RiverCacher

I would like to place the following area caches up for adoption. If you are an active Geocacher, have a track record of cache maintenance, and would like to adopt one or all of these caches, please contact me. Scott Smith Rivercacher Two Dogs Geocache (GC458) Triffid's Treasure # 3: Sheppe Pond (GCMPW0)

I use a Petzl TACTIKKA XP It is by far the best headlamp that I have ever owned. Most LED lights have the annoying habit of casting a pale blue wash over a broad area...the TACTIKKA XP has a special lens that focuses the light into a far-reaching beam.

Just to end the story, here is the note that I sent the guy who falsely logged my virtual. He never replied, but I know that at least one other virtual cache owner sent a similar note and deleted his log as well: You and I exchanged emails a while ago concerning your log of the D-Day Virtual Cache in Virginia on __________ 2007. You emailed me the answers to the question as requested. However, I do not think that you actually visited the site. This statement is reinforced by an examination of your cache logs...you found two additional virtuals in Virginia (_____, which is owned by a friend of mine, and ______) on the same day. The day before, you logged virtuals in South Carolina and North Carolina, and the day after, you logged virtuals in Florida. However, you logged no physical caches in any of these states on those days, and by looking at your preference for finding a large number of "real" caches in California, I would certainly think that you would have logged at least one physical cache if you were on vacation here. Perhaps you are not aware of the policy that a virtual cache must be actually visited to be logged. This policy is listed here: http://www.geocaching.com/about/cache_types.aspx As you may know, virtual caches are very fragile, and have been grandfathered. It is up to the owners of virtual caches in special locations to safeguard the trust that we have with Geocaching.com and to make sure that people log legitimate finds. For this reason, I will be deleting your __/__/2007 log. I wish you the best of success in your future geocaching activities.

Event Cache Listing: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...5d-c47807367943 Piedmont VA Geocaching Association 2008 Kick Off Saturday January 5th, 8:30am Country Cookin Restaurant 4744 South Amherst Highway (U.S. 29 Business) Madison Heights, VA We'll be meeting in the banquet room. The all you can eat breakfast buffet is less than $6.00, and drinks are about $1.50. Afterwards, we will mount a posse to hunt for the "Appalachian Cliffhanger Cache" (This cache is about 19 miles from the breakfast location. Depending on the status of the gate, there may be as much as a 1 mile (fairly easy) walk to the cache. It has been advised by many who have found this cache that it should not be done alone, so we thought this would be a great chance for folks.) NOTE: Several people have asked if they have to be a "member" of the PVGA to attend. The answer is "no" on several levels. 1st- Event caches are open to all geocachers. 2nd- The PVGA has no "membership policies" at this time...being a member of this Yahoo Group is certainly good enough for the time being. We may hold a discussion about doing something further with the organization at the breakfast. My cell phone number is 434-401-3995 if anyone has any questions. Scott Smith aka Rivercacher

As a side job, I do historical research and consulting, primarily focusing on mapping of deeds and grants and architectural history work. I use the GPSr heavily to mark houses, buildings, ruins, boundary points, etc. This helps tremendously when I am compiling maps and reports for my clients. Scott Smith aka "Rivercacher" The Antiquaries, LC

The whole thing about the Euro virtual loggers is very interesting. I have just determined that a U.S. cacher with over 2,000 finds has logged a virtual of mine, and I am positive that the cacher did not visit the site. I emailed for answers, which he provided, but now that I think about it, he could have found them online. I am planning on taking the following steps: 1) I'm going to delete the log 2)I'm going to tighten up my "find" requirements so that someone must give me some information that may be irrelevant to the theme of the cache, but would verify that they were there. Question: Do I tell the person, who appears to have a history of logging virtuals without actually visiting them, that I am deleting the log, or do I just do it in anticipation that he won't ever notice? Scott

There are mathematical ways of doing this. I chose to use Delorme Topo USA 7.0, and I plotted all four of the points. Then, I ran lines between them, and established the coordinates of the intersection. If I did not have Delorme Topo USA, and I didn't mind walking about 1500 feet (the distance between the two closest points that are opposite (ie East-West or North-South...in this case E/W), I would stand at, say, the east point, and enter the west point into my GPS. I would start walking towards the west point, knowing that the lines of the N-S points HAVE to intersect the line that I'm walking on at some point. Scott

Virginia has 248 pages of caches. The first cache in the Commonwealth was placed on 6 January 2001. The first cache that I hid is on page 244. It was placed on 31 December 2001. Scott

There is no state park in Rockbridge County. You may be speaking of a local park, and caches may be allowed there, but I cannot confirm that. That being said, the Washington-Jefferson National Forest is only 1.5 miles due south, or 5.65 miles due east of Natural Bridge...there are plenty of good cache spots there. Fox & Hound may have been thinking of that, instead of a state park. I won't be able to help maintain a cache over there...my sphere of travel generally takes me east and north of Lynchburg, not west. Scott

I'm in Lynchburg, which is about 30 miles ESE, and down the James River, from Natural Bridge. Rivercacher

Mine is www.myspace.com/wscottsmith Already have a few geocaching friends on there... Scott

I was an EMT in Virginia, and also a member of a Search & Rescue team...that was when I was age 16-20 or so, so its been ten years since I did anything. Scott

"The NPS has a lot of paved up and and slabbed over areas that are developed and suitable for a cache" I guess that's where we differ...I don't want to look for caches in paved up and slabbed over areas. Whether or not its a cop-out, it's their cop-out to make, IMHO. Scott

"The NPS has a lot of paved up and and slabbed over areas that are developed and suitable for a cache" I guess that's where we differ...

There is a cache at the Devil's Marbleyard in Virginia: The cache is: Devil's Marble Yard Cache Until recently, the clue was simply "under a rock" Scott

"Signal, on the other hand, is buck nekid." And of course, we know that the difference between "naked" and "nekkid" is that when you're nekkid, you're sans vêtements and "up to something".

I think that there is one out on I-81 at Radford. On Dot Plotter's profile, I don't see any prohibition on caches in Radford...perhaps someone just needs to take initiative to place a cache (with permission, of course).

I think that there is one out on I-81 at Radford. On Dot Plotter's profile, I don't see any prohibition on caches in Radford...perhaps someone just needs to take initiative to place a cache (with permission, of course).

Hey there, I wanted to let you know about a new online group for Geocachers in Piedmont Virginia (Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Danville, and beyond). Hopefully, this will become a forum to talk about new and existing caches, plan events, and form new geo-friendships. There are currently groups for Roanoke/Southwest Virginia, Richmond/Central Virginia, Fredericksburg, and Hampton Roads, but a number of us would like to have a stronger connection with the folks that search for boxes of stuff in the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Piedmont Virginia Geocaching Association group can be found by visiting: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PiedmontVAGeocaching To join by email, simply send a blank message to: PiedmontVAGeocaching-subscribe@yahoogroups.com I look forward to seeing you in the new group. Please let me know if you have any questions. Scott Smith Aka “Rivercacher” Lynchburg, VA Geocaching since December 2001

I've looked at everyone's myspace pages, and all I see is a blank box. Here is my page: http://www.myspace.com/wscottsmith Scott

Has anyone figured out how to get a GC.com statbar to load onto a myspace.com page? I am not a computer expert, but understand that the GC Statbar is something called a "dynamic image"...I believe that dynamic images are allowed by myspace.

I recognize what you say, and I agree with your statement 90% of the time. There are a few caches out there that see heavy traffic relatively constantly, because more than just local cachers are looking for them. This would apply in situations like Interstate rest stops (lovely cache locations, I must say ), or tourist attractions. Otherwise, I completely agree with the above quote.

I'm pretty sure there's still a virtual at Reagan National Airport in Virginia across the Potomac from DC.

My wife and I were having this same conversation yesterday. I was at a nearby state park performing maintenance on one of my caches (placed March 2001- I adopted it). The cache was not where I last found it, and after looking for an hour, I gave up. Two other cachers found the stinking thing just a few days ago. At any rate, I hid a new container in a new location, updated the coords, and posted a note asking for anyone who finds the old cache to pick it up. Our conversation had to do with various geocachers' hiding styles. Some are content with just putting a box behind a tree and covering it with leaves and sticks. I used to hate the "UPS" (usual pile of sticks), but now, I see it as a signal to a fairly trained eye that something is awry, and it keeps me from destroying the countryside looking for the cache. Note: I'm all about a challenging find, but to me, the challenge is finding what good, unique spot the cacher chose. I do not appreciate caches that are simply hidden in a pile of leaves, or up against one of any number of dead logs within 50' of the coords. When this happens, we start to see leaves get kicked, rocks get rolled, and logs lifted and moved. In the long run, this type of search will probably not have an adverse effect on the ecology of the area, but in the short term, organisms that need to be wet and dark become dry and sunburned. Land managers see a mess, albeit a mess that will settle down after awhile, but still a mess. When I hide a cache, I prefer to hide it "in" something...in a hole in a tree, inside a hollow log, inside a hole in some rocks. First, this helps prevent "cache creep" where each finder hides it in a slightly different spot from where they found it...I have seen a cache move 30' in a year and a half. Second, it helps narrow down the options of where the object is hidden...a cacher can spend their energy selectively, surgically even, searching for the object without overly disturbing the ground cover. This same idea applies to micro caches. Many micros are reported to be "cool" because they're in a really cool, unexpected container. Often, this container mimicks something in the environment (be it natural or artificial) that we might normally overlook. To me, these objects need to stand on their own two feet. Sometimes, these "cool" containers get buried in leaves, or otherwise hidden, so that all I'm doing is rooting through the groundcover like a boar looking for truffles. To get to the above point, I think that heavily visited geocaches should be treated like campsites in many boy scout camps and other such places. Rotate their location every once in awhile so that temporary impacts do not become permanent. The last thing wwe want is three months worth of compacted leaves that form a "geo-trail" to become a hardpack dirt trail in three years, thus increasing erosion, and our hobby's impact on the land. The cache may only need to be moved 50'...just enough so that cachers follow slightly different coords, and thus a slightly different path, to the cache. Scott aka Rivercacher Lynchburg, VA

I had a run-in with LE on my very first cache hunt. Triffid had just turned me on to GC, and in December of 2001, I headed out to find my first cache (Sandusky Showdown in Lynchburg, Virginia- now archived), but I hadn't yet purchased a GPS. I got a feel for the general area by looking at a topo map, and I headed out...at night....in the rain. The problem is that I've always had this cocky attitude that I am above certain rules because, well...just because. So, I headed out into this city park at night, even though it closes at dusk. Spent about an hour looking for the cache (with no luck, of course), and I started heading back out. Then, I see headlights in the parking lot, and a flashlight coming my way. I flashed my light, and a huge voice said, "GET OUT OF THE PARK!" and I said, "okay." Then, he said it again, and I said, "That's what I'm trying to do!"...as I approached him, I could see that he was a police officer, and he was about to draw down on me. Anyhow, I explained what I was doing (sort of)...I told him I was working on a compass course for my Scouts, and I was sorry for coming out at night, etc. etc. So, he let me go. So that was my first (and only) run-in with the police while geocaching. The moral of the story is: Don't go in a city park at night!