bigcall

I had to look around a while, but I found the old thread about a murder in DC that someone wanted to place a cache at. See This thread about Chandra Levy Fortunately the cache was never placed.

Sounds like a conspiracy from a semi-famous movie: "Purged from the otherwise complete Jedi Archives is all evidence of the mysterious world of Kamino. A lonely world beyond the Outer Rim and just south of the Rishi Maze, few could have predicted that Kamino would become a key contributor to a massive shift in political power in the waning days of the Republic. " What else is missing from the archives? Count me in for wanting it back!!!

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I'm reaching back a little on this thread but it struck me that there is seemingly very little historical geocaching significance wrt to virtuals. Many of us know the the oldest caches in our area or in the country, but my quick reseach shows that many of what are now "old" virtuals were once a traditional cache that was converted at some point. I'm curious now as to the history of virtuals. When was the decision made to list them? What was the first "true" virtual? (This cache in WA looks like it may have been the first?) I bring this up because if there is little interest then I'm not surprised that they have been shuffled off to another location. Anyone else have any thoughts?

I used to be a truly avid golfer, but like others have found - it can be expensive and can be more of a drain on time, especially on weekends. It is tougher with kids, although I look forward to taking them out to both activities now that they are getting old enough to do so. That said, I still get out when I can and try to play in a weekday 9-hole league that's mostly for fun and the odd scramble event as they pop up. Golfing is a challenge that one might consider similar to geocaching in that they both get you outdoors, involved in both physical and somewhat mental activity. And guess what, they can both involve GPS's. One of my first exposures to a GPS was on a golf cart equipped with one. It was fairly limited in scope, but simialr to caching it could give you a reasonably accurate yardage to the hole/cache. The trouble with golf, in my opinion, is that it's much more frustrating to initially learn and make the transition from beginner to being reasonably proficient (say shooting even a score of 90). I consider myself a decent golfer but frankly don't care to invest the time and effort required to make the next leap from mid/low 80's to scratch. Unfortunately, a lot of folks might consider a golf course a waste of precious space. I don't agree and have seen as many remarkable sights and scenes while golfing as I have caching (thus far anyway, but I have played golf for ~5x as long too). Like caching, golfing is best done with friends and there are lots of creative ways to make it fun and competitive at the same time that don't necessarily involve beer (some do though ) There are truly fanatics of both activities. I've gotten up to cache and golf at ridiculous times so neither side seems all that extreme to me. The short answer to the original question is : BOTH!!!

I'm not pointing any fingers here but if you want the true purist's POV then a cacher should only log a cache that THEY FOUND. Is standing nearby someone in a group who happens to find a cache really a find? Yeah, sure you signed the log book - great, good for you. Talk about padding your stats now???? My point in bringing this up that logging group finds is an accepted practice and is not against the rules. Does that make it wrong or right? I suggest that it's really what caching is all about - sharing the outdoors and having some fun with family and friends. As noted earlier somewhere the reasons behind the multiple event logs was to prevent wasting approvers time on a bunch of temporary caches. It was more or less sanctioned at that time, but the implications were perhaps not so clear. One of the great things about geocaching is that the "rules" are in the eye of the beholder. Let's just keep it that way.

Here's a reach: Do you remember when you could find a cache in a National Park and it was OK to do so? Do you remember when you had never heard of a Geocoin much less saw one?

I was talking about in terms of trading power. I've had one laying around in my geocaching box o' stuff for close to 3 years - I never realized it was a valued commodity.

So what's a wandering dragon worth these days?

Sounds like an audio version of a letterbox?

Jumping in late.... 1571 unique caches. 47702 finds logged. Avg. Difficulty = 1.71 Avg. Terrain = 1.68 Avg. Challenge = 1.93 266 hard caches (17%) 2 countries 28 US states 1535 multiple finds (3%) 322 (20.5%) archived Oldest cache: #236 (GCEC) Newest cache: #316722 (GCRDBR) Interesting stuff, thanks!!!

You would also be correct in that part

The Old Country Buffet in Fairfax was the location of the other NoVA Breakfast gatherings. I've been to OCB based events in IL too. OK, it's not the greatest food, nor the most glamorous spot, but the buffet allows people to stream in and out and there usually isn't that big of a crowd there. You pay when you come in which alleviates some of the headache. They were willing to block off an area for cachers last time. Just throwing it out there since it seems to match what you stated above...

It's been a while but here was one and here was another. It really isn't too hard to plan an event, you'll be amazed at who will just show up out of the blue.

My bit o' I hate micros humor in a log. The first entry kinda sums it up.

Interesting discussion so far... I've logged them both ways in the past. If I felt it was a legit cache and it was allowed by the owner, I log it. If I don't, then I won't. Afterall it's all about me isn't it? Having attended the WGA event last year, I thought the whole thing was well done and the caches were only temporary in nature due to the desires of the park. Each cache certainly could have been listed here and subsequently archived later (which was the case way back when), but the organizers followed the rules as they existed (and still exist I believe) about placing and logging temps. I agree that there may be some potential issues about short circuiting the cache approval process with regard to placement, quality and proximity. I have also attended an event that bent the rules here (in my opinion) and encouraged one to log a find after finding a cacher who acted as a moving cache (mostly by asking them if they were a cache) - this was one I didn't feel was legit and subsequently did not log it. After thinking about it for a long while, I fall more into the do not log multiple times camp mostly because of the lack of oversight issue noted above. However, the sport is about playing the game the way you choose so far be it for me to make an issue about someone else's logs. For those that have a problem with this I'll pose another question on so-called geocaching ethics - Should logs be allowed where "you" weren't the one to actually find the cache (i.e. group finds)? My opinion is if "you" didn't find it "you" have no business calling it a find. What I'm getting at here is that it's a potentially slippery slope when we begin to question how others decide to play.

CONGRATS!!!!

I'll get right to the point - I don't like micros. Are there exceptions to this rule? - yes. Do I find them anyway? - yes. They do seem to be getting more prevalent, probably for the reasons already elaborated upon. I'm not sure it's a fad/trend though. As the proportion continues to slide towards micros and the sport continues to expand, new cachers will naturally emulate what they see and find themselves. One probable future scenario is a slow death spiral into more and more micros - hopefully this is not the case.

Had the exact thing happen on one of mine. It's a puzzle cache so they got a free bonus!!! See this log

152 DNFs posted. I like the golf analogy - it seems to fit the way I choose to cache. Geocaching: Find it = Found log, Looked at didn't find it = DNF log. Golf: Took a swing/putt = 1 stroke, move/roll it or miss the two footer still = 1 stroke. Pretty simple principle in my mind.

I've found letterboxes while looking for caches on 3 separate occasions. 2 of the 3 were literally a few feet apart. The other instance was maybe 100 ft or so, but it was in a tree that just screamed to have a cache in it. For some reason, two of my caches seem to have letterboxes near them. I looked at the letterboxing site and found that in both cases my cache was in place first. I guess there are only so many good spots......

I guess I don't like Kentucky??? Hope to complete the east of the Mississippi sweep this year since we have a New England trip planned.

3+ years of owning a Garmin V came up to 2091:58:54hrs. I don't think I have reset anything, but I did get to the diagnostic screen once before by accident.

I've never reset mine in 3+ years. The main display is blank ever since I went over 9,999 mi., but the odometer in the gas mileage section of my Garmin V reads 45,333.1 mi.

You're talking virtual central, so there are many to pick from. Here's the GC map of the area. A few of my favorites on the Mall that may fit your bill given the listed agenda: Solar Sailing (near the Air and Space Museum) Capitol View (near the Capitol) Mile Zero (near the White House) The actor really did break a leg (near Ford's Theater) I can see Lincoln (near Lincoln, Korea, Viet Nam Memorials) View of an "Honest Man" (near Lincoln, Korea, Viet Nam Memorials) So we will remember them (near Lincoln, Korea, Viet Nam Memorials) There are 6 virtuals in Arlington Cemetary - beware though, I wouldn't classify any of them as "easy" since they'll have you walking (up and down some pretty big hills) a good deal. Let's see, off the Mall: Wash National Cathedral (self explanatory) Never, never, never, never give up (kinda near Nat. Cathedral) In VA there are a few also: Washington's Tomb (near Mt. Vernon) Original Front Gate (near Mt. Vernon) The listing (which is by no means exhaustive) of caches above are all virtuals, there are some traditional caches in DC, but they aren't in the usual tourist spots so I'm not sure they would be appropriate for a gaggle of middle school students. Hope you find this somewhat useful and have a good trip!