Lil Elephants

How about "RichAromas"?

For us the cache is usually the objective. Geocaching is what gets us outside. We like being outside but weren't doing much hiking until we got hooked on geocaching.

If you have one to trade, do it. If you don't, don't let that keep you from taking one. Those that have been stuck for a long time need to be moved whether you have any to trade or not.

We've got 200+ with our Lil Elephants. Youngest (currently 5 months) was caching with us at 1 week. He gets carried by Momma & the 2 year old usually gets carried by Poppa. Not because he *couldn't* walk, but we usually want to walk a bit faster than he can. We do sometimes let him walk on the really short ones. It's sometimes not worth getting the backpack out and loading him into it. The 8 year old gets to walk. He usually does great.

That would be fine as long as I knew going into it that I would have to go through all of that. I'd be a little perturbed if I went out not knowing and found the cache with a lock on it with the directions.

Best practice is option #2 - DNF then log it as a found after you find it later. It might be that the cache is missing and that's how the hider will find out. Having said that, there are some caches that took us several trips before we found it and we didn't log a DNF each time becasue we knew it was there, we just weren't seeing it.

From our experience, the cell phone is definately a necessity. We've used it numerous times to phone-a-friend when we needed hints for caches. We've also had to use it to phone-a-friend to get our little car un-stuck. It's also handy for ordering pizza when you're on your way back into town after a long day of caching. That way you can pick it up on your way home. But to your questions... 1) does it work in the forest? Sometimes. We've been in several forest areas with great coverage and in urban areas with spotty coverage. Depends on how far away the tower is, if you're in a valley, etc 2) more ideal method? It depends what the rangers are using in the area. Try contacting them and ask what they recommend. Otherwise you could trade your cell phone for a satellite phone for about the same monthly cost (with a lot fewer minutes). Or you could find a rental for just the times you are in remote areas.

Log visits to your own and repeat visits to other caches as notes, not finds.

I found one once that had a snake guarding it. I'm not afraid of snakes, but it startled me because I wasn't expecting to see it. I have also thought about doing something with an ammo can to scare the finders, but Mrs. Elephant doesn't find it nearly as funny as I do.

The phrase "AS A RESULT OF USE" does not indicate that.

I don't believe paved areas fall under 3.13C "GEOCACHERS ARE NOT AUTHERIZED TO ACCESS TURF,PATHWAYS,OR SENSITIVE AREA'S WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION" In fact 3.13D specifically says "GEOCACHERS ARE DIRECTED TO STAY ON PARK SYSTEM TRAILS,ROADS AND /OR PATHWAYS WHENEVER POSSIBLE.FOR CACHES LOCATED IN REMOTE AREAS,GEOCACHERS SHALL TRAVEL ON DURABLE SURFACES,I.E,ROCK NON-VEGATIVE." That sounds more like paved areas to me. Basically they're saying don't trample the vegetation. Stay on groomed trails. I believe you're referring again to 3.13C "GEOCACHERS SHALL BE HELD RESPONSABLE FOR ANY AND ALL DAMAGE TO CITY OF SALEM PARK PROPERTY AND FACILITIES AS A RESULT OF USE " If a visitor causes damage to the park property or facilities, they should be charged whether they are a geocacher or not. This sounds reasonable to me.

I don't see the problem... we have some areas here in Michigan that have very similar policies and caches continue to be hidden and found with no problems. Even if it is interpretted in such a way to be too restrictive, it's not that far to get outside the city limits and therefore away from the city's policy.

I think the best way to find out is to go to a couple. That way you can see what it's all about and talk to the organizers. Some may even be willing to help you with your event.

Hmm... I thought Midland was closer to the knuckle for the index finger.

Nope... not appropriate. http://www.geocaching.com/faq/

Does it really matter if it's a hoax or if it's real? One way it's fun, the other it's... fun.

On the "Export CacheMate PDB File..." dialog, the second column, top item is "Decode hints by default". If you uncheck that checkbox the hints will be Rot13 on your PDA. heh... I figured I was just overlooking it. I didn't realize it was that obvious. Thanks!

I'm exporting cache info to a cachemate PDB file. When I view the record in cachemate, the hints are not rot13 encoded. Looking at the raw data (PDB file) I see the hints are also not rot13 encoded there. Apparently I have a problem with my config somewhere, but I'm not sure if it's in GSAK or cachemate. Please advise.

So how is a newbie to ever get to take a TB then? Must they first buy a tag to release their own?

Welch - 01101010011101010110110000100000011010100110001001101000011110010111000100100000011101100110011100111111

You mean Nebraska has a beautiful part?!? I've only seen the I-80 corridor. What a flat, boring drive!

PM Sent

What's wrong with parks? Certainly every park is not saturated?? There are probably many more parks around you than you realize. One thing that has amazed me in my short time geocaching is the number of parks that I never knew existed even though I've lived in the same area for 30 years. Keep looking you'll find a place. You can find them by looking at Local/County gov't websites (Parks dept) or by using google (search for hiking/bicycle/mountain bike trails, open space land, etc). You could also look at the parks where you know there are caches and see if there is a place you could put one there even though there are already others.

We took a little different approach with our 7 yr old. We started by teaching him about maps and compasses. We also gave him a compass when we were out caching in some area parks and told him the distance and bearing to the cache and let him guide us. Then we introduced the GPSr.

Have you tried going to the store and using one of the scanners for checking prices? Otherwise you can manually decode it. It all boils down to lines and spaces. The thick lines/spaces are really 2 of them next to each other because all lines/spaces are the same width.