lowracer

I'm also working on GC3153 Locationless "Where's in a Name" cache. My name worked out to 56 deg, 48 (or 49) .223. This runs across Denmark, Sweden, Latvia. Anyone able to help out up there? I'm also going to post in the forums for the other countries this spans. Hope that's not a terrible breach of forum etiquette. Thanks! -mark. aka "lowracer"

I'm working on GC3153 Locationless "Where's in a Name" cache. My name worked out to 56 deg, 48 (or 49) .223. This runs across Northern Canada. Anyone able to help out up there? I'm also going to post in the forums for the other countries this spans. Hope that's not a terrible breach of forum etiquette. You get a smiley if you help. Thanks! -mark. aka "lowracer"

With photoshop it would be very easy to fake up whatever screen was needed, so you'd have to be careful that cheaters couldn't figure out the route shape without actually being there.

Snoogans, are you sure those weren't actually radiation burns? Quantum Leap

I wrote up a primer on this very topic a few months back, because I got tired of seeing many of my local cachers put up really *blah* cache pages. How to Dress Up a Cache Page All I ask is that you let me know if you found it helpful, maybe send me a link to your cache page to see how well you did. -mark.

If you put the pen to the logbook, you can claim credit for the find. Seems pretty straightforward. How about these other 'grey area' scenarios, what do you think? Do they merit a smiley? Genders aren't significant here, the actors could be of either persuasion. 1) Captain of the power boat that brought a group of cachers to the rocky shore of a remote island on a lake. The group swims in to find the cache. Captain remains with the boat. The group signs the logbook for the captain as a courtesy. Captain logs a smiley. 2) Big Jim's with a group on a power boat, not able to get on and off the boat in the depth of water it's in. Group swims and hikes a tenth mile to the cache. Big Jim stays with the boat. Someone in the group signs the log for him. Big Jim logs a smiley. 3) Judy's shaking, standing on a high cliff, wondering how she's going to get down to the cache, which she can see, without killing herself in the fall. She's terrified of heights. A muggle happens by, Judy asks if he'll go get the cache for her. Muggle mountain-goats down, grabs the cache, brings it up, no fear. Judy signs it, he takes it back down and re-hides it. Judy logs a smiley. 4) Guy's with a group (not part of a 'team') of cache finders. The cache is across a raging stream in a ravine. Guy's afraid of heights and water and just about everything else, and decides not to cross. Guy's close enough, maybe 25-50 feet, to toss swag to the other cachers (who crossed the ravine) holding the book, but he doesn't actually touch the book himself, and they don't want to throw it. They sign for him. Guy claims the smiley. 5) Biff's standing at the bottom of a tall rock wall, he is unable or unwilling to climb the rock. Cache is on top of the rock. Another cacher climbs up to get the cache and hands the log book down to Biff, who signs it and throws it back up. Biff claims a smiley. 6) Jake's sitting in his SUV, has twisted his foot or something, can't walk the quarter-mile uphill to the cache site. Other cachers in his group go get the container and bring it down off the hill for him to root through, trade swag, and sign, then they hike the container back to the top of the hill for him. He claims a find. 7) Sherman hates multicaches. He convinces his buddy Chuck to give him the final coords for one of the most heinous multis in his area. It has something like 15 stages, each a level three to five in difficulty. Sherman goes to the final coordinates and signs the log. He logs a smiley. 8) Big Moe hates puzzles. He buys the solution to all the puzzle caches in his town from an enterprising seller on eBay. He goes to the final coordinates for all the puzzle caches in town and signs their logbooks. He logs smileys for each one. 9) Garvas throws a bowling event cache. Quentin shows up and meets a couple of the bowlers outside in the parking lot as the event is breaking up, but he didn't go in, he didn't bowl, he didn't trade travel bugs or talk caching, he didn't drink a beverage or share in the camaraderie. Most of the cachers didn't even see him or know he was there. He goes home and logs a smiley for the event. Would love to hear your comments on these scenarios. Do they deserve the smiley or not, and why?

I'd like to take both Snoogans and 9key out to the Eagle Peak shootin' range sometime. (Snoogans because I know he'd definitely enjoy it and 9key because he needs to see that shooting can be a real blast, even if you're affiliated with the Green party, and especially if you're going to be calling Texas home for any length of time, dude. ;-) Cough down a big greasy burger and fries, and maybe an ice-cold IBC root beer or two at Bubba's Ice House afterwards. Talk about caching, maybe go out and bag a few of the more creative hides down here in Austin, maybe conspire to plant a really devious hide (under a sock-puppet account) involving abandoned bomb shelters, ancient undecipherable scripts, stuffed ravens, and glow-in-the-dark eyes. You know, the kind of cache that won't have an FTF posted for a month, and most probably longer. And I'd be sure to introduce Snoogans to my sister-in-law. Seems like many of the folks I meet who I'd like to get to know better I meet at events where there are fifty people, sixteen different things going on all at once, and you can't really get to talk to anyone for very long. And finally I'd like to meet Jeremy. I wish he'd hire a programmer to maintain the site and take some time off to tour the country, maybe do a fifty-city caching tour or something. Stop on down to Austin dude, I'll get the Austin cachers to chip in, buy you an ice cold I.B.C or a Shiner Bock at the Boat House Grill. There's a clever micro cache there too. You'd dig it.

I use flat black (makes them very difficult to find even in bright daylight), slate grey (in our limestone rock in Austin this color is excellent camo), and even brown (woodland hides in hollow logs). I never use green and I never deploy one with the original military markings.

Not likely, since I'm flat broke. Someone from the bank's going to be mowing the lawn soon if I don't find a job!

And he wasn't even a member of geocaching.com at the time, so it was one of those rogue wild-west cache types.

Each time one of the chores got done, I'd check a different one on the list and put out a different yard tool. And if there was no yardwork left, the bucket of tennis balls would keep the dogs busy until the grass grew back.

I've been kicking around the idea of placing a multi where the initial coords are for my front porch. On the front porch finders will find a note, taped to a piece of lawn or garden maintenance equipment, be it a rake, a lawnmower, a weed whacker, some hedge clippers, or a box of tennis balls. In the process of doing the task, the finder'd find a carefully camouflaged hidden tag, which would tell them where in the yard to find the cache container, which would be a great big 24 to 40 gallon action packer stuffed to the gills with really expensive and really large swag items, like maybe $5 minimum each. Here's the note I'm thinking about using: ------------- GCXXXX - Mow My Lawn - By Lowracer Just perform the task that is checked [ X ]. Doing any other task would be great but I cannot guarantee that you'll find the cache that way. If you post a smiley without performing the workout, your smiley log may be deleted. Please return all tools to the front porch when finished. If you do not return the tools your smiley will be deleted and I'll call the sheriff. Thanks! [ ] Trim the Front Hedge (L-Shaped hedge in triangular flower area between garage and front porch). Just trim off the new growth shoots even with the main bulk of the hedge, don't try to make a topiary or cut it to the bone please. No need to rake when finished. Watch out for the prickly pears in the flower bed! [ ] Trim the Side Hedge (Over on the side of the house by the garage) Just trim off the new growth shoots, don't try to make a topiary or cut it to the bone please. No need to rake when finished. [ ] Rake the hedge clippings. [ ] Front Hedge - Just rake them into a pile on the front sidewalk. [ ] Side Hedge - Just rake them into a pile on the grass next to the hedge. [ ] Edge the specified area with the weedwhacker: Try to be neat. [ ] The driveway out to the street, both sides. [ ] The front curved walk [ ] Along the curb between the sidewalk and the street [ ] The main sidewalk, both edges [ ] Mow the front yard. Don't change the height setting of the mower. [ ] The smaller side by the garage. [ ] The larger half. [ ] Both strips between the sidewalk and the street. [ ] Move my barbells up to the attic. [ ] Change the oil in the van. No need to rotate the tires. Don't forget the filter. [ ] Play tennis ball with the dogs. Go into the side yard. The dogs are friendly, especially when they see the ball in your hand. -------- The idea is to get geocachers to do my yard work. No one geocacher would have to do more than about three-five minutes worth of work, and I'd get to sit on the front porch sipping an iced tea and supervising, maybe put my feet up, relax. Is it great fun or am I being too sadistic? How far can I push geocachers for that smiley? Would you do a cache like this?

Not sure how you got this impression. I don't give out any clues for M15 (or its predecessor M13). You have to send me your solution, showing your work, in your own words. If it's right I congratulate you, if it's not, I just say "no comment."

So long as the difficulty and terrain match up to reality, what's the problem? No one's forcing you to do it. Some people like a hard puzzle with an easy cache afterwards, some like a 5/5. You don't want to do a 5/2, don't do it.

I will also from time to time make a new cache a subscriber-only cache for the first few days to a week. Mainly it's because I know the subscribers in my area are seasoned veterans, and I want their help in debugging the initial placement. After the first few finds with no problems, the cache goes mainstream. Yes it gives an unfair advantage to the subscribers as far as being FTF, but I don't consider it elitist. What kind of elite class costs only $30 a year? Most people lose more than that in a year from pocket change falling between the couch cushions.

But can your eBay account stand another 'neg' feedback? Something to consider. You could petition eBay to have the 'neg' removed, but it's my understanding that this is about as easy as getting a new locationless cache approved on a military base.

I wanted to make it clear, the group concensus seems very strongly against proxy logging of puzzle caches. I've already stripped out the proxy language from my listing, and am rescinding my offer to allow proxy logging of this cache. It was not my intent to circumvent the review process. This was an extremely challenging puzzle and the actual cache itself was almost a drive-by, my feeling was that solving the puzzle was 99.9% of finding this cache, and that those who found it by having someone else solve it for them didn't deserve the smiley at all. I'll ask those who found by proxy to change their smiley to a note. I should also do the same for those who didn't solve the puzzle but signed the log, but I won't. Sorry guys. You're welcome to come on down to Austin to sign the logbook. Until then, no smiley for you! (in my best soup Nazi voice).

I'm going to go with the group concensus here. I've already stripped out the proxy language from my listing. Was not my intent to circumvent the review process. This was an extremely challenging puzzle and the actual cache itself was almost a drive-by, my feeling was that solving the puzzle was 99.9% of finding this cache, and that those who found it by having someone else solve it for them didn't deserve the smiley at all. I'll ask those who found by proxy to change their smiley to a note. I should also do the same for those who didn't solve the puzzle but signed the log, but I won't.

What about the guy who didn't solve the puzzle? His girlfriend solved the puzzle and he just tagged along with her to sign the logbook. In my book the guy in Hawaii who solved the puzzle but can't sign the log deserves the smiley more than the guy who didn't solve the puzzle.

I knew this would happen, the CRASS COMMERCIALIZATION of Geocaching!

This is a very hotly debated issue and I'm sure you'll see pointers to other discussions that have taken place in the past. I will pull religious materials from my caches when I'm doing maintenance. I consider it doing my part to clean up the environment. It's trash.

Sorry, I meant only of those individuals who posted a smiley on the cache page, but didn't actually solve it, they thought it was unfair.

I've taken a poll of those who posted a smiley. The ones who found it on their own initiative without any clues think it's fair. The ones who asked someone for hints and didn't actually solve it on their own all think it's unfair. I'm going to open it up to allow remote finds. If you live more than 300 miles away from the posted coords and you can email me your solution (not just the coords but a step-by-step description of how you solved it, in your own words) you can post a find by proxy. I'll go out and sign the log for you. When you solve it you will know, so don't email me with a partial find and expect me to give you clues and stuff.

Happy Birthday! I have two birthdays each year. I have a legal birthday and a biological birthday. The very-exhausted nurse wrote my birthdate down as the 9th, that's my legal birthday, but I was actually born at 12:45 A.M. on the 10th, which is my biological birthday. So for the last ten years or so, I celebrate both days. What the heck, I figure I'm worth it.

M15 - GCJQZH Please don't write anything here that would give it away; try to restrict the discussion to whether you think it's fair or not. Thanks. -mark.