QuiltinNana

Super, another series for me to add to the TO-DO list. We're on the NW area of PA, but I'm always on the lookout for fun series to do.

How about "LCS - Lousy Cache Series"?

Give us a bridge cache with a 1/1 rating and we will most often spend way tooooo long at finding it. When I see any title with Bridge in the name, I just groan.

To me claiming a find on a container that you thrown down yourself is like a CO logging a find on their own container when they first place the container. You didn't find anything - you put something there. If I don't find the container, I log a DNF. I don't care if the cache owner allows replacements, I'm not doing it for them. I will however, put a fresh log sheet in the container or replace a ripped up baggie, or dump water out and move the contents to a new bag if needed.

I don't think I've ever seen a sticker on a nano log. If I have, I just paid it no mind. Personally we only use stickers on logs that are at least 1-1/2" wide. So those are usually those ring bound little notebooks or sheets of notebook paper torn in thirds (which alot of the micro - pill bottle users use around here). When we find a nano or very small micro, we usually just write the team name taking up one space only. There can be anywhere from at least 2 of us to as many as 7 on the team at any time.

Onlinelabels.com has lots and lots of labels to choose from. We use the return address size for our team label. It has all our names with a duck on the left side. Then my husband runs just the names through and turns the paper upside down and runs them back through and cuts them down the middle for half size labels. For anything smaller we just write.

I agree, I had never heard of these before. I googled concrete arrows and found some interesting articles to read. I love how geocaching brings to my attention things and places that I would never have heard of otherwise. Thanks so much for sharing this.

In PA, during at least deer hunting season, you MUST wear a certain amount of orange out in the woods. We usually go in the woods on Sunday, rather than weekdays or Saturdays.

Nothing quite as bad as you found, but recently with my granddaughter in tow, we found one that had some drawings of male anatomy and suggestions. I tore out the page with the suggestions as there were no logs on that page, but I pasted our Lucky Duck sticker over the drawing to hide as much as possible. Probably kids but I am glad that granddaughter is more interested in the swag than looking at the logbook as she probably would have asked some interesting questions.

This pine tree (maybe I was wrong in calling it an evergreen, but in our area, the names are used interchangably) or Christmas tree is huge, the lowest limbs are about 10 feet off the ground at the trunk. The limbs arch down to the ground, and you can stand underneath and look up at the underside of the limbs. The bison tubes look like ornaments hanging and are brightly colored. I can't imagine it would take more than 5 - 10 minutes to locate them all and check for the log. Plus you are out in the woods and noone can see you from the dirt road. You have all the time in the world for privacy. I did encourage on the cache page to move the log as the finder see fit. That way someone can't just tell someone else what color tube they had found the log in. I found a cache similar to this down in Centralia, PA and I really enjoyed it being different. I guess we all like different kinds of caches to find, and I like to find ones that are different from all the others. Not necessarily really hard, but fun ones especially for kids to find. That's what makes geocaching fun to me is all the different kinds of hides. I think a DNF in this case wouldn't be the right log as it would be misleading. The cache is there, you just choose not to look for it.

I just had to delete my first log from a finder on one of my caches. We have a Christmas song series where to find the find the final - Twelve Days of Christmas - you have to gather coordinates. The finder did find each of the 10 caches needed. The final is comprised of 12 bison tubes in a huge evergreen tree, with the log being in one, the rest empty. The cache page clearly states that you must find the log, no replacement logs allowed. When the finder got to the final, his log said "found final..well sort of. No log, so left a makeshift log." I'm thinking he didn't read the cache description and just put a replacement log in the first bison tube he found. My husband went to check the next morning, the original log is definitely there and he found a scrap of paper in one of the other tubes which he removed. So I sent the finder a friendly email, that there were 12 bison tubes and that we checked and one does indeed have the real log. Then I told him I was going to delete his log and he would have to relog when he found the tube with the log. Haven't heard back from him. Now, I feel bad about deleting his find. I know I would rather have a CO tell me the truth and have to relog if I could get back to the area, or just lose the find if I couldn't, but I guess I'm feeling kinda mean right now.

I think the song we hear in our heads must be "Flight of the Bumblebee".

I think being able to hide the visit logs would be the answer to this dilemma. Those who like to visit - can visit away, and people like me who only want to see pick ups and drop offs would be happy also. As far as why hasn't he dropped it elsewhere, I don't know. I understand if he's nervous about it going missing after he drops it, but it's my coin and I've accepted that risk. I have checked on TB's that I have moved along from time to time and some are still moving and some are not. But, I feel that I did the right thing by picking them up and moving them along as quick as I was able. Usually within a week or two. I do watch where I leave them, if the cache hasn't been found in a long time, or is a wet mess, I don't leave anything there. If the TB's go missing after that, that's the breaks.

Oh yeah, I've been in email contact for quite awhile. Last time was about the 4th of July when he said he was going to try one more time for a specific cache, and if he wasn't successful with that one, he would release it. When he went back to that cache, he noted it was again muggled so he kept the coin, but he has had other opportunities to leave it.

I think the point of this thread is not about leaving them where they are, but if you do take a TB, unless they are special caches pursuant to the TB's goal, don't visit it in every cache you go to for months on end before dropping. A person has had a coin of mine since Feb and he keeps taking it to caches and visiting it there. Pages and pages of cache visists. He keeps saying he has a certain cache in mind, but each time he goes there, it's been muggled. But he hasn't left it anywhere else either. I would have rather that he had put it in a cache back in March and left it move on naturally. I would rather see it get into as many hands as possible instead of being held hostage for all these months. And if it should go missing, well that's the chance we take when we release TB's and coins.

We also carry in the geomobile, a jug of water for hand/face/leg washing. And a roll of paper towels. In the backpack, we carry, first aid stuff, BUG SPRAY, extra logs, baggies, pens, our swag, leatherman tool, tweezers, flashlights. Hanging from the backpack is a "poking" stick as my granddaughter calls it. And speaking of my granddaughter, she is responsible for the most important to her, item - the snack bag. We also have a cooler bag with bottles of ice water.

I also do not like to see all those visited messages on the TBs page. I just want to see who picked it up, where they picked it up and where they dropped it. A note occasionally if they had planned to drop it somewhere but changed their mind would be ok. Or a special cache they visited in keeping with the TB goal would be fine. Anything else is just annoying to see in my opinion. I do not visit most TB's we pick up in any subsequent caches that we go to. I log the pick up and the drop off. I send the owner an email if I have a plan for the TB that is in keeping with its goal and I won't be dropping it for a month or so.

Broken shoulder back in May of this year. All healed up now. While we didn't get the caches we were after that day, it didn't stop us from taking a roadtrip to Canada the next weekend.

I just want to say that you have brought a smile to my face tonight. Good luck!!

I also have some good news. My TB that I left in Aruba last Sept to find its way back to PA has come home. Ironically it came back to Ohio a couple of weeks after I left it there, eventually made its way to about 45 minutes from home. But, before I could pick it up, it was moved again a couple of hours away. Last Saturday on our way back from VA, we decided to make a detour and grab the TB and bring him home. My plan is to keep him home until this Dec when we are taking a trip to the Bahamas and leave him there.

We geocached in Aruba last Sept. Found 28 caches on the island. We used our Garmin ETrex Venture HC. Didn't use any phone apps. It can be a little tricky to find where you need to turn just using the arrow on the ETrex, but we managed quite well. We made plenty of wrong turns, but had a great time doing so.

I've had the usual scratches from brambles, a few minor cuts, etc. But on May 18 of this year, my husband and I were going to ride down a bike trail to pick up a series. We had to ride through an abandoned railroad tunnel. This tunnel is paved, about a mile long with a bend near the far end. It gets very dark once you get a little way in. We did have flashlights so we could see within a circle of light. Now this tunnel was only paved about 10 feet or so in the very center of the old railroad bed, with the sides sloping down towards the walls on either side. There is something about riding in the dark that causes me to weave slightly so I try to stay in the center of the trail as much as possible. About halfway in, I felt I was veering to the left and before I could correct, my front tire went off the pavement. Even with applying the brakes, my momentum carried me down the slope and I hit the wall with my left shoulder. At first I thought I had broken a rib. I had all the air just knocked from me. I finally got my breath and tried to stand up. At that point my left air just wouldn't cooperate. I told my husband, maybe we needed to give up on the caches and go to the ER for an Xray. We walked back out of the tunnel with him pushing both bikes. I found I had broken my upper arm at the shoulder in two places. Went back out caching the next weekend, although I was very careful with the caches we picked to do.

There are 2 that I know of in PA. One in the western part of the state GC4924M is one of the caches in the series. There is another in the eastern part of the state, GC391ZZ is the final. It is on my to do list for later in the fall.

I have a question to add to this. My husband, myself, daughter, daughter's friend, granddaughter all go caching together. Usually I am the one who will log any DNF. The others just skip it when doing their logging. The reason being that we all were together in a group and there was one massive group effort that did not find the cache. I felt that putting 5 DNF's on the same cache may throw off people when it may be just our bad luck. What do other groups do in this scenario? If we then go back and find the cache, we all log the find on the date we actually find it.

I have a clear one that I use to accumulate mileage on, but I keep it in my personal possession. I really think it would go missing very quickly.