people put a washcloth or hand towel over the wing first.

I can't think of too many MacGyver moments myself, but there was this one time where I had gone on a hike around a lake to find some caches in the area. I usually take a notepad along to write down which geocaches I've found that day, and any notes pertaining to those caches, but I realized I'd left the notepad in the car... Not wanting to walk back to the car to grab a notepad, and walk all the way back to my current position, I took a look around, and found a perfect subsitute: A palm frond 'stick'! Fortunately, I at least brought my pen along with me. I guess if I keep this up, I'll truly be doing 'paperless' caching!

While in a geocache, I found a geocoin, so I decided to trade it for another geocoin I had. But when I went to the geocache's log, I found the previous cacher hadn't logged that they grabbed the coin from the previous cache, and of course hadn't logged that they placed it in the cache I found it in (They logged that they discovered it though, while taking it). Upon logging that I grabbed the coin on the "Trackable Items" page (Saying that I grabbed it from somewhere else), it says that I grabbed the coin from the cache the previous cacher found it. 1) Should I dip the coin to log it in the cache I took it from? 2) To dip a coin, do I just place it from my inventory in the cache I found it in, and then take it from the same cache?

Also, anyone think the other cacher was a muggle, and/or vice versa?

What do you usually do if a muggle asks you what you're doing while caching? I know stealth is the key to geocaching, but I know non-cachers might be wondering what some guy is doing skulking around in the bushes, or looking inside electrical boxes and other places.

Testing avatar and sig