6NoisyHikers

As a premium member, you can set up a pocket query to just get listings with trackables in them. Or at least, caches that say they have trackables in them. You will find that many trackables listed in caches are actually long gone so it helps to spend the time researching each trackable before you go look for them. No need to waste hours of time searching if the trackable isn't there.

Someone posted about survival bracelets before and I made some for my family for Christmas. There are a lot of great youtube videos that show how to make them. Nice work!

For further reference and comparison: The Stone Prairie Power Trail is 20 miles (30 kilometres) in length with 85 caches. That's a cache every .235 miles The Pitt River East Dyke Trail is 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) in length with 40 caches. That's a cache every .155 miles.

And if this different from a random cache hidden there how? It has nothing to do with being part of a PT and every thing to do with where it was hidden. Power trails attract more cachers. The older cache on this trail was placed in 2005. It had 56 logged visits between October 2005 and March 2012. In the last two months it has had 63 more logged visits. Regular foot traffic is tough on all environments. It doesn't give the area time to recouperate. That's why we can find geotrails to GZ. It is up to us as cachers to be gentle in our searching. I'm not trying to argue against this type of "man-power-trail" - I really enjoyed doing it myself. I was simply agreeing with Briansnat that this type of setup inflicts some level of damage on the location. On this particular trail, cachers are carving a geotrail stripe in the bank at each stop - probably not a huge ecological trauma as the dyke itself is man-made and the bank is just mud and marsh grass. In other areas of the country, it might be another story.

Having read back through the posts, I do want to mention - and you'll see it in my logs if you read through them - that I did find what I would consider to be "damage" at GZ along this trail, specifically that the caches are hidden at the bottom of a short slope and the earth there is very soggy so the bank is broken down by cachers sliding down and climbing up. I can't say for sure whether this will be a constant problem as we go through the seasons, but in this particular instance, I can see Briansnat's point.

We have a lovely hike/bike "power trail" (maybe it should be called a "man-power-trail") in our area that I did by myself one afternoon a few weeks ago. There are 40 caches plus 2 previously placed caches along a 10km stretch of river trail. The terrain is level and the scenery is beautiful. The containers are a variety of small lock and locks, bison tubes, bottle preforms, vitamin bottles and magnetic keyholders. And a few rubber animals thrown in for fun Is it a lot of caches? Dunno. I was out on a great walk on a fabulous day *and* got to go geocaching as an added bonus! The only exhausting part was writing 42 unique logs with pictures at the end of the day Check out the Pitt River East Dyke Trail My logs start HERE. This is the HALFWAY point. Would I drive along a highway from cache to cache? Well, maybe - just to try it out - but I'd likely get bored pretty quick. Will I hike all day and pick up whatever caches are along the way? You bet! Nature, here we come!

We're the ones in the bushes yelling to each other: "DID YOU FIND IT YET?" "SHH! SHUT UP!" "WHAT? WHERE ARE YOU?" "I'M OVER HERE. BE QUIET!"

You don't log it, the other cacher does. Using the TB code (which he/she now has because they have the trackable), they go to the TB page and log that they "grabbed" it from you.

But - and I know we are swiftly taking the off-topic off-ramp - the issue is not that you can go to the website and find coordinate info. The issue is that some girl or guy sitting at Starbucks can be playing on their smart phone, download an app that immediately - without any requirement to identify oneself or view the basic rules of the game - provides coordinates to your cache, and they go wandering over to it without a clue what they need to do. Maybe they are uber-smart and grasp that you sign the log and put the container back. And when they get home, they log into the website, learn more about geocaching and become a well-respected member of the community. OR Maybe they take the container home with them. Maybe they take a trackable and hang it from their rear view mirror. Maybe they write obscenities in the log book, or pour their coffee into the lock and lock. AND LIKELY After a few days, and maybe dropping a hide of their own (a tic tac container under the lamp post skirt at Walmart), they stop caching and move on, having - like a mini tornado - left a smattering of inconveniences in their wake. App-ies. Ugh. So, to get back on topic, I'm not surprised that there is an increase in PMO caches. I used to think it didn't matter, but we made our last cache PMO because we worked really hard on the container. I know it doesn't circumvent all disasters, but it certainly cuts down on whim-damage.

Barring an answer from GS, does your primary email provider have a "forward to" feature (some online mail services like hotmail or gmail have this) that will copy incoming mail to a second address? If so, that might be an option for you. I know that individuals and businesses sometimes use a gmail account as a public email contact then have the system set up to send a copy to their home address.

To add to the travel bug's mileage without dropping it off, you want to log a "visit" to the cache. Unfortunately there isn't a way to log the mileage if there are no caches with coordinates to help it track. If you are going to be in Dubai you could take some pictures in front of airport signage or some interesting landmarks and then use the "Write Note" log on the trackable page to say you were there and add the pictures of the site. It won't add mileage but I guarantee the trackable owner will appreciate it.

Well, not quite... There are lots of caches that are nice caches - pleasant spot, clean, well-maintained - but I can't give them all a favourite point because I only get one for every ten caches. Luckily I enjoy more than one in ten caches I find I wouldn't want a CO to think I didn't like their cache because I don't award it a favourite point. It's just that I save my points for the "WOW" factor. They aren't all "WOW!s", some are just "Ahhhs" and that's okay too. So I still wish I could log a because that's how I feel sometimes. Back on topic though: If I got far enough to find a cache and then discovered it needed to be archived (Let's pretend I inadvertently wandered onto private property, found the cache and signed the log, then ran into the property owner who pointed a gun in my face and growled: "Git outta here you lousy varmint!"), I think I would log it as a find anyway, then follow it up with a NA. If, walking toward GZ, I saw a No Trespassing sign then stopped and walked away, I wouldn't log a DNF but I would write a note explaining what I saw and asking for confirmation that it was okay to search for this cache. I would probably send the owner a PM to that effect as well, just to double up. No NA in this case because I wouldn't have all the facts yet.

For me, logging a find and seeing that smiley means that I should have been happy about what I found. I really wish that some of my finds could be marked with a I did log a note instead of a find for a cache I found when I specifically went there to rescue a travel bug (it was already gone). But that is my own personal stance and I don't begrudge anyone else theirs.

Thank you for this post - so often we work ourselves up with conjecture. It is refreshing to have an actual "side of the story". I would say that suburban cache placements aren't "bad" or "good" but difficult. In the city proper people tend to be so busy they hardly notice you groping the back of the newspaper box. In the woods, you may not see another person all day. However, in the suburban in between - where people are suspicious and territorial - you run into far more problems with muggles. I truly hope your son will not have a permanent dislike for geocaching, but I understand that it might be a good idea to take a break for a few years. When he is seventeen and has a little more unsupervised range maybe you could both come back to it - go on a road trip and pick up a few caching experiences along the way. We'll be here waiting

You are on the right track with how to find this type of cache - answer the questions, do the math and enter the next waypoint manually. Please no business stuff, but you can make your own personalized caching tokens to leave in the caches you find. You don't have to take a travelbug or coin. You can write down the tracking number on the item (don't ever post that number in public!) and "discover" the item on the website. Learn how to log trackables properly before you start moving them around. Have a great time caching! It's the weekend and adventures await - stop reading and get outside

While I agree with all the above conditions, it is far too complicated for reviewers to keep track of. If we want to keep our 3 day* turnaround then it has to be simpler. What is simpler than having a 3-month automatic time clock before you can place a cache?

I just want to reply so I can have my name on an "original" thread No, I don't believe there should be "adult" theme caches ("adult" in the way that most people define the term, meaning: explicit content not suitable for chldren under the age of 18) (all those children over the age of 18 go right ahead!) I do think it is nice to have swag for grown-ups in caches. We try to leave a combination of kid stuff and grown-up stuff like rope or hand sanitizer, etc. One thing I would like to see more of (and maybe this is just an issue in my area) is puzzle caches that are solvable by kids. There are a whole lot of really clever brain teasers that only adults can figure out, but not a lot of easy, fun puzzles for kids. I guess I know what my next hide is going to be...

OR... how about a multi where the stages are containers that have 100 piece puzzles in them and you have to put them together to get the next set of coordinates? You can get 100 piece puzzles cheap from the dollar store and you write the coords on the underside of the completed puzzle. Then, in your final container you could put 100 special trinkets (very small ones!) for the first 100 finders.

How about a puzzle that requires people to unjumble the word "one hundred" in several different languages. Then pick letters out of those words to complete the coordinates. Use the A=1, B=2, etc code.

Perhaps it is not the number of finds that is the issue but the amount of time being a member (premium or not). Let's say, if you are a member for three months then you can hide caches. Of course, an account never closes - we know this - but if you are still using your account after three months (which so many fly-by-nighters are not) then you can hide caches. That gives the people with local cache scarcity a break, allows for a few finds here and there over time, and doesn't pass judgement on whether or not you need to find a certain number of hides before you can be considered "experienced" enough to put out a good hide. It is the dedication over time, I believe, that makes a solid cacher.

A poster in the Canada forum mentioned that smart phone app users do not have to have geocaching.com accounts. Is this correct? If so, I think that is a terrible system. It means that people can access cache coordinates without having any idea at all of what they are doing. Of course, they generally aren't going to stray too far from the Starbucks to find them, so I guess my caches are safe.

We made a similar trip from Vancouver to New York City five years ago - with four kids in a mini-van! It took us 23 days. It's a good thing we weren't caching then or it would have taken us twice as long Number one piece of advice: Don't stop and do something just because you feel you should. If it causes any level of stress at all, don't bother! There will be lots of wonderful experiences, planned and unplanned. Have a great trip! Oh - and get BCAA coverage. SO important. In Ontario. At the amethyst mines just east of Thunder Bay. Amethyst: Beautiful and sharp.

App users don't need to have an account on the website??? If that is accurate, I don't think I like it. No wonder it is almost impossible to contact someone who is phone-caching. We bought travel bugs for each member of our 6NoisyHiker family, plus one for the Mini-Hiker They are all in transit right now but the one I worry about most is Shyloh's TB. We dropped it off, a newbie "grabbed" it from the cache (as opposed to "retrieving" it) and who knows where it is now. It has only been a month, but I fear this one is a goner without having gone anywhere. I don't plan to send out any more trackables - these ones either work out or they don't. The only other thing I am considering is a personal geocoin for each of us that will visit only the caches that each family member helps to find.

I sent two TB holders a message today. They have both been holding on to two of our TBs for a month. One cacher has regularly been finding caches that could hold a TB, the other cacher is a newbie and doesn't seem to get out much. Just so these TBs don't get forgotten, my message said: Hello! Just checking in to see if TB##### has been having any new adventures with you. This TB wants to see (insert goal here), so we would love to see pics when you move it on to the next cache. Thanks! I'm trying to be polite, but inside I'm paranoid. Everybody warns you not to get attached, but couldn't these TBs at least make it through a few hands before they disappear?

The best reason to upgrade is because geocaching is bringing you excitement and new experiences in your life. Everything else is just gravy. I use caching along a route when I'm taking a major road trip - one where I will be travelling 100km or more. For a two mile trip (which I assume then means close to home), you can run a regular pocket query for your area with a radius of, say, five miles. Then you download the whole thing to your GPS and you'll have all the caches around your two mile trip. The website has Instructional Videos on how to use pocket queries and caches along a route. Hope this helps!