Moore9KSUcats

With the proliferation of urban caches, some newer geocachers don't realize the joy of finding a really nice cache! They see all these micro caches and think that is what geocaching is all about, and often start placing caches just like what they have been finding. Please continue to put out quality caches... geocaching needs more placers like you!

Just got mine in the mail... padded envelope, but it tried to drive out before I could get it! (The envelope was rather torn and shredded at the jeep end.) Now... does anyone know anything about the contests this year? I don't really want to put it out until I know about any photography contests.

There are three devious hides nearby. They have been notoriously difficult for even experienced geocachers to find. One is hidden in a crack in a 15 ft cliff above a path. Many people search for the caches, and don't find them, so there are probably more DNF logs than found logs.. and that is only by the people that log their DNF's. The only hint the cache placer gave was "You might need to move a few rocks". When using the original coordinates, the arrow consistently points about 40 feet down the hill, toward the river, away from the cliff (and directly in the area of some fragile travertine terraces). She also does not respond to a string of DNF's with a reply that she checked, and that they are still there. Directly below the path are some old rock walls. As we also continued to search for the cache (it took us probably 5 trips to find the cache), we saw that rocks in the walls were getting moved. Finally, I managed to spot the crack, moved a couple of small stones jammed in the crack on the cliff face, and found the 2 inch long container. We did get better coordinates, but the cache owner did not update the coordinates. Others have also given better coordinates. I have given vague hints like "do not search between the path and the river", or "the cache is not below the path". Others mentioned that you do not have to step on any fragile vegetation to find the cache. Unfortunately, those hints are buried down in the early logs at this point. I don't know the cache placer, but felt it was my obligation to help protect the area by guiding people to a closer approximation toward the cache. It seems that the cache owner delights in totally stumping the caching community, rather than delighting in when people do find her caches. (These are my observations, and may be totally wrong.)

I really enjoy bowling, and for many years hubby and I were in a league together. Granted, it may not be as expensive as some of the others, but even though we owned our own balls and shoes, it was costing us at least $25 a week in league costs and snacks (and that was 10 years ago). I was getting a bit to pricey for our family, so we quit... also, our kids were in marching band, and that was Friday nite, also (our chosen league nite).

One thing that some families do is have the parents be the ones to open the cache and do a brief exam of the contents... that way, if there is something not appropriate, they can make the decision to let the kids look or not. There are MANY geocaching families on this website.. it is a great family activity! We've been caching since 2002, and our kids have been on many hikes with us! When we started, they were 19, 17, 15, and 10. They all love it and know there are idiots out there that do dumb stuff (drugs, etc.). Finding those items does give you another chance to talk about the illicit activity that goes on in the world... use it as a teaching moment! Ignoring the bad stuff around you won't make it go away. That being said, they probably shouldn't go out hunting caches on their own.

We've bought a number of digi cams off of E-Bay the last several years. One that we liked (but probably isn't available anymore) was the Minolta Dimage X. We bought several (for kids, etc) for around $75 each, and are still using them. It was expendable, and did take good snapshots! We learned our lesson when we took our new/good/rather expensive digi on a cache hike and hubby slipped on wet rocks along a riverbed. Even though the camera was in a camera case, it never woke up after that fall. Now we just take the inexpensive cameras on the hikes.

We had a situation in Austin a few years ago like this, also. I don't remember the entire story, but a new cacher went out to a popular park and found a dead dog lying darn near on top of the cache! Needless to say, it really freaked her out. The cache itself was on a slope. After investigation, the cache owner found a bag at the top of the hill. We all figured that someone's dog had died, and they put it (dumped it?) on the top of the wooded slope to dispose of it. Animals opened the bag, and after animals had been nosing around it, the dog rolled down the slope to rest where the cache was hidden. Things like this do happen.... mostly by accident, or nature intervening. A cat, if it is injured, or ill, will often go off and hide to recuperate (or die).

First impression makes me think it is stinging nettles. Here is a Wikipedia link... does it look familiar? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinging_nettle

Send them a check through "Snail Mail" ???

One problem with using cute stuffed type animals as a TB.... sometimes they are so cute that people just don't put them back in the wild! The forums are full of TB disappearances.... It seems that often the mundane items go farther.... at least farther than a kid's playroom. At any rate, have fun!

Interesting user name, nanomite! Chiggers are the larvae of the Harvest Mite Harvest mites (genus Trombicula; also known as red bugs, trombiculid mites, scrub-itch mites, berry bugs or, in their larval stage, as chiggers) are mites in the family Trombiculidae that live in forests and grasslands. In their larval stage they attach to various animals including humans and feed on skin, often causing itching. These relatives of spiders are nearly microscopic measuring 0.4 mm (1/100 of an inch) and have a chrome-orange hue. A common species of Harvest mite in Northern America is Trombicula alfreddugesi; in the UK the most prevalent Harvest mite is Trombicula autumnalis. I don't usually have much trouble with them, but hubby has tremendous problems! We were in Maryland last August, and walked a path in a state park. Hubby ended up with bites at least up to his waist..... It seemed, despite taking a shower and discarding his clothes, that the chiggers travelled upward for a couple of days. The drive home to central Texas (Georgetown, just a couple of towns over from you) was rather miserable. We don't geocache much during the summer months because it is just so darn hot... if we go out, it is early Saturday morning before the temperature rises much. Also avoiding the tall grassy areas does help some. I don't usually think about them because they really don't bother me much.

Until a week ago, I was one of those people. I have a very hard time with the smaller type size on some of the other resolutions. Sorry, but with presbyopia, trifocals, and very poor uncorrected eyesight I needed that higher resolution to reduce eyestrain. (Don't worry... it does correct down just fine... but reading is still a bit of a headache.) A week ago, however, hubby got me a new monitor... 19" HDTV. Even so, sometimes the smaller type has blurry edges. As far as drawing a line... are you wanting to eliminate a large population from easily using your website?

A hint for sending an e-mail to the owner: Seeing that he is a new cacher, compliment him on his choice of a cache location WITHOUT mentioning the coordinates were far off. Just ask gently why your log was removed. Mention that you included the story of how you found the cache since many people find the online logs entertaining. Also mention that if he would prefer, you could sign it with a simple "SLTNLN". If you want, mention that you have updated coordinates, since getting accurate coordinates can be tricky in that spot. Heck, everyone screws up the coordinates from time to time! We have no idea what happened here... we didn't "fat finger" the coordinates, but when we went back to check, sure enough... the coordinates that were still in the GPSr led us out in the middle of a field, about 100' or more away from the intended site. We are reasonably seasoned geocachers but the satellites must not have been with us that day. Read the log at the link below for an extremely cute story on who found it. Of course we left the log... what a great log! http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LU...38-36b8ca694408

Not trying to dis someone's idea, but..... How many park benches are painted in camo? Just having it painted flat black would probably be better. The sticker already attached may be a good selling point, though. The best camo is where you have carefully matched the paint shade. We found an old-style aol tin on the base of a green light pole that matched perfectly... they even glued 4 small bolt heads to the top to make it look like an access panel! That is a good example of a cache in plain sight... but invisible to most people.

Several points: Hiding caches gives back to the geocaching community. We enjoy finding other geocacher's hides, and hope they will enjoy finding ours. We look forward to the "found" logs. Especially some of our more creative camo hides! Hubby can spend a LOT of time on designing some of the caches. We also enjoy taking people to the pretty places around here! We hope that others will follow our lead and be a bit more creative in hiding caches. Also, designing and finding just the right place to hide a cache is fun!

Yes, LPC's have their place... like when you are travelling cross-country and you want to get a cache close to the highway you can get easily... if you don't know the area, then a parking lot gives you that cache for the state (Rest stop caches do that too... few are scenic, though). Last summer we drove to Baltimore and back.. and on the way back, we went through 5 or 6 states in one day... and got at least one cache in each state! (West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and down into Tennessee, I think. If I remember correctly, we picked up 10 caches that day, also.) Other than that, we mostly ignore them. Yeah, we might pick up a few if we are in the area, but we sure aren't going to make a special trip to get one!

Lock-n-locks seem wonderfully waterproof! We had one float about 20 feet in flood conditions and remained nice and dry. Everything inside was in perfect condition. It was washed out from under its pile of vegetation and ended up on a pile of that little chipwood you see after a flood... just waiting for me to rescue it. (It is actually a letterbox rather than a geocache.) The only warning I have heard is on the imitation Lock-n-Locks... if something gets in the way of the seal, they aren't very waterproof... I am sure that could be true of the real one, also.

Favorite items? We found a P-38 military style can opener long ago. Those are handy when camping! Unfortunately, I think it has been lost now.... they get misplaced easy. Before the ban on knives, our son traded for a Gerber multi-tool he still uses today... All time most valuable? $100 Gap gift card. No, that wasn't a FTF item... just placed in by a cacher that never logged online...

Letterboxing is a lot of fun, but I just don't get the same satisfaction that I do with geocaching. We really enjoy reading the online logs and comments, and that isn't what is done on the lbNA website. Occasionally, someone will send us an e-mail comment about the cache, but that seems to be rare. We'll continue to letterbox when we are in an area... at this point, we've just about cleaned up our town... there are less than 12 in Georgetown, and less than 20 in our county, I think. (As a comparison, there are over 2000 geocaches that we haven't found within 50 miles of our home coordinates!)

When I read your statement, I said to myself "I bet he doesn't own any caches". Sure enough I was right. I think your attitude will change if you decide to place caches. As a cache owner you want the feedback. If you think a find should be easy and rate it accordingly and people are looking and not finding it, how are you supposed to know that your difficulty rating is off unless people log their DNFs? Similarly, if you think it's a hard hide, and see nothing but smileys because people aren't logging their DNFs you might wrongly adjust the difficulty downward. Also as a cache owner a series of DNFs might indicate a problem that needs addressing. One DNF is no big deal, but if you see 2 or 3 in a row, then it means you probably should check on the cache. Now if TrekkerPooch comes along and doesn't log his DNF, then BrianSnat comes along and logs a DNF, then JoeGeo comes along and doesn't log his DNF, the owner will only know about one DNF, when in fact there were three and he should be checking on his cache. A chief purpose of the online logs is to give feedback to the owner. It doesn't make sense to withold that feedback. Also as a cache hunter I look at the logs to gauge how hard the hunt will be. If I see nothing but smileys I'll assume the cache should be a slam dunk easy find and give up if I don't find it right away. Now if I see some DNFs sprinkled among the logs I'll know that I'm going to have to spend a little more time looking. It is a DNF log. It doesn't mean the cache is missing. It simply means you looked and didn't find it. I agree with all of the above completely! I added the bold type to re-emphasize some information. As a cache owner, I am looking for feedback. Are people having a tough time finding the cache? Are there several DNF's? Maybe I need to add a hint. Maybe I'd better check and see if it IS still there. Frequently, when I see that a new cacher has attempted one of our caches, but couldn't find it, I send them a welcome note and encourage them to try again. I may even give them a hint or ask them where they looked for the cache. I look forward to logs of ALL kinds from my caches... it brightens up my day!

Has it been shown to be logged into other caches, especially ones that don't really seem "logical"? This happens when some unscrupulous person gets the TB ID number, and just logs it for fun into other caches. This has happened when the TB ID is visible in photos, so be sure any photos you take have the numbers hidden or blurred out. (I didn't look up the stats on your TB.) If there is still confusion, ask on the TB forum... I believe Eartha can fix problems such as that.

For us, our favorites are usually the ones that took us the longest to find! This has been one of our favorites for a long time.... I can't believe it took us so long to find. If you look at our profile, the picture of us all clustered around a tree was taken there. Since the cache is archived, I'll tell you it was hidden IN the tree.. back in a root, behind a piece of wood. Daughter #1 (the one in the maroon top and BDU's) knocked on the wood and didn't realize that the hollow sound meant that something could be back there.... we looked and looked for that for a LONG time. It got muggled several times (kids like the tree, also), and also washed out by flood waters. At any rate, the ones that are our favorites have something unique.... incredible natural feature (like the tree at this cache), extremely creative hide, (maybe the first LPC was like this until copied untold times over), or just a worthwhile hike, bringing us to a place we would want to be brought to. When we create our caches, we try to put some of that thinking into each one of them.

We found our first letterbox in Maryland last August. We hadn't loaded any geocache coordinates since we didn't know how much time we would have and thought (erroneously) that we would have easy computer access once we got there. Anyway, we went to a state park near Baltimore (Ann Arundel county, actually... a bit of a drive) and were hiking on one of their trails, and noticed a plastic bag under some branches. Geosense kicked in, and we checked it out. Nope, it was a letterbox.... and it was one that had been "suspected missing" and not found for several years. It was very wet, though, and we didn't even have a pencil to write in it. I noticed the name (Sandy Point Bay Bridge letterbox) and checked it out. The placer had quit letterboxing, so I found the main yahoo group and posted a note. A local letterboxer adopted it, reused the original stamp, and carved a second stamp (in honor of our finding it) to also place in it. Letterboxing is fun, kinda... but there are so few finds, and so few actually do log anything online, so we never really know how well our letterboxes are received. We have placed 2 letterboxes locally, too. I think there are only about 20 in Williamson county at the most? Also, I really enjoy reading the online logs of geocaching, and there really isn't the equivalent on the letterboxing site.

GCN7Z7, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...&Submit6=Go While that is a micro, the description mentions it being placed in a recreation area. While a micro might not be a good first choice to hunt for, it will give you a center point to start your search. Go about half-way down the page and click on "All nearby caches". This should give you a choice of thousands! Look at the closest ones for the best selection. It looks like there is a nice tour of cemetary caches in the area. Some people like cemetary caches for the history they show of the area. If you do seek the cemetary caches, just remember to act respectful in the area. If there are other visitors, be mindful of their presence.

I have a Lock-n-Lock being used as a letterbox on the river trail here in Georgetown. Early March, we had VERY heavy rains for a while, and lots of river flooding. Over Spring Break I went to check on them, and was astounded at the flooding along the river. Anyway, when I looked for my letterbox (hidden in a brushpile about 15 feet from the river, and at least 6 feet above normal river), I couldn't find it. Considering the flooding, I wasn't surprised that it had washed out (we just didn't consider possible high water when we set it). I turned around, and found it sitting on top of a pile of flood debris (that fine chip wood you see everywhere) about 6 feet away! It was completely dry inside, and undamaged. Nicely waterproof and durable!