BluEyz and Bugsy

Thanks you. Your opinions helped me make decisions.

How do you rate your cache's difficulty, with or without the hint? I have some puzzles that would be maybe a 3 for difficulty, but if you use the hint, they drop to a 2 for difficulty. Do I rate the puzzle a 3 or a 2? Also, if a solution is easy to see, but tedious, how do you rank it? I've spent hours solving a puzzle with an easy solution because it just took a long time to decode all of it. Should this one get the same difficulty rating as a simple, quick solution?

That worked! Thanks.

I seem to have misplaced (lost!) the code to activate my travel bug. Does anyone remember what it is?

"On the iPhone to create a new waypoint just go to the map screen and hit the little flag icon in the upper right corner. At that point you can enter the coords of the 2nd location and then hit done. Once back on the map screen you can touch the new waypoint on the map and it will make it the target. At that point you can hop back to the compass screen to direct you to the waypoint." Aha! That is exactly what I wanted to know. I guess I didn't see the new waypoint on the map. Thank you!

I understand how to create a waypoint and give it a name when I want to go to stage #2 of a multi. What I don't understand is how to access that waypoint. How do I get to it? Right now I'm using the iPhone app as a back up to my GPS but I should be able to put in the coords of the next stage of a multi as I learn what it is. Then I could use the app without the GPS if I chose to. Any suggestions or helpful hints? :-)

The cache is actually up and running again. The log is damp but someone will replace it.

Additional method of finding the cache has been removed per the request of the cache reviewer. We will use the method to create a non-Wherigo cache that is just a puzzle cache.

Thanks for asking that question. I went back and changed the original post to mention Blackberry and iPhone. ***BluEyz***

A Blackberry is fine!

Bugsy has written a program that will allow you to play our Highland Fling Wherigo without the use of a Garmin Colorado or Oregon or a Pocket PC. All you need is any cell phone with a reasonably sized screen (A Blackberry or iPhone works well) and your GPS or a laptop with cell phone Internet access. If anyone wants to test out this new technology, we would be glad to walk the route with you. We are anxious to field test Bugsy's program on a variety of devices.

Exactly like that!

Okay. I think I have it pinned down now. The geocoins that we don't get notified about are all the old gold "generic" looking coins that we purchased from geocaching.com years ago. We did record their numbers and we did get notification about them for a long time. BTW, everyone has been wonderful about making suggestions. Good people, the geocachers! Thanks everyone.

Yes! We have released several other coins that we registered properly. We received notification of their travels for a while and then they stopped. We started leaving geocoins in early 2002, and as newbies, we were not smart enough to keep track of all of their numbers. The coin in question in my post was in Namibia and then it was travelling around Germany and then it disappeared from sight. Perhaps the geocoins got into caches and were stolen so the cache owner reported them missing.

We (BluEyz and Bugsy) had a geocoin that was traveling around Africa and then it suddenly disappeared from our inventory. How can this happen? No one is authorized to deactivate it. Unfortunately we do not have the geocoin number so we can't trace it that way. I'm sure Groundspeak is too busy to be tracking coins when we don't have the number. I guess the geocoin is gone. But how did it happen?????

I like my Gecko 201 best. We have 2 other high priced Garmins but little Gecko gets a quicker lock and gets me there first all the time.

Although I cache with my husband, I am definitely the one who really enjoys it. He likes the hiking part but isn't as interested in the find. I know several husband and wife teams where we live where the wife is the one who is the leader in geocaching.

Perhaps we should be a bit more concerned, but we aren't. If you hide the cache well it won't be discovered by the park rangers or anyone else. We feel that we are bringing people out into the parks and trails systems and the local people should be glad we are. After all, isn't that what they are there for? We never ask permission but are also careful not to deface property or put a cache in an area that cannot handle heavy foot traffic. For example, we avoid areas where people would ruin grass, lady slippers, or tiny trees, etc. We seldom use stone walls. Geocachers are not kind to stone walls! If we find one way out in the woods that can take a few stones being turned, then we might use it. We never place caches in historic areas. Although we are near the historic areas of Concord and Lexington, we bring the people into those areas to see the sights and get the coordinates, but we hide the actual cache outside the historic area. We think this works well.

Good points made by Carleenp. When we find a TB we just say, "Took the _____ Travel Bug." We include that statement in the written log both in the cache and on the cache page.

We own a Maps76, a Legend and a Gecko 201. I always use the Gecko. It is small and easy to stick in my pocket. It does all that it needs to do.

Use a walking stick or pick up a long stick along the way to the cache. Don't stick your hands into cracks and crevices before pushing the stick in first. We have rattlesnakes and copperheads in New England and I bet you have lots of snakes and other critters in your area too. My best advice was already given by someone else, mark a waypoint for your car. Every time we forget to do it we end up saying, "Which direction is the car in?". I also am a big supporter of Camelbak packs (hydration systems) with a bladder for water. I always bring plenty of water in my pack. This sport is addictive, so beware!

Thank you for the two suggestions. I will try them both. There appears to be updated programs for both of our GPS units. ***Blu***

We own two GPS units and we had both of them with us today. We turned both of them on and let them get a lock on our location. Then, as a test, we turned them both off and on again in a few minutes. The Gecko sprang to action and determined our position in less than a minute. The Vista picked up and lost satellites and after 5 minutes still had not located our position. Both had WAAS enabled and were set the same way. Is there something I'm missing here? Is there a reason for this great disparity in function? Do I have to upload new software to the Vista? It is several years old and the Gecko is much newer. I always use the Gecko because it is so light to carry. It is a bit harder to read the digits, but I really like it. If it didn't have dumb games built in it would be near perfect!

For an inexpensive first finder's prize you could put in a lottery ticket or two. We have our "signature item" which is a pen with a calculator and ruler. We had it imprinted with a geocaching greeting. We used to leave a mini calculator with a geocaching inscription. Both of these items cost us less than $3. We were first at a cache that had a little round, red, "safety strobe" that you could wear on your clothes in poor light conditions. We enjoyed that prize. Some people also leave geocoins, which we liked at first, but aren't as fond of now. They should be passed on and we like to keep something nice from a cache is we leave something nice. We also have left survival whistles with a compass and match safe and strike plate. These are also under $3.00 and make a good first finder's prize. Most caches we see today are full of junk. Anything that has some value could be a first finder's prize.

We have a cache called Crossword Puzzle: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=41818 that has a single puzzle, but it has been well received. We also did a picture puzzle mult-cache: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=60056 We put it out recently but it, too, appears to be going well. If you want to see a bunch of math puzzle caches, check ones put out by Geometry. He really makes you work for your coordinates. We love puzzles and they make geocaching even more of a game. The people who like the park and grab variety of cache will avoid them, but a whole lot of other people will enjoy solving them.