Salvelinus

This one has been my favorite lamest of the lame so far. I'm told it was hidden on a gas pump. The logs tell all. It amazes me that in the pursuit to be "cleaver"...people forget to use common sense. Salvelinus

Bob" Army/Navy in Clearfield, PA. $2.95 a piece. However, they are used and do need painted. Salvelinus

I have used both of the containers you mention to store gear for my job. Since I work around water all the time, we need storage that is very water resistant. Both of these work well...as do Pelican Cases. The problem for the cacher using these would be price and the attractiveness for a non-cacher to steal the boxes! I have had some trouble with some of my ammo-cans being ripped off. The price for the first container is dirt cheap for that type of box, but I can still buy three 30 cal ammo cans at any Army-Navy for that price. Definatly good boxes, but I would be careful of where to use them. Salvelinus

I've been very humbled by every "found it" log for this cache. Salvelinus

It may help to post the cache page here. Someone may decide to go fix it up or go through the adoption process and make it their own. I feel your pain as this is a common problem, but keep harping on it and the problem usually gets resolved one way or another. Salvelinus

Just to clarify: It was the presence of an ammo can, not human activity around the bridge that prompted the call to the police. The cache location is not within site of any homes, farms or businesses. The person who called it in was a non-geocaching explorer, and is a resident of Lancaster county, not Perry county. Ahhhhhh that makes me scratch my head a bit less. "Them thar city folk do seem to be a bit more skiidish about such thangs! " I always thought that the best way to keep your cache from being seized or blown up was to keep in away from residential/Urban areas...just like you did! I guess in this day and age, "stuff" will still happen. Glad it all worked out in the end! Salvelinus

Wow, that would be nice. Some of the big number hiders around here keep racking up finds while they have logs on caches stating over and over that the log is wet or full or DNFs in a row. It does depend on the person and if they are willing to put time into keeping their caches in good shape or not. I agree if people have disabled caches they shouldn't be able to hide any more, but maybe there needs to be a "seasonal disabled" button for people with fire season, snow issues and such. I feel it's pretty selfish to leave caches unmainted while spending time hinding or finding others. Exactly my point! I have temp archived caches for non-maintence reasons and a note on the cache page or a quick e-mail to my Approver usually takes care of it. Salvelinus

This is what should happen. But around here they tend to stay active and become soggy junk. Salvelinus

Actually, I personally checked all of my active caches except 1 following the floods. One of my caches is a Multi covering 70 miles with nine stages. Four needed replaced and 2 needed simple maintence. Frankly, I don't care whether someone has 2 or 2000 hides. My idea was that If a cacher has caches that need maintence and they are still actively caching, they should not get any new ones approved until they properly maintain the ones they have. Yeah, we help each other out around here too.. But a leaky cache will still leak if not replaced with a better container. Additionally, its been my experience, with some exceptions, that low hide count cachers that have maintenance issues, are usually cachers that have fallen out of the game...but thats a seperate issue. Salvelinus

I too shake my head at some cachers with 200, 300 and 400 hides. Personally, I could probably handle about 15 caches as long as they were relatively nearby, placed as not to require maintence checking up on every two weeks or so, and not a mini M&M (or similar) container. Currently I have 9, and when 4 went down because of the recent flooding, it was a real scramble to get them up and running again. I notice that many of the caches whos owners have hundreds of hides usually stay active even after numerous logs are posted saying things are going bad. This is my biggest pet peeve. Knowing your cache is having problems and doing nothing about it. At least temporarily archive it until you can fix it up!!! I personally think there should be a rule/guideline that no new caches will be approved when that person has caches that are temporarily archived becuase of maintence issues. I actually feel guitly about going out and finding any caches when I know I have caches that are archived because of maintence issues. Maybe this idea would bog down the approvers too much, but, when I was growing up, I was never allowed to go play until my chores were done. Salvelinus edit: Semantics

Nicely done GNBROTZ and I am glad you kept this great cache going! But you have to wonder...Perry county is one of the most rural counties in Pennsylvania. It is so rural that it is the only county in PA where there are no traffic lights! A terroist attack here? I found this cache awhile ago. It was/is totally non-threatning. Fisherman park here and leave junk around all the time. It is under an old historical covered bridge, in the middle of nowhere that probably has less than 25 cars (and Amish Buggys) crossing it daily! I'm saddened to see that with some people the Terroist have already won. They have created so much fear and paranoia that common sense is now out the window. Frankly, the cops should of left the cache alone and told the caller to stop watching so much TV and go find a hobby. Salvelinus

Ha, Ha...I was one of those four and I again thank you! However, Spawner was lost during Flooding from Ivan and had to be archived. Interestingly, a few other local caches have used the concept as well. See This Cache and This Cache. Spawner is pretty much done doing its thing and has now been put into Retirement but it still may produce a cache if I find good reason to do so. So your original idea has actually snowballed more than you may know! Regards, Salvelinus

I agree with Briansnat on this. Its not real tough to figure out basically what you are up against by just reading the cache page and looking at the map provided on the page. Besides, some of the attraction in geocaching is to explore and experience areas on your own. I like to figure out where to park, what the best route is to get there and I really enjoy the experience of visiting areas I know nothing about. If I'm told too much of this in advance, half the fun is gone. If you want to add the types of information you mention. Just write it in your cache description. Sometimes I provide very little information about my cache on purpose just to attract the more adventurous cachers to my caches. I can usually count of them to spend spend time logging their story rather than the typical "Thanks for the cache, TNLN" Salvelinus

Oh come now Polgara. Its not about the adventure...its about the Salvelinus

If the guy has other interests, is not actively involved and not maintaining his caches, then why not just contact your approver and adopt them as your own? Salvelinus

Just wanted to make mention of a recent CITO Event that was successfully held in Central PA. There was a local cache placed recently along a mountaintop path which had been absolutly trashed with assorted junk for years and years. Every finder of the cache noted that the area really needed a CITO. One of our local cachers, Deetylong, took it upon himself to put the CITO event together. I'm told all he basically did was set up the event page and provide some bags, gloves and some inspiration. A few cachers showed up with pick-up trucks, another cacher who couldn't show up for the CITO dropped off sandwiches for every one, several others provided snacks and beverages and all of us pretty much brought our own tools and gloves. Nothing was really planned in advance other than to just show up and get this area cleaned up! We accomplished quite a bit in just 4 hours time. The before and after pictures show a remarkable difference in the whole area. The original thought was to haul everything to the transfer station ourselves, but we were soon overcome by the volume of trash we piled up. Our solution was to just pile it up and call the local township to come pick it up. They were pleased that a group got together and cleaned up this problem area...and they were happy to use two of their biggest dump trucks to haul it all away a few days later. Even a few of the local residents stopped by and thanked us when they realized what we were doing! So, never hesitate to organize a group CITO event if one is needed in your area. I was impressed at how little planning is involved in these things. Just make up a CITO event page, have some idea of trash disposal, and tell everyone what they may need to bring. If you have dedicated cachers, they will come through for you and make your event successful. This is the second CITO around here where a local cache has exposed a trash problem to the local geocaching community. In both cases, the local geocachers got together and these areas are now significantly cleaner for everyone to use. Keep up the good work! Salvelinus

Central PA had alot of high water. Many folks are comparing this to Agnus...they always do. I had to temp archive 5 of my caches that were located near streams. I can't possibly think they are still there. I took care to put them above normal high water marks...but the rains of the last two storms were just ridiculus! Out of 9 active caches I own...only four are currently available. I will check them and replace them as soon as I get the water out of my living room (thats not a joke either). Boy am I glad I dont own 200 caches! But I guess alot of them would be expendable if I did! Salvelinus

State College, PA. One of the old timers...even though I still am young! Salvelinus

Ok, I'll bite I will probably only ever do 7 of my nearest unfound 20 caches for a variety of reasons. Those 7 have not yet been found because I just haven't had the opportunitity to do so yet. Of the 13 I probably will never attempt: 7 are either virtuals or micros 3 are in areas I don't like to visit...let alone geocache there. 2 are just totally uninteresting to me 1 I helped place, so I can't really claim a find. Most of my caching these days centers around weekend outings with other cachers. I don't cache locally much anymore since time at home is spread around many other interests and activities.

Oh My! Those eyes have melted my heart already! Can't wait to meet her! Salvelinus

I find this paragraph interesting. In case you never heard or have forgotten, geocaching was first conceived because a gentlemen named Dave Ulmer was curious to see if someone could use a commercial GPS unit to navigate to, and find a tupperware size container, using just coordinates...after the US government unscrambled Satellite signals (Selective Availability). So, geocaching was based and founded with the concept of GPS navigation in mind. The latest rage of "finding a needle in a haystack" is a direction some geocachers have taken this sport within the last year or two. This, to me, does not seem to be anything like the original concept of geocaching. In the early days, the forums were full of threads talking about location, location, location and a strong emphasis on cache maintenance and CITO. Then one day a thread showed up giving a cacher accolades about how many caches they had found...and the numbers rage began. This past Sunday a group of us walked 0.3 mile along a really cool trail to find a relatively large and easy cache. On our way there we admired and photographed a beaver swamp and bear prints, were facinated at seeing a natural gas seep bubbling up through a spring, and laughed and cursed at having to negotiate a VERY muddy trail. The next cache we sought allowed us to drive within 20 feet of the container, which was an advil bottle tied in the lower limbs of a tree and nothing but a rolled up scrap of paper to sign on. Guess which one we'll remember? Micros do have their place. But when your micro takes me to a gravel parking lot next to the road in a geocaching friendly National Forest. Or, to a sewage pump station, and I have to spend an hour unraveling your "cleaver hide"...I think the "point" has been totally missed. Salvelinus edit: Semantics

This is actually interesting and useful information. For those who may not know...Perry County is the only county in PA without a red light. That makes a good PA trivia question...and it also speaks to the odd remoteness of the area...being that Perry (prounced "purry" by the locals) County is just north of Harrisburg. There are many caches within the county and nearby as well. Its one of my favorite areas to cache when I'm looking for someplace different. The guy could easily have slipped out of the area, however, he could also hole up in those ridges for a very long time. Keep your eyes peeled. Salvelinus

ugh

Having found a cache or two with that wonderful Keetah Dog, I surly will miss her. I will always remember her warm eyes, gentle personality and her funny little antics. Although she has left us physically, I already see her spirit living on with you...and the rest of us. Huggs, Salvelinus

I don't get it? Why would you want this? So now instead of doing regular maintenance you want your micro and scrap of paper to eventually disappear into nothing? A new type of temporary cache? Salvelinus