MinnesotaBen

I second what EyeD10T said. GaryM53, thank you as well! I was very excited to help out with this race and following the coins. But this is a very nice gesture and will be quite appreciated. As a relative newbie to geocaching and just receiving my first geocoin for Christmas, this gesture means quite a bit. Thanks again!

My name is Ben and I think my name is probably self-explanatory. I heard about geocaching from the MN State Park system and one night July night at a Minneapolis suburb restaurant, had a friend download an app to their phone and sure enough, there was one which appeared to be right behind the bar. We discovered later it was behind the building! But I was instantly hooked. I found my first 100 caches in about three months, and have since cached in a few states and a few countries. I even achieved a FTF for my 34th find. That being said, I am finding this winter has slowed me down greatly, so I am instead focused on getting some caching containers put together, and also received two travel bug tags and my first (and only) geocoin as recent gifts. So I'm very eager for the snow to melt and to get back at it again. Before discovering geocaching, and still after, I enjoy lots of things outdoors (camping, biking, triathlons, etc.) so have found geocaching to just add more enjoyment to some of those things I already enjoy. Nothing like finishing a triathlon, then powering on my GPS to go find one geocache before I leave! So that's me... the lurker who enjoys reading about geocoins, observing designs, and am constantly thinking of when I might dabble into coin making or coin collecting.

1. when, where and what geocoin did you see first? The first geocoin I saw was one week after finding my first cache (July 29, 2010) and it was this coin which if I remember correctly was a map of a European country. I found it in a local cache, my 9th find. 2. when and what geocoin did you first buy? I have yet to buy a geocoin. 3. when did you make your first personal coin? N/A if you haven't yet, why not? I have yet to make a geocoin. I'm still pretty new to the geocoin phenomenon but maybe winning this cointest will start the addiction I do have some ideas and am always interested to see what others come up with. But need to learn a lot more before I would try it out. 4. when and what did you trade your first geocoin? I have not had the opportunity to trade a coin yet. 5. did you find the forums first or a geocoin first? Definitely found a geocoin first, just one week into geocaching. I was still too much of a newbie to even know forums existed.

At least yours has made it through the mail

Standings are located in a new topic

All 74 coins in the race can be found here >> click link You can sort by distance to see who has traveled the furthest, or sort by Last Log to see the four of us who have a coin that has yet to even be logged by the person who received it in the mail.

Well we are down to just 4 coins (sort by Last Log) that haven't yet been claimed through the mail. EyeD10T, yours and mine are still two of the four!

EyeD1OT - You're on! After a weekend, we are down to just 5 coins (sort by Last Log) that haven't yet made it through the mail. Although now I have a sneaky suspicion my coin is here!

When flying through MSP (Minneapolis-St.Paul) people can end up with long layovers. If the layover is long enough to leave the airport, there is a light rail system (LRT) that you can take to the Mall Of America with a very popular, yet time-consuming indoor cache (GC7B09) However, there is a bookmark list listing a cache at each LRT station. Fares on LRT are ~$2 for 2.5 hours unlimited use, ~$4 for 6 hour unlimited use, and $6 for 24 hour unlimited use. (Fares vary at times of day, and day of week) Not sure if this is what you were looking for, but feel free to send me e-mail if you want more information or have any question on these caches.

Appears there are just 7 coins (sort by Last Log) that haven't made it to their destination yet, and wouldn't you know it, mine is one of them. Oh well, they say slow and steady wins the race, right?

Kansas City Chiefs over Denver Broncos total points 54

One I like to use when someone tells me something or wants to make sure I understood: "I hear ya cluckin' big chicken." Side Note: Good luck with Movember!! I am involved too, taking part in the "not yet official" record setting Mo's this past weekend.

#2 from my High School basketball coach, when he'd pass out jerseys to start the year, and eventually a new player would ask for a specific jersey number... "If you have an issue, talk to the Polish philosopher, Tough Sh!tski!"

My High School basketball coach, who recently passed away had a few good quips: "You can wish in one hand and sh!t in the other, and see which hand fills up first."

Click the map on your trackable page, zoom in, and you might have an idea where it is, even without exact coordinates! If you aren't near there, maybe someone else here might be able to help you out. Or could contact some people who have found caches near that one to see if they know the area well. Just some ideas...

You can let your voice be heard as I was recently made aware of the Groundspeak Website's Top Recommended Improvements and you can vote for Allowing All Cachers to Mark Trackables Missing You simply need to sign-in and you can use your 10 votes, up to 3 each on any item. Enjoy!

Most: San Diego Least: Carolina Points: 52

E-mail sent

I think generally that's a good rule and great if anyone is doing that. However I was initially referring to some TBs that have been missing for 12+ months (especially in active caches). As mentioned, if it's found later it can be put right back into active status as if nothing happened. Here's just one example ... and I think we'd all agree that this TB is missing, without verifying it ourselves. I agree with everyone that it'd be great if the TB owner marked it missing, but I think in this case, I'd applaud any CO that marked it missing! Side Note: As an admin, Eartha will be happy to mark any TBs missing if someone has contacted the TB owner and CO and received no response. Just pointing that out as another solution, but also I am pretty sure Eartha doesn't visit each cache!

I would prefer the trackable owner too, and did add a similar topic in the TB and Geocoin threads too. Unfortunately the trackable owner can leave the game and leave their "trash" around. So it's nice reminder for cache owners, who likely are active, to add a step in their cache maintenance. I have contacted more than one cache owner myself and was surprised they didn't even know they could do that. So my message was just to help educate. Granted, not everyone enjoys trackables, but I promise the little effort will make a lot of people enjoy your cache even more.

Thanks for the compliments Toojin. I am currently working through my first list of accumulated missing trackables from caches I have found, specifically focusing on getting these trackables updated in the caches within a few miles of my home. I have personally contacted the trackable owner, and with no response after a couple months, then the cache owner. It's a way for me to still enjoy the game when I'm not out caching. But don't get me wrong, if I don't get a response from the cache owners, yes, Eartha will be the final step. Honestly, I've had some positive responses and am happy to report that nearly all the trackables listed in caches around my home are valid for now. That success is what made me decide to post on the forums and hopefully spread some of this effort.

I am still a rookie approaching my 5th month of geocaches (approaching 120 finds) and trying not to slow down as early darkness and winter hits. Nonetheless, I am truly enjoying this new hobby and appreciate finding and moving your geocoins and will never take another vacation without some geocoins to move! While I don't have any geocoins yet, I treat each geocoin like it's my own and have no problem replacing a goal sheet, updating a goal, or any general repairs I can do. However, the one thing I can't do on my own is mark a geocoin as missing. I can add a note on the geocoin and cache page, which I do each and every time I don't see your geocoin in a cache. However, it would sure be great if every geocoin owner could visit their geocoin page(s) and check to see if there is any "trackable trash" that they could help clean up for everyone. I can appreciate that it is very frustrating to have a geocoin go missing and hold out hope it will be found. And I also don't expect every geocoin is going to be in a cache when I make the find. However, I do know that not all geocoin owners know this feature is available to them, nor that when it is hopefully rediscovered, it can easily be pulled back to an active status. Thanks again for putting out your geocoins and I look forward to reading any replies from people who didn't know this feature existed and/or hearing how many geocoins were marked missing because of this message! I also have a similar topic started for cache owners.

I am still a rookie approaching my 5th month of geocaches (approaching 120 finds) and trying not to slow down as early darkness and winter hits. Nonetheless, I am truly enjoying this new hobby and appreciate finding and moving your TBs and will never take another vacation without some TBs to move! While I don't have any TBs yet, I treat each TB like it's my own and have no problem replacing a goal sheet, plastic bag, updating a goal, or any repairs I can do. However, the one thing I can't do on my own is mark a TB as missing. I can add a note on the TB and cache page, which I do each and every time I don't see your TB in a cache. However, it would sure be great if every TB owner could visit their TB page(s) and check to see if there is any "trackable trash" that they could help clean up for everyone. I can appreciate that it is very frustrating to have a TB go missing and hold out hope it will be found. And I also don't expect every TB is going to be in a cache when I make the find. However, I do know that not all TB owners know this feature is available to them, nor that when it is hopefully rediscovered, it can easily be pulled back to an active status. Thanks again for putting out your TBs and I look forward to reading any replies from people who didn't know this feature existed and/or hearing how many TBs were marked missing because of this message! I also have a similar topic started for cache owners.

I am still a rookie approaching my 5th month of geocaches (approaching 120 finds) and trying not to slow down as early darkness and winter hits. Nonetheless, I am truly enjoying this new hobby and appreciate that all of you place caches for me to find, and I hope to place a cache soon myself... after imposing a "100 find" requirement on myself, even if I don't have to. That being said, to thank you each of you for your cache placement and make it even better for the next to find, I have no problem cleaning up a cache by adding fresh paper, occasionally tossing in some swag, reporting on maintenance needs I can't fix at the time, cleaning trash from inside and around the cache, and placing it as well or better than I found it. However, the one thing I can't do on my own is mark a trackable as missing. I can add a note to both the trackable page and cache page, which I do each and every time I don't see a trackable. However, it would sure be great if every cache owner could visit their cache page(s) and check to see if there is any "trackable trash" that they could help clean up for everyone. To be clear, this is not a rant about lazy cache owners. I expect that not every trackable is going to be there and know not every cache owner will read this. However, I do know that not all cache owners know this feature is available to them and in some cases there are trackables that have been missing for 12+ months from inactive trackable owners and it sure would be nice to do some cache cleanup online too. Thanks again for being a cache owner and I look forward to reading any replies from people who didn't know this feature existed and/or hearing how many trackables were marked missing because of this message! Edited to add: I did add a similar topic in the Tracking Bug and Geocoin forums, however trackable owners may have left the game. Hopefully cache owners are still active!

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