Shoebox

And I've seen other nearby features not far from the featured cache like water falls and beaver damns. I don't know how you cover that but they are a nice bonus after you find the cache.

As 2Dolphins mentioned earlier, Moun10Bike used to place his coins as signature items and in fact used to note that you could keep them or send them along. He came through Pittsburgh years ago and left a signature coin and my daughter and I got very excited about it. We managed to get to it first and it’s been her most treasured find. Since then, my daughter won't let me send it along (yet) so I still have it (the only one, I'm not a collector). But what I find amazing is that just lately (last 4-5 months) a dozen and a half scavenger collectors have contacted me and offered to trade any coins in their collection for it and the last one offered as much as $100! With this attitude about collection GeoCoins, I think the idea of using them as travel bugs might be a loosing battle. The collectors seem to have gotten out of control and your coin will eventually end up in their hands. It's a real shame.

What I found humorous was the number of cops it took to find a Tupperware container hidden under a pile of leaves. On slow motion I counted at least 12 different people there (including the ranger). You'd think it was a difficulty 5 Leprechaun cache or something.

Had you considered putting up a "lost gps" sign in the area and post a reward? Maybe the kid that took it would rather have the cache or feels guilty about it now. Not likely but it only costs you the price of a homemade sign. Bill (shoebox)

Here's a free , downloadable program to put on your desktop that converts the formats: http://www.mentorsoftwareinc.com/freebie/FREE1198.HTM

I have a pair of those boxes in the field for a year or more and I get regular reports of them being damp all the time. I figure to replace them with ammo cans this spring. One thing you might consider is putting your boxes in more protected areas like in the hollow of a tree. That way they won't get directly rained on or covered in snow (depending on where you live).

This also will take an address and will print a map and the long/lat. http://www.maporama.com/share/

If the approver doesn't have a job, a family, other outside interests, goes shopping, cooks, eats, sleeps, doesn't ever get sick or go on vacations and has given up geocaching themselves, it could be pretty quick. But, on the other hand...................

This one will go from address to long/lat as well. http://www.maporama.com/share/

I thought a simple model would do when I started but went for a mapping version instead which turned out to be much better for me. I have it mounted on the dash and use the GPS for much more than Geocaching. The mapping has been extremely handy, so before you buy think beyond Geocaching. Are you likely to use it for anything else? If not, a basic model will be just fine. But you will have to decide between that Coke/Pepsi thing, or in this case, Magellan/Garmin.

So, was the earlier question about "Limit 1 entry............... per day" question every resolved or do people simply enter every day in hopes of improving their odds? I'm tempted to do that but it seems odd.

All I can say is "YIKES"!!!!!!! . It makes me tired just to think about it. Congratulations. Shoebox.

When I ran into Leprechauns 10 days ago, he said he was getting close to 500 and planned to make the last push to 500 at Puppymans new caches in Slippery Rock (I would have picked something easier than a 4/4 ½ cache for my 500th, but that’s The Leprechauns for you ). I’ve been watching for his 500th log but somehow missed it and he hit his 500th at Not Heavens Gate 5 days ago. So belated congratulations to The Leprechauns for a terrific accomplishment . I can still remember reading your early logs as a beginner just not too long ago.

I'll stick with the hint decoder on my palm. I don't need it until I'm out in the field and can't find the cache. For those who don't know about it, there is a link to it at geocaching/links.

http://www.maporama.com/share/ will also give you a long/lat if you have the address.

Take a look at http://www.maporama.com/share/ . Last I looked at it, it will give you a lat/long from an address.

If the person who left food logged the trade in the book or on line, I often send them a gentle reminder that food attracts raccoons and they trash caches in an attempted to get to the food. Reminding the offenders should prevent future similar problems.

Perhaps you're looking for an easier way to decode the hints in the field? If that's the case and if you have a PDA, take a look at Hint Decoder 1.1, which can be found under links in the Geocaching Home page. With that program in the PDA, you can cut and paste the hint into the PDA memo and use the Hint Decoder to easily decode the hints as you need them. Beats decoding it letter for letter as the mosquitoes feast on you.

If a new GPS is not in your price range, look for a used one, like ones on e-bay. Usually an older one is available as people move on the new ones. An older one will usually do.

I have to laugh at your shoestring problems; I wish that was my only problem. Try a medium sized dog with long hair romping through the bushes in the woods! We spend a lot of time working on the dog after geocaching and before we let her into the car. She's a burr magnet.

Yes you can score a find for attending a geocaching event and at our cache events there are usually a number of temporary caches set up nearby as well. As a temporary cache can't be officially listed or giver a number, we simply enter an additional event find for each temporary cache we find.

If thats a PDA, I don't think you can use things like EasyGPS to easily transfer cache information and way points. And it is pretty fragile on the trail.

I went to Swallow Falls State Park and there was a fee per car to get in (at least in the summer). It's a popular place to swim in the large creek. We were going for that and picked up the cache while there but there was no mention of the fee or swimming in the description. If I was going just for the cache I think I would be pretty mad, particular because it's a pretty out of the way to go to. You've got to be upfront about things involving fees and it helps to add features that would make it worthwhile to pay the fee like swimming. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=10988 [This message was edited by Shoebox on August 18, 2003 at 09:41 AM.]

The blackout didn't quite get to Pittsburgh but it did get close. I was kind of hoping it would as my other hobby is astronomy and a completely dark sky would be interesting. The amateur astronomers in the northeast must have been in heaven (if they got home!).

Do a multi-cache with the stage long/lat numbers printed and posted high on telephone poles just outside bars. Not sure what you do about the final cache but perhaps to a local park or a micro or something.